If You Have Five Friends, Play Artemis.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of hearing about it, Artemis is an amazing multi-user simulation game that allows one to six players to take up the reins of a space-exploration craff adventuring in "The Final Frontier." Now this is all well and good, the idea of space exploration and piloting a star ship is very old, but Artemis really takes the overused game trope and turns it up to 11.

What makes Artemis so awesome is it's multiplayer simuation aspects. It doesn't just have the standard game controls of a stereotypical space shooter, it actually divides up the control responsibilities to different individuals. This allows you to play the game just by yourself, with some aspects computer controlled, but also allows for you to command a space craft Star Trek bridge style. Each individual takes a station on the bridge of the ship: Tactical for weapons, Comms for communication, Science for scanning and analysis, Helm for piloting, Engineering for managing power, and finally Captain to take command of the ship. Each of the positions has a screen and responsibilities unique to them, and the captain has a large view screen that allows for viewing of every other positions screens on command. The captain as a position does not actually interact with any screens, but is more of a meta-position that, in true captain fashion, commands the other positions, gives out orders and makes the life and death decisions involved in space exploration and combat.

I recently had an opportunity to play as several positions, and not only does it offer an extremely unique and interesting gameplay style, it is just flat out fun! The idea of what is essentially entering the bridge of the Enterprise and carrying out missions may sound less than exciting to some, and by no means is the game perfect, but the immersive experience it creates is almost unmatched, especially for a game of humble independent development and quite the low price tag. It is important to note that this game requires several people and several computers to properly get the true Aretmis experience, and a lack of knowledge or networking hardware can also lead to tricky situations. Even despite the requisite network issues and a handful of program crashes, I can honestly say this is one of the most unique multiplayer gaming experiences I've had in quite some time and I urge everyone with the ability to do so to get together some friends and buy a copy here.  I know $40 may seem steep to some of you, especially for an indie title, but keep in mind that there is no DRM and it can be installed to all six of your users for the same copy, thats only a could of bucks each! Grab the game, bust out the old LAN party router, a few friends and a few beers, and I PROMISE you will not be disappointed in player Artemis!