Physical and mental strength, the power of word and the power of action, the power of weapon and the power of - oh well - power itself - these are the main and universal values of the Maloq civilization. The Maloqs have little liking for the weak Faeyans and the overly smart Gaalians. The Maloqs are the most technologically retarded civilization of the Coalition. This can be primarily explained by their traditional distrust towards any intellectual values which - in their opinion - all too often lead to catholicity, considered by Maloqs as the main menace to stability. A major factor which slows down the technological progress of this race is their huge expenditure on army and space fleet maintenance.
The Pelengs are pirates, saboteurs, and provocateurs. Although formally they are part of the Galaxy Commonwealth, in reality the Pelengs do not maintain any strong economic or diplomatic relations with the other races. Direct and quick profit at any cost is the sole goal of any individual Peleng and also their whole civilization. The Pelengs treat all races badly. Especially those ones who are smarter than them. The Peleng attempts at removing the lag in technological development boil down to a very complex and sophisticated system of industrial espionage. The Peleng Dzukhallag Department is the best espionage and sabotage organization in the entire Commonwealth.
Their attitude towards the Gaalians and the Pelengs is neutral. Technology-wise, the Humans are your average Joe. All the main achievements made by the Humans have been in the sphere of Economics. It was they who many centuries ago initiated the establishments of the Galaxy-wide network of trading centres, managing to get even the conservative Gaalians and the trade-despising Maloqs to support the project. However the main achievement of the Humans in this field is the introduction of a common monetary unit - the Galactic credit! Another notable achievement is the introduction of an All-Galaxy chronological system based on the one used by the Humans.
The Faeyan race is characteristic of the highest level of natural intellectual abilities. They are philosophers, researchers and innovators, cultivating their own technocratic culture and their own original picture of the world. The Faeyans have all the respect for the Gaalians and have a sort of a condescending attitude to their younger intellectual cousins - the Humans. As for the Maloqs, the Faeyans really consider them to be more animal than intelligent being. And as far as the Pelengs are concerned, the Faeyans get irritated by their constant attempts to send in their spies to steal the latest Faeyan technologies. The role of the Faeyans in the Commonwealth is that of leading researchers and developers in the field of science and technology.
The Gaalians are the tycoons and the driving force of space, cultivating construction and humanism in all senses of the word. They use their military fleets only to neutralize those conflicts that are just forming and try to maintain stability in the Commonwealth. The Gaalians treat everyone equally well with no exceptions. It is their idea that no matter how badly this or that race behaves, potentially they still carry positive tendencies and qualities and have a minimum of three basic rights - the right to live, the right to determine virtues, and the right to motivation. As a result the Gaalians treat everyone as friends and partners, even when strictly speaking some partners are not that friendly at all.
The robots also have a powerful weapon that is unavailable to the races of the Coalition. The Coalition of five races is actively combating the Dominator forces. All efforts have been pooled to fight these machines. Scientific Bases are doing anti-Dominator research. Ranger Centers collect the so-called nodes - the remaining parts of destroyed Dominator ships (nodes are then used to produce micromodules enhancing the Coalition ships), as well as recruit new rangers - the heroes of our time. Finally military bases are giving pilots new ranks and organising combat operations to liberate the invaded star systems.
Space Rangers is a unique combination of different gaming genres. The gameplay is turn based as you explore the Galaxy obtaining resources, trading, making friends and enemies! You decide where to go and when. You decide whether to help your race against the ever threatening menace of the Dominators or just ignore it! Missions are available which can quickly increase your wealth. Some involve 3D RTS battles on the surface of the planet as you use robots to combat the Dominators. Fans of arcade battles and text quests will also find something to like. It is hard to imagine a game that could be more diverse.
Having selected your race and difficulty level it's time to
leave the safety of your planet and explore the Galaxy. You start as a lowly ranger and will have to improve your rating if you want others to respect you. What you do is pretty much up to you.
Being an ambitious ranger you'll want more money to upgrade your ship. One way is to fly between planets looking for resources such as asteroids to blast and then collect the valuable minerals that they contain. Take them to a populated planet and trade them for cash.
There's lots of other items that you can trade with, such as food and medicine. Perhaps a war is taking place on a distant planet or a epidemic has broken out? Buy some medicine and take it to that planet for an easy profit.
Your ship can only carry and do so much, so you'll want to trade your current components for better or lighter ones. Improved radar, engines or weapons are just three of the many upgrades that you'll want to do. Especially if you decide to go up against the Dominators.
The Galaxy does not stand still. The News service is an excellent place to get information and spot potential "business" opportunities plus find out how the rest of the Galaxy is doing!
You will meet other races, how you treat them and their craft does matter. Destroying some helpless cargo transporter for it's plunder may make sense at the time but what if you need to get your ship repaired on their home planet?
Once you've finished exploring the known star systems you can acquire more charts and open up new regions of space to explore.
Of course you can choose to be an upstanding citizen and help fight against the space pirates that pick on the weak or decide to become one yourself.
You can see if the Government of the planet has any missions for you. This is an excellent way of making money and friends! Missions can be quite varied, one day you could be transporting a valuable artifact or going on a quest (played out as a text adventure) or be asked to rid a planet of Dominators in a 3D RTS battle.
3D planet side battles against the Dominators are dangerous but rewarding challenges. You construct and control mighty war robots in a battle for control of an island.
A variety of types of propulsion and weapons are at your disposal when designing robots to meet the challenge. Produce them at your factory along with defence turrets and then explore the island - looking for your foe.
Your robots can be controlled RTS style by lassoing them and clicking where they should go and who they should attack or you can control the movement and firing of an individual robot while the others carry out your orders!
During your travels you will meet other pilots and rangers that will strike up conversations, some will trade information, some will want to join you but some will want to hijack your ship!
As you live your life in space, the threat of the Dominators will increase. So even the badly behaved space ranger may want to stop off at one of the orbiting Ranger Centres to find out more about the Dominators and what you can do to protect the Galaxy and yourself!
Not only do you get the latest Space Rangers adventure (Space Rangers 2: Dominators) but you also get the original Space Rangers where the Klissans are the big threat.