This is trully a Huge Huge game.

So much to do, so many places to go, So many NPC's to chat with, so many possibilities, vehicles,...

This is for me one of the best Indie games and also one of the most Ambitious ever seen.

Must Buy for all Sci-Fi fans and for curious that want to explore vast and strange worlds.

I just couldn't get into this game. Buggy, graphic glitches, confusing starting level, all that made this a game I just put down and walked away from. I regret this purchase.

Maybe it's gets better later on, I'll never know because its so glitchy it's nearly unplayable on my nice, powerful, win 7 machine.

precursors is more of a mix of shooter and rpg than a space simulation imo. the space simulation part apears not very polished and reflects the indie character of the game. fights are random (except mission relevant encounters) and have no impact on gaming.

the fps part is very polished and you can explore several detailed planet surfaces and do freelancing there and/or main missions. the planet surfaces look similar to earth and not alien or strange. with earned money you can upgrade your ship and your equipment but its tedious and time consuming. you travel alot and to speed this up you can use buggys and similar vehicles.

for collected experience you achieve perks which make your character stronger or enable special abilites.

if you like travelling and exploring and you have patience this game is for you but if you need fast results it could be annoying.

Just so people dont need to read all the reviews to find the fixes for the glitch with ATI flickering bug and audio sound disapearing (that occur on english version) :

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12402

for the audio bug

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12403

for the ATI fix flickering bug

Bought it more than a year ago and i just love this game, being a mix of many games i love (freelancer, exept you just have one kind of ship) or elite, mass effect, and even mechwarriors when you use those big mech robots :) The fps style is good, the land combat with vehicles is ok, the story deep, and the universe huge.

5/5

If you can overcome the multitude of bugs and incompatibilities than this game has the potential to be incredible. Just be warned, I haven't been able to complete the game myself due to instability with 64 bit operating systems

This game is virtually flawless in it's concept. This is the space odyssey we have all dreamt about since playing elite many years ago. It's even better. I understand there are some bugs in the game. I have not met any deal breakers so far. However, I did install the latest 1.5 unofficial fan patch, and that probably took care of the major bugs or flaws. Even if I encounter them later on I already got my money's worth from this game. I understand that there will not be a follow up game to this one. How sad. If you always wanted a space game with meaningful interaction on planets and glorious graphics with real roleplaying elements...then get this game. Heck, if you just need a good or great game..get it. It's than good in my opinion. This game is a true hidden gem, that MUST be discovered by all spacesim buffs. Two thums up, a solid 5 out of 5 for sheer artistic and creative brilliance. Nuff said.

Precursors is full of little problems that seem to contradict the quality of the product. It is a very good, full featured, open world game, but requires audio patches to recover from a translation that caused ambient sounds to go missing. Another issue is the wheels on your buggy appear to sink into the ground then gradually get better (supposed to emulate a flat tyre but very poorly). But the Quality of the game is such that you would almost feel the bugs must have been intentional. Lets hope not. But if you can tollerate these sort of things you will find the game quite rewarding. The open world includes space craft ownership and incorperates RPG elements with FPS and Spacesim. I enjoyed it.

Imagine combining some of the best attributes from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Halo Reach. The end result would be The Precursors.

Granted, this game is not without it's flaws, but it's a lot of fun! It is literally AMAZING for the lover of 1st-person-shooter/ role-playing-games. It's a nerd's space-sim/RPG/FPS dream come true.

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This Russian gem has finally hit the west! Now that this game is now downloadable from GamersGate.com, all the in-game conversation text is translated to English, and the original Russian audio has been simply removed. The cut-scenes are English over-dubbed. Patching is not required for this release. However, there still are some unofficial patches out there by a fellow named Wesp5 that you might truly enjoy. Fixes change things like font size and type, lighting effects, and things like that.

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This game has a lot of the old tricks-of-the-trade you'd expect from a Role-Playing Shooter. However, I honestly feel it brings a unique experience to the table. I for one, am absolutely CRAZY for space battles. Flying around the sandbox that is outer space feels so cool. You truly get the sense that you are isolated in space. I would've preferred there be more planets that you can land on, but the simple fact is, you can land on some of them and there will be missions on those sandboxes once you land. This is seriously my kind of game.

Some of the staple activities are to:

* Complete (or refuse to participate in) a nearly-countless supply of missions

* Choose your dialog and allegiances with other characters & factions

* Walk on & drive vehicles on the the land of multiple, non-linear, huge-mapped planets

* Buy and sell goods

* Shoot a variety of different unique weaponry (some of it living!)

* Upgrade player character perks and weaponry through earned experience

* Travel in your own spaceship between different galaxies

* Choose to protect or hi-jack payloads in the cosmos for cash

* Get in huge, four-dimensional, laser-blasting dog-fights in outer space!

This game is epic! - no joke!

If you LOVE the games I mentioned in the beginning of this review, I suspect you are the caliber of person who could get completely consumed by the story and game-play of this Role-Playing Shooter.

As I mentioned however, the game is NOT without it's flaws. I'd say it's major negative is that the graphics are not what some might expect. On top of that, even though the graphics don't appear to be cutting-edge, I can almost assure you that you will experience frame-rate issues on a wide variety of hardware. Certain dense-foliage areas just seem to tax even the toughest PC's. It seems things just weren't optimized well. I love this game, so I wish it weren't the case. I'm just trying to be fair and honest. I used to run an ATI HD3870 1GB DDR3 graphics card and this game just beat the snot out of my machine. However, when I upgraded to an XFX HD5870 1GB DDR5 card, the issues disappeared. Hardware speed is the key here apparently.

Also, most users of Radeon graphics cards will almost certainly be rummaging through forums for the now well-known "ATI Post-Process Fix Folder". There is a lighting issue/flickering in the game that is literally unbearable without your willingness to hunt down this unofficial fix, download it, and use it to replace some existing data files. Once "patched" the issue is resolved.

Despite the negative things I've said, the game is honestly gorgeous. The developers at Deep Shadows utilized color schemes in this game that are literally unparalleled. The graphics are not out-dated by any means. You simply shouldn't expect the realism that comes from games like F.E.A.R. 2, Resident Evil 5, and the like. The look is slightly cartoony, and I am perfectly happy with believing the developers wanted it that way. The picture is actually quite sharp; capable of a full 1920x1080 @ 60Hz with 6x Anti-Aliasing, bloom, motion-blur, film grain, changing weather systems, day & night transitions, extremely long-range vision distance.... the list goes on. There were times I was just running around on planets looking at the sky. Some planets had multiple moons, each with it's own hue, and the sky would be a vibrant orange, like a midwest sunset. My roommate caught me playing this game, and he stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Wow. What is this?" This game will turn some heads.

If you truly love FPS/RPG combos, do your self a favor and buy The Precursors. The people at Deep Shadows have truly made a memorable game here. I consider myself lucky to have even known about this game in the United States back in early 2010. A Ukrainian friend of mine scored a copy of this rare item for me. When I inquired about it, he simply told me, ''It is good game''. Lol. What an understatement. I could never thank him enough. If you play it, I can almost guarantee you'll never stop thanking me either. This game is going down in my own personal Hall of Fame.

Graphics: 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Story: 8/10

Game-play: 8/10

Design: 9/10

The game suffers from a ton of flaws, yet it is strangely addictive.

Its a mix of several genres and the developers might have been overly ambitios and ended up with a product that isn't quite there yet. However once you get past all the obvious flaws the game is fun and it's huge.

The gameplay is a mix of FPS, RPG and space combat you get to visit several planets do quests and space combat. The graphic engine is ok, not crysis super awesome, but ok. Story is in my book ok too. Sound is however severly flawed with sounds not being there or very low, people speaking but no sound is there. It can be made better but it require you to unpack the sound file and put in the original russian sounds (which is a hassle if you are a regular joe just playing games).

Due to the massive amount of flaws there is in the game, I can't give it more than 3 stars, but when that is said I enjoy playing this game because it is so huge and there is a ton of things to do in this universe...Had they been able to correct all the major flaws, then this would be a 5 star game

Precursors is a game that most likely will generate some highly ambivalent feelings in the player. It did so for me at least. On one hand the game is i many ways a pleasant surprise...quite goodlooking graphics wise; a large, quite detailed universe to roam in; several good missions in the game; a good combination of RPG and FPS elements; and though most of the weapons are somewhat generic, there are some interesting special "organic" weapons too. Finally many (but not all) of the locations are quite imaginative and together with the not-outstanding-but-functional music, it gives a suitable mood in several of the missions and locations. But on the other hand the game also feels...well, unfinished. Not only does the game stop in a cliff-hanger situation (quite obvious a second part is planned), but many other details makes the game seem unpolished. One thing is that the games background story is somewhat strange, and sketchy, and the games attempt at humour is ofte equally strange (but this is often the case with eastern european developed game : strange, convoluted stories and even stranger humour), but another and much worse thing is it atrocious voiceacting...a single person (male) seems to deliver ALL english voice acting, incl. that of the heroes possible female loveinterest, who speaks with a disturbing masculine voice. I have been told that the original russians voices should be much better, and there`s a patch somewhere on the internet which restores these original voices, but I haven�t tried it. Also there�s a lot of small, but annoying bugs, especially with the clipdistance and sometimes the enemy A.I. Then again, the game is quite stable; it rarely crashed on me and it wasn�t highly demanding on the hardware side. All in all it reminded me a bit of a rather uneven sci-fi version of Elderscrolls III Morrowind, but not as thoroughly and welldone as Morrowind. If you are highly demanding of your games quality, you should probably avoid this game, but if you can ignore some small and not-so-small inadequacies, and like sci-fi RPG�s, then you should give this game a chance, and you just might get positively suprised.

Bought it for 8.99...and I am glad I did not sped more money. Ambitious, but ultimately flawed. I had major problems, even with (unofficial) Patch 1.4 applied. Bad performance, laggy mouse control and no sound during combat. I really love it if small and unknown teams try something new, but this time the problems were too big for me to continue playing.

This game is a lot of fun. You must get all the unofficial patches for the best experience. The game plays allot like the following titles: Borderlands, Stalker, Fallout 3, and Freelancer/Elite. I find it very immersive. You will have to read the forums on occasion to figure out the best settings. For example, I had read that when you select surround 7.1 for sound, the issue of sound cutting out becomes much more rare - and that worked great for me. Good game, but needs some prep work to make it happen. And some patience when you need to smooth over a bug or two.

The dialogue translations are pretty terrible and there are some bugs, but the unofficial patch helps greatly. The rest of the game, however, is pretty interesting. You can acquire perks upon leveling up, you can mod your weapons, and you can upgrade your spacecraft. There are plenty of quests to undertake, and there are numerous locations to explore. As a result, it has somewhat of a stalker feel.

A fun Ukrainian made first person RPG ozzzes atmosphere like stalker and metro. ALthough it suffers from the buggy effects of low funding if you can bear through them and get a fan patch the game is defiantly worth the time and effort!

this is one of the best games i have ever played. its incredibly ambitious in terms of scope and detail, the graphics are very good on a high end machine, and the game play is vastly varying. from first person shooter, to space flight sim, to RPG this game has much to offer.

at least, thats what i want to say. the game has SO much potential. with just a little more time in development and a little more effort int he localization dept it could very well have been one of the greatest games every made. dont even THINK about playing this game with out the fan patches and Russian audio packs installed. otherwise you will encounter tons of bugs and translation issues, missing sound effects and crashes to the desk top.

i recommend you try it out when it is on sale. if you can overcome the technical problems there is a fantastic game buried in there

I don't really know why I picked up Precursors. I mean, yes, I like space free roaming FPS/RPG hybrids, espically if they've got some ELITE mixed into the hash. But this is a Russian game, and there were mixed reviews and not a lot to go on in the description.

I guess it was the box art pic that sold me. It looked good. First time it went on a decent sale, I picked it up. I was in the middle of a few other games, so I let it sit for a bit. I finnaly started playing it in force like a week or two ago, and wish I had before. This game is solid, it's a lot of fun you have to save soon and save often, but I'm fine with that.

So far I'm hours and hours in, and I haven't even left the first planet, there's so much to do. The combat isn't GREAT but its FUN once you get the hang of it. The cars are a blast to drive, there's a leveling system for your pc with perks per level, and there's unlocked perks too. You can upgrade the guns (this is a good time to save often) and the externals are rendered well. The folks you will encounter are too, however they recycle a lot of the same models all over the place, so be prepared to meet the same fatman like 20 times an hour.

There's some pretty big downsides to this game. The translation is horid. Really bad. Thankfully, there's a patch for that out there, unoffical, but seems fine. There's some bugs too. Largely with sound. Gunfire mostly... just stoping sometimes. Something it dones with the graphics slows my machine down something fierce if I go into the menus and then pop back out. The GUI is pretty cruddy in the menus, but nice in the playscreens. Still, all that said, I still give this game 5 stars, as it has been fun enough to put up with the bugs and the translation and the menu GUI. Its a game that takes some learning to get good at. Not just the menu and the system, but I really recomend going out in the desert and getting the hang of the guns and 'nades when you can, save first so you don't lose the ammo or hurt yourself- getting used to the strength of the gun kick and your pc's arm will come in vital later.

This game is totally amazing! It brings many features together to bring your a hybrid first person shooter crossed with a Space ship simulation game. Whether your trading or fighting the story is entertaining and graphics are beautiful. Especially when you ingest magic mushrooms in the game. I would advise you buy this game if you have ever played a space simulation but wanted an extra feel to the game. 10/10 in my books! Though it does have various issues with sound and graphics, these can all easily be fixed by searching for patches that have been developed.

Precursor's conept was very good but failed to deliver in many aspects..

While not being a total loss of a game Precursors has some good things about it and alot of bad.

Its open world game play is its brightest quality and its most redeeming feature, taking a simple shooter and turning it into a more open ended RPG platform, similair to games like fallout 3.

I'll be honest and say the game has very strange english translation which makes things hard to understand and sometimes it just gets down right weird...

But i think main problem stems from its copy protection... It fails to work leaving you having to use no cd cracks just to play....

Avoid this title if u can... only get it if you must.

This is a very entertaining game with an impressive amount of content, but it is certainly not for everyone.

The good:

Multiple planets to visit (each a unique setting). Multiple vehicles to use. Multiple factions with separate mission paths to take mean higher replay value. A well balanced perk system with interesting options. Smooth transitions between planets, space stations and space (and not scripted, you are in control). Lots of side quests and options for alternate activities like hauling trade goods in space. The setting is something you want to explore.

The bad:

Recommended fan patches and extra files to improve sound and text translations mean extra work (but at least they exist). The game chooses content over polish which for the most part is a plus and a reason to buy the game, but sometimes sticks out. There isn't much to do in space except main missions and escorting large ships. It would have been nice if there were more side quests/encounters from factions in stations. The game ends abruptly with an extremely unsatisfying and unexpected cliffhanger.

I was looking forward to this game for so long, and when it seemingly slipped into development hell, I was dissapointed. I was very glad when it was released in Russia, and ecstatic that there is now an official English version.

While this game is not without a long list of faults, I still love it. This is partially due to the fact there is a small, but very enthusiastic fan community working hard to do what the devs can't or won't do: patch the game up to something that is less bugg, and more player friendly. So far they have done a great job.

The story is hardly original, but it is still engaging nonetheless. The true joy of the game in my opinion is getting immersed into it... from the very first mission (after the tutorial mission) on the Tatooine-like planet of Goldin, I was immersed in the 1st person RPG aspect of the game.

Unfortunantly, the space-sim portion of the game is feels incomplete and rushed. Still, the ground portions more than make up for the lack of a good space portion. If you view this game as a futuristic sci-fi version of Fallout or Oblivion, then you will love it.

Precursors is a fascinating open-world RPG/action game. It's similar to something like Fallout 3 or Oblivion in terms of gameplay. Unfortunately, like those games, it's also buggy. I've had problems with the screen flickering as well as all of the sound effects going away completely. The flickering was a simple fix, but I still haven't been able to fix the sound problem.

That said, the game is still quite enjoyable. The game worlds are unique and interesting, and the missions are varied and quite plentiful. There is a ton of stuff to do, the worlds are huge, and there is variety. There are vehicles, so you can (and will have to) drive across vast expanses to accomplish missions.

The translation is spotty, but that's more amusing than anything else, and perhaps even adds to the personality of the game (these are alien worlds, after all). I would recommend this game to someone that doesn't mind putting up with some kinks to experience a vast, interesting open world game. In other words... Bethesda fans.

It's a good game if you can forgive it's foibles, a free-roaming rpg/shooter/space sim. It's also big! Main problem is the translation, but you can at least understand the gist of what people are saying. Did think maybe they were over ambitious and could have left out the space sim to concentrate on the shooting and rpg, but having all three did add something with first person bits int the space sim and space trading goods etc. on the planets. I had a lot of fun for a long time playing this one.

Precursors is a hybrid first person shooter and space sim that sees you play the role of Tris Creighton a newly graduted fighter pilot who is assigned to a back water planet before a cataclysm changes everything.

The Graphics are nothing outstanding but the draw distance is tiny. It's not uncommon for enemies to pop in well withing shooitng distance which makes the use of the binoculars and sniper rifle somewhat haphazard. The various enviroments, desert worlds, jungle world, forest world and deep space are distintive and the graphics do hold up well in displaying the different styles.

The sound quality is okay but only when it plays. Sound effeects such as gunfire, missiles, engine noise and reloading noises all have a tendency to randomly drop in and out as you play the game. The are no voices for any of the acting besides a handfull of cutscenes and all those appear to be done by the same person, including one female character! The music is okay and is fairly standard.

The meat of the gameplay is your standard First person shotter, though the games does include a role playing element with you having an inventory and gaining experience as you go along. The experience is used to pick perks. The perks are fairly standard, better lockpicking, better hacking, higher weight limit though a few do effect how you use your vehicles both the spaceship and planetary ones. The first person shotting is poor as the countrols do not allow a steady movement. This means that you tend to over shot the target if it's moving meaning that gun fights can only really happen if the target is stationary.

There are a number of different weapon is the game and a few are quite imaginative, such as shrink gun and electro ray fired from a type of squid. The others are you standard rocket launcher, shot gun and assualt rifle, though they all can be upgraded and a few of them have alternative ammo.

the game give s you the opporunity to use a variety of different vehicles such as buggies, tanks, helicoptors, robots and animals. These are all controled from the third person and handle well. They are necessary if you want to get around some of the larger maps quickly.

The space ship segments are controled with the mouse and keyboard and was obviously not the main design focus as besides some planet hopping it isn't relly necssary to use the ship.

The game is buggy. Besides the afore mentioned music drop outs, they were issues with the repair of the space ship, where a mechanic would take the money but the ship would stay at the same level of damage. Other bugs included vehicles getting stuck in the landscape and being able to buy and sell minerals as a way of making money.

Story wise the game is nothing original concerning as it does mysterious artifacts left over from the eponymous Precursors. In fact the ends very suddenly with what is a blatant hint at a sequel.

Overall the game is okay. If you're interested in seeing something different and what could have it might be worth gettin.g

I played and loved Boiling Point Road to Hell. Or as some may know it Xenus, and loved that game. Its made by the same company as Precursors so I figured id give this game a go.

I am so glad I did. This game contains everything that modern RPG's are lacking in. If your looking for a classic RPG that has an easy modern interface and a pick up and play quality that alot of older ones dont offer then this is your game. Trust me youll love it!

Love this Game! It has issues...But I still love this game. All the issues seem to come from the fact that its a russian Game so I can live with the Problems. No show stopping bugs so far. Its hard, even on easy:)P All Russian games seem to be that way. Im ok with that. Ive only put about 4 hrs into the game so far. I still have yet to figure out how "open ended", the game is. Its one of the reasons I wasnt sure on buying it. I LOVE Open ended games. So far it seems I can wander around pretty much how I want.

5 Stars since the only flaws so far are the translation issues.

Chris

The Precursors is without a doubt the greatest, the most fun, most addicting game that I have ever played. The main quests are fun but side quests are the best, not just your standard errands; they disguise these errand quests to make them fun and interesting. One particular side quest that comes to mind is on the first planet Golden, where an auto mechanic explains that his mother-in-law is making his life hell and she has ran away and for his wife's sake you must pick her up and drive her home. When you get there, the mother-in-law is surrounded by bandits who have taken her hostage; you kill the bandits, and take their weapons and ammo. The mother-in-law tells you that she hates her son-in-law and that her daughter was so beautiful and she could have married anyone but she chose this rotten jerk of a husband and so she won't return home. So you return to the son explain to him the situation and in turn he gives you the location of the mom's safety deposit box where you can steal 5000 credits. Now, this is the clincher, one can do this mission many different ways; 1. If you have a good reputation with the bandits, then you can complete a couple of extra side quests for them and they will let the mother in law go free, 2. If you kill the mother-in-law you can take her key to the safe, 3. You can pick the safe with your lock-picking skills. Then at the end you can sell the wares that you have collected from the dead bodies buying more weapons and eventually getting into space where you have to upgrade you spaceship as well. Once in space you have to save the Galaxy, so you go from helping mothers rescue their little children, to catching thieves stealing road signs, to saving the Galaxy from �The Precursors� that predate civilization. There is just so much depth here it nullifies all complaints. In the previous review and many around the web, the game is praised for everything except for its translation... but...

Solutions to the complaints: 1. Russian speech is muted however if you would like to hear the original Russian voices, they can be downloaded off of Deep Shadows Forum. 2. Wesp and the administrators on the official Deep Shadows forum are working on a patch that will improve the cut-scenes� voices, it is probably out right now, again check the Deep Shadows Forum or Wesp�s �Patches Scrolls Precursors� webpage for the English translation patch. 3. Get the latest version of the game, go to the Deep Shadows website, download the patch for the Russian DVD v1.1, make sure to backup 4 files (Precursors.exe, VELoader.dll, vital.dll, resource.qrc) in your Precursors folder and then copy them back once the installation of the patch is completed. 4. If have an ATI card and you suffer from flickering problems, again go to the Deep Shadows forum, download the postprocess flicker patch, put it in your precursors directory and voila. 5. If you don�t like the style of English used for the subtitles, again, use Wesp�s translation patch.

Don�t play the game with your computer overclocked, game may become unstable. Don�t have a joystick plugged in when you play this game, your spaceship will steer right.

If you pass on this game, you will be missing out, this is my most favorite game of all time, it is like Fallout, Monster Hunter Tri and Id Software�s Rage, sprinkled with Elite. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest games ever made. I own the Russian boxed version as well, but I couldn�t understand the cut-scenes, when the GamersGate.com version was released, I immediately bought it, and although it initially had a man's voice for the girl character(changed now with the patch), at least I could understand what was going on! The GamersGate.com version in my opinion is better because not only do you have the support of GamersGate.com and the official English version, you can add the Russian voices if you so choose, you have the best of both worlds. All of the problems associated with this game can be easily corrected in a couple of minutes. It is really easy to criticize a game for having issues, but even the largest of games from the largest of companies can have some serious issues. Remember how GTA4 was unplayable on the PC until about year later? The Precursors has none of these serious game stopping issues and all of the minor ones can be corrected right now. The Russian DVD version also crashes because of the terrible DRM on Windows 7. The GamersGate.com version has no DRM and it is very stable under Windows 7. This game has no serious defects after it is all patched up, because of this I have really nothing to complain about! So, that is why I give this game 5-stars, it is a masterpiece unlike any game that I have ever played.

Russian developers have for a long time been one of my favorites. They usually produce quality products, they tend to do things there own way often straying off the mainstream path. I have often felt sorry for the russians since many of their games are not picked up by the markets to the west. With Precursors they yet again produce something new. An FPS-game mixed with starship flight and rpg-elements. I hoped this would become the new Space Rangers - however the game is to differend to be dubbed as such. I love the idea or the concept of the game - the production however or at least the translation is horrible. The tutorial is non-existent except for some hint now and again. The english is maybe the worst I have seen in a game. At times I struggle to understand what a person is telling me. It looks like the russians had a lot of voice actors in their version - in this one however it is non-existent except for some video sequenses. A lot of these kinds of bugs are ruining a potentially great game. Unfortunately I think it is to much to correct by patching and I fear the english version of the game will flop. It is a shame. It could be great.