Buy Nexus - The Jupiter Incident

Wow. Well, I don't even know where to start with this game. I first played it when I was 13 years old and I fell in love with it right away. The game is difficult, so at that time with hardly any experience in the field I got stuck pretty early in the game, specifically the scout ship mission.

Boy was I in for a ride 7 years later. Everything is just the way I remembered it. Controls are a bit rough around the edges, but it is what would be expected of battleships. Aside from that and a slightly flawed AI, there is nothing I can't recommend in this game to those who love sci-fi. The story is well laid out, no particular flaws. Battles are sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, harsh and unfair, and I can't even start explaining the frustration in the last battle mission (Not to be confounded with the last mission).

Yet here I am, 14.5 hours into the game, finishing it for the first time. There are no words to describe my satisfaction, along with my sadness of it ending and the dismay of not ever being able to see a sequel to this magnificent masterwork.

As a note to the developers, who might never read this review, thank you for such a great game. It's an element which shaped my imagination beyond most books. Definitely placed along my all time top 5.

I have no problem admitting that I purchased this game solely for the Battlestar Galactica mod, and I was not disappointed in the least. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who was born wishing they could fulfill their destiny and be in command of a Battlecruiser of some sort.

The best space tactical game that I could find.. None of that racing to build things.. Just concentrate on deploying your ships properly.. And in 3D :D

Too bad there's no sequel

old but gold

Nexus is a rare beast of a game, a tactical Starship combat simulator where you command small numbers of Warships and lead them into battle. There is no grand empires to build or Starfighters to command, rather you are thrown into the cut and thrust of ship to ship combat where a wrong decision on where to allocate your ships limited power supply or what device to target can have disastrous consequences. Though an older game, the graphics are still as amazing as they were when it first came out with the eye-candy of stars, planets, moons and asteroid belts. Nexus covers a topic that is sadly rarely covered in video games and is all the better for it.

If you like seeing capital ships pounding one another in the vast reaches of space, then this game is for you.

AN ONE of a KIND... An almost REAL Capital Ship Simulator!

I played this game when it really came out. I was impressed. The idea has NOT been bypassed yet.
But let's take things from the start. With what you could compare this game... Star Trek Starfleet Command, Star Trek: Bridge Commander, Star Trek: Legacy or Homeworld series? NONE of them.

What you'll see in this game. Capital ships fighting each other in most cases. There are 6 races in the game: The Vardrags, the Ghosts, the Gorgs, the Raptors, Humans and the Locust. Each one with different ships, classes of ships and they are many and their own weapons and technologies. When you go on a battle you have to configure every ship.
A ship has power source(Reactor), two or three engines(travel engine,secondary engine and combat engine),pairs of weapons on each side,shield, ECM and ECCM modules,fighters and commandos slots, extra batteries that refill from the core extra power supply,individual distribution of energy to every system.

The idea... Yes... We've seen many movies and some of us played many sci-fi games. We've seen pilots that can see the space through some kind of glass and guidance of the ship directly. Lies... Those are not going to happen in space battles. Only cameras can give a line of sight, radars and when a ship is in combat in many cases is its computer that decides how to move, because it's faster. But don't worry. You'll see the ships from outside. The ships as presaid have pairs of weapons in each side able to fire in 180 degrees in each axis. The ships have many subsystems as I said upper. Every ship turns itself around itself hiding its subsystems and turning every gun to the opponent until the other one is loaded again. That's why the ships computer does control the ship in automatic mode. At the same time every ship tries to keep a good distance to the opponent for no collision and to shoot at him where it needs.

EVERY ship has 4 Modes of reacting.
-The complete auto mode that is the main mode. In this stasis the ship completely automates everything. It does NOT overeact to make a difference and it is based completely to the ships main configurations. The ship will try to attack an enemy with all the weapons NEEDED.
-The fighting one that delivers the most power to the weapons. Like the Auto mode but it will fire with every weapon possible and maybe overload the weapons so to fire quicker.
-The Defensive or Guarding mode delivers more power to shield and engines, so the ship can hold. Only NEEDED weapons will fire in EVERY target.
ALL THE UPPER MODES WILL FIRE A DIFFERENT TARGET ONLY WITHIN RANGE AND ONLY IF A WEAPON IS LOADED AND THE MAIN TARGET IS NOT AVAILABLE. YOUR SHIPS SHIELDS WILL BE LOWERED AFTER THE BATTLE AND IF OTHER SHIPS ARE IN GREAT DISTANCE. THEY WILL BE RAISED AGAIN IN SOME DISTANCE BEFORE AN OPPONENT.This is extremely bad in some situations because they need time to recharge in FULL capacity.
-The MANUAL mode. This will be the permanent mode when you'll play a bit. Believe me there is NO other way. You can aim every target individually within distance, enable or disable every system and overload whatever you want.(Overloading systems make them more efficient but they drain the batteries or make other systems work lower or none at all. If there is NOT enough power it will be automatically set to normal for the ship to work. Take EXTREMELY CARE with this function. It makes the difference in battle but sometimes you may lose if your ship fails you)
You will be able to make priorities in system repairs if a system have been disabled in this mode.

There are 3 different types of weapons
- Energy weapons are the MOST used in every ship. The most of them are Shield Disablers but there are some Hull Destruction weapons too. They have unlimited power that comes from the ships Core. The usage distance is low.
- Ammo or Missile weapons are limited and are HULL destructive. Not usable with opponent's shields ON. Usage distance low too.
- Artillery weapons. High Explosive weapons that are LIMITED and can damage HULL even through opponent's shields but NOT much. It is about the ship class too. Completely destructive if the opponent's shields are down. Usage distance GREAT so don't wait a ship to fire artillery next to the opponent. It will try to make a GREAT distance first.

Customization of a ship is important. Every ship dependant of its class has several slots for enything. Maybe can have two power cores if the first fails or destroyed, two or three engines, several pairs of weapons ,batteries and special slots. You have to know what you'll use the ship before you configure it. It depends on the way you play too.
Generally, the large ships configuration has shield disablers and ammo and artillery weapons. Because of the great mass and the limited movement of theirs they'll try destroy the opponent instantly. They also have great HULL and shields. But because of their great mass and limited movement their subsystems are totally exposed to smaller ships and maybe fighters.
So small ships those fighters and commando ships but if the ship has no flak weapons to destroy them automatically they can be the success in a battle. Flaks are also destroy missiles, bombs, torpedoes and generally artillery weapons. It's a MUST to have at LEAST a pair in every ship.
Smaller ships like frigates have better movement but are weaker in MASS, shields, in the amount of weapons and destructive power. Though they are much valuable.Imagine a frigate with a very strong energy core and great engines. You'll see that it will dance all over the opponent without him being able to destroy it, while the frigate will aim directly to the subsystems. Imagine now a large ship without shield disablers. Their ammo weapons will be for nothing if they can NOT penetrate the shields. Imagine now a large cruiser without engines. Funny? It can't hide its subsystems and it can't turn its weapons against you... So it's completely vulnerable because the next system you'll destroy is the shield one. And then GAME OVER ...

In combat the most ships use their secondary engine or the combat engine. Very few times in collaboration with the travel engine as it is for travelling large distances. The secondary and combat engines are the ones that turning the ship around all the time. So, if you don't install one on a ship you'll see it can have an efficient fight even with every possible weapon ON.

As you can imagine here this is NOT a normal game you've seen. The developpers tried to catch reality in most cases. A great masterpiece in simulation gaming.

And now let's go to the cons...
-The game is a little buggy. In many cases does different things but NOT so much for not playing it. The feelings after that game will be... WELL , try it and tell me.
-Another one is the Multiplayer thing. They made a game SO GREAT but without Multiplayer support. To get to the multiplayer you have to follow the online guide through Steam. Say a THANKS to this guy. Well done to him. But let's go to MORE...
-Not many maps for Multiplayer. There are very few and without AI the most of them so .. with an OLD game that its public is limited you'll find yourself trying to play WarCraft 2 or 1 nowadays with an internet human player opponent. Sit and wait till... tomorrow? or more?
-Individual waypoints of a ship. Yes, they forgot to make a fix here. There are times that I want to make the ship take a course that I want. Better battle, hiding in asteroids or whatever. In Multiplayer it would be a VERY HELPFUL advantage. But NO, it does NOT exhist.
-Completeley lack of saving or remembering the configurations done in multiplayer.

STILL THE BEST CAPITAL SHIP SIMULATOR EVER..................................

Wow. This game brings tactical 3D space RTS to the next level. Homeworld was one of my favorite games, but the level of detail put into the balance of this game is stunning. Ships compete and dish out damage in a unique number of ways adding some rock/paper/scissor elements I love. Also no giant cruiser ship is going down in a few seconds here so there is long-term strategy involved in battles with time to adjust micromanagement of individual ships. I love that part.

The big caveat though is there is no skirmish generator to keep enjoying the mechanics after single-player making this purely a single-player experience. I curse fate for not allowing the sequel to make it on kickstarter, but the creators still seem motivated on their facebook page.

PS - back in the day you could never finish the second to last mission due to the massive load on your graphics cards and CPU. Now luckily you can play this game without having that fear if you got the latest hardware. You will just have to find some work-arounds for the higher screen resolution and window size customization. It is worth it though.

I love this style of space combat. If you prefer thoughtful to homeworld style rushes this is for you.

this is another one of the best rts games ive played i highly recomend this game to anone interested in small group ship combat and large fleet control in both offensive and deffensive roles, the only draw back is you dont get 100% control of your ship but you still tell it where to go and how fast to get there cobbat systems are at your full disposal, from individual control for surgical strikes to multi weapon systems fireing from multiple ships at once. this game is very indepth control wise and i my opinion features a very interesting and difficult storyline.

If someone would ask me "Is this a good game?", my answer would be: "Well, ... its how the big boys do battle!"

You dont know what im talking about? If you should play this game, you will. :)

Imagine this:

You are the Captain of a Heavy Cruiser. You are in a space fight. Its your ship against two others.
The difference: Your ship is not very manoeuvrable. Its a large vessel. The term "Heavy" is no coincidence.
The two enemies are smaller, Less powerfull, but more manoeuvrable.

So, Captain! Give some orders! What are we going to do?

You decide to go straight in. Shields up, Weapons up! Give them everything we got!

After a short time, you will realise, that this may not be very effective.

Well, Captain. We need a new plan. Decide!
"Plan B:
First, we are using our lasers! Target for their shield device. Without shields, they are helpless."

Here we go. We are firing. First hit. Second hit. Minor damage to their shield device. Looks good.
Then, our lasers stop firing.

Why?
Because, as mentioned, the enemies are more manoeuvrable than we are. They got behind your ship. And they keep firing.

(Note: The good thing is, you dont have to press any buttons to turn your ship around. Your ship will do this for you. Tell the ship where to go, and it will do so. Because if you would also have to navigate while fighting, this would turn into a mess ..... unless you are George Takei)

But here we go. Your Ship-AI activates your thrusters (Yes, you can see them doing so and it looks great). Your ship turns around. Target in front of us. First hit. Second hit. Third hit. Your lasers keep firing! HAHAHA! TAKE THIS YOU B*******! What?
...... no damage?

Why?
Well, the enemy ship did just turn around. The shield device is located at the top. Your lasers DID hit the target, but the wrong side. The lasers have no effect on the Hull and there is no shield device at the rear of that vessel.
The enemies keep firing.

"To Hell with them! Launch the Fighter Squadron!"
"But Sir, they ....."
"ATTACK!"

(Note: Fighters and Bombers are very effective in destroying devices. And they are fast. Rotation of enemy ships does not bother them)

Your fighters are going in.
"They wont know what hit them!"

Well .... your Officer tried to warn you. They have a laser flak system. Perfect for ........

AI Voice: "Fighter Squadron lost!"

Did i mention, that the enemies kept firing?

Now you may say: "What kind of idiot would do that?" I would say: "Vice-Admiral Norbank!" :)

You will see.


There are a lot of things that can go wrong. Most of the time, it is your fault. But you will learn from your mistakes.
After reloading, you will take down their flak and launch your fighters, or you will focus on their engines so that they wont be able to outmanoeuvre you.
Shields of the first ship are down? Let your laser aim for the devices of the second ship and activate your hull damaging weapons to finish the first one. There are a lot of possibilities.

There are situations, when you need a lot of patience. Even when flying trough space. Your ships wont charge in an instant after you gave the "Move" command! They are Heavy Cruisers with Fusion Engines! What do you expect?
It will take two seconds to heat up, then your ship will start moving.
Simple rule: The bigger they are, the slower they move.

Last words:
The Mission "The Fight for Earth" was one of the most entertaining missions i have ever played in a Space-Sim. And it was one of the hardest missions in this game. (Dont worry, you WILL restart the mission if you play it for the first time)
Advice: Dont start with the highest difficulty level. You wont stand a chance.

My opinion: Yes! It is a good game. I had a lot of fun playing it.
It is not a perfect game but it many good moments, it is entertaining (very important for a game) and it has an awesome "Final" Battle.
Therefore: 6.5 out of 10.

Great and intense space battles with cruisers, destroyers, fighter carriers and other heavy class battleships. Real time with pause -gameplay works ok and reminds me of old Interplay classic game "Star Trek: Starfleet Command".

During a battle, various weapons and resources play differing roles. Lasers and other beam weapons are used mainly for disabling enemy devices. Large missiles are slow and can be shot down with small fighters or FLAK-systems but have massive blast radius. Gatling guns, rail guns, plasma weapons and torpedoes are for hull destruction. Energy bombs are used for anti-shield purposes. Weapon power generators. Sensor arrays for detecting enemy equipment, ECM systems, ECCM systems!! And your battleship can hold few squadrons of small fighters, bombers, gunboats (or shuttles packed with space marine commando teams).

Visually game still looks very good after all of these years! The game difficulty can be pretty frustrating.. Even beginner difficulty level is really hard. Players who don’t manage their fleets very carefully are going to find themselves in pretty terrible situations, fast and brutal!


Some useful keyboard shortcuts (not explained in tutorial mode during first missions):
[ N ] - Yes! You actually can create custom NAV points!
[ S ] - Select all fighters and other smaller craft.
[ A ] - Select all large ships.
[ CTRL ] + [ S ] - Select all fighters from selected large ship.
[ M ] - Manual control panel on or off. [ R ] - Repair panel on or off.


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323846025

Despite any bugs that this game has and that any sequel is effectively dead thanks to the failure of the Kickstarter campaign, this wonderous game is a surefire treat for those in love of the space opera and sci-fi setting. This game is, despite it's faults, pure distilled awesomeness.

This is one of the games you can refer to as a hidden gem, largely ignored but actually quite incredible, which is a terrible shame. Metacritics and the score is mainly bashed down due to the learning curve and massive technical aspects.

Mission briefings give you fully explorable solar systems, with impressive lighting looking akin to something from KSP.
Ship explosions look really good, there's no magically disappearing models, and they even launch escape pods.
The ships can be disabled as well and proceed to drift in space (but can still be destroyed)
Ship systems are fully modular, which is a crucial aspect of the game campaign, these systems can be targeted and disabled as well. (shoot all engines and the ship stops).
Ship movement looks far more real and is far, far less arcade like than the vast majority of mass produced space RTS you find today, they even have small directional engines on board that are fired when the ships turn.
The learning curve is indeed very steep, but if you can overcome the vast technical aspects the game offers you'll find yourself a space combat RTS which is Homeworld tier good, it really is worth a try, and this is a game from 2004.

Everything i wanted from a space combat game. THe story is surprisingly enthralling and the combat can be, while difficult to master, quite precise. I enjoy the pause feature allowing for a far more tactical approach to combat. I havent played the MP but if the quality of the single player is anything to go off of i would highly reccomend this to anyone who wants to scratch the space combat/sim itch. Think Empire at War's space combat meets the strategic free space movement of EVE...

Nexus The Jupiter Incident is one of those games that you wish had gotten popular simply because it deserves a sequel and copycats. It is a stunningly atmospheric game with highly complex, yet easy to use space combat. It is a Space Opera in the truest sense of the word.

You start the as spaceship captain Marcus Cromwell in command of the Stiletto out on the fringes of the solar system on patrol. Things quickly pick up speed however as aliens, wormholes and other outside forces conspire to put you smack dab in the middle of an epic conflict between various hostile alien armadas and a lost remnant of humanity. As you progress through the game your own fleet grows in size and power, new characters join your side and you will often get little role playing elements in the missions letting your chose how to proceed.

Although from the outside Nexus might look like a classic space RTS in the same vein as the Homeworld games the similarities are limited. In Nexus you command a small flotilla, each ship is named and upgradeable. Should one of your ships be destroyed it will be gone for good and you will be that much weaker in missions ahead. You progress through a series of linear missions, each one putting your fleet in a small area of space with primary and secondary tasks to complete. To accomplish this you must use your fleet and their abilities as best you can. Each ship having a number of different controls allowing you to maximize it's efficiency by directing power to various systems, commanding fighters, bombers and gunships, or using various different weapons when appropriate.

In terms of difficulty Nexus provides a somewhat uneven experience, although most of the missions that involved fighting are balanced and challenging the ones that involved stealth tends to be nothing more than an exercise in frustration leaving you reloading your save game repeatedly until you get it right.

Graphically the game is absolutely stunning. Space has never looked this beautiful, from the asteroids you pass by to the ripples in your shields when they get struck everything in this game oozes atmosphere. In terms of sound Nexus is a very quiet game which only adds to the immersion and experience of silent space although a good soundtrack playing on your stereo whenever you boot up this game is something I can only recommend.

Some bugs and the lack of anyone playing the multi-player, even at release, are the only other negatives I can think of. A decent selection of pretty high quality mods greatly extends the life expectancy of this game.

All in all, Nexus The Jupiter Incident is what you want from a tactical space opera, it hits on almost every mark short of the multi-player aspects and provides an absolutely stellar experience filled to the rim with atmosphere and tense space battles.

This is another one of those gems that you don't see too often. Although the game takes a little while to load up. It's truly spectacular. The single best space game that I have ever played. It has the best engine ever made for starship combat unfortunately for whatever reason it didn't meet the sales that it needed at the time of it's inception so there's no hope for a sequel. There's plenty of mods that people love to play around with but the worst part about this game is that it ends.

One of the best spaceship strategy games, I've played.

Campaign is good with different variety of missions.

Manually manage the ship's system such as setting the strength of your shield, speed of your engines, set different targets to your weapon or disable different systems so that you can power your weapon/shield/engine pass 100%. But you can only customize the insides of your ship.

Haven't tried Multiplayer

The game is fantastic for players seeking a tactical experience, being able to outfit your ships with whatever weapons you want, and using them as you see fit. Be warned though, there are some bugs/glitches that show up after playing for a long session. Namely your units failing to follow your orders, or they magically refuse to use their anti ship weaponry when commanded to do raw damage against an enemy's hull.

I don't know why I haven't written a report on this game before. I've played since the year it came out before I had it on steam I remembered I had loads of fun and it was one of the best games I've ever played. Years past and I lost my CD and than decided to buy it again on steam, and once again after all those years I found myself completly immersed in its universe. The story and gameplay are amazing as well as the graphics. The only badside perhaps is that it doesn't have a skirmish mode, however there is a mod for that which allows you to have skirmish battles. If you are a sci-fi fan than this game is a must!

A wonderful space tactical combat game :)