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Since I am currently on research mode right now, hoping to become a doctor of Communication Research (specializing in Game Studies) by the end of the school year, I have been playing games like crazy. Sometimes, I’d find myself playing an RPG on the Sony PSP while harvesting virtual crops/goods/products on my social games. (My brother warned that this kind of multi-gaming would worsen my ADHD. But really, do I have a choice?)

So I decided to check what’s been happening in the MMORPG (massively multiplayer roleplaying game) scene now that social gaming has become the norm in online games. A little bird told me about Battlestar Galactica Online, which is based on the 2004 remake of Battlestar Galactica. The good news is that this game only requires a browser, which means that you don’t need to download and install a new client that could potentially slow down your machine.

To start off:

You are asked to choose a server (on my Mac I play on Picon; on my Windows I play on Sagittaron), then you are asked to choose sides: Cyclon or Colonial. Cyclons are supposedly the badass side that gifts you with higher experience points and other benefits. It’s sort of like a boon to newbies that want to gain experience points and resources early on.

Since I like doing things the hard way when starting off with games, I picked Colonial.

Background Story:
For those who aren’t familiar with the Battlestar Galactica story, this takes place 40 years after the first Cyclon War. The gist of it is that humans (Colonials) created the Cyclons but the latter developed a higher level of understanding and eventually rebelled. In this BSGO MMORPG, both are stranded in a certain area of space and are fighting for resources.

You may want to familiarize yourself with the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica, to make your gameplay more enjoyable, since it does feature the TV characters.

Visuals:
The graphics are actually impressive for an MMORPG, that’s the first thing I noticed. It also runs on Unity engine. Although I had to lower the resolution considerably so that I wouldn’t experience much lag.

Gameplay:
Like all decent games past the Alpha stage, your first quest is actually a tutorial. You are taught how to arm your ammunition, how to target enemy ships and how to attack. The controls are actually very basic, once you get the hang of them. Learning curve does take a while, especially for fantasy gamers like me who’re used to controlling humanoid characters.

For now, what you can do in the game is gather resources and PvP or PvE till you drop. In short: shoot everything to death. I’m looking forward to the features they plan to add in future patches, since it’s the first time I’ve encountered something like this.

Battlestar Galactica Online is free-to-play so you can check it out and see if it suits your taste.