Reception
Gameplay reviews were mixed. Computer Gaming World's editors commended the game's designers for creating "a universe with so many cultures, personalities, options and plot twists that it is easy for players to suspend their disbelief." Amiga Action stated that "the blend of RPG style gameplay and space trading is unparalleled and should appeal to most." Reviewer Matt Regan wrote in CU Amiga that "the game is let down by its fundamental lack of excitement; there's no sense of urgency or even a feeling of frontier exploration. The party just plods on, trading, communicating, and gathering information and this gets tiresome as soon as the novelty of the system wears off." Dragon reviewers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.
The game's graphics and sound also received a mixed reception. Chris Lombardi wrote in Computer Gaming World that "the game's graphics are very strong, and in many ways improved over the original game." .Info praised the "exceptionally good" music and sound in the game's Amiga version. Amiga Action wrote that the "graphics and sound remain fairly prehistoric" and CU Amiga's reviewer stated that the "run-of-the-mill visual effects and music" must be "accessed from the disk every time certain actions are performed" (resulting in sluggish performance).
Handling of copy-protection and saved games received some criticism. .Info's reviewer criticized "a setup process that takes far too long" and a "starchart-lookup copy protection scheme that is poorly done." Only one save game position is provided and that becomes unusable if the game ends with the spaceship's entire crew being killed. Players have to maintain backups of their game files on a separate disk or in another file directory to be able to continue in the game should such a scenario unfold. Computer Gaming World wrote that this design decision was deliberately made "to create more realistic play and avoid what some call 'unethical gaming' (saving after every advancement and rebooting after every error). Despite the supporting ideology, it is actually a pain." In November 1996, the magazine ranked Starflight 2 in sixth place in a list of the "least rewarding endings of all time" for this reason.
Computer Gaming World awarded Starflight 2 their role-playing game of the year award in September 1990. The magazine's editors wrote that it "offers ample reward for exploration, utilizing curiosity, managing resources and carefully handling trade and negotiation. It expands the notion of role-playing beyond the traditional limits of computer games."
Read more about this topic: Starflight 2: Trade Routes Of The Cloud Nebula
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