Overall Rating

Although it's the massively multiplayer RPG that gets most of the attention, fans who don't role-play have a few choices for socialized gaming. Auto fans can dig into "Motor City Online," fans of mystery can get into "Majestic," and now sci-fi lovers have "Jumpgate." Internet gamers disappointed by the early death of EA's "Privateer Online" will be especially interested in "Jumpgate's" mix of space combat, trading, mining, and work-for-hire gameplay.

Storyline
"Jumpgate" opens up an entirely space-based world of profiteering, political factions, and of course evil aliens. Thousands of years in the future you are a young recruit to one of three factions that work as military watchdogs for various sectors of "Jumpgate's" space. Since each of these three factions has its own interests and, initially, areas of expertise, they don't get along with each other. The Solrain specialize in trading, the Octavians are mercenaries, and the Quantar focuses on mining.

Find a space job online
Admittedly, these are loose guidelines for beginners. As you progress through the game, pulling more jobs -- be they mining, trading, or shooting gigs -- you get enough money to upgrade and do any sort of job you want. "Jumpgate" is very mission-based. On space stations you browse through the computer network to check out the myriad of possible employment opportunities. Find one that's appealing, accept it, and make sure you have the equipment to pull it off. Then it's out into the wide open range of space.

Buy new equipment
You can buy new ships, engines, shields, mining and scanning equipment, and plenty of weapons on stations. Keeping your craft up to date is the key to your survival. Being nice to members of your faction can lead to social gaming and provide some extra backup when taking on harder missions. The game usually has a thriving chat window easily visible on the screen at all times, so it's easy to find other players to chat with or ask for assistance.

Graphics
Graphically, "Jumpgate" gets the job done but won't be winning any awards for visual panache. While some of the backdrops are beautiful starry visages with bright red nebulas and other cool space phenomena, the actual spacecraft and stations all have a rather low polygon retro look. Textures are simple, and most of the craft you'll see have a somewhat blocky structure to them.

Sound
However, the audio work is nicely done. The soundtrack has a theatrically grand, orchestrated air to it, filling the depths of space with, well, space music. Ambient sounds in the space station fit the dreary militant atmosphere, and the space flight effects help increase the feel of flying through the void.

Problems
The main problem for new players is the complex gameplay. Ship movements are heavily physics-based, which can make even simple movements near space stations or other ships problematic for anyone unused to this sort of gameplay. Docking is especially nightmarish for new players, and the lack of an autopilot option for these mundane yet difficult tasks is a severe oversight.

Another problem is the way the game throws beginners to the wolves. 3DO has taken some effort to smooth the transition to this deep universe by making noncombative players invulnerable for the first 10 hours of play, but what the game really needs is an onboard tutorial computer to help answer questions. You can ask other players for tips and check 3DO's website for further instruction, but not everyone is going to warm up to those two forms of help, and an ability to simply find specific information on the fly would have been welcome.

Another hindrance to new players is how vast space is in "Jumpgate." Since the game's system of travel hinges on the jump gates of the title, expect to do a lot of gate jumping to reach other systems over the course of your missions. Although this is a great concept in theory, it also means that you'll have to manually plot your course through the jump gates to get to your final destination.

This sounds cool until you look at the thoroughly complex 3D map of "Jumpgate's" space and realize that you have to not only plot a path through the unwieldy jumble of systems, but also fly that course in real time. The lack of an autoplotter is a big hole here, but new players will really have trouble finding interesting gameplay in a half hour of uneventful flying just to deliver some goods.

For those who do stick through it, the game tends to boil down to a lot more combat. As your credit limit goes up and you buy better equipment, things tend to get more playable, but it's not an easy road for beginning players. Whether all the effort will be rewarding is up to you, of course, but for anyone looking for something different in their massively multiplayer diet, "Jumpgate" certainly fits the bill.