In 1997, Virgin Interactive Entertainment released the original version of SubSpace for all to play. Priced at about $30, it was one of the first entries into the massively multiplayer environment. With little lag, even with lots of players on a single server, it was truly revolutionary in pushing forward the concept of an action-driven massively multiplayer game. While it lacked much of the persistence of later entries in the genre as well as a lot of content, this later changed as the game evolved through continued official and fan support. It was even the inspiration for the Sony Online Entertainment games Cosmic Rift and Infantry, as many of the team members on those games had worked on SubSpace. Nowadays SubSpace is called Continuum after its current client, but much of the gameplay remains the same.

Continuum is a fairly easy game to learn how to play on the basic level, but incredibly difficult to master. Using only the keyboard, you must pilot one of several kinds of ships in a 2D, top-down zero-friction environment. While moving around and shooting are relatively easy actions to learn, advanced techniques such as inertia strafing and rebounding are much more difficult to master. This initial accessibility but continued depth is what makes Continuum one of the best games around, free or otherwise. The graphics and sound may be dated, but the gameplay is stronger than ever. In fact, the strength of the gameplay almost completely overrides the graphics being sub par.

Gameplay revolves mostly around killing other players using your arsenal of weapons, although you will always have two default weapons: your normal shot and bombs. There is also set of statistics which are common to every ship. These stats determine how the ship handles, how effective it is in certain situations, and everything else. The most important stat is arguably recharge rate, which determines how fast your energy is regained. Energy is used for anything beyond moving and turning. This includes bombs, shooting, and abilities. The faster you recharge, the more abilities you can use. Other stats are:

• Speed: The top speed with which the ship may move.
• Acceleration: How long it takes to reach top speed.
• Turning Speed: How quickly the ship can turn and face a new direction.
• Damage: How much damage the ship does with regular shots or bombs.
• Firing Rate: How fast the ship can fire shots.
• Projectile Speed: How fast the projectiles travel after being fired.

On a default server, your actions will be constrained by which ship you can choose. Each ship is similar enough to provide for players to learn quickly, but different enough to offer variety for different player styles. These ships include:

• The Warbird, which is the baseline to which all the other ships are judged. This ship is average in both mobility and firepower.
• The Javelin, which is faster and recharges energy quicker than the Warbird, but is slower to accelerate and worse at maneuvering.
• The Terrier, which is slightly worse than the Warbird in every area, but fires two shots at once rather than the single shot of the other ships.
• The Spider, the only ship to be automatically loaded with cloaking on default servers. It is slower and less maneuverable than the Warbird, but is about the same in all other areas.
• The Lancaster, whose bombs bounce off of surfaces. This allows the Lancaster to attack other ships around corners while in a maze or use trick shots to confuse opponents. However, much like the Spider, it is slower and less maneuverable than the Warbird.
• The Weasel, which can launch EMP bombs or lay EMP mines. EMP weaponry is unique in that it both damages the enemy and freezes their recharge rate at zero, making it hard to attack back. However, it is one of the worst ships in the game in terms of speed and maneuverability.
• The Leviathan, which has the most powerful shots in the game. It is the only ship that can reach level 3 in weapons and bombs, making it a choice for those wanting to cause as much damage as possible. However, much like its namesake, it is the slowest ship in the game.

There are more classes of ships to choose from, but these are the only classes recognized in the base rule set. If you are playing a ship beyond these choices, chances are you have joined a modded server. Not to fear, though! This is one of the major selling points behind the game.

While you may enjoy the original rules, chances are you will want to play with new maps or tweaked rules at some point. That's where the player mods come in. These mods can do everything from adding new maps to replacing all the graphics in the game. Gameplay mods range from CTF to total conversions that turn the game into something like Infantry. This customizability is refreshing and is what keeps the game alive, as there are more modded servers than default servers at any given time.

You could spend years talking about Continuum, partly in thanks to its massive mod community. As one of the first, best, and most likely longest-lasting entries in the free MMO genre, it is worth playing, even if it is just for the history behind the game. But chances are that the game's simple-yet-deep gameplay and wide variety of choices will hook you like no other free MMO out there. You can download the Continuum client through the Big Download downloads section or through the official website.

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