DarkStar One

"Boldly goes where many games have gone before"

For a while during the dim and distant past the space simulation arena was a playground for some of the biggest names in software. Barely six months would pass without a decent release enabling gamers to seek universal dominance establishing an empire spanning the myriad galaxies presented to them or simply blast some alien species out of existence. Then they all disappeared leaving a vacuum. Since nature apparently abhors a vacuum this chasm was filled by smaller companies one of whom is the developer of darkstar one.

Gameplay: 7
Those of you familiar with freelancer will feel absolutely at home here. Though the game offers both gamepad and joystick control options it plays best using the mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately people have reported problems with various joysticks and gamepads though supposedly this is being addressed via patches. Most game functions can be activated via keyboard shortcuts or icons on the hud utilising the space bar to change the mouse from steering the ship to clicking on the relevant buttons. Occasionally something is a little more obtuse but following the reasonably intuitive tutorial you should be up and running within 20 minutes or less.

Another appealing feature was the ability to slide the difficulty up and down at a moments notice. This proved very useful since there doesn't seem to be a consistent and gradated level within the game. Sometimes it is ridiculously easy and others somewhat frustrating. The only annoying aspect was possibly the two or three hardest parts are not affected by this, saying that no one should really struggle to complete the game. There is also a generous autosave facility ensuring should something go wrong you won't have to replay massive amounts of time simply on account of forgetting to save the game often.

Much like many of the games within this genre there is a main plot, side missions and bulletin board assignments, occasional requests for help from people within the game as you fly by and trading opportunities. Usually you will advance the main story and then lack of financial resources to continue will necessitate undertaking some of these. Sadly these lack variety and are not implemented terribly well, trading whilst simplified way beyond the x-series just isn't profitable enough to bother with. Bounty hunting is far more entertaining and can reap nice rewards especially hunting down the pirate gangs or liberating the sectors controlled by pirates.

The other side benefit to both of these is accumulating new equipment and also obtaining alien artefacts used to upgrade the darkstar one. Perhaps the best feature is the level of customisation possible on your own craft, whilst you can never change ships using the artefacts offers the possibility of sculpting a craft ranging from a multi turreted monster to an agile fighter. Your ship also comes with a secondary plasma weapon system which is also customisable and acts almost like a special move or ability.

Story: 4
Darkstar one's story suffers from being mundane and predictable. Your father has been mysteriously killed and in an amazing and completely unexpected development (note: sarcasm) you decide to track down who, where and why. If you think you have seen this before you certainly aren't mistaken, and unfortunately you can probably guess the various characters and circumstances that will litter your journey. Even the twist near the end is staggeringly obvious.

Graphics: 7
Graphically speaking the game looks pretty nice, whilst not jaw droppingly gorgeous all the objects are detailed and colourful, at least within the confines of working against the black backdrop of space. My only criticism would be several occasions where turning up my monitor's brightness became necessary in order to determine certain key aspects of the game. They could occasionally have more clearly defined where you needed to travel especially during the descent like parts of the game.

Sound: 7
Whilst the game doesn't offer the orchestral overtones of homeworld the sound is reasonably competently done. Music though not varied is appropriate for the particular occasion, the voice acting is certainly better than offered by the x-series and the effects are decent enough. You probably won't remember the sound beyond finishing the game but you also won't immediately reach for your mp3 player after about ten minutes.

Playtime/Replayability: 7
I would estimate the game took me 50 hours + to complete. This was exploring every area the game offered, obtaining the best possible equipment and all the artefacts and achieving the highest rankings. You could definitely finish considerably faster though that would make the game more difficult. It is unlikely anyone would wish to replay the game simply because of the linear story and there are no alternative endings although you can continue after the main plot has finished.

Final Recommendation:
Would I recommend buying the game? It really depends on what you are looking for, if you seek something with depth, complexity and long term playability then you would be more suited to eve online or the x-series. If you enjoyed freelancer, independence war 2 or tachyon beyond the fringe then you should find something within darkstar one that appeals to you. At the very least if you have any interest within the space genre than the game is probably worth investigating even if you simply download the demo. I would hazard a guess and say that if you searched the bargain bins at your local retailer you might also save some money on the retail price.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/06, Updated 11/26/07

Game Release: DarkStar One (EU, 10/12/07)