Hand On: DarkStar One
Space travel on less than $40 a day
Tags: DarkStar One Categories: PC Previews, Previews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 17th, 2006
 |
There are plenty of space oriented adventures out there. Handling a spaceship has become second nature ever since the days of LucasArts’ X-Wing franchise. In order for a game to set itself apart in the genre, it needs to have a good story and not just be able to focus on dogfights in outer space. CDV and Ascaron are offering up DarkStar One and so far it seems as if the goal is being accomplished – tell a good story, have fun in space blowing things up, and have a solid game mechanic.
There’s a ship upgrade system which is to be somewhat expected. Taking older lasers or missiles and trading upwards for more effective ones. While that’s all well and good, it’s the ship itself that can be upgraded which makes for some interesting configurations. Without going into too much detail, the titular ship of the game is a prototype tat can fit and mesh with other technologies making for a very adaptable ship.
 |
With plenty of upgrades available in the game, it takes a fair bit of economic resources to keep up with the technology needed to accomplish the next set of goals. DarkStar One has both a story driven element as well as a free-roaming “sandbox” aspect, both of which are intertwined. It comes in somewhere between Oblivion’s nearly complete freeform gameplay and a more traditional linear RPG, as star systems and clusters become unlocked as the story progresses. Players can explore these systems and clusters, accept a variety of missions, and collect money to purchase new equipment. There is still quite a linearity to it all, but it is more “free form” that it sounds.
 |
Players can elect to get money by performing escort missions to assist the various trade corporations from being attacked by pirates on their cargo runs, or turn pirate and attack various cargo vessels and take the spoils to the various space stations to sell the goods. Other missions will have players electing to hunt down pirates or spy on competing trade organizations. There’s a fairly rich (pardon the pun) economy that players can tap into and become a legitimate merchant in order to gain a great deal of money. Or you could be a smuggler trying to get various ellicit goods from one place to another.
 |
Some of the various missions will include the transfer of cargo from one point to another. This is a simple enough task where one “attaches” a container to the ship and heads from one point to another. Of course, this is usually not a task without some peril and the various trading companies that are at odds with each other as well as pirates will send out a band of thugs to obtain the container. Fighting back becomes necessary, but is hampered by the presence of the container.
Just like a semi-truck is less maneuverable when it is pulling a load, the DarkStar One moves a bit on the sluggish side while acting as a contract cargo vessel. When not pulling an extra container the maneuverability is good, and combat is much easier to deal with. There are lasers, turrets and a variety of missiles to deal with, as well as a plasma weapon that the ship has which is upgradeable over time to include features such as temporal displacement of an enemy vessel.
 |
Visually it’s good, but there really is only so much that can be done to convey the emptiness of space. There are little bits of flotsam about, asteroids, especially the larger ones, look good (though if the game is any guide, there are asteroid fields around virtually every habitable planet in the galaxy). The audio is good with plenty of sound effects and voice work.
The story is fairly basic, involving a father’s death and trying to use the ship he designed to track down who is responsible. Nothing groundbreaking, but it is fairly solid. There’s a cast of characters as well that will help you along the way, just like you would expect.
So far after about 5 hours of play time DarkStar One seems like a good space combat title wrapped around a solid story. I’m looking forward to getting further into the game and exploring the vastness of the galaxy and intermingling with the other races.
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: DarkStar One
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 17th, 2006 and is filed under PC Previews, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
