Darkstar One review

The search for the new Elite has been a 20 year trek that has yet to find a true successor to that original inspired game. Many have tried, often adding needless complexity to try and capture the original game's atmosphere. All of this is in vain. Why? Because all that atmosphere in Elite was in our heads, our imaginations, not on the screen.

The graphics were too primitive in the 1980s to display bustling star systems full of trade and piracy. Instead players filled the gaps with their imagination, lending Elite a complexity and detail that wasn't really there within the code. The game did enough to provide that spark in our minds and we did the rest, lending the world an authenticity that developers are not likely to be able to match.

Certainly the X games have failed to be the new Elite, while fun, their complexity ignores the relative simplicity at the heart of Elite. For me the closest game to capture the joy of Elite was Microsoft's Freelancer. But look, here we have another pretender for Elite's throne in the form of Darkstar One, so what are we to make of this slice of space-faring action?

Above & Beyond

Well it's a pretty good game actually. Not perfect by any long shot and certainly not the new elite. But it's definitely a worthwhile release in a once popular genre that's now looking rather empty and forlorn. Obviously the industry has changed a lot since the days of elite so we're saddled with a plot, some standard fare over the death of your father.

The story isn't well told to be honest, the acting is flat and the dialogue poor. It has that dusty flavour of dialogue that may have worked well in one language being literally translated by someone who isn't a writer and thus loses any emotional impact. Delivered by actors that sound like they can't be bothered it does make for a tiresome spectacle. But if your initial impressions of the game are from the opening cutscene sequences don't be put off, the actual gameplay is rather good.

So begins your journey as captain of the Darkstar One, on the trail of your father's murderer and to strike it rich in whichever trade you choose to follow. The ship is rather funky, which is just as well as you're stuck together for the whole game rather than being able to trade in once you've earned more cash. The game works like an RPG but with the ship levelling up rather than the player. Your tasked with finding strange alien artefacts to upgrade the Darkstar One. Here you can upgrade the engines, wings or hull - changing the equipment you can buy and fit to the craft.

That means you can specialise, developing the Darkstar into a weapons platform to enable you to pirate your weasely black heart around the galaxy. Or if trading is more your thing, optimise the ship for hauling containers behind you from system to system. There's also a plasma weapon on board which you can upgrade via a skill tree that will be very familiar to RPG fans.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

But let's not get carried away. Darkstar One isn't really an RPG. It's a space trading/combat game. The trading is simple and works well, no vastly economic models here. Instead we get some funky commodity images, very reminiscent of Elite, and get to buy and sell them. Some systems export an item so its cheaper there, other systems need to import, so will pay more. Yes it's the simple old Elite way of doing things.

Moving around the galaxy map brings back memories of Elite too, which the player limited to certain distance jumps until keycodes have been gained for other systems and the ship upgraded. There is a lack of freedom though. At times the game does feel like the world revolves around the player rather than the player being part of it.

Flying the ship is a breeze either with mouse or keyboard. I found the mouse my favourite for the game, something of a surprise. The ship turns toward the cursor on screen so you can lead the direction with the mouse and increase speed with the mouse wheel. The traditional WASD buttons fire retros to give more control and being able to sideslip or fire braking burns is very welcome in the heat of battle. The combat is where the game's strengths lie and that encourages you to choose your ship upgrades and career opportunities in that direction.

Luminous Beings Are We

Compared to Freelancer the atmosphere is lacking somewhat. Oh sure there's plenty of traffic around the trading stations and the like, but it feels rather artificial. There's no sense the planets are involved in the space economy, no sense of traffic between the surface and orbit and no chance to go down to the planets as one did in Freelancer.

There are freighters coming and going which you can gain a contract to escort though. Flying in yet another asteroid feels dull once you've done it ten or so times. And while the Darkstar One upgrade system works well there were plenty of times I saw another ship and wished the game gave me the opportunity to buy one and captain it instead.

That said there's much to admire in the game. It's a simple, yet fun and good looking space combat game. The graphics do look rather tasty, with some attractive lighting. It doesn't quite live up to the delights of X3's visuals, but then Darkstar One won't make your PC hardware crave for mercy either.

I do have one criticism of the visuals though. The star backgrounds and nebulas don't look as great as they could. What's the problem? Well the stars are diffuse blobs rather than points of light. If they were simple points the game would look so much prettier. Hopefully a patch will fix that or some enterprising modder will stick in some redesigned backgrounds.

That aside, it's a really good fun game that just falls short of greatness. I did have more fun with Freelancer, but that was a couple of years ago and I've been craving more space action since then. And here in Darkstar One it was fun to play a space action game that used trading to get you into opportunities for a fight rather than study for a degree in advanced intergalactic economics.