Game News Darkstar One English demo released

Tags: Darkstar One

There's a <b>919MB</b> demo of <a href="http://darkstarone.ascaron.com">Darkstar One</a> available on <a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=35197">Worthplaying</a>, <a href="http://www.gamershell.com/news/31166.html">Gamer's Hell</a>, <a href="http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096485230/">3D Gamers</a>, and <a href="http://files.filefront.com/DarkStar+One+English+Demo/;5203119;;/fileinfo.html">FileFront</a>. So, you guys can get your space CRPG groove on while waiting for it's release in the civilized, English speaking world.
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I guess I'll mention how I like/dislike it in the next few hours since the thing is nearly a gig.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

Why do foreign games always seem to employ the absolute worst voice actors in history? It really, really detracts from the game experience. And since this game appears to be story driven, it's even more important.

 

WTF is the game anyway? Is it any good? Anyone know?

 

Yeah, a few impressions of the demo would be appreciated.
By the way, in case I'm not the only one who feels insulted by Ascaron's horrible website, here's the less disgusting official one for the game itself with a bit more info about it: Link

According to that website it's a "Space Action-Adventure with role-playing elements", featuring a story written by the seemingly famous sci-fi author Claudia Kern. This is probably going to be really exciting to me as soon as I find out who she is. Then again...

"In all this turmoil, the hero of the game - the young escort pilot Kayron Jarvis - discovers clues about a secret that his murdered father was apparently hiding. An unknown technology that is hidden within the Darkstar One appears to be the key - but then an unforeseen twist changes the course of events dramatically ..."

... maybe not.

 

Seems to be a lot like freelancer but the demo hasn't hooked me so I haven't played that much. As for the plot... father died...blah blah... you are the son looking to avenge and explain your father's death.... completely unoriginal from what i've seen. And the voice acting is awful.

Still, I haven't played it that much, maybe I've got the game wrong.

 

Anyone ever play a game called Vega Strike? Its another one of these open space games, and its free. Fun times.

 

It's not too bad. I'm still getting used to the controls, which are kind of like a cross between Freelancer and Tachyon's controls. More like Freelancer, but you can strafe. I'm still doing the training missions though.

 

Sounds like it borrows story elements from Independance War 2. I might give it a try, but I'll wait for a few more opinions.

-D4

 

some demo impressions

I gave a little review of the demo here:

http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=236178

In short - this game is quite a disappointment. And it seems the Germans are only buying it to support their native developer. Or so it seems, because I really can't imagine another reason for anyone to pay forty bucks for such a thing.

 

I haven't played around with the trading yet, but I'm rather enjoying it so far. My biggest beef is the interface but that's probably because I don't know all the hotkeys yet. I kind of wish instead of Afterburner and Backthruster, it was up and down strafe, but that's not that big a deal.

I thought the whole asteriod thing was pretty spiffy. Not so much that they have artifacts hidden in them, but I kind of like the idea of little space "dungeons" to move around in. That's one thing I liked about Tachyon is dogfighting around complex structures where you could lose ships, hide, ambush, etc. I kind of wish there were mammoth space stations a la Tachyon, but I haven't gotten that far in the demo.

I'm not sure it's possible or not, but I really wish I could roll the Darkstar One. It's kind of quirky landing the ship at a station when you're coming at it 90 degrees off set from the doors.

 

Z/C roll you

 

The voice acting sounded much better in the german version of the demo.

I've replayed the german demo several times, and now I've played the english demo through once and I'm still unsure wether the game is worth buying. From just playing the demo we get no indications as to wether the mainstory missions will have much variation and stuff like that. I guess my fear is that I'd get bored with the game pretty fast.

As I said in the German demo thread, there are a lot of things I do like about the demo... like the random Hunter pilot that asks if you want to race him and the real-time arrivals of trading vessels. Also, when entering a system, sometimes there'll be a battle between merchants/police and pirates and they'll ask you to assist. Stuff like that makes the game world seem alive.

Trading is profitable, but I've never played any trading sims so I can't comment on how fulfilling it is gameplay-wise.

Designwise I wish there were more systems with just plain black space. I would've liked to have the gui as a part of the cockpit as well.

 

I wish the damage indicators were somewhere other than the upper right hand corner of the screen. I guess I'm used to things like that being at the bottom of the screen, but it seems like a distraction to have to look up to see that vital bit of info rather than looking down. If I had a beef about the GUI, that's probably my biggest pet peeve.

Cargo containers really bog down a ship, which I'm not really thrilled with. I'm assuming you can upgrade this where it isn't a huge issue or at least it becomes less of an issue.

 

So, what can we conclude about the demo? Is it worth to try it? And the full game, anyone got convinced by the demo?

 

Hey, anybody know what's going on with Mike McCarthy's space tactical RPG? (was in a news post a few months ago)

 

This was the case in Independence War 2, as well.

The control scheme you mentioned kind of reminds me of Terminus.

 

I thought the Demo was OK, but I get the feeling missions would get repetitive very quickly, as most seems to be the kill random pirate or transfer some cargo containers variety. Combat interface seemed fine, though I've played very few of these space combat games. Demo is probably worth a gander if you are interested in these space combat/trade/etc. games. Though after trying out Space Rangers 2, this game does seem fairly shallow.