Darkstar One

How to start a review for this game? Well I suppose saying its a bit of a freelancer clone is a good one. However thats not really a bad thing. Let's be honest, Freelancer was a brilliant time sink of a game that was YEARS ahead of its time, and now its time for other games to try and do the same as this game did, back in the 80's.


You play as Kayron, who is avenging his father... or something, to be honest, the storyline is a bit tacked on. Which is odd, to say the least, to say that the main story is a bit... well hammy. It reeks of the kneeling the rain screaming "FATHER I WILL AVENGE YOOOOOOU!" sort of thing that was so prominent in the 80's and early 90's but to be perfectly honest, you're not playing Darkstar One for the story thats already written, but for the story that you write yourself. Another point is the irritating as hell co-pilot you pick up early on in the game. She constantly reminds you that "There's a Terran on our tail!" well, yes, thank you irritating woman, I know that because he's BLASTED MY REAR SHIELD IN HALF! Memories fly back to that whole "Hey, Listen!" thing from Ocarina of Time, but its not nearly as murderous rampage inducing.

It is a fairly standard space trading/exploration/bounty hunter/pirate game. It's  free roaming but you unlock more planet clusters with advancement with the storyline so you can put off the story as long as you want really. At the moment, after about 4 - 5 hours of play, I have probably spent about 1 hour actually doing the story. The other 3 - 4 hours I have been setting my reputation out as a Mercenary/Bounty Hunter/Smuggler, and to be honest, thats much more interesting to me than the poorly scripted half baked story the developers have come up with.

Graphics wise, the game is fairly beautiful. Each area is in the orbit of a planet and the planets look stunning. This however is let down slightly with the strictly early 2000 style cutscenes but once again, we're not really paying too close attention to the storyline.

One main criticism that I will hold is that this game defiantly throws you into the deep end. Without knowing the game, it demands that you figure out the HUD with no real tutorial, or guide. It demands time an patience before you can actually play the game properly, but like all good games, it rewards you for the initial bump with a brilliant game that could easily swallow months of your time.

Oh, one more quick note, this game is best played using a joystick, I recommend one that has 6 axis and as many buttons that you can find. I use a Sweex 6 axis with rumble that I also use for IL2 - Sturmovick.

Final Verdict - Brilliant space trade/exploration game where you can make a name for yourself in the universe as either a Merchant, Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Killer or Pirate that is let down slightly by its cheesy storyline and irritating characters - 75%