Euro Gamer DarkStar review Negative to X Universe

Peckie · Post by **Peckie** » Sun, 2. Jul 06, 14:01

I just finished playing the demo and I find that it is very similar to Freelancer. Like it has been said here before the economy only seems like an ad-on and the inabilaty to build factory's is a downside.

But I very much like the fact that it is far easier to find missions that suit you, in x3 I often find myself docking at several stations in different sectors before I find a mission that I like, when I'm flying my m6 I always get missions like: "want to put that fast m5 to work" and when I'm flying my m5 I get missions that are impossible to do with an m5.

All in all I think I'll buy it because it will make an interesting diversion from x3 and the storyline seems to be more developed en more coherent then in x3.

Arsaneus · Post by **Arsaneus** » Sun, 2. Jul 06, 19:21

As I have the german version (came out long ago) I'm able to say some words about it.

I was a bit disapointed with it. There were supposed to be many sectors..there are but they're for no use. Nothing to explore. Getting those ship upgrades is easy and everytime the same way...boring to the end.

There IS a very good thin in this game: Storytelling..this was made very good in my oppinion. Also every race got it's unique look. Well done too.

Fighting is more fun than freelancer but less than X3. Enemies are weak but in great numbers.

Overall it's a good game to have fun. Trading is useless as in Freelancer.

Used about 7-8 hours to complete the story...at least 2 hours more than freelancer.

The music is great, too

So...
Get it if you like fast action and a quite good story.

Don't get it if you're expecting trading and exploring.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Sun, 2. Jul 06, 21:35

yeah, got the demo, played it for 2 or 3 hours.

quite fun, but a few niggles.

As said, the graphics are ok, no better than FL tbh, except some of the lighting effects are nicely done. But some weird slow down / stutter occasionally (I have a 3800 CPU and a 7800GT card...)

Sound, ok. Some fun music etc. Having said that the music changes to an action tempo when nothing is actually happening, which is odd.

Dialogue is a bit iffy. Radio chatter as in FL, but probably not done as well. Except for some of the cut scenes and specific baddies where they have a nice range of voices.

Actual dogfighting is EXACTLY the same as in FL. Those people comparing it to Elite etc clearly have never played those games

Some weird dead spot when flying using a mouse.

Some features in FL sorely lacking from DS1, especially the ability to click on an object you can see to select it. And the drop down objects map is weird, I find myself having to clieck on it about four times before it selects what I want, then it goes away and I have fired my weapons at whatever is in front of me

Overall about 6.5 out of 10. If they iron out some of the niggles for the full game that would easily go up to 7, and depending on the storyline maybe even 8.

No point comparing it to X as it is not the same game. Action with a few upgrade elements (exactly as in FL).

I will probably be buying it when I get some free time

xeon_1 · Post by **xeon_1** » Sun, 2. Jul 06, 21:38

Arsaneus wrote:
So...
Get it if you like fast action and a quite good story.

Don't get it if you're expecting trading and exploring.

for exploring and trading we have the x games i am going to get this when it comes out to give some diversety to my gaming kinda tired of playing the same games for a long time

Maximum476 · Post by **Maximum476** » Sun, 2. Jul 06, 23:12

Ok I've just played the last bit of the game, got best equipment, done side missions including the gangs etc. It's not a bad game, and I kinda like the part where you follow the news articles to do the special missions, and also fighting to liberate systems.

The combat isn't all that bad in my opinion, strafing/afterburner/sheild management keep it involved enough to balance off the arcade style.

I still stand on the boringness of the systems though. They all seem the same and have very little to see or find.

And I reduced the texture detail to medium as it seems to help a lot with the jerkiness, although this has apparently been fixed for the full game.

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 00:06

I have actually re-installed Freelancer added some good mods and have started up the plot again. I am 3 hours in and I must say I really am enjoying myself, really easy to get into the game, loose yourself and plenty of hours! I am running X3 at the same time (just started again after stopping in November), freelancer does make me feel like part of something, I don't know why, I just feel my character has personality.

The empire building in X2 I liked, I am 20 hours into X3, lost alot of ships and am back to a mercury, I would like to Mine but I have to look at spoilers to find out which ships, I don;t know I think X3 is better as I like an intelligent sim but Freelancer is much more fun as a game.

Dark Star is such a freelancer rip off it is just a step up from many of the MODS on the FL fan sites and no Multi-player.

The only thing the demo did for me is get me back into FL and make me wonder again why MS is so incredibly retarted in not bringing out a sequel and making money on it??????????? IDIOTS!!!

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 00:12

oh yeah FL ran on my Nvid MX with an Athlon 1800 and 512 Mem, sweet as a nut no worries no slow down. DS, with my current system gave me major slow down in the asteroid field.

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 10:21

Arsaneus wrote:As I have the german version (came out long ago) I'm able to say some words about it.

I was a bit disapointed with it. There were supposed to be many sectors..there are but they're for no use. Nothing to explore.

Supposedly the systems in the demo are cookie cutter demo systems to save space. The real game systems will be larger and more varied. That's what the developers say anyways.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 14:09

SteveMill wrote:
Arsaneus wrote:As I have the german version (came out long ago) I'm able to say some words about it.

I was a bit disapointed with it. There were supposed to be many sectors..there are but they're for no use. Nothing to explore.
Supposedly the systems in the demo are cookie cutter demo systems to save space. The real game systems will be larger and more varied. That's what the developers say anyways.

Steve, where did you find that? Would be interested to see.

Their forums are up and running, but only have about 5 posts on so far.

@Muppetts, what mods do you recommend for FL? Where do I get em? ta

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 15:19

I found them on the Company forum, ( in one of the threads) which is quite active. Don't know what that new forum is

http://213.198.65.214/forum_DS/forumdisplay.php?f=3

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 15:54

SteveMill wrote:I found them on the Company forum, ( in one of the threads) which is quite active. Don't know what that new forum is

http://213.198.65.214/forum_DS/forumdisplay.php?f=3

oops, my bad, tis a fan site they mention on their company site

http://www.darkstarforum.com/

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 17:53

SteveMill wrote: Supposedly the systems in the demo are cookie cutter demo systems to save space. The real game systems will be larger and more varied. That's what the developers say anyways.

Seems a bit pointless to me--thought the point of a demo was to be gosh-wow enough to make you buy the game, not cut down so severely that it makes you think the game isn't very good!

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 18:07

pjknibbs wrote:
SteveMill wrote: Supposedly the systems in the demo are cookie cutter demo systems to save space. The real game systems will be larger and more varied. That's what the developers say anyways.
Seems a bit pointless to me--thought the point of a demo was to be gosh-wow enough to make you buy the game, not cut down so severely that it makes you think the game isn't very good!

Agreed. My BS-ometer is beginning to sound. Especially as a couple of posters are saying that they aren't that varied in the full German release.

I don't care if there are a few cosmetic differences in a system. I expect exploration to be a big part of any space game. I miss that in the X series, but other aspects compensate. Even in Freelancer there were plenty of hidden things and plenty of locations in a sector.

Three identical - in terms of items that can be purchased - stations - is not variety.

i'm beginning to reconsider my play.com pre-order.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon, 3. Jul 06, 22:52

hmmm, this looks a bit more promising

dj.illingworth · Post by **dj.illingworth** » Tue, 4. Jul 06, 02:13

Having played the demo I see that it suffers from the same ailment as the X series, Haegemonia, Nexus etc. In other words, they spent months and months making a game, and about 5 minutes on the dialogue. For god's sakes, when will game developers realise that all the effort put into a game goes out of the window if your characters are reading sentences that barely qualify as such? This is particularly highlighted during the flashily rendered intro which is accompanied by one of the worst game scripts since X2. Quite why this particular malaise seems to affect sci-fi games from mainland Europe so much is a mystery, whether it's just poor translation, or whether their scripts are utter drivel in their native languages.

The frame rate is also appalling on my Ati X800 with the latest drivers.

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Tue, 4. Jul 06, 09:00

pixel wrote:
SteveMill wrote:
Arsaneus wrote:As I have the german version (came out long ago) I'm able to say some words about it.

I was a bit disapointed with it. There were supposed to be many sectors..there are but they're for no use. Nothing to explore.
Supposedly the systems in the demo are cookie cutter demo systems to save space. The real game systems will be larger and more varied. That's what the developers say anyways.
Steve, where did you find that? Would be interested to see.

Their forums are up and running, but only have about 5 posts on so far.

@Muppetts, what mods do you recommend for FL? Where do I get em? ta

http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/

http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/news/co ... Freelancer

For the Mod

Mod for Single Player with Plot Evolutions 1.3 (download Freelancer Mod Manager first, then the Evo 1.3 Mod, open the Mod Manager and just select then press the button labeled Activate.

The Evolutions MOD version 1.30 can be played in Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer and Singleplayer games.
The storyline has been kept intact, so yes you can see Jun'ko, King and the cast of characters from the Sirius Sector.
It is important to read the readme text file for this mod as there are things you should know concerning gameplay.
After you install the mod in the Freelancer Mod Manager, click on view readme... The readme file can also be located in the mod folder.

There's tons of upgradeable equipment such as power supplies, boosters and power capacitors, tractor beams, scanners, shield generators and shield capacitors, thrusters, lots of armor upgrades and a huge cache of all types of weapons.

New Systems, complete with planets, bases, stations and all the other goodies.
* Frontier Sector, Alpha 1, 2 and 3, Frontier Beta 1, 2 and 3.
* Bavaria, Nuremburg, Florida, Guangxi Province, Aleutia, Swansea, Central Federal District, Northern Federal District, Federal District of Ykoutsk, Federal District of Kamchatka and the Federal District of Ural.

Custom Ships and Shipwright

* PantherX: The Fury, Serpentail, Paladin, Orca, Hellhound, Testudo, Gladius, Halberd, Cimmarron, Mustang, Trident and the Red Hessian Versions of the Border World Ships, The Mining Ship.
* Osprey: The Sentinel.
* Illero: The Mining Ship.
* Astral Prime Studios | Gag and Yedan: The Pegasus, The Griffen, The Hydra, The Starviper, The Cougar and The Hornet.
* Wanderer: The Raven
* Giskard: The Snub, The Soulstealer, The Babylon5 Cargo Freighter Small and The Babylon5 Cargo Freighter Large.
* Firebase: The Phantom, The Slipstream, The Basilisk, The Blackspecter, The Deathsythe, The Ghost, The RavenClaw and The Shadow Wraith.

I wanted to have another crack at single player rather than joining an online clan and this was a recommended mod.

Lots more than above in the read me

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Tue, 4. Jul 06, 12:09

dj.illingworth wrote:Having played the demo I see that it suffers from the same ailment as the X series, Haegemonia, Nexus etc. In other words, they spent months and months making a game, and about 5 minutes on the dialogue. For god's sakes, when will game developers realise that all the effort put into a game goes out of the window if your characters are reading sentences that barely qualify as such? This is particularly highlighted during the flashily rendered intro which is accompanied by one of the worst game scripts since X2. Quite why this particular malaise seems to affect sci-fi games from mainland Europe so much is a mystery, whether it's just poor translation, or whether their scripts are utter drivel in their native languages.

The frame rate is also appalling on my Ati X800 with the latest drivers.

i think it is maybe a language thing. Both are German and from my experience rewriting Farnham's Legend here, direct German to English translations can be clunky and ponderous due to the different grammar structure and the whole compound word thing German has going for it. It needs to be 'rewritten in the spirit of' rather than translated.

That and German companies seem unable to do cut scene animation. DS1 is light years better than x3 in this department but the figures still move like their arms don't quite belong to them. It's hard to take any dialogue seriously when it's coming from the lips of epileptic Thunderbirds puppets.

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Tue, 4. Jul 06, 12:18

'epileptic Thunderbirds puppets.'

Nice chuckle on that one for a tuesday lunch time!

VincentTH · Post by **VincentTH** » Fri, 7. Jul 06, 03:41

Having played the full game, here is what I know hands-on, and this is not an attempt to boast "I have played it". Here hoping that someone finds it useful.

The full game is a linear sequence of the plot, where you are sent from once cluster to another in order to solve the murder of your dad. Most systems are the same, i.e. one trading station, zero or several research stations, - which you can only land on special plots -. There are a few "hidden" systems where you have to do a special mission in order to get the key to it.

THe side missions are rich, but I'd say there are about 10-20 of them, and the pattern repeats. Trading is dynamic, but there are no supply-demand like in X (e.g. agriculture system does sell some agriculture products, but there are no needs that are specific to agriculture systems).

I have not finished the plot, but I have grabbed 3/4 of the artifacts, and therefore believe that I have completed 3/4 of the plot. The moderator of the official forum says that the real game will have more contents in it, so we will have to see. Things that I like to see are:

- Variety of drops instead of just Secret Service weapons.
- Land on platnets (Wishful thinking)
- A more physics flight model a la IWAR series (Wishful thinking)
- More variety in systems design (give us more than one trading stations please).
- A sector map!

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 7. Jul 06, 07:29

Hold on, didn't you just say you'd played the full version of the game? How is that different from this mythical "real" version of the game?

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Euro Gamer DarkStar review Negative to X Universe