Any Darkstar One love here?

love the genre but more interested in Sword of the Stars although its not out here at this point - Sept relelase

And Fedex said, 'Let there be Darkstar One.' And there was, and it was good. I only got up to where I was in the demo last night, so not too much more to say other than the copy protection hasn't bothered me at all and I haven't had any crashes. There is a little bit of FPS dropping for about half a second every once in awhile, but that just lets me use 'lag' as an excuse.

On the down side, I'm now addicted to blowing up space pirates. I had to wax a couple this morning before I could even get in the shower. I don't know how I will make it through the work day. I think I'm going to have to find a video clip from the game and watch it around lunchtime for a fix.

It's on steam now, for just 10 bucks, which seems like a good deal to me.
Due to the general lack of space sims I'm getting it now.

I played this for quite a while actually but ended up uninstalling before I finished it. The missions get very repetitive and very inconsistent with their difficulty. It's still a good Privateer-like game though and I'll probably get back into it.

i'm tempted to pick it up. I really liked Freelancer, but haven't played many of the space sim classics.

Steam price dropped to $7.95. I'm in a PC games-to-play slump, and at that price I figured what the heck, give it a try.

I'm glad I did. Easily worth 8 bucks. I'm having fun with it. It's actually much better than I was expecting.
The voice acting is actually pretty good, not horribly distractingly bad like it is in many games I've played (voice acting helped ruin Oblivion for me).

I've always enjoyed the Privateer type of game and this one is just plain fun. Not terribly deep, just fun. The plot is pretty linear I suspect, but you can stop doing story missions to just take the randomly generated missions for money and go exploring at any time. There are also other things to do in the systems you explore, like system liberation and destroying named Pirate gangs, both of which I believe earn you either money or a special upgraded weapon/item.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised, as I read some pretty mediocre reviews back when this was released. This has (mostly) all been done before in other space sims, but it's a fairly polished game, and if you've been looking for a space sim to tide you over until a big-budget heavy hitter arrives, this might fit the bill.

I'm thinking of digging out my old MS Sidewinder (the game does support joysticks from what I've read), but it's still fun even with the mouse.

It scratches the Freespace itch for me. Hard to go wrong here if you were on the fence with this one when it released.

Yeah, Darkstar One is a fun game, very reminiscent of Freelancer, IMO (though Freelancer is still the better game). I enjoyed it quite a bit when I played through it. Though of the few recent space sims I think I enjoyed Space Force: Rogue Universe a bit more.

I loved Freespace except for the very last part where I felt that the game's story went out the window. I never did beat it since I lost interest, but I did love just flying around. Very relaxing and soothing.

So off I go to google Space Force: Rogue Universe and lo and behold it is available on my favorite PC platform as well (Steam).

Nice. Looks interesting from the website. Although if the website is anything to go by, I can see it will probably suffer from the same English translation woes I've seen in some other games.

Thanks for the heads up there Veloxi. I'll be checking this out next.

I got the game a while back. It's not really sim-ish, but it's a fun arcade space combat game.

A few tips:
1. Kill the named pirate gangs. You can find them through the news tab on any base. Several systems will be listed(you may have to dig through a wall of text to find them), and there will be an anomaly/battleship wreck/pirate base in each of those systems. You'll have to kill 2 waves of fighters before a slightly harder boss. This will net you a secret service weapon at your ship's highest current weapon level, which is an upgraded version of the weapon. Except for missile launchers, you'll never have to buy any weapons, and extras can be sold for a very nice profit.
2. Clear each sector of all artifacts. You can see them in the map screen, and there's no reason not to get all of them.
3. You can't get full upgrades. You only get 20 total upgrades to the ship. So you're going to have to decide where you want them.

Uberstein wrote:

Thanks for the heads up there Veloxi. I'll be checking this out next. :-)

No problem, space sims is what I do.

I'd recommend you find the demo for Space Force and play through that first, see if the game fits your taste. Mainly because I serious cannot recommend it, so the demo is the best way to try it out without being out any money.

However, if you are willing to forgive wonky translations and play a 2D space sim, Space Rangers 2 is a good one from Russia. Here is a review that hits the high points.

Space Rangers 2 is indeed awesome, but for a space sim, I enjoyed Space Force: Rogue Universe a lot. I mean sure it's coupled with a decent learning curve along with no tutorial, but once you get the hang of it, there's a TON of stuff to do.

I'm only about a third or half through Darkstar One's main story. I absolutely love the game, but I can't play any game for weeks straight no matter how much I like it. I keep coming back in waves to work on it.Fantastic value for the current price, too.

Yeah I am really enjoying DS1, I'm getting close to the end. At one point about 1/4 of the way through, I noticed that the star map scrolls, and saw how much of the map I had yet to explore. My jaw dropped.

It's a pretty big game.

I played Space Rangers 2 for a while, but eventually I just got too annoyed with the translation issues. The game involves quite a lot of reading, and (especially for the "adventure" style missions) I just got tired of trying to translate the malformed sentences into something meaningful in my head as I read. I'd probably give the game another go if it weren't for that issue alone.

I admit, I'm a stickler for writing and voice acting in games.

Privateer-esque?
Giant universe?
Joystick support?
$8?

Sold.

I played the first part, but it kept crashing randomly on me, so I quit playing it
too bad, cause I kinda enjoyed it

Tannhauser wrote:

I'd recommend you find the demo for Space Force and play through that first, see if the game fits your taste. Mainly because I serious cannot recommend it, so the demo is the best way to try it out without being out any money.

I tried the demo last night. I'll admit, after like 10 tries on the first demo mission (two lousy pirates) I shut it down and was about to uninstall. But I LIKED what I saw, and I liked the music and...the feel of the game. It seemed like there was some polish there. I WANTED to like the game.

So I went and checked the forums, learned the controls a bit and gave it another go. And I got through the pirates. And found more of the game.

This game is a gem, but it lacks any kind of tutorial, and there are a lot of controls. There is a steep learning curve, because the game lacks a tutorial. But if you're patient, I think there's a good space sim lurking in there. I almost gave up, I'm glad I didn't. I'll be purchasing this from Steam sometime this week I think.

The upgrade and trading system looks to be a good bit deeper than DS1. And I love the graphics and moody music. The voice acting is awful so far. But for the other stuff I saw in the demo (graphics, gameplay, music) I'm willing to overlook that part and try the full game.

After I started to get the hang of things, I wanted to get to the fourth system and explore more, but the demo only appears to allow access to the first three systems on the starmap.

I think I'll enjoy this one. You start out VERY weak, but I can see the potential to build up the character, and a lot of RPG-like things in there.

Thanks again for the recommendation, Veloxi.

Although I was soooo very close to giving up at one point. The initial learning curve is that off-putting.

I picked DarkStar One up on Steam for $4.99 and so far I'm having a good time with it.

What I'd desperately like to find though is a game that combines space exploration + a story + on-foot-planetary exploration. Mass Effect is close but I'd like to see even more done with the ground areas; more creatures, caves, structures, etc. I played Ur-Quan masters and had a great time with it.

Any other games out there that have a more "groundy' element along with the space exploration?

This is not exactly what you are looking for, but did you try Space Rangers 2? Huge variety of experiences in that game.

Puce Moose wrote:

I picked DarkStar One up on Steam for $4.99 and so far I'm having a good time with it.

What I'd desperately like to find though is a game that combines space exploration + a story + on-foot-planetary exploration. Mass Effect is close but I'd like to see even more done with the ground areas; more creatures, caves, structures, etc. I played Ur-Quan masters and had a great time with it.

Any other games out there that have a more "groundy' element along with the space exploration?

Wait until Precursors is released. This is the game you and I are waiting for.

Wait until Precursors is released. This is the game you and I are waiting for.

Looks awesome. Thanks for the heads up.

This is not exactly what you are looking for, but did you try Space Rangers 2? Huge variety of experiences in that game.

Ah ha! Someone had mentioned this to me a long time ago and I forgot all about it. I'm downloading the demo right now. Has anyone tried the Reboot expansion pack? I've found Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators for $19.95 on D2D. Implulse has reboot+Rise for $39.95. If there are no major changes I may just do the $19.95 D2D version.

Not sure about the Steam version, but GWJ sponsor gog.com has DSO for 9.99 and it's DRM-free. As always, they have a few downloadable goodies for the game as well (available after purchase, of course).

Just FYI

EDIT: Oh, and it works flawlessly with Vista 64. Never was able to get my disc version to work--I think it was Starforce.

I think we should make Elysium play it for one of his indy games this year, if he hasn't already.

Did either of the Freespace games have ground elements? Or just space combat with Descent flight physics?

D-Man777 wrote:

Oh, and it works flawlessly with Vista 64. Never was able to get my disc version to work--I think it was Starforce.

I had problems with Space Rangers 2 on my Vista laptop, there is a Starforce driver update for Vista.

Yes, that's right. You need to update your DRM. :/

MrDeVil909 wrote:
D-Man777 wrote:

Oh, and it works flawlessly with Vista 64. Never was able to get my disc version to work--I think it was Starforce.

I had problems with Space Rangers 2 on my Vista laptop, there is a Starforce driver update for Vista.

Yes, that's right. You need to update your DRM. :/

For me, easily worth it to spend the additional 10 bucks for the gog version to keep that crap off my HD.

Mmmm I'm really enjoying this Space Rangers 2 game so far. I found it on www.gamersgate.com for $14.99 as a direct download.

D-Man777 wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
D-Man777 wrote:

Oh, and it works flawlessly with Vista 64. Never was able to get my disc version to work--I think it was Starforce.

I had problems with Space Rangers 2 on my Vista laptop, there is a Starforce driver update for Vista.

Yes, that's right. You need to update your DRM. :/

For me, easily worth it to spend the additional 10 bucks for the gog version to keep that crap off my HD. :)

Can't argue with that.

I figured I would buy Darkstar One off of GoG as soon as I clear out my queue of games. I would have bought it off Steam but I already buy plenty off Steam and I'd like to support GoG as well.

Can anyone confirm that it works with the 180.48 nvidia drivers? I heard some people were having problems.

I started off enjoying DarkStar One but after finding space rangers 2...

Man I've been able to boot up nothing but Space Rangers 2 since finally getting a handle on it. I finally figured out what it reminded me of; Star Control II (or, most precsicely, The Ur-Quan Masters) mixed with Fool's Errand (which looks like it has a sequel made by the original author coming out this year... interesting.)

So often in games I find myself with a hunger for detail/text/expository bits. Space Rangers 2 satisfies this with ease with the awesome *text adventures* seamlessly integrated into a fairly deep space trading/combat sim.

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/space1.jpg)