Darkstar One

After an extensive and toll-taking war, the human race finds itself on the short end of the arms race; a bio-mechanical race called the Thul has established itself as the only real super power in a vast and expansive Galaxy. And as the newest fighter pilot in the sector you discover that your father's recent death has something to do with the Thul, a covert operation and your newest gift, the long-range star fighter, the Darkstar One.

I, like most children of the 80?s loved those cheesy space movies that seemed to come out after Star Wars paved the way, the rogue space pilot who treads where others don't and accepts the missions no one could possibly pull off. Well the folks at Ascaron must have watched those same movies since you assume that role. Hopping form space station to space station, you are given the opportunity to take on missions involving smuggling, trading, assassinations or any other number of kick ass missions. All this is done while tracking down the mystery behind your fathers death.

I liken this title to a sort of space 'Fable'?, where you can choose to take missions and be a more noble, type of pilot or you can be practically a space pirate taking missions that have you killing anyone for the right price or smuggling illegal goods. Of course you really don't change in appearance, but the ship you fly, the Darkstar One, does have RPG like qualities about it. You can upgrade it and find objects with strange properties allowing you to grow your ship bigger and although it's a novel idea it honestly works. There is no heavy handed gameplay; get in your ship, track your prey or destination and then fly to it (well, not that simple usually) but this game is as far a cry as any space simulation game out there.

The graphics are a mixed bag with the cool outer space visuals, and then the lame canned space station look. The HUD on the spaceship is pretty easy on the eyes and the controls can be learned fully within a half an hour. I wished the options allowed for a tuning of the mouse control, as it is, it is designed too sloppy and you will find yourself constantly overcompensating. That space opera feel is also translated to the audio, with pretty overblown sound effects and semi-corny voice work. Still it is a good time.

It's a good game to live out your childhood fantasies of a cavalier space pilot, and there are certainly enough missions to play through more then once. Plus, that whole good/evil thing can be applied to your play. With a bit more beefed up graphics and a major fix on the controls it would have been a must buy, still, there is an awful lot of fun to be had playing Darkstar One.