I went looking for the Ascaron booth at my first opportunity. I really wanted to get a look at Sacred 2, which I'll describe in another article. To my surprise and delight, though, Ascaron was showing off more than just the fantasy RPG. Darkstar One is a shining example of one of my favorite video game genres, the epic space opera.“Darkstar One” is the name of a spaceship. It's a very special one-of-a-kind ship built as part of a project researching ancient alien technology. The Darkstar's owner is murdered and the ship is passed on to his son, Kayron Jarvis, the hero of our story. Jarvis is determined to find out why his father was murdered and soon discovers that he, his father and the Darkstar One all have roles to play in a legend that spans the galaxy.
The Darkstar One is the only ship that the player will ever control, but that is hardly a limitation to the game. The Darkstar One is more than just a ship. It's like a character in an RPG, evolving and growing more powerful as the game progresses. As you discover ancient artifacts on his journey, you incorporate them into the Darkstar One, completely changing the capabilities and appearance of the vessel. The ship even has a skill tree very similar to traditional RPG games.
You might think gameplay in Darkstar One is all about space combat, but the game refuses to be categorized so easily. As events unfold in the main story, there's also a galaxy-wide economic simulation going on in the background where interstellar trade is happening all the time. Each planetary system has its own balance of supply and demand for goods and resources. NPC traders ship cargo to and fro constantly.
You can get a piece of the action, too. For instance, you can outfit the Darkstar One as a cargo vessel and ferry goods from where you buy them cheap to where you sell them for a huge profit. Alternatively, you can opt for the “why buy what you can steal” creed and turn the Darkstar One into a formidable pirate ship that stalks freight carriers in the interstellar void.
If neither traders nor pirates are your cup of tea, you might seek out freelance bounty-hunting or mercenary work for NPCs.
Darkstar One is a big game. There are over three hundred solar systems to explore, thousands of worlds, space stations, bases, etc across the galaxy. There are six very different races and lots of political tension among them. There's a huge story that spans the entire galaxy. With all this, the game should offer many hours of enjoyment.
The game has already been released in Germany and is expected to hit US shelves in August.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
