Posted on: January 19, 2025

pzogel

Games: 444 Reviews: 63

Tolerable, but far too repetitive

After Freelancer released back in 2003, similar games were very rare to come by. Darkstar One from 2006 aimed to fill that void, but very much fell short. The main issue with the game is how repetitive it is. Even though there are more than 300 star systems to visit, their layout is almost entirely identical: a trade station, an asteroid, a planet, and a warp gate. The colors may change and there may be a research station sprinkled in, but ultimately, if you've seen the first system, you've also seen all the others. The gameplay loop is just as monotonous. Regardless of whether you're doing story or side missions, you'll be shooting enemy ships 99% of the time. While the dogfights are quite entertaining, the issue is that they don't change at all throughout the course of the game. You only get to fly a single ship, the namesake Darkstar One, whose unique trait is its ability to transform through upgrades. These upgrades are given by picking up artifacts, which are gained either by flying into an asteroid (which all look exactly the same) or liberating a system (more shooting bad guys). In addition, you can buy new weapons or ship systems, but since these are restricted by your ship level, ship customization boils down to simply purchasing the best gear currently available, without any thought required whatsoever. The weapons are samey, the enemies are samey, everything is samey. Now, this would be tolerable if the story were good enough to keep one hooked, but that isn't the case. Between poorly voice acted cutscenes and a boring and predictable plot, mustering the motivation to take out yet another squadron of bad guys for some fish looking dude with a ridiculous speech pattern took some actual willpower. The only sort of diversion was provided by Descent-like tunnel levels sprinkled in, though these were more annoying than fun, too. In short, only get this if you're suffering from insomnia.

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Posted on: July 6, 2012

mcenal

Games: 530 Reviews: 2

Grind

I played this game first on the PC then on the Xbox 360. Playability was good on the xbox, but the game is a long grind. It is a shooter not as much exploring game. I like that the game has one ship (you can focus on the upgrades instead of the best ship), but I also dislike that. The upgrades are all locked in to exact values and if you don't get the upgrades just right (I didn't) you will miss out on a few achievement points and you really don't want to re-play to go back and get them. It left me feeling unhappy with the final game.

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Posted on: August 19, 2018

Joking79

Verified owner

Games: 75 Reviews: 4

Maybe in 2002.....

I seem to be a bit "tainted" by the Freelancer bug... If you managed to play Freelancer back in 2003, then you understand why everyone here is going on about Freelancer and how Darkstar One doesn't quite hit the mark. If anything, this would definatly be an entry level space action/trading game...not a sim On the other hand, if this game had come out before or around the same time, i'd have been super impressed! Mind you, when this did originally come out, it was about 3 years after...so right now, we're looking at a 12 year old game as of this comment? Not bad but not great Things that didn't really ticle my fancy was the repetitive station missions that were just there as what seemed like a filler to get you some credits. Also, the trading, very easy to get a grasp of but so very basic ( like I said, entry level), then there is one ship...just one but upgradable...ok I know this isn't X3, it's not supposed to be complex but give us more than one ship. Look, it's ok....cringeworthy story and a bloody long slog that is kind of unescessary. 3/5 stars By the by GoG...Get your act together and somehow find a way to put Starlancer and Freelancer up!

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Posted on: May 26, 2013

Games: 0 Reviews: 1

Huge disappointment

I'd read some good things about this game, apparently it compared well to Freelancer, which I had quite liked, so when I was walking around Best Buy looking for something to scratch the itch and came across it, I picked it up. I was a little nervous about it only having one ship, but I figured the upgrade mechanic would allow for enough customizability to make up for it. Remember: good reviews, the game Freelancer should have been. Bollocks. Whoever those reviewers were, they evidently weren't fans of the greats, or they would have seen Darkstar One for the steaming pile of shit that it is. No open world. No free roaming. No putting the plot on hold and dicking around for a week or three. No trading. Shit, no in-game economy of any kind. No new ships, and no upgrades other than a few minor tweaks and special abilities. The plot stinks. It's linear and uninteresting and does nothing more than drive you from one system to the next. And the dialogue is cheesy and cliche and annoying. The combat... isn't terrible. Fights can be fun at first, but you'll get sick of them soon enough. Forget about complex missions with multiple objectives, fleet battles, or any other niceties. Hope you like dogfighting. Look, I could go on, but there's no point. Just don't buy this game. No matter what itch you're looking to scratch, there are at least 5 better games out there than this one.

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Posted on: December 25, 2024

Ninjamaster.123

Verified owner

Games: 280 Reviews: 1

Great, if it works for you

I had a lot of fun with this game back on the Xbox 360, and was really excited to see it here. This game has one ship you can upgrade in all sorts of different ways, and you can make progress in the story in just as many ways to. You can shoot asteroids to mine them, spec into becoming an interstellar freighter, hunt down pirates, become a pirate, automate away the fighting bit if you invest in turrets, go all-in on customizing your ship's capabilities for a certain playstyle... All sorts of things. Sadly, I am one of the people who gets a consistent crash when FTL jumping between systems, so I can only play the tutorial on this version. It's a known bug that's never been properly fixed, and seems to stem from a change in DirectX that happened at some point. Console versions still work, but weather even compatibility mode can help you with a PC release is a roll of the die.

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