Darkstar One

The graphics are about the only thing this game has going for it. The Storyline is hardly gripping (unlike the solo campaign in Freelancer, or the excellent arcs of Tachyon, Freespace and FS2, or even Wing Commander Prophecy and starlancer) The missions are almost all the same, you are stuck in the same ship with no possibility for a change) Ugh. Dont waste your money. There are better Space Combat sims out there.

Darkstar One was a great game when I first got into it. I liked the ability to upgrade my ship and choose how I wanted to interact with objects in space: did I want to be a pirate, a trader, a mercenary, a bounty hunter? Or some combination of them? The graphics are good. Some of the star systems are really breathtaking, and the spacecraft are well-imagined. The game play mechanics are solid and the interface intuitive. Ultimately, there is not enough variety in game play to make the game worthwhile. I explored probably more than two-thirds of the game map, and after that I was simply done. I had played the game enough to satisfy my desire for it. It's a shame that the game's mechanics eventually overshadowed the story line and everything else. I even got to the point where I wouldn't pay attention to a new star system when I arrived. I was so swallowed up in the monotony of the game that my favorite parts of it completely lacked all luster. Lots of good in Darkstar One, but not enough.

Fun till the end. If you want controller tips find my info in the forum.

The trading elements of X series. The combat of Tachyon: The Fringe. Unapologetic "borrowing" of Star Wars (you'll know it when you see it). Take the best parts of the best things, and make them not nearly as good! The big problem with the game is that the economic side gets straight boring. There's no variety to it, despite having multiple avenues of income. After a couple hours, it's just tedius. After around 20 hours, I used a Cheat Engine table to give max upgrades - even more than the game itself naturally gives. And to bypass the horribly bugged FLAK missions. That version of the game would get 3 stars, but alas.

Great space-sim action. The space combat is fun, graphically impressive and the best since Privateer and Freelancer. However, it's not much of a trading game since it is much easier to make money as a bounty hunter. The settings are also very generic and fast become boring (each system has a trade station and other similar ingredients). There is no real differing character, atmosphere or feel to the different systems (other than the space stations and ships for each race look different). It starts out being fun to play, but ends up being boring very quickly as missions and tasks tend to be fairly repetitive (except for the campaign missions). I gave up playing the game halfway when one of the campaign missions put me in a massive, maze-like factory (without an automap) and had me flying around aimlessly looking for the "yellow door". Such a shame as the developers had the space combat part down great - if only they had put more effort into the other aspects of the game.