StarCrawlers’ gameworld feels fully realized, having quite the lived-in vibe about it. I even liked the game’s given professions; from traditional soldier types to rogues, all the way to void users. I highly enjoyed exploring the skill trees. Characters also get a unique talent during exploration. I.E., the Smuggler can appraise gems giving you more credits, the Engineer can bust open broken doors, bypassing a go-around.
The humor in this game works. There are many that try to give the player a laugh, but come off as pretentious or annoying. Even the semi-meta nature of some jokes don’t go overboard. The game also pays homage to geek culture throughout, such as a silouette of Fett or Doctor Who reference in dialogue.
I’m not usually one to be graphics focused, but this game has a going-inside-a-painting vibe. I never expected to pause in awe and just stare at a scene, like an internal cave waterfall. I also appreciate the quality of life settings, which sometimes breaks a game for me without them.
If I had to pick a negative, it’s that the Faction Alignment can be unforgiving. I’d love to go in there, quest a bunch for corporate jerks, get the faction-unique reward, and switch allegiance against them. And you can do that, but it’s punishing, and your Faction Allignment list can get messy. Overall though, I appreciated this aspect.
I could go on with more positives, such as the fantastic replayabity, or that it’s the first game I’ve experienced where you absolutely can *not* get stupid rich 1/3 of the way in, or that my nephews and I have literally played “live action” StarCrawlers.
So the tl;dr is: Buy this game, you won’t be disappointed.
PS: When I joined GoG, it was on sale; so I waited until it was full price. That’s how much I love this game. Maybe a part of me was hoping Juggernaut was gearing up for a sequel; a single player this time even- and then StarCrawlers: Chimera came out. I’m quite happy about it.
