It must be said that these were still the beta servers, and hopefully connectivity to the general servers will be much more consistent. It’s certainly enjoyable, though it loses some of the magic of the campaign, but with the ability to gain XP, level up, and unlock new craft, it’s sure to find plenty of fans looking for a break from smuggling goods.Īs yet, it still isn’t a flawless experience, with some long loading times and a few problems connecting to the servers from the loading screen. Various standard game types appear, including capture the flag, and it’s really the antithesis of the main game, being fast, immediate and momentary. Rather than being stuck in your campaign vessel, you’re granted a more worthy ship with the simple aim to take the other players out. The CQC Championship – standing for Close Quarters Combat – on the other hand, drops you directly into either team or solo combat with multiple adversaries. Given the vastness of space, it’s very rare to come across other players, especially in the pre-release servers, but there didn’t seem to be any problems with connectivity when I did come across others. Console players do however have exactly the same access to narrative, economy, diplomacy and galactic power states, and can affect these in the same way those on other platforms can.
The game offers a fully interactive and interconnected multiplayer landscape, though PC and Mac players won’t directly compete with those on Xbox One.
The toughest part of combat, and indeed navigation, was successfully using the 3D radar to locate my target, though I always managed one way or another. However, as someone who loves the space combat of games like Starlancer, I was hugely gratified to find that once I’d acclimatised to the controls I could spin, veer and juke to my heart’s content whilst using an array of different weaponry. The combat is tense, involving stuff, with the constraints of your early craft ensuring you can’t very seriously consider engaging anybody to start off with. Any game that has a location marker that genuinely tells you that at your current speed it will take you nine days to arrive is looking to immerse you in its world. There is no hand-holding here, and you have to approach the game as if it were real, from the pre-flight checks at the space dock to plotting your journey, to playing the markets and choosing the right missions for your capabilities.
It’s safe to say that the expanse of space is not a journey to be taken lightly, and I spent the first fifteen minutes of my very first mission trying to reach another base that was well beyond the range of my small spacecraft. Found at each dock’s bulletin board there are a range of available tasks which will take you out or the safety of the starport into the dark unknown. Your first tentative steps into the world are shaped by the missions you accept. It even does a good job of creating the absolute stillness and solitude of space, with the hum of your engines and the tones of your computer system often the only sounds. The soundscape the game creates meanwhile is phenomenal, at times recalling the space opera of Star Trek, at others the electronic themes of Mass Effect. There can be noticeable screen tearing if you move too fast, particularly whilst in first person within you ship. There can be times where it feels like you’re simply chasing an icon in the vastness of space, but I can’t help but think this just makes it a more realistic experience.Īs well as being attractive the game runs relatively well, though there are elements of the HUD and options system which aren’t completely seamless, with entries to the galactic map or into hyperspace prompting some slowdown. It genuinely looks and feels like you’re piloting a ship in space, with vast cube-like starports quietly spinning in the darkness. The visuals are sharp and clear on the Xbox One, and the blue neon flashes accenting your ship HUD’s orange glow create an authentic sense of place. This brings you into first-person mode within your ship, at which point you can just turn to look at the system you want to use to bring it up. Given a little time it’s actually quite intuitive, but there’s another simpler way to access your ship’s systems which is achieved by clicking in the R3 button. The array of controls, menus and sub-menus can be overwhelming at first, with all of the main buttons assigned a function and extra inputs created by holding down a face button and combining it with the D-pad. Docking was incredibly tough too, and I failed spectacularly on my first attempt, but after taking a breather and trying again I was able to successfully land my ship, without the starport turning its lasers on me! Even the training is unforgiving, and I had to retry a couple of the missions as I got used to the technical requirements and involving combat.