Decent but not Freespace...geddit? ok bad pun.
It's been 7 years since Freespace 2, and since then nothing has been able to top it, unfortunatly, nothing has even tried (apart from maybe the Rogue Squadren series, but that don't count). Big developers/publishers often 'play it safe' with Space Sims, and it's that reason why they have turned to the generic. The basic formula for a Space Sim is to have an expansive universe with no real variety in it where you can do what you want, trade, fight, mine whatever (I know, yaaawn). GTA in spaced essentially. Eve online is quite good, infact probably the best if it wasn't for the fact you can't directly control your ship, which is why I don't label it with other games like it (X, Freelancer e.t.c).
Anyway I'm drifting off point.
HERE'S WHAT DEVELOPERS SHOULD DO:
Stop bloody making GTA in space games, I don't really care about trading, econonmy, mining and bad voice acting. Let's think of the whole reason why we all still go back to Space Sims every now and then...Starwars. Ever since you first saw the attack on the death star you thought 'wow, I wanna do that'
Space Sims should be about the dogfighting, the feeling of actually controlling a ship, the cockpit flashing arround you and MASSIVE capitol ships and space stations which you and your mates take down in your fighters. You can have all that and still maintain a high level of intelligence and deepness. Something else I'm annoyed with, with the current batch of Elite wannbies.
I'd love to see the return of the liniar Space Sim, Freelspace 3 would be too much to hope for, but imagine a game the quality of Half Life 2, with the same production values and narative and brilliant design, in space. I want to be able to take on ships bigger than planets where I can weave in and out of it, taking down it's vitals. LIke Shadow of the Collosuss but with no gravity and lazers....AWESOME. Give it to me!
Anyway, Darkstar One:
If you liked Freelancer you should like this, here you have the same old stuff although simplified, which I apreciate (let's face it playing X is like watching paint dry, then chip off a bit and get scraped off by a redecorating team and then thrown in the bin).
The best aspect in this game is the fact that the dogfighting is brilliant fun, it almost feels like Freespace, it would have been nice to have some bigger ships but I suppose bigger isn't always better.
As usual the plot is the same old jazz and the voice acting makes me want to get my dog into voice acting because even he'd sound better, but this game is quite addictive, and once you get into it you start to like the universe and the story is good enough to leave you wanting to find out the resolve.
Personally I find the graphics to be too cartoony. X3 has hands down the best graphics for this genre, I wish this game had some of the cold beauty of X but it dosn't, it can be pretty at times though.
Essentially, it's the same old crap, but that crap is quite good and I did really enjoy playing this game but unfortunatly it just made me realise what is lacking in this genre of PC gaming. I want a game that has the assults of Starwars, the mechanics of Freespace 2 and some crazy 2001 style sci-fi sh*t thrown in too, I mean, you're in space, it's not going to be normal. A lot of these games are more normal than sunday afternoon TV, I wanna see some mad stuff, come on guys, you can do it!