So I'm playing Dark Star One - bought it on a whim - trying to relive the glory days of the space combat trading simulation. And while it's ok, it's just not great. Not like Priv was.
I don't understand how a fifteen year old game that can't offer anything better than two-dimensional sprites throughout the entire game can be so freakin' awsome and have more depth in its game play than all of the full on 3-D space combat sims put together since its release.
Dark Star One and it's not far removed brother Freelancer just seem so flat and two dimensional to me. I've been reflecting on this as I play and I've come to the conclusion that it's because you never really get to see your ship. I just loved in Privateer that first time you upgraded from your Tarsus and you went into the equipment dealer and there was your brand new Centurion sitting there. And when you bought Torpedo launchers - bingo! - they showed up mounted just under your wings right up next to the body. And when you landed or took off - there was your ship sitting there on the landing pad.
Freelancer sort of did this but I found the whole "Ship Hovering On Discs of Light" thing to be very annoying. It made it more like your ship was being displayed in some futuristic museum instead of it being serviced on a space dock. Why not just have landing gear like everybody else? And the menuing systems in Dark Star and the X series - makes your whole world seem relegated to interfacing it through a computer. Not to mention the inability to land on planets. At least Freelancer gave you that.
And finally, in Privateer you could actually look around the inside of your ship. For me that just pumped the immersion factor right up to the max - especially in the Orion when you could look left and see the co-pilot's console and look back and see the door into the cabin.
Give me some frame work. When I look left or right, I want to see a window sill at least - and a wing with a weapon mounted on it or something. Not just empty space flying by like I'm sitting at a computer playing a video game.
Freelancer, Dark Star One, and X have amazing graphics - but the interaction with the world is so flat and two-dimensional. I don't feel like a mercenary star pilot when I play them - I feel like a guy playing a video game with some cool eye candy. :|
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