Into the Stars – Preview (PC)
Developed by Fugitive Games, Into the Stars is a first person space exploration game where the player is the captain of a spaceship which is carrying the last of the human race. The majority of humanity has been wiped out by an alien race called the Skorn and your goal is to navigate the galaxy and transport the remaining 10,000 people to a new home world whilst collecting resources from other planets and battling enemy ships throughout your voyage. It’s currently in Early Access, so we felt a preview would be more apt than a review.
Upon starting a new game, a captain needs to be chosen. This captain can be from one of four backgrounds with each one offering its own advantage, for example, if an entrepreneurial captain is chosen the ship will be run more efficiently whilst a captain with a military background will make combat slightly easier. The game also allows for some personal customisation with various male and female avatars to choose from and the ability to change the names of the captain and the crew members.
Next comes the structure of the ship itself with life support systems, exploration units and weapons to choose from. There are a few options for each area and a choice must be made whilst taking into consideration budget and performance. Now, whilst it is all well and good giving the player free reign to choose the components of their own ship, it is important to consider that most people will not have played this before and therefore will find it difficult understanding what is going to be of the most benefit during gameplay. The same goes for the resource allocation. This is where you can decide how much Hydrogen, CO2, etc. you are going to need for your vessel to run smoothly, but it is very difficult to determine how much of each resource you are going to need when you really have little to no clue how quickly each one will deplete during the voyage.
My first impression of this game was that it was going to be too overly complicated to be able to enjoy, and at first, I thought I was right. There is no offer of a tutorial to give you the chance to get to grips with the controls, combat or resource regulation. You’re basically thrown in at the deep end without any armbands… However, after some time fiddling around and getting to know the system better I found that the game is incredibly engaging. The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” came to mind after a short while. Yes, I know it is cliché! But the game really impressed me overall. It is intelligent and interesting and although I would have preferred some kind of introduction into the mechanics of the game it is true that practice makes perfect. I eventually got the hang of how to manage my resources properly, ensuring that my ship didn’t run out of fuel and that my cargo had enough oxygen! And how to allocate my crew to the different situations that arose upon the vessel.
One of my favourite features of the game is the way that you are asked to collect resources from planets that you visit. First you have to send a mining rig to the surface of the planet and if the landing is successful you are then to mine the resources and collect them for your ship. The way to do this is through a sort of mini-game(ish) system where you have control of the mining drill and have to collect resources by passing through element squares and dodging the red squares. I am not sure why I found this so much fun… Simple minds I suppose!
The visuals of the game are breath taking. It is obvious that there has been a lot of time and effort put in to the graphics and the attention to detail is astounding. For example, I didn’t notice at first, but when you play in the captain’s view there is a small holographic 3D map which shows nearby planets, the cockpit of the ship has all the thingy-me-bobs and doo-das that you would expect a high tech transporter spaceship to have and the exterior of the craft is just as detailed.
The vast landscape of the map is equally as impressive, if not more so. The sight of it makes you want to spend your time simply journeying around and exploring the planets whilst watching the vessel glide through the galaxy, but of course, there are the Skorn to keep an eye out for.
Overall I would currently rate this game a solid 7/10, but would definitely up the score if a tutorial or something similar was introduced.