A fine upstanding citizen of the galaxy
Star Citizen is a sci-fi space simulator that is also arguably the most successful example of crowd funding/early access in the video game industry. It made about $2 million on kickstarter, and $50 million as a result of its creator's (Chris Roberts) own efforts. It is an incredibly ambitious project that has many gamers drooling over it.
I downloaded the 22 gig demo to see what the hype was about.
Feet take up a lot of space apparently
The demo drops you in a large hanger to explore. The first thing you see is a small fighter at the far end of the hanger. There isn't much to do in the hanger other than watch textures pop in and out (it is early alpha). Getting into the ship brings up a menu to choose a couple of maps and modes to fly around in.
So many buttons!
The game looks amazing, even on low settings. I just sat there in each map in awe at the detail around me. Everything from the cockpit of the ship I was in, to the asteroids that I killed myself on was gorgeous. If it wasn't clear though that this game was resource heavy from the size of the download, the fact that I couldn't record anything above 20 FPS on low settings shows that they have a way to go in the optimization department. I couldn't even get it to work with open broadcaster, which usually takes less resources than fraps.
I got shot by a spec!
After a few hours of playing though I can say I am overwhelmed. There wasn't much to the demo, but what gameplay was there was very well put together. The controls were responsive, and insanely customizable. The maps were very detailed, the dog fighting was really challenging. All this taken together tells me that if they do even half of what they are planning Star Citizen will be a huge game. The sheer potential of what there will be to do struck me, and I don't want to over hype it for myself. I don't want my expectations to be too high. I had to stop playing because I was getting too excited (I'm weird, I know).
I will be following Star Citizen as it goes through its long development, but I will do my best to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground in relation to my expectations. I want this game to succeed and be what so many gamers want it to be, but I know what disappointment feels like, and I don't like it.
If you have something amazing you did in gaming let me know. Share it in the comments below, or email it to obediahgenocide@gmail.com
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