Stunning

The visuals of DSO are truly stunning. Everything from the twinkle of a distant star to the plasma trail from your enemies engines as you tear them apart, everything looks smooth and rich. The lighting creates an authentic sci-fi feel to even the most simple of tasks and the ships themselves are truly unreal. The emphasis was clearly put on the ships and the space environment, which makes sense considering that 90% of the game takes place in the 'Void'.

Unfortunately, there were some areas which seem to have had a corner cut. Space Stations are as common as a pirate thug, and you will spend a lot of time jumping from station to station selling goods or filling contracts. The indoor station environment is the bare minimum for functionality. You are given a view of the main gallery deck with dozens of people, and not a single one to interact with. In a vain attempt to add life to the station, these station inhabitants will cycle through an endless loop on non intelligent animations which usually end up with them adversely affecting the immersion they may have been intended for. Even though your main purpose on the station is to buy, sell, and pick missions, interaction with the inhabitants of the station is sorely missed and would have added an extra depth this title lacks.

Sound? Sound...

Sound, musical scoring and voice-over work are all just as important to a title as the bells and whistles of the visual environment. The space ship may look so real you can touch it, but without the gentle hum of electronics or the sound of laser blasts ripping through your hull, it means nothing. Thankfully, the audio is very well done. Musical scoring is dramatic and dynamic to the action on your screen and acts as an indicator of what is taking place around you, yet subtle enough not to distract you from the action at hand. The voice-over work provided is very well done in most cases. Primary characters have excellent voice work which successfully portraits the characters' emotion and personality. Minor characters on the other hand, are another story.

It is said that in space, no one can hear you scream. Then why in the world is the ambient sound filled with nonsensical radio chatter of every vessel in the sector'?! During a fire fight, instead of hearing a taunt or jeer from the pirate you are chasing down, you get a hit by hit damage report and eventually him screaming in your ear as you blast him to bits. This on a rare occasion would have been fine, but expect to hear the death cry of every single combatant you face.

Replay value

Climbing behind the controls of the Dark Star One will bring back a sense of nostalgia for those who are familiar with Freelancer and its flight engine. The game uses the Mouse Drag control for basic flight, joysticks are supported however. Thrust, rolling and lateral sliding is all keyboard controlled and is quite easy to master.

The most disappointing aspect of this title is the complete lack of multiplayer support. In a world where multiplayer is a household word and stands for the unification of gamers throughout the world, there is no valid reason why it should not have been included. If an older title such as Freelancer still has multiplayer servers live and populated after all these years, why would Dark Star One not benefit of this? Simply put, to a gamer, this is a major and almost unforgivable flaw.

On the upside however, Dark Star One does provide the vastness of free play on top of its well written storyline. As long as you don't mind constantly doing similar missions over and over again. You can only collect so many bounties before it becomes repetitive. Unfortunately, the very core of the title, the Dark Star One itself doesn't help much either. Is it a highly advanced craft? Yup, and it is the only ship you will have through the entire game. Yes you can customize it and 'evolve' it as you see fit as you gain levels, however, there are only so many combinations of 'successful' ship designs. This of course, does solely depend of the players tastes and results and opinion will vary greatly.

Shining Star?

In closing, despite the drawbacks pointed out, Dark Star One is a strong title on its own merits. Where it lacks in replay, it makes up for in an enjoyable and well written story and script. The action is fast and never far off. The free play mode does hold a great deal of appeal for those who miss the good old days of Freelancer and enjoy playing the bad guy once and a while, but in the end, something is still missing. It is most definitely good for a play-through and even some free play time after the storyline is complete.