PixlBit

There has been a pretty severe drought in the console world for the space combat simulator game, something Gaming Minds Studios remedies nicely with Dark Star One: Broken Alliance. This enjoyable and easily accessible game provides hours of quirky fun, allowing players to fly through an insanely large galaxy, shooting pirates, escorting ships, and making mercantile trades. The story lacks depth and the later hours tend to drag, but the precise controls and satisfaction as you become a force in the cosmos far outweighs that.

Like the PC version that was released in 2006, this “remastered” version puts you in the shoes of protagonist Kayron Jarvis, the son of a famous inventor who died under mysterious circumstances. After his death you receive the appropriately titled Dark Star One, a ship made from alien technology with the potential to be the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, and sent out on a quest to find the answers behind why your father died. While the story begins with the common revenge scenario it does interject enough twists and political machinations to keep you sufficiently interested in following along, though the cutscenes and voice acting in no way encourage you to do so.

One of the interesting aspects of Dark Star One is that rather than having you advance by acquiring new ships from various shops, you keep the same one you are given at the beginning of the game. A light role-playing system is introduced where you acquire alien artifacts scattered throughout the galaxy which eventually allow you to “grow” your semi-organic ship, letting you choose which aspect of it you want to focus on, such as maneuverability, hull damage capacity or weapon loads. In addition to how you choose to focus your ship, you also gain the use of a rechargeable plasma ability that can do things like release an EMP blast to disable other ships or make your own ship invulnerable.

Dark Star One is easy to pick up and play from the very beginning because of the very intuitive controls and HUD system that allows you to quickly pick targets, switch weapons, and maneuver throughout space. You fire all your energy weapons with the right trigger, while any turrets you have auto-target and fire independently of your actions. There are the occasional annoyances when you need to access abilities that are not mapped to a single button and you are forced to open a sub-menu, but thankfully the designers took this into account and anytime you do need to open a menu, the game goes in a slow-motion mode to allow you to make your selection with little risk.

The difficulty of the game is initially non-existent but ramps up as you enter new galaxies in a way that makes you keep an eye on your shields and fear when you hear the missile lock tone. The way a battle flows is relatively predictable with your foes appearing several kilometers out, giving you time to face them as several successive waves appear until you face their leader in an intense dog fight. Even with this routine, there is still the thrill of zipping around, dodging missiles and other ships as you try to take down your foes.

Unfortunately, over time this can lead to a sense of monotony, especially if you focus on doing the side missions offered at the various waystations. These side missions are essentially a copy-and-paste formula that will have you flying towards a specific section of the map just because you know that’s where the enemy will spawn from. You really can’t avoid these side missions either as you will need the money they offer to keep your ship up-to-date with new weaponry and/or shields.

The central story missions do offer refuge from the boredom by offering an interesting mix of objectives, like attacking a cruiser with a wingman or repairing a satellite network. One of the more enjoyable missions has you entering a planet’s atmosphere and zooming through a canyon system taking out turrets and dodging missiles.

While the game definitely has some quirks to it, like forced side missions, and occasional targeting issues, these can be easily overlooked to give you around 30 solid hours of gameplay.