Please note that this first impressions review is based on the Alpha 2.0 version AND NOT version 2.1 which is currently being tested on the PTU servers. Also, keep in mind that this is an early-alpha version, and will likely be significantly different from the final release.
Those who have been following Star Citizen over the last month or two will know that Cloud Imperium Games have released Alpha 2.0 onto their Star Citizen servers. This follows their release of Alpha 1.3 back in August, which allowed players to take their first steps out of the hangars and catch a small glimpse at what’s in store for the game’s planetside cities. Alpha 2.0 dwarfs anything that has been on offer previously, as it provides an actual glimpse (albeit a small one) at what Star Citizen’s persistent universe mode could be like upon launch. This has been done by merging elements from all the different modules into one, allowing players to take to the stars with other players for the first time.
Granted it is still early days for Star Citizen, with elements such as the procedurally-generated planets, an expansive universe and player/ship roles not yet implemented, Alpha 2.0 has highlighted the technological capabilities currently in development by CIG and the fun which can be had with even a fraction of the feature set. Even though this might just be a testing ground, players are still able to navigate a few space stations and other landmarks (with or without guns drawn), fly through a sizable section of space in their pledged ship (or a loaner given many of the multicrew ships have yet to be made flyable), and complete a small number of fully-voiced quests. It may be buggy out in the verse at the moment, but its nevertheless a lot of fun!
The “Shared Hangar” Experience
Alpha 2.0’s “Universe” mode begins with you waking up in a room at Port Olisar, where the few dozen people on your randomly selected server also begin their journey. Emerging from your bed and heading down two flights of stairs, you are greeted by a large, beautifully crafted hall where others (whether running around in a hurry or walking around taking in the sights) go to spawn their ship on one of ten launch platforms surrounding the port. On one side of the room is a large pair of windows where you can admire the two docking platforms set aside for the larger multicrew ships (Constellation Andromeda and Retaliator Bomber), while there are eight other platforms spaced around the building through a network of doors and airlocks which are available exclusively for smaller ships. Within a minute or two of navigation, you can be sitting down in the captains chair, ready to navigate vast expanse of space surrounding you. That’s if you haven’t stopped to admire the interior of your ship – as the Retaliator Bomber in particular is something beautiful to wander around despite its lack of windows.
In the end, wandering around Port Olisar is comparable to being in a “Shared Hangar”, giving players the option to wander around both their own and other players ships on demand. I can see myself a couple of years from now traveling to somewhere like Port Olisar in the verse to recruit a group of players for a mission, as we wander around each others ships to determine which would best suit our objectives. That being said, Alpha 2.0 is not completely issue free – and does have some fairly substantial if not hilarious bugs which can randomly pop up. On more than one occasion I have seen Constellation’s spawned within one another, and multiple times have watched others enter my ship and fall straight through the floor. There is also an issue where it is fairly easy for other players to secretly enter and/or steal your ship – with access and flight being fair game once you interact with the ship just once. All that being said, you most probably won’t spend too much time in Port Olisar, but it is a nice starting-point for the Star Citizen universe.
“Arena Commander” on a Larger Scale w/ Quests
Although previously limited to a handful of single-person ships, it has been possible to fly ships within the limited confines of Arena Commander, the Star Citizen dogfighting module which was first released to backers during June 2014. While it is still possible to access Arena Commander through the game’s menus, “Universe Mode” provides access to a range of PvE and PvP opportunities. Once you are a certain distance away from any habitable region of space, you are free to shoot down any ships that head your way, using each ship’s different load-outs to your advantage. Multicrew ships are also able to use manned turrets should you have some friends or other players along for the ride, but this system is still in its easy days, and actually aiming a turret when someone else is in the pilots chair can be incredibly challenging. Should you be flying a ship solo however, going after other players or NPC’s can lead to some incredibly rewarding fights. Once the server capacity increases even more and it is more likely you will run into other players, I could see some really interesting dogfights breaking out.
As mentioned above, Alpha 2.0 comes with a small number of voiced quests, which will see you take advantage of the range of gameplay mechanics currently available to players. The first quest will see you activating one of the several Comm Arrays located around space, which can be traveled to via quantum drive (Currently available to all ships except the P-52 Merlin snub fighter). This simple mission will see you shooting down pirates, EVA’ing out of your ship and traversing a distance of space in just your spacesuit to manually activate the relay. Just this simple progression of events was surprisingly a lot of fun. Other quests will see you taking your ship out to an asteroid field where one wrong move can see you capsize, and exploring a dilapidated shipping hub. Want to redo a particular quest? As there is no persistence, you can just log out and restart your progress.
Foundations of the FPS System
Last year, Cloud Imperium Games were supposed to launch the alpha of their Star Marine first-person shooter module. However, some issues resulted in it being indefinately delayed, and in recent months the monthly reports from CIG have shifted their attention to other elements of the game. While there seemed to be some unique Star Citizen-esque twists to the FPS system, its delay wasn’t that big an issue to me provided they continued developing the systems and implemented it in what is known as Alpha 2.0. This is exactly what they did, albeit on a much smaller scale. The FPS system is not at the forefront of Alpha 2.0, and while you can pull out your pistol when not in a safe zone, the actual FPS mechanics are only practical in one particular area of the Universe.
There is an abandoned Covalex Shipping Hub, which you can fly to and land your ship on. Within it, there is a number of different weapons for you to nab and test out on other players who (willingly or unwittingly) end up in your line of sight. Unfortunately given how few people seem to hang out at this location, I didn’t have much of an opportunity to try the different weaponry out.
The Alpha Experience
I think it is very important to note that, as this is an alpha test, that you should not go into this game expecting a flawless experience. In fact, months later it is still possible to come across a wide range of bugs and issues. Complications range from being unable to access “Universe Mode” due to a server issue, to starting up in a mysterious section of space, to even being flung out of your ship mid-flight. There are even occasions where doors and interactable consoles just fail to work – trapping you in Port Olisar. This is of course if your client doesn’t crash first – the frequency of which has fortunately dropped significantly since PTU testing.
Some of the unique features of Star Citizen also suffers from issues, which I imagine will be fixed as development continues. For example, each ship with an interior you can move around comes with its own local physics grid. This means that, provided your gravity generator is functioning, you can walk around the interior of a ship without floating. However, the moment you take a step outside, you experience anti-gravity. Leaving a ship in this circumstance generally only results in a few graphical stutters, however re-entering a ship from space can be more of an issue. Some ships have enter/exit animations which make it easy to travel from ship to space and back again. But larger ships including the Constellation Andromeda and Retaliator Base don’t have pre-set animations, and this ultimately means you can spend several minutes being repeatedly flung out of an airlock before being able to finally entering the ship.
Final Words on Star Citizen’s Alpha 2.0
It is still early days for Star Citizen, and I am left wondering just how many months or years it will take for the full experience to be available to the (currently) 1.1 million Star Citizens who have pledged a whopping 104.6 million US dollars to see this game come to fruition. Bugs aside, Alpha 2.0 provides a promising first glimpse at what to expect over the coming years, and was overall an enjoyable experience. With the first chapter of Squadron 42 (Star Citizen’s story module) to be supposedly available by the end of this year, I look forward to seeing what the next twelve months hold for this ambitious space sim.
Accessing the Alpha
Access to the main Star Citizen alpha client is open to all backers who possess at least one game package. Plan to sign up for Star Citizen and take your first steps in the Verse? Enlist using the referral code STAR-JCS6-3943 and you will earn yourself an extra 5,000 UEC to spend in the Voyager Direct store. As you might already expect with a referral system, I receive a few perks as well.
Game Packages start at $45.00 (Aurora LN, Aurora MR, Mustang Alpha) and will grant you access to digital download copies of both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 when they are launched in the future (This may possibly change in the future, where both will only be purchasable separately). Depending on your budget and ship preference, packages can go right up to $325.00 plus.
Good article. =)
You’re the first proper journalist I’ve seen fall for the temptation to advertise their referral code though.
Thanks for the great article. So few people actually take the time to do their research before putting up inflammatory titles about the 100 million or the lack of release date. Keep up the good work.