The Mittani Review: Star Conflict
If you’re on this website, odds are you have a softspot for flying a spaceship. Chances are also pretty good that you like blowing up other spaceships while flying a spaceship. Star Conflict, a game which has been in open beta for several months, is our staff’s latest obsession. This space sim, who developer Star Gem Inc. bills it as “MMO SPACE ACTION”, is free-to-play, easy-to-play, and shows surprising polish and sophistication for a game which, until its recent massive success on Steam, has remained all but off the radar of the gaming public.
OVERVIEW
This game is widely described as “World of Tanks in space": even a casual player of WoT will quickly notice that Star Conflict shares the same engine and many trappings of gameplay and progression. You pilot a spaceship of one of various tiers (four of which are available so far), in either interceptor, fighter or frigate sizes. The game works with a lobby-based matchmaking system: you select you ship, fit it out, and get randomly placed into a random 8v8 gametype with ships of the same tier.
The action is swift and violent. In the most-played gamemode, “Arcade”, players respawn on a thirty-second timer; the less used and therefore ironically named "Regular" mode allows you to have one spawn per ship hull (you begin with three slots). The physics are vaguely realistic with an ability to move laterally with ease, though the overall effect is still that of flying through an atmosphere rather than a vacuum. This is less of a negative than it sounds, as the proliferation of asteroids and the occasional metal structures in maps creates a dynamic of constant motion.
The game is in open beta, as I mentioned, but the depth of character and ship development is already significant and is posed to grow steadily with the game. Your character signs a contract with a sub-faction of one of the game’s three major factions and simultaneously earns “synergy XP” which improves his effectiveness with that particular ship, faction reputation which unlocks ships and stat-boosting implants, and sub-faction rep which unlocks better weapons and modules to equip on your ships. There are roughly five dozen ships in-game at the moment spread across three classes and four tiers, with additional tiers and classes to be added over time. Development speed appears fairly quick, according to the forums, with content and balance updates often appearing more than once a month.
THE POSITIVE
As I mentioned, the game is easy to learn, but capable of significant depth. You can be in a fight and blowing up spaceships within a minute of logging into the client, and the PvP is intense and challenging.
The gameplay and graphics are polished and wonderful: I’ve encountered no glitches, exploits or obviously overpowered ships/builds over thirty or so rounds. Each class of ship feels significantly different, and the different races’ ships have significant variation. The largest class currently in game, the frigate, feels powerful and heavy without feeling too bulky -- they’re best used for sniping or placing a tough nugget on an objective. The medium size, fighters, feel sturdy but agile -- perfect for brawling. The smallest, interceptors, blaze across the map and are great for quick stinging damage or playing the objective, though of course they crumble quickly if they’re caught in the open.
You can currently purchase modules, ships, and boosters, but none of them appear to unbalance the game. For instance, the so-called “premium” modules share identical statistics to the advanced modules you unlock by gaining reputation with the corresponding sub-faction. In short, “pay-to-win” does not appear to be an issue. The deals available on Steam are still appealing, regardless, and the developers behind Star Conflict appears healthy financially (if a little haphazard organization-wise) and devoted to continuing development.
THE NEGATIVE
Star Conflict shares some of the flaws of its sister game, WoT. A large section of the playerbase is simply impatient/suicidal, ignorant of objectives or otherwise uninterested in the team’s success, and long respawn times mean you will find yourself occassionalytrying to win the round single-handedly,
Despite the polish of the gameplay, the game’s tutorial and interface are still fairly haphazard. Much of the game has to be learned through trial-and-error -- one of the current help screens shows you how to use a screen for a system which no longer exists and has been competely superseded by another. As I mentioned, though, this issue is largely remedied by the remarkably intuitive, simple core gameplay.
CONCLUSION
Star Conflict is a game which will certainly appeal to a large cross-section of gamers. It is one of the first real competitive entries in the “space sim” genre in years, and is engrossing, action-packed, and deep. The game will easily absorb hours of your free time. For a game still two major builds from 1.0 (currently, the game is .7), there’s a lot of polish and every reason to believe this already great game will only improve.
