Cloud Imperium Games has released the complete Star Citizen keynote from the annual fan event CitizenCon 2948, where Chris Roberts gives an overview of his ambitious open-world space project.
A game world filled with detail
In the video, the player character wakes up in his cabin and makes himself a coffee - to demonstrate the interaction system with objects. Afterwards, Lorville, the sprawling capital of the planet Hurston, is explored, while the developers talk about the simulation of non-player characters and the various shops, items and game systems.
Corridors steam from fans, AI-controlled figures run on the streets. An advertising poster of the new gunboat Hammerhead hangs on the walls. A pan shot into the sky shows the futuristic skyscrapers reminiscent of Ridley Scott's dark sci-fi film Blade Runner.
After arriving at the hangar the player flies to the crash site of a satellite with his spaceship. When the player's ship is attacked, another player comes to the rescue. Furthermore, an outpost is attacked, not only with the ship's weapons, but also with a vehicle and then on foot, until the object of desire is found.
When is enough enough?
While Star Citizen, financed to a large extent by crowdfunding, has been under development for many years, Chris Roberts and his team of developers have presented a love of detail not seen in many games before. An extensive amount of work has been put into animations, particle effects, and backdrops littered with pipes, cables, and air conditioning. However, the game world currently only consists of just one gas giant, a handful of space stations and three moons.
The inner nerd in us tells us, that it's awesome when every single hinge of an airlock moves, it's awesome when the thrusters of a spaceship turn realistically and it's unique when every spaceship flies itself differently depending on how thick the virtual atmosphere is. A prime example of the developers' attention to detail can be seen when the player uses a fully functional metro system, including several stations, station maps and waiting for a train. However one might ask, when is enough enough?
Although Chris Roberts' team dreams of a world as realistic as possible, the players, also dream of a game that is as complete as possible. Therefore, the game will have to deliver more playable content like tasks, trading, bounties, mining, scrap collecting, passenger transport, research, agriculture and smuggling. Which much of is still missing.
Furthermore, Cloud Imperium Games once again hasn't mentioned a release date. If you can't wait for the next Citizencon, here are some awesome games set in space you might want to enjoy in the meantime:
