Dark Star One Broken Alliance: Galaxy Hopping 360 Style

For many years, galaxy hopping video games have been very up close and personal. From Star Wars Force Unleashed to the brilliant Knights of the Old Republic series, the fate of the galaxy hung in the balance awaiting its fate based on the actions of a single character. While there were long trips across the galaxy, most were filled with either a witty cut scene or a chance to wander the ship speaking with a crew. In-flight space combat has always been the ugly duckling of the genre. For a boost in overwatch, you can click here. This service also lets you boost other games as well. You can link several other online games. You can get tips from other players and can set yourself in the gaming community.

Most modern space combat games have either been in cockpit simulators that were so challenging to control that the fun moved away faster than the first-star system, or third person combat where the ship’s lack of maneuverability made losing your bearings easier than losing sight of the enemy. Flying into the galaxy with fun, easy controls id the Dark Star One.

Dark Star One: Broken Alliance for the Xbox 360 is an enjoyable galaxy hopping game that plays using easy and intuitive first-person controls. The Dark Star One, your customizable starship, gallivants around space looking for valuable artifacts and saving solar systems from space pirates. Somewhere in the mix the fate of the galaxy, as usual, hangs in the balance of the Dark Star One’s missions.

The galaxy is gorgeous. The planets are rendered in such a way that the atmosphere hangs gently above lit cities. The gameplay is bright and colorful adding to the visual candy. Unfortunately, the visuals don’t hold up. The smaller space bodies are more polygonal with simple textures. The cut scenes are of much lower video quality than the actual gameplay. Not having compared this game to the PC version, it is hard to state this as a game design flaw or a media flaw. This may very well be another sign of the Xbox 360’s DVD drive limitations as heavy compression may have been needed to stuff the game onto the DVD media.

The graphics continuity is easy to overlook as the smile forms across your lips. Flying from one unique planet to the next blasting enemy vessels to dust is just the kind of fun that has been lacking in this genre for so long. Unfortunately, the new spacecraft smell quickly wears off.

The mission structure adds a level of tedium that isn’t seen outside of old school style RPGs. While the story missions are diverse and interesting with only an acceptable amount of difficulty and glitches, the side missions are so repetitive that withholding a sigh will be the most difficult part of completing one. Again, this is a somewhat acceptable practice in the RPG universe, but not an FPS.

The ship leveling system is a mismatch of game types as well. It is a tad more complicated than the average shooter since you can modify the same weapon to achieve different tasks instead of just buying a new big gun. On the other side of the spectrum, due to the gameplay, the level up system is too simple to feel like a true RPG. Overall, though, it is simple to use and won’t give a moment’s worry.

This game is easy to qualify as a perfect rental game. The time that the average player keeps a game rental will be enough to enjoy the game to its fullest without allowing the flaws to become a detriment.

If this game were a straight RPG, then it would be a cookie-cutter game that would not deserve a second look. The simple gameplay and tedious mission structure would send this game almost immediately to the bargain bin. That’s if this were an RPG. It’s not a role-playing game, though. This is a space flight shooting game. This changes things drastically due to a lack of competition. If you want to enjoy the simple pleasures of blasting around the galaxy, saving the day, while spending twenty-plus hours in front of the television screen then overlook all the flaws and give this game a try. If the simple pleasures of this type of game aren’t enough to hold your attention or you want a game that can fill the empty slot left behind by Knights of the Old Republic, keep candlelit and wait for a suitable game.