Wishes do come true. While developments for Star Citizen have been slow in coming, developer Cloud Imperium Games sometimes delivers the goods. In the game’s most recent update, it went all the way to Alpha 2.0, adding a healthy dose of new features. Included are glimpses of the game’s persistent universe. You can also travel between multiple on-planet locations and take a wild jump into nothingness on a space walk (good thing your suit is equipped with mini-thrusters to keep you from disappearing). If you get the urge to pull the trigger, you can now partake in the game’s first-person shooter (FPS) mode in either a single-player or multi-player mode. As you might recall, the developer put the FPS module on indefinite hold this summer, so this update should calm the nerves of those who desperately craved multiplayer mayhem.
Star Citizen offers its backers a bumpy ride before arriving at its destination. Backers are concerned about the budget and feature set promised by Chris Roberts, CEO and co-founder of Cloud Imperium Games. While the team has kept an ongoing dialogue with the community via its own forum and social media, some people say that the developer has been haphazard with its adding of new content. Any future stretch goals have been “redacted”, as written on the game’s website. With that said, the game has now collected over a whopping $100 million from over 1,000,000 backers.
It also seems like the game has recovered from the sudden drop in new funding this summer. While funding was increased by about a million dollars between June and July, October through November showed improvement, reaching more than $5.3 million.
With previous updates in mind, as well as the latest, the game now includes a bunch of different objectives and things to interact with. Mission categories include: Research, Exploration, and Comm Array. There are even random dogfights, something that should keep the emptiness of space a little less tedious. Several players can fly around together inside the same ship, while taking handling various responsibilities. In Arena Commander mode, players can team up or play alone in a flight-simulation mode to either relax or fill enemy scum with space bullets.
We’re looking forward to the day we get to sit in our virtually realized cockpit and fly through the nooks and crannies of some unsuspecting urban landscape.
