Star Citizen is an ambitious project to say the least. Last year the game earned the Guinness World Record for the most crowdfunded project in history, and added a first-person shooter module. Of course, something this massive in scope is going to take a while to build. Worry not, as it has been re-imagined in the form of a 2D retro shooter.
Hyper Vanguard Force IV is the name of the 2D shooter, which is free to play and is based on Star Citizen’s story and ship designs. The game was developed by Dave Richards and Christine Marsh, who designed it based on official Star Citizen concept art.
The game itself is very simple to play, and is based on classic 2D shooters like Galaga. Your ship is controlled with the mouse: simply move it in order to move the ship and click the left mouse button to fire. It makes for simple, mindless fun and — like the best 2D shooters — is far more addictive than it really has any right to be.
The look is classic arcade game, right down to the design of the fake arcade cabinet. The game was very nicely integrated into the Roberts Space Industries website by Turbulent, one of the developers working on Star Citizen.
Meanwhile, Star Citizen development continues. Funding for the game currently stands at over $80 million, with over 890,000 people backing the game. So far only the Hangar and Arena Commander modules have been completed, but Star Citizen mastermind Chris Roberts recently posted an update on the upcoming first-person shooter module.
Star Marine, as the module will be titled, will be the next major Star Citizen release. Unlike the Arena Commander module, Star Marine will have much more functionality baked in when it launches, including “an entire sci-fi sports game with zero-G movement” alongside the traditional FPS action.
To play Hyper Vanguard Force IV yourself, head over to the game’s website.
