Starsector, An Open-world Single-player Space-combat, Roleplaying, Exploration and Economic game

Starsector previously known as Starfarer is a game I have been following since early 2011 and I am glad to say it's still being fully worked on. Starsector is an open-world single-player space-combat, roleplaying, exploration and economic game. I would call it a "golden oldie" if it wasn't still in some form of alpha or beta.

The thing about Starsector is that they announced it far before games like FTL became popular on Linux, sadly it seems to never get attention anywhere that I've seen in recent years, so time to take a look at it. I had to dig back into my emails from 2011 to find my key for it, ouch. I feel spoilt by accessing a library in places like Desura, Humble & Steam.

Starsector Gameplay video on Linux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPeYFOAuUDc&feature=youtu.be

My thoughts
First thing to note is the multi-monitor support isn't great, it's the same issue Secrets of Raetikon has where if you go full-screen it captures both monitors and fails to return the second monitor back to its normal state. Annoying as hell, but windowed mode works just dandy. It also doesn't give me a correct resolution list, I've been told I need to add stuff into my "xorg" file, but considering I don't have this problem with other games, I would rather not.

Originally the game only had a set mission list you could play while the main game was fleshed-out, it's great to finally see the campaign available in the game now. The missions now seem to serve as some sort of ship-training/high score fest which is pretty cool.

To give you some perspective on Starsector, it's like playing FTL where you directly control your ship (and you can gain a fleet of your own). After battles you can salvage just like in FTL, but it's all a little bit more in-depth.
Unlike FTL though there doesn't really seem to be any kind of objective yet, I was left completely lost on where to go and what to do.
It just sort-of dumps you into space without telling you anything. I found myself wandering around fighting pirates and that's about all I could manage to figure out how to do. The combat is fun, although it's pretty damn hard even on Normal due to the sizes of enemy fleets even at the start compared to just you.

Drifter suffers the same thing, dumping you into a game without giving you a direction, for games like this I feel that just doesn't work.

The help in the campaign could really use a lot more of those pop-up information boxes that's for sure.

Here's a little hint for you, don't anger the pirates! I decided to take on a lone pirate ship in my first attempt to play it, soon after masses of pirate ships kept chasing me and eventually destroyed me. Damn.

Overall I think Starsector is a game well worth supporting and buying into for the future, it's still only $10 after all this time too! So, grab a copy now and tell me what you think. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.