I play SC from time to time when they have free trials. Right now they have one lasting until Sept 23rd with multiple ships unlocked.
The last time I played was about 8-12 months ago. It was when they had 4 locations - the first one a deceptive planet area with lots of shops and computer consoles, but when you went to actually try and find your ship you realise that's a different scenario. The 2nd one is the main MMO scenario where you start on a space station with lots of landing pads and some empty planets where you can test the interstellar and planetary re-entry movement mechanics. Then there's the Star Marine team vs team zero-G FPS combat, and the Arena which is your best bet for actual ship combat in this space game.
In the current build they've integrated the 3D cities we saw in past demos with the elaborate subway systems, as well as a quest system and a bunch of other stuff I didn't get to touch on.
As with older versions you spawn lying down on a bed with the camera in an awkward position and are prompted to press 'Y' to stand up. It's reminiscent of this old clunky space game I used to play called Parkan II. The game still has that UE3-style streaming issue where every texture is at its lowest LOD and streams in one by one (I have a VR-ready desktop for reference). This first time I miss the exit sign and take some stairs down a floor, as the view out the window shows me high up and that's cued my mind to think down = where the map hub will be. A helpful pop-up tells me I can do a stealth melee kill using the middle mouse button. I manage to correct my error and find an elevator.
Now, with a simulation-level or game or any game with complex systems (Falcon BMS, Arma, etc) it's accepted that there's going to be a learning curve just getting to grips with whatever form their required interaction system takes. In this case you have to hold down 'F' to make holographic menus appear over control surfaces and use mouse click, as well as an elaborate character menu system called Mobiglass, and currently there is no tutorial.
Activating the elevator's menu I see a list of floor numbers and a ground floor. I've no idea what sort of building this is. If there was a landing pad, I'd expect a roof option, so I take a stab at the ground floor. This deposits me in a hub area reminiscent of the previous build's planetside shopping mall. There are a whole bunch of interactive kiosks but they all seem to be QoL time-savers for established players so I end up skipping them. Outside there's a big public display broadcasting low-res graph tracks of the current temperature, pressure, and air quality that I have a sneaking suspicion is needlessly real-time. Still no idea where or who I am I see a sign for the metro line to the Spaceport, even though for all I know maybe you have to buy ships from a dealer and transfer them from your garage to the spaceport in order to fly them. Following the signs I go through a security gate, down some stairs and to the platform to wait for a subway. It arrives, mind the gap announcements play, and a countdown reminds passengers how long they have left until the doors closed. This whole sequence triggers a bunch of associative memories of my morning commute (in a positive way). The subway departs, travelling through a sequence of lit external areas and unlit sidings before transitioning to an open-air track that mimics exactly the sort of journey I see in real life. I look at the 3D cityscape out the window, mentally holding onto the interior subway car pole before I arrive at the spaceport.
Again, I've no idea where I am, so I find a "You are here" map and find the spaceport entrance. There are a row of kiosks with marked out queuing and standing areas like banks of ATMs. I activate the menu and it shows me a list of about 15 ships I apparently own. There are no images and the descriptions don't extend to more than 2 words, so I pick "stealth bomber". The kiosk tells me it's at Hangar 9 and thanks me for my custom. Following more signs to the elevators I hit number 9 and exit onto the platform where my ship is.
It's for this period that I can see "the vision". I know dev work has been weighted in favour of the introductory areas and systems and that it's blind luck I haven't butted up against any walls but this must be the version of Star Citizen that's in Chris Roberts' head. Organically exploring this fully-realised lived-in universe with seamless interaction.
The stealth bomber is pretty as hell and it's at this point I run into something that's going to be an issue for every single ship I try: finding the door. This consists of holding down 'F' and running the mouse over every likely surface in hopes of an option popping up. I start up the power and engines and lift-off. My next problem is finding the exit. The hangar is completely enclosed. One wall is marked with red lights and one with green so I try inching towards the green but it seems like they might be a port/starboard signifier. One of the walls bows out a bit like a hatch but I don't see any tracks or servos that indicate it can move. I alt-tab out and google a solution. Apparently it's F11 (Communications) -> Friends channel (I don't have any users added as friends) -> Air Traffic Control (but clicking them won't do anything, despite the fact a button highlight activates, you have to click a small square inside the bottom-right of the button instead) and they give me clearance to leave and open the roof. In this time I have clipped one of the walls with a wing and broken it off.
No matter. I'm outside getting to grips with the flight model. Looking at myself in the external view I suddenly seem to bounce off an invisible cushioned wall. The HUD is only visible in first person mode and it's telling me autopilot has been overridden because I'm straying too far from my regulated zone. Looking round there are a bunch of holographic gates highlighting my orbital egress route. I finally get the ship under control and point it in the right direction.
I feel the need to point out just how fucking gorgeous these ships are. Any one of them would serve as the hero ship you'd build an entire campaign around.
It's hard to see all of them in that gif, but those are RCS thrusters using what I'm fairly certain is a genuine A* algorithm to find the objectively accurate position they should face and level of thrust to output, even though they're irregularly sized and shaped to preserve the silhouette of the hull.
I figure I should try and find something to do and I remember seeing the Contracts menu when I was cycling through Mobiglass, so I choose an "Investigation" mission for some mystery and adventure and the objective marker changes to "Go to Hurston Cave".
Attempt 1
The Hurston Cave waypoint is 300km away on the same planet and I'm stuck at 150m/s, meaning it'll be half an hour to reach it. There's an option to power up my jump drive but I'm unsure how to use it. I alt-tab out and google some answers. Apparently there should be a bunch of sub-orbital green waypoints I can lock onto to quickly jump round the planet, buuuuuuuuuuuut I'm not finding any. The navigation section of the Mobiglass menu is also empty. In the end I pick what looks like the closet waypoint half a million klicks away and jump to there. I then 180 and try to lock onto the somewhere anywhere near the caves. Still nothing. I manage to find a reasonable waypoint but it deposits me 200km away. I get frustrated, pick a bounty hunter mission that has a waypoint in space. I jump to it and find an asteroid field. Finally coming to 0m distance from the waypoint, nothing happens. I quit the game.
Attempt 2
I try again. This time it's night. I pick the same mission, exit my apartment building, go through the security gate, down the stairs, hop on the subway, up the stairs to that station's security gate, go to the spaceport, and this time choose a dropship that looks like the one from Aliens, complete with Vietnam-style open-air side gunner positions.
I know how to exit properly and enter orbit. This time the game allows me to lock onto the Hudson Caves waypoint. I'm only 20 klicks away, but it's pitch black and I can't seem to find a button for night vision. I do manage to turn on the exterior floodlights which is... no help at all. Despite all the hills in the area, I manage to wedge my ship between some rocks and open the main hatch. I step out onto the ground and immediately fall through the planet. As I look up I can see the interior of the cave I was trying to reach. I die.
Attempt 3
I select the mission, leave my apartment, go through the security gate, down the stairs, wait for a train, and my character ragdolls on the floor dead, killed by brushing up against the subway doors as they opened.
Something that's been slightly marring my immersion that I haven't mentioned til now is that seating is broken for all NPCs. Every single one of them stands on their chair and they are everywhere.
"Oh Captain, my Captain"
Attempt 4
So when I fell through the planet I saw the cave had an interior and I figured I should probably buy a gun in case the quest spawns some enemies inside. It's this attempt I decide to explore the hub instead of following the same route. I can see a bar and a hospital nearby but they're not what I'm looking for. I'm not sure where the gun shop is in this build, so I take the other subway train to the shopping area. It's very big and elaborately decorated, but I'm not finding anything. All I can find is a shop displaying scale models of ship railguns. I look in vain for any signposts but all I can see is elaborately detailed in-universe advertisements. Looking around shows me more detail speaking of an elaborately wealthy upper-class but nothing to actually interact with. These platform hubs are about the size of a Deus Ex Human Revolution hub but with about 2-3 things to interact with. I hop on a random train a second before it departs (during play I would enter a station 3 times to just see a train departing and have to wait. It triggered the same wave of dismay I feel on my real-life commute) and by luck it's going direct to the Spaceport. I also take my time to wonder around here. I wind up in customs but have no idea what the hell it's for. I eventually end up at a spaceship dealership where two separate NPCs spout the same line of dialogue at me. Behind them is a doorway with no door that leads to the inside of the planet. I turn around and go back to the hangar.
I pick out an Aegis Hammerhead, my first capital ship.
This thing is big, bigger than Mass Effect 2's Normandy. I'm unable to find a door and end up alt-tabbing out to search how to get on board. I find an exterior elevator and try to find the bridge. I spend a good 5 minutes traversing the decks, finding conference rooms and offices, but no bridge. I end up watching a youtube video that explains the layout. I get in the pilot's chair, boot up the engines and take us out, but something's wrong. I can't maintain the egress angle. At the last holographic gate for leaving restricted space my velocity reaches zero. I 've got the speed limiter set to max, dumped all power into the engines, and hitting full afterburners and I'm still slowing down. In fact I'm going in reverse, sliding back towards the hangar. Autopilot is overridden to return me to regulated space, but the AI can't get enough speed either and it won't give me ship control until I'm in its designated safe zone. It rams a skyscraper and I explode.
Attempt 5
Ok, out my apartment, down the subway, to the spaceport, yadda yadda yadda. This time I pick a ship that looks like the Nostromo.
It's gigantic. 4 decks and it's bigger than Star Trek's Defiant class. This time I manage to find an elevator entrance without much trouble. Except it breaks. The hull opens, but the elevator doesn't move. I wait and it eventually teleports to the ground. I get on and press the button and I clip through the bottom and remain in the hangar.
I just want to say that elevators are a fucking bane in this game, and they are used everywhere. In the spaceport there are banks of 6 elevators like you see at major hotel locations, except each elevator seems to have an individual call button rather than a linked one, so you don't know if you should press them all or just one. And there's no feedback when you call an elevator. No ding or floor number or any cue like the subway gives you. You go down in an elevator and character starts falling a foot at a time. You go up and your legs get compressed into a crouch as if you're pulling 5Gs.
Even following the interior signs for the Bridge, I spend another 5 minutes going in circles until I climb the ladder up to a deck to take an internal elevator down to a subdeck containing the cockpit. I call ATC and leave. Problem: I am topping out at 15m/s. It's not even fast enough to counter the ship's inertia, let alone reach the orbital egress route. I turn off VTOL mode and hit full afterburners. Big mistake: I immediately sink like a rock, wedge myself between 2 buildings and tear off a thruster pack. The AI says I'm out of bounds and tries to take over, but it can't even get me off the ground.
Attempt 6
No bullshit this time, I'm going to pick out the stealth bomber again. It's small, it's fast, I already know how to fly it. I file an insurance claim and even pay for expedited delivery back to me. Apt -> subway -> spaceport -> hangar. I successfully leave the area. However, whilst recording that gif up top in 3rd person view I must have accidentally hit a key because back in first person view my HUD will only show a scanner page. I can't get it to exit and return me to pilot control. I press every single key on the keyboard one-by-one. I bring up the cockpit's 'F' menu and click every option. I mash the keys and somehow it returns me to the pilot control view. Only the ship won't respond. I can roll and move forwards and backwards, but I can't pitch or yaw, even though the direction pipper is responding. I try my key pressing method again but no dice. I decide to re-enter the planet's atmosphere hoping some autopilot feature will level me out when I get too low to the ground and give me back yaw and pitch control. I crash into an ocean and the ship floods. The game informs me I have reached "optimal hydration level".
Attempt 7
I'm really going to do it this time. Don't have time to wait for them to ship me back my crashed stealth bomber so I pick out something described as a "medium fighter". I enter orbit, but it's not letting me lock on to the Hurston Cave waypoint. Pulling up the Contracts menu, I abandon the mission and then re-sub to it. The waypoint reinitialises and this time I can lock onto it. It's daylight and I manage to land right outside the cave entrance in a nice flat area. I blow the hatch and step out and don't fall through the planet. I run towards the cave entrance and get stopped dead by an invisible wall. It's completely impassable. I trace the wall round the edges of the cave area. I jump, crouch, swan-dive but am unable to pass it. I make the mistake of trying to jump up on a nearby rock formation and clip through it, getting permanently stuck.
This is the last thing I see (no movement keys are being pressed). I quit the game.
So yeah, that was my experience with Star Citizen. Playing it you can really see the issues resulting from its development process. Completely disproportionate level of resources allocated to some areas. Imagine if you picked 2 or 3 routine aspects of a game and sank an entire project's development budget into bringing them to fruition. I can see how such a thing could swallow SC's budget and manpower. And those ships. I could make an entire game just with the existing features of the dropship in Attempt 2. They know what lays the golden egg.
There's still so much work to be done. I still remember the original 3.0.0 promise of 100 planets. Lots of sound foley missing. Glitches with the menus. The flight model has this weird tick where past a certain point yaw translates into roll. I can see how the envisioned product could be something that has the finesse and scope of Elite Dangerous combined with the content density of Skyrim. Overall I'd say it felt like a project that was half way through development. So should be about another 6-8 years.
Something else I should mention, during all my attempts, I never once encountered another player.
Ship Showdown 2950 - Free Fly - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.
robertsspaceindustries.com
The last time I played was about 8-12 months ago. It was when they had 4 locations - the first one a deceptive planet area with lots of shops and computer consoles, but when you went to actually try and find your ship you realise that's a different scenario. The 2nd one is the main MMO scenario where you start on a space station with lots of landing pads and some empty planets where you can test the interstellar and planetary re-entry movement mechanics. Then there's the Star Marine team vs team zero-G FPS combat, and the Arena which is your best bet for actual ship combat in this space game.
In the current build they've integrated the 3D cities we saw in past demos with the elaborate subway systems, as well as a quest system and a bunch of other stuff I didn't get to touch on.
As with older versions you spawn lying down on a bed with the camera in an awkward position and are prompted to press 'Y' to stand up. It's reminiscent of this old clunky space game I used to play called Parkan II. The game still has that UE3-style streaming issue where every texture is at its lowest LOD and streams in one by one (I have a VR-ready desktop for reference). This first time I miss the exit sign and take some stairs down a floor, as the view out the window shows me high up and that's cued my mind to think down = where the map hub will be. A helpful pop-up tells me I can do a stealth melee kill using the middle mouse button. I manage to correct my error and find an elevator.
Now, with a simulation-level or game or any game with complex systems (Falcon BMS, Arma, etc) it's accepted that there's going to be a learning curve just getting to grips with whatever form their required interaction system takes. In this case you have to hold down 'F' to make holographic menus appear over control surfaces and use mouse click, as well as an elaborate character menu system called Mobiglass, and currently there is no tutorial.
Activating the elevator's menu I see a list of floor numbers and a ground floor. I've no idea what sort of building this is. If there was a landing pad, I'd expect a roof option, so I take a stab at the ground floor. This deposits me in a hub area reminiscent of the previous build's planetside shopping mall. There are a whole bunch of interactive kiosks but they all seem to be QoL time-savers for established players so I end up skipping them. Outside there's a big public display broadcasting low-res graph tracks of the current temperature, pressure, and air quality that I have a sneaking suspicion is needlessly real-time. Still no idea where or who I am I see a sign for the metro line to the Spaceport, even though for all I know maybe you have to buy ships from a dealer and transfer them from your garage to the spaceport in order to fly them. Following the signs I go through a security gate, down some stairs and to the platform to wait for a subway. It arrives, mind the gap announcements play, and a countdown reminds passengers how long they have left until the doors closed. This whole sequence triggers a bunch of associative memories of my morning commute (in a positive way). The subway departs, travelling through a sequence of lit external areas and unlit sidings before transitioning to an open-air track that mimics exactly the sort of journey I see in real life. I look at the 3D cityscape out the window, mentally holding onto the interior subway car pole before I arrive at the spaceport.
Again, I've no idea where I am, so I find a "You are here" map and find the spaceport entrance. There are a row of kiosks with marked out queuing and standing areas like banks of ATMs. I activate the menu and it shows me a list of about 15 ships I apparently own. There are no images and the descriptions don't extend to more than 2 words, so I pick "stealth bomber". The kiosk tells me it's at Hangar 9 and thanks me for my custom. Following more signs to the elevators I hit number 9 and exit onto the platform where my ship is.
It's for this period that I can see "the vision". I know dev work has been weighted in favour of the introductory areas and systems and that it's blind luck I haven't butted up against any walls but this must be the version of Star Citizen that's in Chris Roberts' head. Organically exploring this fully-realised lived-in universe with seamless interaction.
The stealth bomber is pretty as hell and it's at this point I run into something that's going to be an issue for every single ship I try: finding the door. This consists of holding down 'F' and running the mouse over every likely surface in hopes of an option popping up. I start up the power and engines and lift-off. My next problem is finding the exit. The hangar is completely enclosed. One wall is marked with red lights and one with green so I try inching towards the green but it seems like they might be a port/starboard signifier. One of the walls bows out a bit like a hatch but I don't see any tracks or servos that indicate it can move. I alt-tab out and google a solution. Apparently it's F11 (Communications) -> Friends channel (I don't have any users added as friends) -> Air Traffic Control (but clicking them won't do anything, despite the fact a button highlight activates, you have to click a small square inside the bottom-right of the button instead) and they give me clearance to leave and open the roof. In this time I have clipped one of the walls with a wing and broken it off.
No matter. I'm outside getting to grips with the flight model. Looking at myself in the external view I suddenly seem to bounce off an invisible cushioned wall. The HUD is only visible in first person mode and it's telling me autopilot has been overridden because I'm straying too far from my regulated zone. Looking round there are a bunch of holographic gates highlighting my orbital egress route. I finally get the ship under control and point it in the right direction.
I feel the need to point out just how fucking gorgeous these ships are. Any one of them would serve as the hero ship you'd build an entire campaign around.
It's hard to see all of them in that gif, but those are RCS thrusters using what I'm fairly certain is a genuine A* algorithm to find the objectively accurate position they should face and level of thrust to output, even though they're irregularly sized and shaped to preserve the silhouette of the hull.
I figure I should try and find something to do and I remember seeing the Contracts menu when I was cycling through Mobiglass, so I choose an "Investigation" mission for some mystery and adventure and the objective marker changes to "Go to Hurston Cave".
Attempt 1
The Hurston Cave waypoint is 300km away on the same planet and I'm stuck at 150m/s, meaning it'll be half an hour to reach it. There's an option to power up my jump drive but I'm unsure how to use it. I alt-tab out and google some answers. Apparently there should be a bunch of sub-orbital green waypoints I can lock onto to quickly jump round the planet, buuuuuuuuuuuut I'm not finding any. The navigation section of the Mobiglass menu is also empty. In the end I pick what looks like the closet waypoint half a million klicks away and jump to there. I then 180 and try to lock onto the somewhere anywhere near the caves. Still nothing. I manage to find a reasonable waypoint but it deposits me 200km away. I get frustrated, pick a bounty hunter mission that has a waypoint in space. I jump to it and find an asteroid field. Finally coming to 0m distance from the waypoint, nothing happens. I quit the game.
Attempt 2
I try again. This time it's night. I pick the same mission, exit my apartment building, go through the security gate, down the stairs, hop on the subway, up the stairs to that station's security gate, go to the spaceport, and this time choose a dropship that looks like the one from Aliens, complete with Vietnam-style open-air side gunner positions.
I know how to exit properly and enter orbit. This time the game allows me to lock onto the Hudson Caves waypoint. I'm only 20 klicks away, but it's pitch black and I can't seem to find a button for night vision. I do manage to turn on the exterior floodlights which is... no help at all. Despite all the hills in the area, I manage to wedge my ship between some rocks and open the main hatch. I step out onto the ground and immediately fall through the planet. As I look up I can see the interior of the cave I was trying to reach. I die.
Attempt 3
I select the mission, leave my apartment, go through the security gate, down the stairs, wait for a train, and my character ragdolls on the floor dead, killed by brushing up against the subway doors as they opened.
Something that's been slightly marring my immersion that I haven't mentioned til now is that seating is broken for all NPCs. Every single one of them stands on their chair and they are everywhere.
"Oh Captain, my Captain"
Attempt 4
So when I fell through the planet I saw the cave had an interior and I figured I should probably buy a gun in case the quest spawns some enemies inside. It's this attempt I decide to explore the hub instead of following the same route. I can see a bar and a hospital nearby but they're not what I'm looking for. I'm not sure where the gun shop is in this build, so I take the other subway train to the shopping area. It's very big and elaborately decorated, but I'm not finding anything. All I can find is a shop displaying scale models of ship railguns. I look in vain for any signposts but all I can see is elaborately detailed in-universe advertisements. Looking around shows me more detail speaking of an elaborately wealthy upper-class but nothing to actually interact with. These platform hubs are about the size of a Deus Ex Human Revolution hub but with about 2-3 things to interact with. I hop on a random train a second before it departs (during play I would enter a station 3 times to just see a train departing and have to wait. It triggered the same wave of dismay I feel on my real-life commute) and by luck it's going direct to the Spaceport. I also take my time to wonder around here. I wind up in customs but have no idea what the hell it's for. I eventually end up at a spaceship dealership where two separate NPCs spout the same line of dialogue at me. Behind them is a doorway with no door that leads to the inside of the planet. I turn around and go back to the hangar.
I pick out an Aegis Hammerhead, my first capital ship.
This thing is big, bigger than Mass Effect 2's Normandy. I'm unable to find a door and end up alt-tabbing out to search how to get on board. I find an exterior elevator and try to find the bridge. I spend a good 5 minutes traversing the decks, finding conference rooms and offices, but no bridge. I end up watching a youtube video that explains the layout. I get in the pilot's chair, boot up the engines and take us out, but something's wrong. I can't maintain the egress angle. At the last holographic gate for leaving restricted space my velocity reaches zero. I 've got the speed limiter set to max, dumped all power into the engines, and hitting full afterburners and I'm still slowing down. In fact I'm going in reverse, sliding back towards the hangar. Autopilot is overridden to return me to regulated space, but the AI can't get enough speed either and it won't give me ship control until I'm in its designated safe zone. It rams a skyscraper and I explode.
Attempt 5
Ok, out my apartment, down the subway, to the spaceport, yadda yadda yadda. This time I pick a ship that looks like the Nostromo.
It's gigantic. 4 decks and it's bigger than Star Trek's Defiant class. This time I manage to find an elevator entrance without much trouble. Except it breaks. The hull opens, but the elevator doesn't move. I wait and it eventually teleports to the ground. I get on and press the button and I clip through the bottom and remain in the hangar.
I just want to say that elevators are a fucking bane in this game, and they are used everywhere. In the spaceport there are banks of 6 elevators like you see at major hotel locations, except each elevator seems to have an individual call button rather than a linked one, so you don't know if you should press them all or just one. And there's no feedback when you call an elevator. No ding or floor number or any cue like the subway gives you. You go down in an elevator and character starts falling a foot at a time. You go up and your legs get compressed into a crouch as if you're pulling 5Gs.
Even following the interior signs for the Bridge, I spend another 5 minutes going in circles until I climb the ladder up to a deck to take an internal elevator down to a subdeck containing the cockpit. I call ATC and leave. Problem: I am topping out at 15m/s. It's not even fast enough to counter the ship's inertia, let alone reach the orbital egress route. I turn off VTOL mode and hit full afterburners. Big mistake: I immediately sink like a rock, wedge myself between 2 buildings and tear off a thruster pack. The AI says I'm out of bounds and tries to take over, but it can't even get me off the ground.
Attempt 6
No bullshit this time, I'm going to pick out the stealth bomber again. It's small, it's fast, I already know how to fly it. I file an insurance claim and even pay for expedited delivery back to me. Apt -> subway -> spaceport -> hangar. I successfully leave the area. However, whilst recording that gif up top in 3rd person view I must have accidentally hit a key because back in first person view my HUD will only show a scanner page. I can't get it to exit and return me to pilot control. I press every single key on the keyboard one-by-one. I bring up the cockpit's 'F' menu and click every option. I mash the keys and somehow it returns me to the pilot control view. Only the ship won't respond. I can roll and move forwards and backwards, but I can't pitch or yaw, even though the direction pipper is responding. I try my key pressing method again but no dice. I decide to re-enter the planet's atmosphere hoping some autopilot feature will level me out when I get too low to the ground and give me back yaw and pitch control. I crash into an ocean and the ship floods. The game informs me I have reached "optimal hydration level".
Attempt 7
I'm really going to do it this time. Don't have time to wait for them to ship me back my crashed stealth bomber so I pick out something described as a "medium fighter". I enter orbit, but it's not letting me lock on to the Hurston Cave waypoint. Pulling up the Contracts menu, I abandon the mission and then re-sub to it. The waypoint reinitialises and this time I can lock onto it. It's daylight and I manage to land right outside the cave entrance in a nice flat area. I blow the hatch and step out and don't fall through the planet. I run towards the cave entrance and get stopped dead by an invisible wall. It's completely impassable. I trace the wall round the edges of the cave area. I jump, crouch, swan-dive but am unable to pass it. I make the mistake of trying to jump up on a nearby rock formation and clip through it, getting permanently stuck.
This is the last thing I see (no movement keys are being pressed). I quit the game.
So yeah, that was my experience with Star Citizen. Playing it you can really see the issues resulting from its development process. Completely disproportionate level of resources allocated to some areas. Imagine if you picked 2 or 3 routine aspects of a game and sank an entire project's development budget into bringing them to fruition. I can see how such a thing could swallow SC's budget and manpower. And those ships. I could make an entire game just with the existing features of the dropship in Attempt 2. They know what lays the golden egg.
There's still so much work to be done. I still remember the original 3.0.0 promise of 100 planets. Lots of sound foley missing. Glitches with the menus. The flight model has this weird tick where past a certain point yaw translates into roll. I can see how the envisioned product could be something that has the finesse and scope of Elite Dangerous combined with the content density of Skyrim. Overall I'd say it felt like a project that was half way through development. So should be about another 6-8 years.
Something else I should mention, during all my attempts, I never once encountered another player.
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