The GamesCOm demo for Star Citizen ahead of the release of alpha version 2.5 is a mind blowing visual trip. It features a number of different vehicles, some FPS gameplay, some high-quality questing and some co-op. There’s a lot to talk about and all of it is contained within an hour long video demo.
You can check out the hour long demonstration below.
They examine the hyperdrive capabilities, heading to a planet and going from the space port to the surface. They manage to play around by landing on the planet surface just to show that you can land anywhere on a planet.
There was a little trouble getting one of the passengers back into the ship after goofing around on the surface. It was a nice demonstration of being able to land anywhere on the planet and that you need to be careful where you land so you don’t lose access to your ship.
They eventually head into the base, which Roberts described as being similar to Mos Eisley. So long as you don’t cause trouble there won’t be trouble.
The base for Levski is very impressive. Players can take an elevator down into the lower parts of the base. It’s very, very impressive.
The fidelity of the base isn’t just some procedurally generated base, either. There’s a lot of intricate, artistic detail put into the design of the base that feels like an actual place.
The synthetic soundtrack from Pedro Macedo Camacho echoes through as the duo explored the Levski planetary base. It’s very slick.
Chris Roberts explains that in future builds there will be trading and shops that can be interacted with for each location. For now the shops were there just for show.
They end up taking on a mission that sends them into dangerous territory, but before that we get to see how the game seamlessly transitions from planet surface to space with no loading screens. I know it’s become repetitive at this point, but I really do have to state that it looks very impressive.
There have been a number of games with planet to space seamless transitioning without load screens, such as No Man’s Sky and Empyrion, but the fidelity here in Star Citizen is pretty crazy. If the facial animations and the interaction sequences stay consistent from what we see in the GamesCom demo then everything will be extremely cinematic.
During the mission we finally get to see the transitions between flight, questing, combat and EVA exploration.
After battling some space pirates there’s a sequence where one of the players exits from the ship and flies towards a damaged Starfarer. Inside the ship it turns into a bit of a shooter-thriller in zero gravity, showing some small elements of what was supposed to be in Star Marine last year. The atmosphere is palpably engrossing.
While the game is still far from finished, the GamesCom demo finally gives us a view of what the game should look like upon completion.
Alpha version 2.5 is supposedly due for release next week, according to Blues. Version 2.7 is supposedly scheduled for September, with 3.0 due in October.
For more info feel free to visit the official website.
