freespace 2 is also "just shooting". i can then assume you feel that's also a 1 star game?
the carbon copy star systems were definitely pretty stupid, but this is by no means a 1 star game. you can't manufacture faults because you entered the experience with your own personal flawed expectations. perhaps i should go rail about fallout 2 not containing first person combat? i mean, there's a guy with a gun on the box!
go play x2 or x3 (just ignore that starforce installing on your system) and try your very best to get over this deep afront to your person.
for the record, i'd say darkstar one is probably a 3 to 3 1/2 star game.

I'm going to go out on a limb and agree with hungyeung on the whole, Darkstar really isn't all its cracked up to be. Being so bold as to say 'Freelancer done right' is to shoot oneself in the foot, because Freelance did everything it was suppose to.
Space Sims are very hard to define, as it is impossible to draw a line to what kind of simulation a developer is driving at. We have no point of reference, just a network of space games and media to draw comparisons against. In actuality a Space Sim should just present choice, something which Darkstar did take away.
- Having one ship was a disappointment, clearly there was well fleshed out universe full of alien technology to be taken advantage of. The argument against this is that the RPG element of leveling of your ship was meant to present enough choice. Perhaps you didn't notice, but you cant upgrade everything too its maximum, so it was kinda fun exploring what kind of combatant you wanted to be.
- Fighting was an important part of the game, but actually avoidable, you could be a trader but with the exception of the story missions when you had to fight. If you upgraded your engines and hull more than the wings, you can just have turrets and also easily get 4U away from attackers, enabling you to jump. Also with clever trading, and smuggling mostly, there was mega buxx to be had. I was trading all the way up to the end of the game.
- The systems were derivative and little dull, but what else could really been put in them? I thought the wrecks and different types of asteroids were okay, but it could have done with some more furniture I suppose.
- This is only true about the factions if you stayed 'good'. Things change a fair amount if you go around pirating and murdering. The ability though, however heinous your crime, to clear you record was a bit crazy. Hey, you needed it to complete the game though so I cant argue with that.
Okay one thing I am going to defend is the reply value, as the modding community for Freelancer is fairly strong. In fact, most of the issue you have with the game can be addressed with user generated content. You will have to agree that when a game like this is released and enables fans to make and change content, on the whole the game can be made so much better. Look at Fallout 3 for example. Its a fantastic game, but it has been made even better with the user mods, just like Oblivion.
In all honesty I thought that Darkstar would never be able to live up to the arcade feeling of Freelancer, regardless of content 'done right'. I did still enjoy it though because I expected nothing, just like I expected nothing from Freelancer. I went into the game with the soul purpose for it to be a distraction from my rather complicated work. It is as deep as Peggle or Switchball, its a manual dexterity game of clicking and being quick (at times).

I guess the next logical questions for me to ask is: Is the game fun? Can enjoyment be found in this game? How are the controls? If you already own the other titles X-wing, Wing Commander, Freelancer...Can this title add a different aspect to the genre or just take away?

This is why hype is a plague that needs to be wiped out. Most of my best game experiences have been coming in with no preconceptions of what the game would or should be.

The best game to compare it to is still Freelancer. The controls and such are almost the same as Freelancer and if you played and enjoyed that one, you will probably find this one to be fun.
Agreed and I can apply that philosophy to this game. I had heard of the game before I bought it (pre-GOG), but only by name and I had heard that is was comparable to Freelancer. I had heard none of the "Freelancer done right" hype or anything like that. I saw the game on the discount rack and decided "I've got 10 bucks, why not?" I have not regretted it one bit (except the TAGES copy protection). I thought is was a great game that was similar to, but different from Freelancer and well worth the money spent.

Unlike some of the other replies, I am in complete agreement over the one star rating, and the reasons identified in the review.
The sameness of all the systems, the tired storyline, the crap physics model of combat. All bad.
I hindsight, I can't believe I paid $80 or something for this game - perhaps I was just rather desperate for another space sim to play. The fact that it was less than a year before it started appearing in bargain bins for $10 says a lot about the game.
If you enjoy 'space sim lite' games like Freelancer, play Freelancer again. It's worth a second go.
If you're into more serious space sims, buy Freespace 2 from GOG. Great game. If you've already played that, go out and grab X3, particularly if you're also a fan of strategy games. It's fantastic.
Hell, go and download the Privateer Remake, It's free, and a great trip down memory lane.

yea... 1 star for my as well. The combat is really repetitive and boring, requires no skill. The opponents are almost cartoon characters. Everything you do is the same, nothing changes, nothing pops out and amazes you ever. And its not fun after the first 5 times you kill the pirates in the asteroid belt for the alien artifact in 3 repeating waves.

I quite like it, TBH.
It's mindless, but the story is fun, if predictable. Graphics are heavy, and highest resolutions cause my machine to stutter a lot. Combat is .... very easy on level 1 setting. I can fly backwards and still not take too much damage. Level 5 difficulty, it's a lot more taxing.
The systems may be physically similar in layout, but almost every planet in the systems I visited was unique in texture-mapping :P
One gripe : WHO in the name of the seven circles of the lower hells came up with the Flak 2 mission? Marquis de bloody Sade? O_o
The video some guy uploaded as a walkthrough is useless as the drones arrive in vastly different patterns, and more numerous in this version of the game. I even went looking for a cheat, and after deciding I'm not paying $25 for membership on one site, the others available either didn't work at all for v1.3(1416), or won't work in W7 Ultimate (in either native, or compatibility modes)....so until I can clear that mission, I'm stuck there :(
It's a good little time-waster of a game, with an easy-to-follow plot, (depending on difficulty setting) mindless blasting, lots of missions to do, things to collect : It's just that one insane mission that smacks you face first into a concrete wall.

i'd like to like the game, but its just ... always the same. you have one planet, some ships, a trade center and that's it. over. and over. and over.
but it's a nice shooter.

It's not a classic by any means but there's enough fun to be had as a budget title to make it worth while.

Well I got it on sale for $10 USD, I'd give it 2 stars.
Why? Because it's shallow. Really, really shallow.
When I first played the game, I really liked it.. I enjoyed the cutscenes, I could look past some cheesy voice acting. The game looks and plays sweet on a modern rig. Encouragement, yes!
But after a while, all the missions are the same, all the sound bites from pirates are the same, all the stations are the same. EVERYTHING'S THE BLOODY SAME!
The only things that were interesting were the story based missions, and they're spread thin, "like butter, scraped over so much bread".
At the end of the day, it's a cardboard cutout of a good game. At first you are fooled into thinking this game is great, but then you look behind the initial wow, there's empty space. Kind of ironic, don't you think? (DS1's space is always multi-coloured)
Note: I didn't finish it. I was just plain bored.

Ditto, but quite some time back.
It's not a bad space sim, but it's certainly no match for the X series as far as the economics/trading system go, and combatwise it's no match for the BC/UC series(still not as much fun overall as the X series, which IMO is tops ATM).
It sits somewhere between Starwraith sims(low end) and X series on the high end. Really feels incomplete to me, almost as if they wanted to do more but got Jowooded. i.e. the official site is practically gone, and the forums long so since, etc.
The only other recent sim I've yet to try is Rogue Universe, that Russian space sim. Always sounded like a bugfest and Steam didn't have the latest patch until recently...
(Also note, no joystick ATM so I pay ALL of my space sims with mouse & kb, doesn't affect most of my comments, but it may the combat aspect at least to a degree...)

The game's named after the ship. The fact that it's made with special technology and is entirely different from every other ship in the universe is a key part of the game. So did you really expect you could sell it off at some trade station and use the CR to buy an x-wing? Dunce. Simply not true. The choices you make when you upgrade it affect maneuverability, speed, ability to easily haul cargo (for trading, like you want (although I admit it's not as profitable as shooting)), etc. They may be made up of the same elements, but these elements are arranged differently. Also, some systems may have 5 research stations whereas others have none. Some systems may have anomalies with pirate gangs hidden behind them. And the planets are all beautiful, so it's worth looking at them in various systems. They don't recycle all the graphics. Various companies will actually hire you for sabotage or spying missions against other companies, and some of these can keep you from being able to safely enter certain star systems in the future (depending on who controls them). Needless to say this review has as much accuracy as a poorly-made slingshot. Yes, it probably was designed by shooting game enthusiasts. And it's a great shooting game. It's hardly mindless, with players having to make tactical decisions every second they're in battle. And based on your review, I'm guessing you stopped playing after 5 minutes. I'm likely to replay it and upgrade my ship in completely different ways. I don't know what graphical settings you used, but the game is stunning. You can fling poo, but it doesn't make your target poo. It just makes you a monkey.

-Gammix

<snip>
Oh this game is mindless alright, and just as tedious dull as that would imply.

The comment re: all the depth of a rain puddle was spot on...

I kind of like Freelancer which was also fairly shallow, however as could be inferred from my above comments this I could never really get into once past looking at the nifty more modern graphics and back to X series I went.