Starlight Inception™™

[b]Starlight Inception[/b] Ahhh, The space flight sim, Freelancer, Wing Commander, Elite, classics all. More recently we've had Sol Exodus, Strike Suit Zero and Strike Vector. Now we've got Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen on the horizon. So how does Starlight Inception compare to the pack? [b]Starlight Reception[/b] If the majority of reviews already out there are to be believed, Starlight Inception doesn't compare well at all! Following a kick-starter campaign and period of "Early Access" Starlight Inception saw a final release in April 2014 to a barrage of negativity. There were complaints about the controls, the graphics, the game mechanics, the campaign, pretty much everything, but was all this criticism valid? The internet is full of haters and it can be all too easy to go along with what the "cool kids" are saying, maybe it was just a case of internet "bandwagoning". Adopting a philosophy of "You can't believe everything you read" Let's fire the game up and take a look for ourselves! [b]Starlight Deception[/b] I'm a sucker for a future time line and Starlight Inception doesn't disappoint in this regard. Upon hitting the "play" button we're treated to a suitably melodramatic narration of events leading from present day through the colonization of space and the rise and fall of various factions. At its end you will find yourself in 2114 stationed onboard the USF Midway and ready to earn your wings. [b]Starlight Direction[/b] Following the stirring lesson in future history the screen jumps to a static image of a "room" inside the USF Midway, where what I think is supposed to be a character model, sits unmoving on a seat and in his own ham-fisted way, explains his motivations as to why he joined the USF. The quality of the facial model and "animation" here is so bad its almost laughable and when I say "animation" the only thing moving here are the characters lips as he opens and closes his mouth like a fish gasping for air in a short animated loop which completely ignores the dialogue. Escape Hatch Entertainment obviously believe that lip-synching is unnecessary polish. It's at this moment that a very wooden, very Irish accent echoes through the speakers demanding that I report to the ready room. [b]Starlight Induction[/b] I'm filled with relief as the camera drops into a first person view and I no longer have to look at the "minecraft meets elephant man" visage gasping at the screen. I stumble blindly around the some grey corridors until I find the ready room, which looks suspiciously like the room where Mr Voxel delivered his opening monologue. Here we're treated to another brief cinematic as we're introduced to another unsurprisingly blocky faced man (I suspect a relation) who seems to be in charge. His mouth opens and closes at random as he delivers his orders (It's like watching an old overdubbed kung-fu movie). Unnervingly I notice that his mouth continues to open and close after he's delivered his instructions and all is silent. (Due to the blocky likeness and similar mouth malfunction to our original chunky faced colleague I'm beginning to suspect there will be some inbreeding in humanities future). Anyway... He wants me to strap on a fighter and earn my wings by way of shooting some stuff, which is fine by me, so I click a button and off we go! [b]Starlight Inspection[/b] Finally it's time to get behind the stick of a spaceship, maybe now the game will shine, this is after all what this game is all about. First impressions on launch are actually quite good, following the blocky faced potential inbreds on the Midway, the graphics now look pretty decent. The ship models are polished and the skybox is almost beautiful. I'm starting to feel better as I look out of the window of my little spaceship at the Earth shining below me. Maybe things aren't so bad after all. [b]Starlight Correction[/b] I fly to some waypoints, I shoot some things. Eat your heart out Mark Hamill, I'm the wing commander now! Unfortunately, the missions themselves quickly start to feel hollow and repetitive. Point the nose of your ship at a way point, fly there, shoot some uninteresting targets that you can't really see until you're on top of them, fly to the next way point. Rinse and Repeat. It all just feels a little flat and uninspired. [b]Starlight Objection[/b] The controls can feel a little clunky at times, the physics of flight are questionable at best and the enemy AI is so woeful it brings me back to my theory about inbreeding. Everything here is functional, fly, shoot, fly, shoot. It just doesn't click with me, nothing feels satisfying. The combat is underwhelming, the campaign is mediocre, The voice acting is wooden. Like I said, everything is functional at best. [b]Starlight Reflection[/b] ... and at its best, when everything is working in its favour, Starlight Inception can reach the dizzying heights of mediocrity for whole minutes at a time. It's such a shame, I love the space combat genre and I really wanted to like this title. Whilst it's not quite as bad as some reviewers would have you believe, It is far, far away from being a good game. Unless you've got some time to kill and money to burn I would suggest that this is one to avoid. [b]Find my full review and others [url=http://www.review-well.com/]LINKED HERE[/url][/b]

Let the Buyer Beware. I bought this game based on some of the positive reviews posted here, and I had seen that this was a Kickstarter baby. That gave my high hopes for either something innovative or a true throw-back to Wing Commander. In truth, this is less WC or X-Wing and more a knock-off of Strike Suit Zero...which SSZ reminded me more of those lousy Wing Commander clones you used to be able to get for the PS1. I played the game through a Patrol mission and the first Campaign mission. All i can say is that I really want my $20 back. For being a game no longer in Early Access and the "Final" version, I encountered my first bug a few minutes in when the targeting reticle in cockpit-view mode disappears after firing the gun for a few minutes. Also, the cockpit graphics themselves are awful, ugly and appear (IMO) to be slapped on as an afterthought. Reinforcing this opinion is that the starfighter handles better in 3rd person mode than cockpit mode. The VO sync with the Ready Room animation is like watching bad muppets. I was so disgusted that by the end of the 1st campaign mission i uninstalled and was compelled to write a review. Bottomline: lousy graphics, poor space mechanics, derivitative gameplay of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ knock-offs of a much better game = AVOID, it's not what it claims on the tin.

Do not purchase this game under any circumstance. I pledged to Starlight Inception's Kickstarter campaign and deeply regret it. The graphics are underwhelming compared to contemporary entries in the genre, even relative to other indie space sims such as Wings of St. Navarre and Enemy Starfighter. A recent update to the game rendered it unplayable on my PC, killing what had been acceptable performance. I had held off playing through the campaign, believing that updates would improve the quality of the game over time. Now, I may never be able to play it. The default controls on controllers and kb/m are awkward and there is no way to reassign them. Cockpit view is functionally useless in this game. Rather than make the game more immersive, cockpit view detracts from the experience and I recommend any player to use a third person perspective during flight. The voice acting and character animation in the game are of low quality. Human models simply shouldn't have been included in the game. Botched first person controls between missions and in Exploration Mode make walking through the ship a dread. As much as I can tell, the narrative is a generic sci-fi story about conflict between humans living on/from Earth and humans from extraterrestrial colonies. The conflict mainfests as World War IV (World War III playing a role in the game's backstory) and the player fights for Earth's United Star Force. From what I understand of the exposition between missions, a military documentary on World War IV is interviewing service members about their role and lives. The story is a retelling taking place in the future "present" and the missions take place in the "past." I couldn't believe it was possible to take such a step backwards in the genre in 2014. As a space sim/shooter fan, I am deeply disappointed in Starlight Inception.

[b] Save your money! [/b] [b][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-m2I-Yfu4U] Click this for a gameplay video with latest patch [/url][/b] Watch all of that and you'll quickly get the idea of why people aren't recommending you buy this game. [b] My more in depth written review/rambly history with the game [/b] I had been waiting for this latest patch (which has almost been in the year in the making). To see if the developers had really taken on board the criticisms of the game and tried to tweak things to make a better PC flight sim experience. But it would seem not, the patch only added configurable joystick buttons and fixed a few bugs. Although some that had been reported are still in there. Also to give a little history, I backed this game on Kickstarter for and have seen the game and given feedback to the devs from beta (which came out August 2013) to full Steam release. [b] The main problems? [/b] [b]1)[/b] One big core problem of the game, is that it is simply not fun to shoot other ships in the game. That's a pretty important thing people want out of a space flight sim. The dogfights are soulless, and stupidly easy, the laser cannon fire has this crazy auto aim tracking and the AI is barely there. As I say in my video, it seems that the gameplay was implemented quite late and never really looked at again. Surely the first step is to make sure the main gameplay loop is fun over and over. [b]2)[/b] The other problem of the game, and why it just feels so off and not quite for PC, well I'll explain in a second. An example of what I mean it being "off" : When it says "Enter your profile name" it loads up a virtual keyboard on the screen, and if you type it on your actual keyboard, you have to type it one letter at a time, if you try to type at a normal speed it can't register your key presses. [u]So why all these little quirks, lack of any real graphics options on PC etc?[/u] That is because it was also developed for the [b]PS Vita[/b] at the same time. Although I haven't played the Vita version, once you know that about the development, things start to make a lot more sense. Instead of developing a separate but similar Vita game, this very much feels like what must be the Vita game, but poorly implemented for PC. Now don't get me wrong, Vita to PC ports of stuff can work, for example Hotline Miami or Guacamelee are great examples of it being done right. Also I'm not one of those "I WANT TRACKIR OR NOT BUYING!" type of people before you think that. All I was expecting was to dust off my joystick and play a fun modern competent single-player campaign, in the style of X-Wing or Wing Commander series. Which is how the Kickstarter was essentially pushed on their campaign and why I backed it. [b] The developer silence and vacuum [/b] People had asked this on a Reddit AMA and other places, that making this style of game for PC and Vita was a little odd, but the developers very much felt it could be a good fit for them and the smaller budget they were working with. And to assure us that the PC version wouldn't be crippled for the Vita version etc. Well.... When the backer beta came out, I emailed my feedback saying that it wasn't exactly great and I was shocked at just how much of a clumsy Vita style port it felt like and that PC backers probably were not going to think highly of that. I imagine some other people probably also said that during the backer beta period too. I forgot about it for a while in the hopes that when it got released on Steam as a full release, that the feedback would be taken on board and they would really sit down and take a long look to tweak the gameplay and make sure the PC version felt & played like a PC game with a joystick and such. Well go to about a year later with the full release on Steam (April 2014) after a small time of it being on Steam as early access too. I downloaded it again and was very disheartened to find it was pretty much the same game, with some slightly better joystick control added and some bugs cleared up. But the core gameplay still as dull and not engaging, the laser fire still bending a crazy amount auto aim style. The forum messages and Steam reviews were pretty much on the negative side mostly, some people trying to soften the blow when talking about their dissatisfaction. The developers sounded like they would try to fix more stuff about the game. A lot of "we're sorry, we're trying" "we have a patch coming next month!" from them, but the main developer who would reply on the Steam forums stopped for about 6 months, not a peep. Everyone assuming the game was dead after launch. Then a month ago, the developers popped up on the Steam forums again, saying we have a patch coming! Out of the blue, I thought ok, it's been almost a year since the game came out on Steam. Maybe they've really taken the feedback onboard and this patch will really answer some criticisms customers who bought this game had and make the experience better. Here we are today, tying back to my first paragraph of this review. The patch added very little. And pushed me to write my first Steam review. For the past year, they've been trying to get this game submitted to Sony to go on the PS3, along with making a new game too. This game was very much, released on Steam and then move on, forget about the people who bought it and their complaints. That is not a way to gain fans or treat people correctly. [b] Final Thoughts [/b] I mentioned a vacuum in the title of the last section, I think this game could have been something if the developers listened more, got people in the alpha earlier on and not bothered with the Vita version (or not bother with a PC version depending). Focus on one platform, make it as great as you can and see where to go once it was out and what would be a good fit. We could have told you very early on the flight model and the gameplay loop of shooting ships was not fun at all. Instead it was very much a vacuum, the Kickstarter campaign got funded. Then nothing for ages but a small trailer, then suddenly the backer beta. By which point it was already too late to perhaps make things better it seemed. This review might sound rather harsh, perhaps. I normally understand things from a developers point of view, but not when it comes to releasing a product you know is not good, then run and not listen to paying consumers. I kept giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe this patch they'll have listened... ok no. Maybe this one? Nope. Ok one more chance to really get this thing feeling good. Here's the patch! Oh barely even tried. I posted on the forums several times and made a few videos, pointing out parts of UI that were bad or clunky or just broken etc. And they're still there to this day. EG Cockpit view, if you blow up an enemy, it still shows on the target HUD. And other such things. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I shall stop rambling now, again watch the video I made and linked at the top if you're curious. [b]Big thanks if you actually took the time to read all this! :)[/b] What should you spend your money on? Easy if you've never played it. [u]X-WING ALLIANCE![/u] People always say oh I loved X-Wing, or X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. A lot of people forget there was a 4th game called X-Wing Alliance. Which fortunately enough recently came out on gog.com all ready to download and play out of the box on Windows 7/8. Download the fantastic, easy to install HD texture pack here http://www.darksaber.xwaupgrade.com/craftspackucp.html and you'll be feeling like a badass pilot in no time. With a interesting story that bounces between helping your Family against a rival business and being a Rebel Alliance pilot. Voice acting and mission designs still hold up today as they did then, and seems to support most joysticks you throw at it. Not bad for a game that came out in 1999.

I bought this game knowing it was early access. First time i tried to play it i couldn't because of a movie loading glitch. As soon as it loaded and you came to the splash screen it crashed. First i asked the devs to take a look into this matter, and they say they had it fixed. Four months later i reinstalled the game and the same thing happened. So i took it upon myself to try to fix the game and found out if you delete all the movies you can get to the menue and play the game. The controls are not smooth and if you don't play with an xbox controller, you have no hope in completing the game. Even the contols for the xbox are not smooth and jerky. Trying to aim at a moving target is hopeless if you want to use your guns and you only have limited amount of missles that you have to buy after each mission. The lighting is so dark on everything. You cant see the ships you are shooting at just the aiming reticles in front of them. Walking around on the ship is like you are in a cave and everybody has a tan. The frame rate jumps up and down like a jack rabbit on crack. The second mission you have to turn the dynamic lighting off to even get a frame rate you can play it at. And then you cant see anything until you are right up on top of it. The developers say this game is ready for final release. If you buy this game you are in for a big surprise. If this game was freeware i wouldn't even bother downloading it. There isn't one good thing i can say about the game except the demo movie looked good. The people are talking statues and not very realistic. They talk and you cant listen to them for more than a few seconds before you jump to the mission so you dont have to hear them anymore. The narration is like, give me a break. Hope they didnt pay anybody for the voices. Game is just crap is the final word to describe it.

When i purchased it, it was in early access (didn't pay attention. Never buy early access). It is now not in early Access anymore. Few things: No options menu. Keys are not rebindable. Graphic options are What kind of window you use and dynamic lightning on or off. 1/10 Trainings Mission. I didn't get past it. Not because it's hard or anything the like. It's just horrible. First of all, handling, graphics and sounds are as generic as possible. I could get over this. The targets you are supposed to destroy don't show anywhere. They, if you are lucky, pop out right in front of you. 0/10 Voice acting is terribad. Nothing else to add. Not that important but i thought i should mention it. There seems to be some kind of mouse acceleration ingame. It's very clunky. Bugs. Bugs bugs bugs. Full release. -5/10 Last but not least: The performance is not acceptable. A game that looks like this should never drop below 200 fps on anything. Sadly it does. It flickers, it has horrible draw distance and the graphical fidelity is.. indie. Maybe the only thing to say about it. TL;DR: Don't buy it. Unless it's on sale. Not for full prize. Never.

I got robbed! Don't make the same mistake...

At the time of this review I seem to have the most hours playing this game. I will recommend this game but there are caveats to this. 1) This game is awkward in play. The eating dinner over your best friend's house, after you have just been caught making out with his sister awkward. I absolutely hate the FPS movement through the ships. It's slow and when your alerted to report to the ready room you just mosey along to get there. The tutorial flight needs to more indepth. I "accidently" found out how to allocate power and command wingmen 3 missions in. 2) The flight mechanics are disturbing at times as you find yourself struggling to get the ship to right itself on a trajectory. I like being able to fly near the surface of a planet just not in one. One mission requires you to go underground killing bad guys and finding a scientist. You take damage hitting walls but the enemy ships ping pong ball of the sides making it impossible to hit them and they take NO damage. Loose this mission or change the scientist to a surface station. 3) Voice acting poor. The briefer for the first few missions looks like his is in his fifties but the voice is of a later teens to early twenties young man. Same akwardness with the stories one pilot who liked he was straight out of high school had 10yrs of experience. 4) The credit system isn't consistent. I completed a round and saw all sorts of bonuses flash up and completed bonus missions and recived nothing after the brief. All the work for nothing. Prestige points? Really? I have to earn a certain amount of points to get descent equipment? I would understand completeing some missions and getting extra stuff in mission to have new equipment to be researched then availible after a period of time. Now after all this I really do like the game, I hate the fact it's VERY Crossfire unfriendly. I had to disable it all together. The game has promise but it needs alot of work. I do recommend this, just be prepared to be annoyed a little bit.

Starlight Inception должна была стать духовной наследницей Wing Commander, Elite и Freespace в современном исполнении. Но авторы сильно переоценили свои возможности, и «пасынок» Wing Commander и Elite оказался им не по зубам. Не спасли положение ни успешная кампания на Kickstarter, ни 8 месяцев в Steam Early Access. Любители космосимов, конечно, соскучились по новинкам и даже проходную поделку могли бы принять с пониманием. К сожалению, в текущем виде Starlight Inception больше походит на плохо разогретую пиццу из микроволновки. Читать рецензию полностью: http://riotpixels.com/starlight-inception-review/

This was a nice attempt and far better than I could have done. With so many space combat sim options now there is no reason to buy this. Pros: Tries fairly hard to be a good Wing Commander / Freespace 2 clone and briefly captures the nostalgia. Cons: - Very outdated graphics. - First person out of cockpit experience poorly implemented. The actual movement lags behind a reticule causing motion sickness and an overall bad experience. - Shield / Stealth Module / Missiles / Mission contextual special device all tied to the same secondary weapon cycle. - The large amount of ships have been copied and pasted from an online description somewhere without even bothering to change minor things to make it "spacey". - There is no incentive in the campaign to use more than 1 top notch fighter with a single configuration after the training mission despite the impressive number of ships. - Missiles have a description of Air-to-Air and appear to be copied from the same source as the ships. They should be described as Ship to Ship or Ship-to-Surface. - Taking out satellites is a very boring extra bonus objective that really doesn't seem to affect the overall outcome of the mission or campaign. The point of secondary & tertiary objectives are to enhance the overall campaign or to be of good effect in case the primary objectives can't be reached or if there were extra ordinance & time/fuel. - Some ground targets sink below the surface of planets/asteroids making them unreachable by weapons and blocking mission completion at 100%. In summary I love the spirit of the game, and the desire to make a space combat sim again. When this was greenlit, there was almost nothing new out at the time and it was a gap waiting to be filled. Now that Elite Dangerous is "out" and Star Citizen is maybe about to release something more fun to do than run people over with golf carts this game is relegated to the never to be installed or played again pile with about 100 other games in my library unless it receives some serious changes.