World of Spaceships
World of Tanks in space – that’s how you can describe Star Conflict. With up to 3 different ship types we can participate in very fast and tactical Multilayer-Battles, in order to destroy the ships of your enemies.
“Go for Bacon A!“ It’s a running gag, which can be seen in the chat very often. Some time ago a player (we suspect a French player, because French aren’t that good in English) wrote Bacon instead of Beacon and now everyone wants Bacon.
This shows two important things: First you should have some decent English knowledge in order to participate in the chat, because the game does not have a German chat. It only got an International, Russian and Chinese chat.
And second, you can meet very helpful people in game, for example the members of the Space Invaders Corporation. Nevertheless you should fly a few battles before you start asking questions.
And you will have questions. Star Conflict is not an easy game, where you can jump into your ship and kill some Kilrathi, Borg or Empire pilots. Instead you experience very fast and dynamic Multiplayer-Battles in which the ship classes and pilot skills have a big influence on the tactics.
Here a little example: Interceptors are fast, but they can die by a few hits, while Frigates take a lot of damage and fly very slow. Like in World of Tanks each player buys his news toys with the reward from the missions – or through premium currency. Of course you can still upgrade and improve your ships.
Camper, Tanks, Supporter
Unusual: All ships have rotatable turrets – when an enemy shots our ship on starboard and we shot back on the same alignment, only the weapons with a clear sight are able to shot back. Our larboard weapons remain silent. If we get attacked from the back, our front weapons are useless. The game does not have a cockpit view, we can only see the ship from outside and zoom in and out in order to get a better view.
As usual you control your ship like in most Shooter-Games: With WASD you control and accelerate, with Shift you can use an afterburner. This sounds easy and it’s learned very fast, but each ship feels and flies different.
A Frigate pilot may start to rage when an Interceptor starts to spin around his ship.
Guard ships support their team members by disabling the enemies rockets and engines, but they don’t have much fire-power. A long range ship stays back and attacks the enemy with a Desingrator or with guided torpedoes. Compared to a guard ship it has a very thin hull and weak shields. In other words: A real camper-pig.
Improvement with every step
Currently you have four different Tiers of ships, the fifth is still in work. Each few levels we advance to a new Tier, but this may already take a five or six days from rank 0 to rank 2 when you play one or two hours a day. This is only an example, if someone always dies during these five days, he needs to rethink his tactics.
In the lower ranks you will mainly find players, who are still learning the tactics. The matchmaking is mostly doing its job, but sometimes we meet some superior ships – this does not mean that it is impossible to destroy them. The players skill has a big influence into the game. Furthermore it is not a big problem if there are a few superior ships when each team has a dozen pilots.
EMP-Bombing
Currently there are four different game modes in PvP: In the “Domination“ mode your team needs to capture Beacons and hold them as long as possible in order to decrease the points of the enemy team. “Beacon Hunt“ is a fast version of this mode, where you will find only one Beacon to capture, which rotates on the map. In the third mode you have to blow up enemy stations with EMP-Bombs and in the last mode each team gets assigned a captain, which needs to be defended.
All of these modes are very different and for this reason we can take up to three different ships into battle and fly with the ship that fits best for the mode. If we die, we have to take a short break (around 30 seconds) and after that we can rejoin with the same or another ship.
In case that your team captured all Beacons it is recommended to pick a big Frigate, while in the Detonation mode you should pick fast ships.
Playground for hardcore players
Hardcore players choose the Realistic game mode – in this mode the ships do not re-spawn after death. If you loose all three ships you need to watch the battle until the end (after the battle your ships are usable again). Basically it is a nice mode, but most players prefer the earlier mentioned Arcade mode and so it may take some time until you can find a Realistic game.
Sometimes there are not enough players on each team, in this case the remaining places get filled up with bots. This is somehow useful, but also boring because the bots aren’t very skilled.
There is also a brand new mode called “Sector Conquest“, in this mode you have a galactic map on which all three factions fight for domination and each player can participate(All factions have different bonuses for their ships). At the moment this map is very basic, we can capture sectors by winning multiple battles in the sector and currently there is no bigger content in the Sector Conquest. Factions and their two sub-factions and the sector holding corporations will get some more benefits in this mode in the future.
Weak point PvE
Star Conflict is a 90% PvP game, but it also has a coop-mode, where you can squad up with 4 players and defeat waves of enemies or destroy a shipyard. However these coop-modes are mainly for farming credits – they are nice and exciting, but compared to the PvP battles they are too repetitive. Especially on T1 it gets gets boring very fast, but on T2 you get more missions.
So the player focuses on the PvP missions – in which you complete contracts for your faction.
In some kind of quest-system you can pick up a few contracts, for example standard tasks like
“Kill 20 enemies with a plasma weapon“ or “Capture three Bacon…Beacons!“ As reward you get extra credits and loyalty for your faction.
With an increased reputation on your faction you unlock new implants, which bonuses improve our ships: More mobility or more rocket damage. The contracts are motivating, but there is a little issue: The Mulitplayer-Battles get selected random, as soon as we hit the fight button it may happen that you end up in a game mode which does not help you on your contracts. For example when we have to kill the enemy captain, but you get a Beacon mode eight times in a row.
Upgrading Ships
If you are not in battle you can work on your ships. Each ship has not only a weapon- and rocket slot, but also slots for active- and passive modules. We can equip anti missile flares, shield booster, improved ammunition, attack drones, mines and a lot more. At the beginning the choice is limited, but with each better ship you get more slots and more equipment to choose. Equipping your ship is science itself.
The weapons do not only deal basic damage, but thermal (Laser), emp(Plasma weapons) or kinetic(Railguns). Equipment can be looted after battle or purchased with credits.
Fair payment system
Star Conflict gets almost weekly improvements, for example a crafting system is planned for the future. Officially the space opera is still in open beta, but already for a long time and for this reason we already give it a rating. The payment system is (already!) working – and definitely fair how a few endgame free to play players confirmed, who were asked incognito.
Basically you can play Star Conflict completely for free. For real money you can purchase gold equipment and ships, but you can unlock equal equipment for free. A premium plasma weapon on Tier X is as strong as a regular weapon that you can unlock. Buying a T4 ship as beginner is not possible, because you need the reputation in the faction.
Ships for real money look cooler, but they are not better as their free equals, which you can unlock in the game. A premium membership ( 34 Euro cents per day, 34 Euros for six months, depending on the purchased package) increases your reward, experience, reputation and loyalty in order to rank up faster, but you do not get any game play advantages.
The prices for ships and weapons are very different, you should look carefully: A T1 ship costs 2,20 Euros, while you pay 13,50euros on T4. A T4 plasma weapon costs between 8-11 Euros – but you can unlock an equal weapon with playing a day. On steam you can find different DLC packs including: Ships, Premium memberships, Gold and ship stickers.
We are curious when we get the first Bacon sticker.
Conclusion
Martin Deppe: Epic quests, long journeys through space, new world to explore – all this is not available in Star Conflict. In exchange you get really fast Multiplayer-Battles, which new players will experience like on speed. For new comers there is no place, if you only want to kill enemies, you will loose the goal of the mission very fast. But for all who like to play in a team and protect the EM-Bomb or Beacons (not Bacon!), they will enjoy the game.
As banal as it sounds, here it fits like Kirks xxxx on the Captain chair:
Star Conflict is learned fast, but mastered hard. It is recommended to in a squad with friends, you will end up in the same battle and will have more chances to organize. The different different ship classes are a lot of fun in a team – everyone who flies alone with random people is depending on their teamwork. I have rarely experienced a game where fun and success have depended so much on teamwork as in Star Conflict.
Multiplayer
Game mode: Beacon Capture, Beacon Hunt, Domination, Captain Hunt (up to 24 players), Coop (4 players)
Network: Internet
Server: Internal matchmaking
Dedicated Server: No
Multiplayer fun time: 200hours
Conclusion: Dynamic and tactical Battles. Matchmaking mostly fine, on high Tiers long waiting times
Mulitplayer-Rating: Very good
Rating
