Between the Stars Demo

Yes Demo you read that right in 2018 and I’m talking about a demo. Now this isn’t like the old playstation demo’s I grew up with where you played 5 or 10 minutes, According to the timer on steam I spent 61 minutes playing said demo.

Now I’ll be honest I didn’t go into this demo with high expectations for the simple fact that the only experience I’ve had with space games is a handful of hours on elite dangerous. Now for a space game playing on a mouse and keyboard felt really alien, the W/S keys were used for what I call up and down the A/D key were used for the roll of the ship and Q/E handled the left and right your standard keyboard movement keys for any game. The arrow keys controlled the distribution of power between your engines, shields, and weapons and then the scroll wheel and the mouse handled the thrusters which I’ll be honest since not that many games I’ve played use the wheel unless you specify it it was really hard to remember that it did the most important part of the game.

For an hour long demo I’m surprised at the content I was able to play considering the demo marked it as the prologue which for many also offered the prologue in a hard mode. You start in an empty area coming out of warp drive with your ship failing as you take control and go over the simple instructions on what keys move the ship and what keys fire weapons you are soon interrupted by the enemy which puts you and your failing ship in a classic dog battle 1 against 3 which considering the weaponry they had kind of felt a bit unbalanced as you fire away with your cannons and guns. You end the trio only to have the ships A.I warn you of more enemies in same rinse and repeat fashion you destroy them and the game teaches you about looting which yay loot. You must approach the ships until they turn holo and find the red spot hover your mouse over and click and hold boom loot for you.

After the little battle intro you make your way to the nearest space station looking for repairs. After finding the repair chief you make a deal for the repairs on the ship and this brings you to the first of 2 contracts you can complete during the demo. I admit the contracts felt normal for any typical game (go here find this go there check that fight and return) Nothing major to make it stand out to the only game I can compare it to. The second contract tasks you with babysitting and exploring and finding out what’s going on near a mining area. Once you investigate and find what you need you’re thrown into another space battle against some space pirates a few minutes later their gone and you have a computer chip to decipher. Making your way back to the station, the repair chief let’s you know your ship is repaired so you set out right away along the way in warp drive your crew decipher the chip and play the message on it. Soon you find out the danger and treason said message holds as you rush to warn your superiors.

The final part of the demo has you reach a republic space station just in time to see the admiral talking to another admiral welcoming him only to behold that said admiral is the bad guy starting a galactic war. Soon your giving control back of your ship and fly into the heat of battle after taking down a few enemy ships your A.I reports that Admiral Shiao (good guy) has died in battle, hearing this you become emotional and launch an all out attack on the traitor who happens to be in the middle of a cluster of 5 other ships. Again you take over and struggle for a few more minutes after getting the enemy down to 35% the cinematics take over as you sacrifice your crew and ship to destroy the traitor and enemies around, you come to asking your A.I how the ship is down only to a few seconds later see yourself and your ship explode and the name of the demo Between the Stars show up on screen. Demo over as a message of helping to support the production of the game flashes on screen linking you to the kickstarter.

Now I don’t know if it’s like that for every space game or if it’s just me but I was bored during the whole demo it wasn’t until seeing the message of treason on screen and hearing of the impending danger that I started to get interested in the story of the game and seeing my captain die in an explosion like WTF man. Story wise I feel the demo took to long to get you to the juicy bit and then your hit with a high pressure hose of story only to have it end a minute later. I hope the game has an amazing story cause the tiny bit that I got to see left more to be desired.

I also hope to see support for controllers and flight sticks added to the game upon release. If you’re a fan of space games and want one with the makings of a good story then keep an eye out for between the stars when it releases next year out on steam. Have a great day everyone.