Star Citizen fans had a lot to get excited about during yesterday’s Fourth Anniversary Stream, and among them was the reveal of brand new Star Marine gameplay footage. Star Marine is Star Citizen’s first-person shooter module, and it’s currently being developed in-house at Cloud Imperium Games.
Just like many things Star Citizen, it’s been quite a while since we’ve last heard about this particular side of the project, so fans were expecting big things for yesterday’s reveal. Afterwards, the project’s vocal community was pretty divided on it. One of the most common complaints about the Alpha footage so far is that it appeared to draw too much from standard Call Of Duty concepts. The showcased 5v5 match was fast, frantic and maybe a little different from the more tactical approach that was originally pitched for the modes.
As luck would have it, a Cloud Imperium developer replied directly to those concerns on reddit. “This is the first iteration of the official Star Marine and a lot of things will be addressed/tweaked to make this module a more ‘tactical’ experience for our player base,” said verified CIG employee Jlee. “We are aware of the too much sprinting being an issue, and [it] has been talked over. We are also working towards encouraging players to go into cover, vault over objects and stick together.”
When asked specifically why this version had so much sprinting, Lee noted that everyone involved with the reveal was hyper and “super excited” to show off the module’s latest progress. The featured map was also made for more combatants than 10. As a result, it was necessary to move quickly to capture the control points required for an effective demonstration.
Star Citizen’s Star Marine is set to be the main feature of the 2.6 alpha release that’s planned to arrive for backers on Dec. 8. Project director Chris Roberts announced access to internal timelines on a weekly basis so those pledged to the endeavor can gain a deeper understanding of what’s going on. In mid-2015 the former studio behind Star Marine was hit with an aggressive round of layoffs that gave way to significant development delays. With CIG now in full control of everything, the intent is to be more transparent.
In addition to Star Marine, the 2.6 alpha is also slated to include new ships, a possible new Arena Commander map and other small improvements.
What do you think of yesterday’s Star Marine gameplay? Is it too much like Call Of Duty and not enough like Star Citizen? Do you expect CIG to get it right? Tell us in the comments section!
