Review by: Tom Chick

You don't have many options for open-world space combat and trading sims on a console system. So the first thing Darkstar One: Broken Alliance has going for it is that it doesn't have a lot of competition. The second thing it has going for it is that it was already a good game on the PC, and it was simple enough that it didn't have to be compromised on the way to the Xbox 360. So right away, that's a heap of good news for anyone who fondly recalls the thrill of flying a load of medical supplies past pirates to sell it for a modest profit that will go towards a bigger laser.

Now before you get overly scared or excited by the word "sim", keep in mind that this is a very arcade/action experience. The actual, uh, "flight" is unique. Long ago, Lucas and then Lucasarts trained us to think of space combat as World War II dogfighting. But games like I-War and Lightspeed flirted with realism, inasmuch as you can do that in a space combat game. Darkstar One has a touch of both, which makes it play like neither. It's a bit like swimming around. You rotate more than you fly. There's lots of pivoting and moving backwards and generally just turning interminably. You feel more like a drifting turret than a hurtling spaceship. But it works in its own way. You get a lot of activity and shooting and very mildly spectacular explosions. For some of the tough battles, you might actually shunt power from your lasers or balance your shields. The stuff of a bona fide space battles might be muted, but it's in here.

There's not a lot of hardware in terms of different types of weapons. Since money is so cheap, you basically surf the leading edge of a power curve, buying the best flavor of lasers. You can go for some missile action instead. Automated turrets are a must. There is some give and take with special equipment. Do you want to equip a docking computer to get into the trade station faster, or a mining rig to make a little extra money from asteroids, or a scanning jammer to smuggle goods? The dirty little secret in Darkstar One is that you can take them all and just plug them in as needed.

But this isn't a game about choosing among ships and fitting them with various bits of gear and weapons. You get only the eponymous Darkstar One and you can almost always easily afford the best gear. Your meaningful choice is how you upgrade the ship. This is the real pull of the game. As you find artifacts, which are like collectibles in a platform game, you can upgrade parts of your ship, which level it up and let you equip it with better gear. This is how you surf the power curve. Upgrades also let you spend points on the ship's special weapon, which is like a skill tree with a handful of cool spells. The whole thing works wonderfully as a sort of RPG about a ship instead of a character. Yeah, sure, it's only one character class and the skill tree is rather small, but it's an effective twist. "Let me just keep playing long enough to grab a couple more artifacts so I can level up." That's a common refrain in Darkstar One.

As you gad about gathering artifacts, there's plenty of opportunity for making money in whatever way you like. Darkstar One generously lets you pirate, trade, smuggle, bounty hunt, escort, or any combination thereof. You won't be judged. Since the galaxy is splintered into different races with different governments, you're never going to be locked into one way of playing. Feel free to sample various lifestyles. Because, ultimately, this isn't about the money.