We've all got a little of that pioneer spirit in us, whether it's picking up and moving to a completely different country, or choosing to go out to a restaurant, the need to explore is deep in most of us. Well, that need is somewhat answered in the new game from CDV and Ascaron, Darkstar One. In DSO, you take on the role of Kayron Jarvis, the son of a legendary pilot and new owner of the one-of-a-kind ship aptly titled the "Darkstar One." Your mission is simple, find out who murdered your father and make them pay, what isn't simple is how you go about doing it.

DSO is the kind of space adventure that incorporates some RPG-style elements along with some free-roaming side quests. Literally from the get go, you are plunged into dog fights and missions galore. And almost as quickly you discover that you will need to make money in order to upgrade your ship so you can accept those missions that require an awful lot of firepower.

But in all fairness the game is more then that, as you venture from space port to space port, you will discover you can get involved in the trade game for profit. Some star systems are rife with supplies while others are not, transporting to these areas allows you to sell your goods at a marked-up price (kinda like oil) and gain the money that you need to improve your ship. Of course, there are some things that are illegal you can smuggle for even greater profit, but beware, the police can and will scan your ship for illegal cargo.

 "No, he was wrong."

So by now I think I have painted a picture that may have you believing that you play a character similar to Han Solo, and you would be right in some respects. Kayron's character can go several different directions depending on how you play the game, by becoming a ruthless killer of, well, everyone, you will get a reputation as a killer, or you may become a famous trader or smuggler or even be renowned as a hired gun/mercenary. The point is with the various styles of missions; protecting convoys, getting involved in political strife, hunting down pirates, etc. etc., you can find yourself getting caught up in the uncommon "just one more mission" style of thinking before you go off to bed. It is that fun, plus the back-story (which is a bit convoluted anyway) involves an uneasiness with a race of biotechnical creatures called the Thul. And on another note, you can even go rogue, and start attacking the same police-style force that issued you your fancy ship.

For everything that I like about this game I have found a couple of things that really frustrated me. Most notably, the controls of the Darkstar, particularly the steering is very frustrating. Not that the other controls are, or the layout, no that's all fine, but steering truly stinks, when trying to follow someone or shoot a pirate down is incredibly difficult due to the sloppy overcompensation that the craft has. Plus the other frustrating part, you cannot adjust the mouse sensitivity, so the only thing I could do was pilot it by control pad, which improved the flight controls, but only minimally. Other then that, the game has a pretty straight forward tutorial on how to use your instruments so that's a bit of a plus.

 "My recommendation is to evade."

Going from space port to space port you will notice several things, that no matter where you go, there is always somebody looking for a skilled pilot to do "insert mission here". And that the same aliens appear in the space station regardless of the 300 million miles apart. Meaning that the developers chose to go with a canned visual in the space ports. Which is sad because the graphics do show signs of promise while screaming through space. Interestingly enough, the Darkstar begins showing signs of changing as well  and in a unique turn it appears the ship is actually alive and takes on character traits when artifacts are found (and absorbed) in the remote sections of the asteroid belts that seem to be everywhere. This strange technology may or may not have something to do with the murder of Kayron's father and or the Thul... Hmmmmmmm.

Now the voice work in the game is best described as above average, the dialogue can be a little hammy at times and there only seems to be five or six sayings that opponents spew forth during combat. But the spoken word by the voice actors seems to fit the "trying to be serious but is more cheesy then anything" dialogue that is mired in so many 80's "B" flicks. However, this seems so appropriate for what's going on I can't really beat it up. Now the sound effects are cool and I took full advantage of my beefy speaker setup by cranking the volume up whenever the action started breaking pace, explosions, weapons fire, the "clunk" sound when you ram into one another ship. As far as I am concerned the sound effects are great.

It really is a loose feeling RPG in space, your ship is completely upgradable in a new and cool way, you take on the missions you want and you deal with them the way you want to, with either finesse, or heavy handedness. Sure the graphics engine is a little old but the game really hits the nail on the head when you talk about fun. It's easy to pick up, the missions are varied and you can at last live out your Han Solo dreams, now where's my wookiee. Lastly, the save function on the game is exactly what save functions should be easy. Merely call up the menu and hit save -  that's it, nothing fancy; why other games don't include this is beyond me.

Gameplay: 7.0
Everything works great except for the sloppy flight controls, which really bummed me out since everything else seems to work great. And with a fairly easy tutorial, you learn how to get things going quite quickly.

Graphics: 7.0
Things look better in space then they do on the space stations. Having to have to dock is pretty cool and the in-cockpit HUD is pretty nifty telling you how far you are from objects and auto locators. You should know that Geforce 4 MX cards are not supported on this title.

Sound: 7.2
"B" movie voice work with cool sound effects; I know you can't hear nothing in space, but this game doesn't care and neither do I.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Something you should know, once you take on a mission, you cannot "un"take it. Meaning if you are improperly equipped or your ship isn't strong enough yet, then you are in a pickle because that mission is yours until you figure out a way to complete it.

Concept: 8.0
The best quality of the game, a ship that actually is part alive and can do fantastic things like grow longer wings to accommodate extra weapons. Plus there's that cool, space buccaneer feeling that the game has.

Overall: 7.3
I am enjoying this title, even when completed, you can go back and play it over accepting different missions and/or playing with a different style.