Cryptstone Games announced the recent launch of their flagship title, Star Prospector, with the release of a playable demo. Star Prospector takes players on a single-player campaign spanning one hundred missions across a randomly generated galaxy. The cybernetic Scavengers are rallying; once-disorganized tribes are forming an army and ravaging colonies across the Milky Way. It’s up to the player to discover the source of this disturbance.
Mechanically Star Prospector boasts a mix of real-time strategy and role-playing elements that will be familiar to fans of Dawn of War 2 or Original War. Players control a Rig, a customizable multipurpose mech similar to the iconic command units of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. Over the course of the campaign, players will equip and level up their rig into an efficient engineering and combat vehicle, outfitting themselves with a variety of weapons, armor, and subsystems while unlocking higher levels of combat units and buildings. Military robots gain experience as they fight, growing more powerful as the mission progresses.
The scale of the game is small, players can expect to command at most a handful of units, and fairly relaxed. Gamers expecting Supreme Commander’s grand planetary battles or Starcraft 2’s ten minute matches will likely be disappointed but for others it might just be the strategy game we’ve been waiting for. As for the rest of us, the only quibble I have about Star Prospector is the lack of multiplayer. Granted, this is not a major complaint; to some of us it might even be a good thing. But it is worth mentioning.
Star Prospector is currently available on Gamestop’s Impulse for $19.99; there is presently no word on a Steam release. Gamers interested trying before they buy should consult Cryptstone’s website for a list of servers hosting the demo files.
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