Stars End

Review

On the main menu you’ll find Join Server, where you’ll be able to play on Official and Dedicated Servers detailing Population (current number and the maximum number of players), and PVP game type (PVP and PVE). Selecting Join to one of these servers will take you into a game to play on that server. If you don’t fancy playing on a server with other folks you can play on Solo & Personal Server which is also on the main menu screen. You can also find Announcements and State of Development where you’ll find information on Updates and about the Team, Upgrading Graphics, Performance and Bugs and some information about the game.

I decided to play on the Solo & Personal Server as I don’t play these types of games much, and rather than jumping into a server with more experienced players I wanted to get the gist of the game without any worries. Even though it’s a Solo & Personal Server you can still allow other players to play on your server. You can set a name for your server and then choose one of the following server options: Public (if you want others to play on your server), Dedicated (you cannot play and host at the same time) or PVE, then enter the maximum number of players for your server.  You can also choose Rest Server; bear in mind that this will wipe all players’ saved data from the server, so only click the button if you really want to start fresh.

After selecting to Play Game you’ll be able to customise your character with Name, Sex (Yes Please), Face Type, Skin, Hair and Hair Colour. Once you have the desired look for your character, hitting the start button will take you in-game. From here you’ll have to choose one of two paths, Play Prologue or Play Survival. Prologue is where you find yourself on a station in the Stars End System after arriving on a generation ship. This is where you can complete missions to learn more about the game. Survival is where you can fight competitively in a clan war, build your own town or just survive. You will spawn in the Clayton Shire on Beta Prairie, which is found in the alpha regions.



After a small introduction of the Prologue, you find yourself on the space station Titan. Here you’ll go over some of the basics of the game and will be required to complete a few missions. They’re simple missions such as speaking to various characters, collecting items floating in space, checking lockers for items, food, clothes and anything else you can find. Eventually you’ll end up with your own spaceship and be able to fly to other stations or head down to Beta Prairie and start your very own town.

You can find resources such as gear, items, food and more scattered around, hidden in lockers, scrap piles, bins etcetera. You can store these resources in the Global Storage found at various places; it soon fills up, but you can store multiple items in one slot of storage. You can carry a total weight of one thousand pounds, which can be increased with a satchel or backpack, but this will replace your jet pack.

There are quite a few options when it comes to crafting, from making bandages to walls and window frames. You will first have to stake a Land Claim somewhere, then you can start building your home and settlement. I did try doing this, however I ran into a bit of a problem. I found somewhere I thought might be ok to start my settlement, so I jumped off my trusty steed (Silver), whipped out my Land Claim and used it.

However, where I chose to put up roots didn’t happen; my claim stake had disappeared, which is odd as it says that you can uproot it should you wish to relocate. After scanning my surroundings, I spotted a marker to my claim, some eight hundred meters away. After jumping on Silver and screaming out like The Lone Ranger I headed off towards my claim. Wondering what lays in store for me I galloped in the direction of my claim, only to suddenly find about halfway there that the marker was underneath me. I just could not find where my plot of land was, no matter which direction I went. It would get closer according to the marker but then it would start getting further away.

I have found a few other bugs such as text missing or broken fonts on buttons like Play Game. Another bug I found was when trying to access the Global Storage; it just would not open.  I restarted the game and it worked once or twice but then stopped working again. So, there are some bugs, but it is an Early Access game so this should be expected. Hopefully these bugs can get sorted in future updates; the developers do seem to roll out updates regularly.

The game isn’t too bad, the graphics are decent, it runs well and has decent music/radio and ambient sounds. If I could offer one piece of advice it would be to make sure you carry some spare fuel for your spaceship. I had used my spare fuel and was trying to land when I had to go and make a sacrifice to the porcelain god. Ten minutes or so later (I’d give it five minutes before going in there) I came back to find my ship had crashed in a field on some old scrap metal half on its side with no fuel left. I went everywhere trying to find some fuel, but I couldn’t find any at all.

I really needed some fuel as it said I needed to visit the Captain at the station, Titan. I had already visited the Captain and think this might have been another bug. So, I decided to ferry hop to Titan up in space (it costs fifty credits for a ferry ride). I got within three and half kilometers from the station only to find that there was no ferry to Titan. So, I put on my jetpack and spacesuit and thought I’ll spacewalk there; sadly it was taking forever. I never seemed to get any closer after having only three kilometers to go. I gave up at this time, again hopefully with some bug fixes in the future I may be able to build The Froggy Club settlement and spread the love out around Stars End.

In the options there’s General (Language English, German, French, Russian and Chinese and Show Tooltips), Video (Resolution, Full Screen, Quality, Screen Space and Realtime Reflections, Horizon, Far, Mid and Low Details), Audio (Music, Sound Effects, Voice and Radio Volume sliders), Input (Mouse Sensitivity, Invert Mouse and Key Bindings, Reset All Settings can also be found here.

 

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!


Positives

+ Good graphics and sounds
+ Has achievements
+ Has cards

Negatives

- Some bugs, but that’s expected with Early Access

Review Summary

Take to the stars, visit planets and space stations, create your own settlement, trade and craft all out at Stars End.

Share this review!

Zeepond Rating: 6/10

Video