Star Atlas

Introduction

The concept of traveling through space, and exploring its depths have persuaded humans for decades. A number of games have managed to deliver astounding experiences mimicking what it would be like to live in space, and Star Atlas is poised to be next in line. 

Star Atlas is a virtual gaming metaverse based in the year 2620. Three major factions now control the universe; the human MUD Territory, the alien ONI Region, and the robotic Ustur Sector. These factions are in an ongoing struggle for resources, territorial conquest, and political domination. The players choose which faction they want to belong to, and grow in power enough to become one of its influential members to influence the outcome of this never ending war.

Gameplay

If you are familiar with Star Citizen or EVE Online, Star Atlas as a game won’t feel very foreign to you. This time however, thanks to the world of blockchain gaming, you will finally have control over all the in-game assets under your name. The four core gameplay mechanics are grand strategy, exploration, RPG, and space flight simulation.

Grand Strategy

This portion of Star Atlas will be directed towards more strategic players who want to control trade routes and the economical structure of the entire game. In this mode, players will be encouraged to claim staking to expand their empire and install strategic trade routes using an offensive and defensive tactical plan of action.

Exploration

Once you acquire a spaceship, you are free to wander through space and explore new planets, or even the one you are living on. These planets can feature celestial and terrestrial assets. 

Your job here is to extract as much value out of these as you can through setting up mining rigs, refineries, and trading these resources for more valuable assets you need to progress personally and your faction with you.

RPG

As mentioned before, you are prompted to choose a faction to belong to from the get-go in Star Atlas. Each one of them has its pros and cons, and decides the way people interact with you. 

In addition, there are several roles within the world of Star Atlas players can choose from. As mentioned before, you can become your faction’s strategy mastermind or control the intergalactic trading routes. The character you build within the game will represent you and your actions and decisions.

Space Flight Simulation

This is where the comparison to EVE Online comes in. Star Atlas promises to bring a unique and enjoyable space flight simulation experience to its players. 

The fleet of spaceships available on the game’s marketplace look incredible on their own, so imagine numerous of these just flying across your screen in an epic faction space battle.

Review

Star Atlas has a very long term vision that it will take quite some time to deliver on everything they promised so far. The closest thing we have seen of this scale in gaming overall is Star Citizen and that took almost decades to develop with several rounds of fundraising to get the resources necessary to create everything they had in mind.

Having said that, Star Atlas has added their game onto the Epic Games Store and players flocked into it to experience the showroom segment of the game. There is yet anything significant to do in the game outside of just running around and looking at the fancy spaceships you own but with time, we might start to see positive signs of progress towards exciting bits of gameplay.