Star Citizen – why you should care

Just one week ago, Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts’ new space combat simulator Star Citizen hit its Kickstarter goal of $500,000, with a whole month to spare.

That says a lot about the influence that Roberts and his legacy has on PC gamers; but what exactly is Star Citizen?

Star Citizen is a pledge to return PC space sims back to their former glory, by offering a throwback to the classics, while introducing the genre to a new generation of gamers. But Star Citizen isn’t just a nostalgic revisiting, as the game will take full-force of the current gen tech and resources available.

The game itself has been in development for quite some time through Roberts’ own Cloud Imperium Games. The game will have a huge sandbox in outer-space, opening up a colossal-sized intergalactic playground for players.

Cloud Imperium want the universe to be constantly expanding, and evolving and Roberts promises that instead of huge yearly updates, the game will feature weekly or bi-weekly add-ons to throw in new data, stories and campaigns.

Modding tools will also be available, opening up endless amounts of customisation to Roberts’ vision – including ship and item modding.

Speaking of your ship, your interstellar war machine will be detailed extensively, with dynamic thrusters and components on your ship that, if damaged, affect how your ship manoeuvres and operate.

This level of detail extends to the whole game, as the Crytek Engine 3-powered Star Citizen is claimed to have 10 times the detail of current triple-A games.

The online and community aspect of Star Citizen will be play a huge role, but that doesn’t mean single-player fans can’t get involved. There will be a “Wing Commander style” single-player campaign, with co-op options also on the table.

Roberts also wants to embrace the current (and future) technology that’s available, and has said that Star Citizen will support the Oculus Rift headset.

Cloud Imperium Games will continue posting updates to the Kickstarter page, which offers a host of options if depending on what you want to pledge to the project.

Star Citizen is in development only for PC, and is expected to be released within 2014.