Dead Star Hands-On Impressions at PAX South 2016

<p>Not the Death Star&comma; but <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;deadstargame&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><i>Dead<&sol;i><i> Star<&sol;i><&sol;a>&comma; rather&comma;<i> <&sol;i>combines the best elements of <i>Battlestar Galactica<&sol;i>&comma; <em>Star Control 2&comma;<&sol;em> and arcade-style combat&period; Developed by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;armature&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Armature Studio<&sol;a>&comma; <em>Dead Star<&sol;em> had a dedicated booth at PAX South for attendees to get their hands on the game&period; It features fast-paced 10v10 battles with spaceship customization&comma; upgrades&comma; and matches which are played on procedurally generated maps&period; For those who may not be aware&comma; a procedurally generated map means that the match&&num;8217&semi;s shapes&comma; buildings&comma; and hazards will be different each time you play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99212" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99212" style&equals;"width&colon; 851px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-99212 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04004231&sol;dead-star1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dead Star" width&equals;"851" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99212" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dead Star&comma; Armature Studio&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Dead Star<&sol;em> is set at the farthest known recesses of space&comma; in ancient battlefield ruins where convicts are banished to live out their sentence under the watchful eye of the Guardian AI&period; You would be hard-pressed to find out much more about the backstory of <em>Dead Star<&sol;em> just by visiting the booth at PAX South&comma; but the demo could shine even without knowing the full story&period; I was particularly interested in knowing about the 4 races in the game&comma; each with their own 3 classes of ships&period; The 4 races are the Kurg&comma; Estari&comma; Valant&comma; and Ithid&comma; and the 3 classes of ships for each race are the scout&comma; raider&comma; and frigate&period; Each class of ship&comma; respectively&comma; will trade speed for more armor and firepower as you choose between the three&period; During the demo&comma; I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t picky about which race I would be playing as&comma; so long as I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t being the most human-like Valant race&period; As luck would have it&comma; I happened to be selected for the Valant team in the end anyway&comma; but it turned out alright&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99216" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99216" style&equals;"width&colon; 620px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-99216 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04004202&sol;dead-star2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dead Star" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99216" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dead Star&comma; Armature Studio&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The goal for each team in the PAX South demo was to battle your way through the intense dogfights and capture outposts to expand your team&&num;8217&semi;s presence&comma; and ultimately capture every outpost to win&period; This is called the &&num;8220&semi;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;deadstargame&period;com&sol;game-info&sol;game-modes&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Conquest<&sol;a>&&num;8221&semi; game mode&comma; and is the primary game mode in <em>Dead Star<&sol;em>&period; Mining ore allows you to upgrade your defenses for your team&comma; and repair any damages done to your outpost base&period; The game was a little tough to pick up at first&comma; as I noticed it is very easy to die if your moves aren&&num;8217&semi;t calculated &lpar;or cohesive with the rest of your team&rpar;&period; But in the 10 or 15 minutes I had with the game&comma; I eventually found that once you get the hang of it&comma; <em>Dead Star<&sol;em> can provide many fun and hectic battles&period; It would have been helpful to have a little more control over where I was aiming&comma; as the game relies on a twin-stick shooter format&comma; which means your right joystick effectively targets where you would like to aim your shot&period; The aiming&comma; however&comma; felt a bit too fast on the smaller ship classes&comma; thus making it hard to get a clear good shot off at times&period; However it does become quite a thrill when you do finally get that kill or capture an outpost&comma; especially when coordinating with your teammates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; <em>Dead Star<&sol;em> was certainly a contender among 3 or 4 other space-themed combat games on the PAX South show floor &lpar;like <em>Dreadnought<&sol;em>&rpar;&period; <em>Dead<&sol;em><i> Star<&sol;i> is currently in early access on Steam&comma; and is available for preorder on PS4 &lpar;preorder allows closed beta access&rpar;&period; The game will fully release in 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sources&colon; PAX South hands-on demo&comma; and <em>Dead Star<&sol;em> official website&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;