Previous Next

Starflight comes complete with a photo of a haggard-looking group of American programmers dressed in spacesuits, but looking more like McDonalds' crew members. This appears to be part of a guilt trip designed to show how much sweat and honest toil has gone into crafting this humble program. All this is made doubly necessary because this is a game set in one of the dodgiest areas known to software - it's an Elite clone.

The question of why someone is masochistic enough to attempt to better an all-time classic like this I'll leave to clinical psychology. You begin your quest in the round, anonymous bowl of the spaceport where you have a minimal amount of money to recruit a crew and equip your spacecraft. This is accessible enough and graphically much nicer than its illustrious predecessor, although it won't set any knees at Cinemaware trembling. You then set off on an interplanetary flight by dragging a mouse around the solar system, this once again is easy and a big, fat clue is given to you on your communications system at the spaceport than the neighbouring planet might be worth the once over.

Once you've established an orbit around the planet a revolving planet appears on which you can attempt a landing. One of the 'features' of the game is the scenic landing series where you gradually get closer to the planet surface. A bit too gradually for my liking, but you can at least turn this effect off and just plonk down on the ground. You can then get onto your 4 x 4 range rover/mining machine and explore the surface. This is one of the best aspects of Starflight, as you zip around in search of bounty. Then, much like Elite, it's time to return to the starport to flog what you found.

The systems are detailed with a good balance of interesting and not so interesting planets to explore which makes the gameplay not easy, but not too frustrating either. All round, it's an easier game to get into than Elite, and well designed. Where it loses out is in the space combat which is entirely formularised and really pretty dull (especially if you get blown away). As you progress, your options are made clear, whilst still leaving you a good margin of choice which gives the game a more RPG-like touch.

Even taking into account the total unoriginality of the overall concept, EA have done an excellent job of making this as playable as possible. I don't think it'll become a classic, but Starflight made a very passable distraction and will almost certainly have you extracting your money's worth of entertainment as easily as your terrain vehicle scoops up minerals.