“It was 1990 on Earth, but in space it was 2654. I was 14, and Wing Commander rocked my world.”

I have started playing Star Citizen regularly. My initial pledge was over a decade ago, and while I never expected a lot I knew Chris Roberts would put together a really cool space game given his track record. It was a running joke for a long time in my gaming circle that Star Citizen would never launch, vaporware, boondoggle, and a scam. And it’s still not done. But after playing it a while I don’t really care anymore. It ticks enough boxes for me. It has beautiful graphics, fps to space combat with capital ships and everything in between. By everything in between I mean there is ground and pound fps combat, close quarters combat, tanks, light transport vehicles, and power armor frames. The spacecraft range from tiny one man fighters to giant ships that actually make the player feel tiny up close. Those giant ships can fire giant lasers that light up space battles. You can put the ground vehicles in a ship and carry them off to space. You can land your small space ships in the bigger space ships. There are other gameplay loops also like cargo hauling, mining, salvaging, bounty hunting, and a commodity market to trade goods. PVP piracy is allowed. The collection of gameplay opportunities is an enormous sandbox collection of all the Chris Roberts games I’ve played in the past.

You can wake up at the spawn point, go shopping, hop on a train, get in a ship, fly into space, and fly around to other planets, to other solar systems, all without any loading screens. You can do that with as many friends in a group as you can put up with. Some planets have farms and would allow you to live a hermit’s life, if that’s what you want. Combat not your thing today, well move some space boxes around as a job. You can stack them neat or jam so many loose containers in the hold the doors hardly shut. I’ve realized why it’s taken over a decade to make this game. I admit, I thought it would never get anywhere after logging in every few years to check on the progress, but have come around to appreciate it for what it is now. You play a citizen, in space. We can talk about Squadron 42 later.

Star Citizen is undeniably buggy, and while many say, “it’s not finished, it’s just an Alpha,” I find it puzzling that after a decade plus of development, it still hasn’t been fully released based just from revenue of ship sales and content subscriptions. Some of the bugs are just plain confusing how they get past QA. There’s a complex history behind this, but I won’t unpack that now. Despite its flaws, the game excels in many areas. I’m consistently impressed by the stunning in-game views each session. There is plenty of single player missions for reputation, waiting to grind. As a true PVP MMO, joining a player-run organization greatly enhances the experience. Maybe calling it a PVP MMO is too much? Some areas killing is off limits, like in the major cities and space stations. PVP is potentially right around the corner whenever you leave the safe spaces. Criminal behavior and aggression can trigger missions for other players to hunt you down. There is jail time, and ways around it. There are two solar systems currently playable, one is under a justice system and the other is lawless. Oddly I’ve had less PVP in the lawless system. Did I spend an unreasonable amount of money for digital content? Probably but damnit I’m going to get the hours of gameplay from that spend. Initially, I played with a small group of friends, including my high school game buddy from back in the modem days of Armada, and now I’ve joined a “milsim” group [BLACK6]. I mostly serve as a crew member on one of the massive ships, operating a turret. (For me, its not boring. I loved B-17: Flying Fortress from 1992) We’ve executed various in game missions where eight player crew or larger is ideal, including fast-paced runs to collect key McGuffins for larger group events. Worth noting in those missions we had org players flying escort in fighters, and drop ships ready for transport. With the [LB] crew, Star Citizen players are affectionately labeled “space bros.” I find that fitting and thought it made a great name for a site—so here we are with my first post on space-bros.org.

Star Citizen hits me right in the member’ berries. It nails pitch perfect Wing Commander, Privateer, and Armada. So while waiting around “off duty” I thought I would have a stroll back to where this current hobby started for me. It was 1990 on Earth, but in space it was 2654. I was 14, and Wing Commander rocked my world.

This is day one of 1990.

Mankind is locked in a deadly war… peace in our time, right?

This game had add on content!

The sim was a good hangout when flying between waypoints was just too slow to scratch the itch. The game starts here in the sim. I was not prepared to hear the ancient bloop sound effect from the lasers.

The sim gave you waves of enemy fighters, each wave increasing in number.

The sim sits in the bar, where you can read plot in between missions.

I remember trying to take Paladins advice on that first mission.

Be still my heart. French accents still do it for me. Who was best girl, Angel or Spirit?

Between the bar and the mission briefing room are barracks. And boy are they a dump. Space life in 2654 was rough. This room also doubled as a save / load point. Be sure to save every night when mom kicks you off the computer.

We meet our wingman Spirit in the first mission briefing.

This is the mission briefing. Fly to the points, shoot the enemy. Not much has changed in this regard from then to now in 2955 for combat patrols.

Space suits were Members Only jackets. That helmet that had a real Macross vibe going.

Dig that hornet. The hangar was quite roomy in the Tiger’s Claw.

The Hornet could accelerate to 420kpm. Decent weapon loadout for a starting ship.

Taking the screen grabs would put DOSBox in a weird state. It’s recorded quite by FooAtari on youtube.

Asteroid fields are a part of the Wing Commander gameplay. It breaks up the flying between waypoints with some non combat maneuvering action.

Back on board the Tiger’s Claw, The colonel gives a debrief.

Playing Wing Commander now brings back a lot of 90’s nostalgia. I pulled up some tv news recordings from 1990, and wow has the doom feed grown exponentially. Back to gaming. The more I play Star Citizen, the more I’m reminded of how great Wing Commander was back in the day. Playing the first mission really builds some anticipation for Squadron 42, imagining what the Star Citizen game mechanics will be when applied to the military mission campaign gameplay Wing Commander mastered.

Game Over for day one of 1990.

You’re still here? Thanks for sticking around. If Star Citizen sounds like something you’re interested in, and feel like throwing me some love please use my referral code if you create an account: https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-5YHM-3GBZ