Star Marine
Star Marine is the first-person shooter element of Star Citizen; like Arena Commander, Star Marine is an in-fiction combat simulator, released on December 23, 2016. There are two ways to play Star Marine: one game mode is a "capture-and-hold" game ("Last Stand") in which two opposing teams (the Marines and the Outlaws) each attempt to capture one or more "control points" (Laptops) to gain points; as a team captures more control points, they gain points at a steadily increasing rate. "Elimination" is a free-for-all "last man standing" match; unlike the team-based "Last Stand", players work individually to gain the highest kill-count before the match ends. Both game variants last for ten minutes or (in the case of "Last Stand") until one team accrues the higher score. The first-person shooter mechanics are claimed to be relatively realistic, with armor levels, weapon stances and stamina effects manifesting as heavy breathing.
Following the completion of the Kickstarter in 2013, the development of Star Marine was contracted out to the third-party studio IllFonic; in August 2015, the contract was terminated and development of Star Marine returned to an in-house team at Cloud Imperium Games, finally releasing on December 23, 2016.
Universe
Also referred to as Crusader (although this does not encompass the current scope), or the Persistent Universe - this is the game's primary module - first released on December 11, 2015 and designated as Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 (all subsequent Alpha versions were additions and modifications to the Crusader module). This module combines the gameplay aspects of the Hangar, Arena Commander, and Star Marine modules into one multiplayer platform. As of Alpha 3.3.6, this module allows players to freely navigate around and on the surface of one planet, seven moons, a planetoid, and a (currently untraversable) gas giant. Space stations, asteroids, and other points of interest in the play area allow players to interact, engage in combat, or conduct missions. Given the modular approach to development, the Universe module will continue to have features added and expand into what will become known as Star Citizen.
Squadron 42
Squadron 42 is a story-based single-player campaign set in the Star Citizen fictional universe described by the developers as a "spiritual successor to Wing Commander". It is being developed by the Foundry 42 studio under the supervision of Chris Roberts' brother Erin, who had already worked with him on the Wing Commander series and led the production and development of games like Privateer 2: The Darkening and Starlancer. It was originally announced for release in 2014 during the Kickstarter campaign, but significant expansion of gameplay features have led to postponement. In December 2018, a development roadmap showed that a beta was planned for release in Q2 2020.
The developers state that the interactive storyline centers on an elite military unit and involves the player character enlisting in the United Empire of Earth Navy, taking part in a campaign that starts with a large space battle. The player's actions will allow them to optionally achieve citizenship in the UEE and affect their status in the Star Citizen persistent universe, but neither of the two games has to be played in order to access the other. In addition to space combat simulation and first-person shooter elements, reported features include a conversation system that affects relationships with non-player pilots and an optional cooperative multiplayer mode. The game is planned to be released in multiple chapters, and according to the developers will be offering an estimated of 20 hours of gameplay for SQ42 Episode 1 with about 70 missions worth of game play, "Squadron 42 Episode Two: Behind Enemy Lines" and "Episode 3," will launch later. The cast for Squadron 42 includes Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham and Andy Serkis, amongst others.
Reception
In a Polygon opinion article, Charlie Hall compared Star Citizen to No Man's Sky and Elite: Dangerous, writing that "Last time I checked, Star Citizen writ large was a hope wrapped inside a dream buried inside a few layers of controversy", while stating that each game has something different to offer within the space sim genre. PC Gamer writer Luke Winkie also compared Star Citizen to No Man's Sky, describing Star Citizen as "the other super ambitious, controversial space sim on the horizon", and indicating that fans of the genre, disappointed in No Man's Sky were turning to the as-yet-unfinished Star Citizen, while sometimes expressing concerns should the latter fail to deliver.
The game's developers have attracted criticism for continuing to raise funds enthusiastically while failing to meet project deadlines,000 as well as the technical feasibility and the ability of the developers to finish the game.0
During the 2012 crowd-funding campaign, Chris Roberts suggested that the game might be released in 2014. At the time, Roberts said that "Really, it's all about constant iteration from launch. The whole idea is to be constantly updating. It isn’t like the old days where you had to have everything and the kitchen sink in at launch because you weren’t going to come back to it for awhile. We’re already one year in - another two years puts us at 3 total which is ideal. Any more and things would begin to get stale."0 By November 2014, the scope of the project had increased, with stretch goals raising the donation total to $65 million.
