Star Citizen: A new frontier in online gaming

Normally when someone searches for a game online, they are redirected to the website of that game's publisher. So for example, if anyone is to look up Madden NFL, they will be directed to the website of EA which is the publishing company.

This is the first unique aspect of Star Citizen – its website. The publisher of the game is named 'Cloud Imperium Games'. But interestingly, the website for the game is called 'Roberts Space Industries'. The interface and layout of the website is designed to give anyone visiting the experience of  a futuristic space industry, built for those who want to set out into the vast unknown.

Video games have been a portal to another world for many. In the last 10 years or so, video games have been inspiring technological innovation to a greater extent. Star Citizen is one of those games, where imagination and creativity has reached a completely new height. 

One of the tropes that has long existed in the video game industry is that the world that is created to entertain a games' purpose, is limited and is prone to becoming tedious or monotonous. But imagine a place where the universe is seemingly endless. Where the opportunities to explore are ever changing and expanding. 

For those who are a big admirer of the Star Wars and the Star Trek franchise, imagine a world that is essentially a blend of both, but much more futuristically realistic.

That's not the end of it. Normally people will have to buy a game itself in order to play and access the contents. In Star Citizen, those interested to play will have to buy a ship instead of the whole game. 

Purchasing a ship, whether it be a fighter or an enterprise ship, will give the players full access to the game. This is where the game starts to get realistic and immersive.

If we think about it, this is exactly what we would do if we achieved space exploration in this day and age. We would purchase a ship that fits the description of our needs and work from there, wouldn't we? The game also gives us a massive open world with full blown civilisations and systems, where everyone can find whatever it is they need.

Star Citizen is essentially a space simulation game, for the lack of a defined categorisation. Now there have been other simulation games over the years. Many garnered tons of admirers across the world for a short while. But all of them fell short of giving everyone playing the game a sense of immersion. For a moment perhaps they feel like they give us some semblance of realism, but it doesn't take long to understand how limited they are in terms of scope. And that's where the downside starts.

Having played Star Citizen for over 100 hours, I can tell with utmost confidence that is not the case with this game. The universe of the game takes immersiveness on a completely different level. The world and the expanse of the space itself of the game is massive to say the least. It is so big in fact, it feels as though one is actually traversing through space in their ships. 

The simulation of the ships requires at least some realistic knowledge. While the controls are fairly simple to make it easy for everyone to navigate; the mechanism is made to give a realistic feeling. From the cockpit to the speed of the ship and how different planets' systems work, everything is down to earth and simulates real world mechanics.I could go deeper into analysing how realistic this game is for hours.

But the most interesting aspect about the game is that….it is not even out of its Alpha stage yet! Video games usually go through three phases of development. Beta and Alpha are two of the developing phases before the final release. 

Star Citizen has been in its Alpha stage for over a decade now, meaning that it is not finalised yet and open for public sale. But the integrity, performance and the immersion with the future has attracted half a million active players to the game. The developers are still putting out new content on a weekly basis. Players are always presented with new things to explore.