PULSAR: Lost Colony

[Kithop]

Anyone play PULSAR: Lost Colony (Steam) here?

It's an Early Access 5-player co-op space simulation game (*watches everyone turning and running away* - wait, no!) still in Beta, and the early-2000s graphics aren't going to win any awards, but unlike other space sims (*cough*Star Citizen*cough*), they have the core gameplay already fleshed out and playable, even if the main campaign is still short and there aren't a lot of missions.  With a good crew, you can get to endgame in a couple hours... and have a blast doing it.  Literally.

I wrote a quick review after my first night of playing it here, and had another good run last night where I got to endgame for the first time with a half-way decent crew, consisting of random people from all over the internet and around the world.

In a nutshell, the game plays a lot like I'd expect a decent Star Trek game would.  If you've seen or played Artemis, FTL, or Star Trek Online, this draws a lot from all three.  It's a 3D, first person (save for the Pilot's options of external 3rd-person cameras on the ship) bridge simulator, with Captain, Pilot, Engineer, Weapons, and Science roles and built-in TeamSpeak voice chat.  You fly around the galaxy, doing missions, blowing up enemy drones and ships, beaming down to planets and stations and upgrading your ship as you go.

It works well enough with pick-up-groups (PUGs); random player-hosted instances you can join and drop out of at will, but as with most co-op games, they work better when you play with friends. ;p  So if anyone has it or is thinking about getting it, feel free to add me on Steam - I've got a Saitek X52 HOTAS setup that's awesome for piloting, but I can fill any role.