In its current version, Starpoint Gemini Warlords is a very simple game where you fly your capital ship around a star system visiting a handful of stations and planets, taking the missions you find there, and perhaps bringing cargo from place to place. The stripped-down work-in-progress comes across like a nostalgic throwback that remains blissfully unaware that a revival has taken place, and these kinds of open-ended spaceship adventure can be bigger, more ambitious, and more exciting than they were fifteen or twenty years ago. It calls to mind games like Privateer and Freelancer… but also games like Elite: Dangerous and Rebel Galaxy. The problem is that it's so basic that I'm having a hard time discerning what is going to set Warlords apart from both its immediate predecessor and the growing field of space-freelancing simulators. Starpoint Gemini Warlords is admirably straightforward in its Steam Early Access statement, warning-off potential buyers with an upfront admission that the game is currently an early alpha with only the most basic systems implemented.
Every week, Rob Zacny heads into the uncharted systems of Early Access in search of new cargo to bring back to the mothership.
