Star Citizen has been on the receiving end of a ton of criticisms. It's not hard to see why. Nearly $50 million dollars for a crowd-funded indie game is an absurd concept to wrap one's mind around. However, Cloud Imperium Games and Roberts Space Industries is doing the impossible by bringing a crowd-funded, AAA-quality title to life (piece by piece, mind you) through Star Citizen. “Ambitious project” is a vast understatement. But on the up-and-up, anyone who managed to back the game has been granted some access to the multiplayer arena module. This means you can test out the flight mechanics, get a whiff of the high-end visual effects and try out the dogfighting gameplay.
Blues spotted an update over on the official Roberts Space Industries website where they recently gave backers the heads-up about being able to play the Arena Commander mode via competitive multiplayer. It's a great way to get a taste of what the game has in store, and it's an equally great way for Cloud Imperium Games to show progress on the development side, as well as what kind of gameplay that backers will get to experience as the title moves closer towards completion.
As mentioned on the website...
“We have been reviewing the user experience data from Patch 12.5 and have decided it’s time to open the floodgates! Everyone with Alpha Access or an Arena Commander Pass can now play the current multiplayer modes (with more to be added soon!) Multiplayer will also be available to anyone who picks up an Arena Commander pass going forward.”
Essentially, this encourages anyone who really wants to get a taste of Star Citizen to pony up some cash and give it a test-run, or anyone who has already backed the game to maybe influence a friend or two to pony up some cash in order to dogfight them in the multiplayer module.
Many naysayers had stated that RSI was enacting a quick cash-grab (and it's not hard to understand that point of view given the amount of money at stake) but the team has definitely come through on multiple occasions, proving that Star Citizen is a real project with real goals, and that they have a legitimate opportunity to thwart the current outlook on how the industry views PC games, independently funded titles and space simulators in general.
Things really started looking up once Chris Roberts, the head honcho of the project, demonstrated a playable version of the dogfighting module back in April. This was followed up with the release of the player-vs-AI module being release at the beginning of June. At this juncture, the team has made enough progress to implement multiplayer connectivity, which should surely boost the appeal of Star Citizen and further silence many of the naysayers.
For those of you still skeptical about the title. You can see a recently uploaded video of the Star Citizen multiplayer Arena Commander mode below.
If the video above has you all hot and bothered, you can learn more about Star Citizen or attempt to get in on the deal by backing the project by paying a visit to the game's official website.
