‘Star Citizen’ Is Free To Try And Form Your Own Opinion Of Controversial Game


There is likely no more controversial title in gaming today than Chris Robert’s Star Citizen. The crowd-funded PC space simulator has raised over $100 million in funding thus far and is giving doubters and fans a chance to try the game themselves this week for free.

Cloud Imperium Games flipped the switch to enable Free Fly in Star Citizen from today through Monday, February 8. Those interested can head to the Roberts Space Industries website and register for a free account if you don’t already have one. Once registered, you can then download the installer for the title to your gaming PC and give the Hornet F7C military fighter, the Aurora LN starter and the Mustang Delta interceptor a spin.

Here are the details, from the developer, on what will be available to try during the free period.

  • Star Citizen Alpha 2.1.2 – “Also known as Crusader or the ‘mini-PU,’ this is the nucleus of the world we’re building! Featuring multiple space stations and environments, scripted missions, places to explore and more, Alpha 2.1.2 is your first look at a much larger universe!”
  • Arena Commander – “Arena Commander is a ‘game within a game’ that we’ve used to develop our flight mechanics and ship combat balance. Take on human opponents or an AI swarm in single seat fighter.”
  • Social Module – “Interact with other players while you explore our first landing zone, ArcCorp! The Social Module is intended as a starting point for our world building.”

Star Citizen (PC)
[Image via Roberts Space Industries]
The drama surrounding Star Citizen escalated toward the end of 2015 when The Escapist published a report, covered by Inquisitr, claiming Chris Roberts and his wife were mismanaging Star Citizen‘s millions of dollars in crowd-funding and practicing discriminatory hiring among other offenses. These charges have been led by certain vocal individuals, which resulted in threats of lawsuits being bandied back and forth.

Gamers were finally able to see a semblance of what Roberts and Cloud Imperium Games have been hyping the past couple of years when Star Citizen 2.0 was released in December with the chance to explore the first parts of the open persistent universe along with the first-person shooter aspects. It is far from complete, but know those that have made claims about the status of the game or are just curious about what all the fuss is about have the opportunity to try it for themselves.

The Free Play week for Star Citizen coincides with the release of the 2.1.2 alpha patch. The full list of fixes available can be viewed here and include updates to the Arena Commander module and the persistent universe. There is still a very long list of known issues that Roberts Space Industries is working on as well as adding content to the game.

Squadron 42 Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman in Squadron 42. [Image via Roberts Space Industries]
Now may be the best time to jump into Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium also announced today the Squadron 42 stand-alone game starring Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and others will be split out from the Star Citizen purchase on February 14.

“At the December livestream, we announced that Squadron 42 and Star Citizen will be split into two separate packages in the near future. To update on this: the split will occur on February 14th. Squadron 42 will be available as either a stand alone game or an optional addon for Star Citizen rather than be included by default. If you want to lock in both games for the lowest possible price, consider pledging before this deadline.”

The ship packages for Star Citizen start at $45 and include a single ship along with Squadron 42 and other in-game items. The price for Squadron 42 once it has been split from the current package has not been announced.

[Image via Roberts Space Industries]

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