Star Control: Origins

 PC
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. GamingTrend
    Sep 20, 2018
    95
    Star Control: Origins successfully grasps the perfect balance of serious and silly while making an engaging universe that’s fun to explore. The voice acting is wonderful, the script is brilliant, and the fleet battles are short, sweet, and exciting. With an in-depth crafting system, a living universe, and a multitude of choices that subtly affect the story, Star Control: Origins soars.
  2. Destructoid
    Sep 25, 2018
    90
    Star Control: Origins was an absolute joy for me. Its story and characters were utterly charming and unique. Its combat is a ton of fun.
  3. Softpedia
    Sep 25, 2018
    90
    Star Control: Origins perfectly combines exceptional writing, total exploration freedom, satisfying space combat, excellent voice acting and hypnotizing music. Although I felt intimidated by the importance of the journey ahead, the well written, humorous dialogues gently transitioned me into a state of pure excitement. No words can better describe Star Control: Origins than actually playing it. It's a masterpiece.
  5. GameWatcher
    Sep 20, 2018
    90
    It’s nearly unheard of for a company to pick up the rights to a game franchise and actually do the damn thing justice, but here we are with Star Control: Origins. The adventure is fun, funny, and all together engaging. I’m probably as surprised as you are that the game is actually this good.
  6. GameSpace
    Sep 20, 2018
    90
    As a person who loved Star Control II, Star Control: Origins has been much fun and reminded me of things I missed about the old game while giving me new amazing and sometimes hilarious moments in the new game.
  7. Windows Central
    Sep 20, 2018
    90
    If you enjoy space games, exploring the unknown, establishing communications with potential allies and enemies, as well as shooting stuff out of space, you'll enjoy Star Control: Origins.
  8. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Dec 21, 2018
    80
    Origins is a surprisingly good successor to the famous trilogy. There’s a big galaxy to explore, choices to make and memorable characters to meet. Dialogues are great, and arcade parts are simple, yet fun. Together, they make a game that will easily keep your interest for a week at least. [Issue#234, p.54]
    All this publication's reviews
  9. Gaming Nexus
    Oct 3, 2018
    80
    Remaining true to its roots with engaging ship to ship combat but shifting the gameplay to a more narrative focused exploration game, Star Control: Origins excels at it's prime directive. As we push out from that core loop there are elements that can drag on, but the central experience is where it stands tallest, incorporating a playful tale with entertaining delivery around excellent two dimensional, top down ship to ship combat.
  10. GameStar
    Feb 3, 2019
    72
    Quirky and entertaining space adventure for patient people with a lot of patience, patience and above all patience.
  11. GameStar
    Feb 3, 2019
    72
    Quirky and entertaining space adventure for patient people with a lot of patience, patience and above all patience.
  12. COGconnected
    Sep 25, 2018
    70
    Overall, it’s a decent game. There is plenty of content to go around, but it may lend itself to certain types of players more than others. If you don’t like a bit of grind, it may not go down as well. The story is good, the voice acting is excellent, but the more action-oriented parts feel almost like a more arcadey version of Elite Dangerous (but not like, in a bad way). In the end, Star Control: Origins feels like a game that players will either love or hate.
  13. Wccftech
    Sep 21, 2018
    70
    Star Control: Origins boasts some of the sharpest writing I’ve come across in a while. It made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, which is a rare thing. Unfortunately, this space adventure is at its worst when it’s at its spaciest. A lack of navigational tools, dull resource collecting, and oversimplified space battles all conspire to knock the game down a peg. Star Control: Origins serves up a lively galaxy worth exploring, but sometimes the commute can be a killer.
  14. USgamer
    Sep 20, 2018
    70
    The story campaign is a wonderful starbound adventure that'll make you feel like the starship captain many of us have always wanted to be. Unfortunately, it offers a done-in-one kind of 30+ hour adventure, with a lack meaningful choices.
  15. IGN
    Sep 20, 2018
    69
    Star Control: Origins does a great job of creating a new universe and stocking it with a diverse range of weird and funny aliens to fight in intense arcadey space battles. But everything you’re forced to do on a planet’s surface is boring at best and an annoying chore at worst, and that kills a lot of momentum.
  16. PC Gamer
    Sep 28, 2018
    60
    An empty galaxy and endless grinding mar clever writing and engaging combat.
  17. GameSpot
    Sep 20, 2018
    60
    At its best, Star Control: Origins urges you to poke and prod into every corner of its intimidatingly vast galaxy, searching out ancient secrets and pun-filled absurdities. At its worst, it drags you through mediocre arcade sequences and generic grind. Genre mashups are far more common today than they were in 1992, but striking the right balance between adventure, role-playing and arcade action remains as tricky as ever.

Awards & Rankings

69
#69 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
77
#77 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 114 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 114
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 114
  3. Negative: 40 out of 114
  1. The_Dengsta
    Sep 24, 2018
    4
    THIS IS A NON-SPOILER REVIEW.

    I was a "Founder" backer of this game and have finished the game, as well as having played very much of it in    THIS IS A NON-SPOILER REVIEW.

    I was a "Founder" backer of this game and have finished the game, as well as having played very much of it in beta. I never felt strongly enough about a game to write a review on metacritic before now.

    Star Control: Origins had promise, but it's marred by blatant attempts to copy the first few games. What's original, fresh, and innovative in this game is generally great, but the developers spend too much time trying to prove they're making a "true sequel to Star Control" as their CEO loves to endlessly rant about when talking **** about Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. But this game isn't a sequel. Or a prequel. It's a standalone Star Control game that on its own would make a good Star Control if it weren't for all its problems.

    But the problems with this game aren't the fault of his most hated evil "SJW" conspiracy on Twitter, or the fault of the creators of Star Control (oh darn, Stardock! I said it! I called Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford what they are!). They are the fault of a development team that spent too much time copying the first two games and wasting precious development time inserting ****y ripoffs of the Arilou and Melnorme to try and support their aggressive trademark claims. A developer who decided that a long campaign of lawsuits over some cover art and retweets, public **** talking to other game developers and threats to shut down the fan community was more important than just making a great game. If all that effort was spent on fixing SCO's problems, it would be an easy 8 or 9.

    POSITIVES:

    ~Star Control gameplay!
    ~Lots of stuff to explore
    ~A big variety of ships and more than one kind of ship per species (big improvement from other SC games)
    ~Some cool, funny and creative species

    NEGATIVES:

    ~Except for a twist at the end (which is vaguely reminiscent of Star Control 3), the overarching plot follows the exact same beats as Star Control 2. The species may be mostly original but the overall plot certainly isn't.

    ~Tries too hard to copy other Star Control games. Precursors, Arilou, Melnorme (sorry, you renamed them "Maelnir" now).

    ~The lander gameplay just sucks. It's boring, awkward to drive, and the cartoony art style means the terrain is exaggerated and hard to navigate sometimes. And despite what the developers and their brainless fanboys keep replying to Steam interviews with, you DO have to do a LOT of this to get anywhere in the game. It's the only real way to make money unless you want to hopelessly grind enemy ships for a pittance of Resource Units.

    ~The art style is cartoony. The other games had some cartoony moments, but this is World of Warcraft sort of cartoony. It's grating and makes the game feel corny and stupid, which is annoying because the game generally ISN'T those things.

    ~Battles are fun, but the arena is way too big and the AI is really, really boring to fight. Most of your time in combat will be spent flying around and not actually doing much.

    ~The writing is very inconsistent. For every great joke, line of dialogue or intriguing piece of writing, there's 10 bland, "look at how funny I am" moments. It just feels amateurish - most of the writing in this game desperately needs several more passes to get to a level where it's good, but I guess the developers were too busy posting in forums, chat rooms and social media about how evil the creators of Star Control are for retweeting some tweets that had "Star Control" in them. Spend more time on your game, improving the ****y dialogue, and less time blasting fans for their opinions.

    Overall, Star Control: Origins comes across as a game with a lot of missed potential. What's original about this game is generally great, but the developers spent too much time trying to re-create a Star Control 2-like experience. They should have focused more on their strong point - the creativity and original things that THEY created - and more time revising their dialogue. And less time ripping off what other people created just so they can boost the strength of their trademarks.

    Maybe if they had of done that, the gameplay problems wouldn't be so glaring. But that's a what if. The reality is that this game is decent, but it's not worth full price. I wouldn't pay any more than $15-20 for this game. Wait until there's a sale, because the game just isn't worth the money.    … Full Review »
  2. TsukasaHiiragi
    Sep 21, 2018
    4
    + Star Control!!
    + Large Galaxy to explore
    + Lots of collectables + Build your own ships - Large Galaxy is boring to explore - Lander    + Star Control!!
    + Large Galaxy to explore
    + Lots of collectables
    + Build your own ships

    - Large Galaxy is boring to explore
    - Lander gameplay is very boring and tedious
    - Can't take the story too seriously
    - Ship configurations are mostly useless fluff
    - No classic aliens like Ur Quan

    Again, with the paid and/or company reviewers giving 10s...when it clearly doesn't deserve it, This isn't the Star Control you was looking for, I'm sure you're going to see many glowing reviews from veteran SC fans, I myself was a fan of the original back in the 90s and with that, is the reasons why I'm being more harsh rather than writing a bias positive review.

    First off, the start of the game is very slow paced - your starting ship as you can imagine is pretty much empty of gear/weapons and gadgets which leads you to the near never ending resource collection grind on planets which is buggy and exceptionally boring, your lander is essentially made of paper and is destroyed far too easily.

    The ship to ship combat which is the big draw is pretty much the same as previous games just with added extras such as power-ups, its nothing amazing but it works and this is the core of the fun aspects of the game, everything else is too boring or drawn out and quickly becomes tedious. The galaxy is large and expanse but ultimately feels like a chore to explore because everything is slow and cumbersome early in the game.

    The artstyle is fine, but the writing is weird for a game trying to be somewhat serious but when you get space slug aliens who want to constantly hug you, and give you a free "cuddle drive" any immersion doesn't work, Feels like it was written for Android/IOS devices rather than a full blown PC release if I'm being honest. Music/voice overs are fine, no issues.

    Overall, this game is going to be a matter of taste and if you can stomach the long grindy nature of the campaign mode. If your interested for the nostalgia factor, then fleet battles is the way to go.    … Full Review »
  3. Dagfinn
    Sep 22, 2018
    0
    Not a real Star Control game. Avoid.

    This is nothing like the amazing Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters. Everything is a dull slog.    Not a real Star Control game. Avoid.

    This is nothing like the amazing Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters. Everything is a dull slog. Exploring, combat, conversation, the works.

    The game also has incredibly long loading screens that take forever for some reason.    … Full Review »
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