Starpoint Gemini 3 Gamescom Preview

Starpoint Gemini 3 is the fourth installment in the Starpoint Gemini series, which consists of Starpoint Gemini 1, 2 and the spin-off Starpoint Gemini Warlords. Starpoint Gemini 3 is an open world space adventure RPG and has more focus on the story than its predecessors. The developers, Little Green Men (LGM), hired Darco Macan, a writer who used to work for Marvel on Star Wars novels, especially for this. He has created the storyline with lots of alien cultures and places to explore.

In the game you play as captain Bold and over the course of the game you will expand your crew and enhance your ship by making use of various modules. For the most part the game has the same feature set as the previous titles, including the RPG elements that were also present in Starpoint Gemini Warlords. This time however they wanted to have you fly smaller starships, to provide a wider range of movement and the option to build your own ship by choosing various modules to add to that ship. The game starts with a basic intro ship, which is equipped with weapons and is intended to be used as part of the tutorial. Once you have progressed enough through the story line, you will steal your first modular ship from a very dangerous corporation. During the rest of the game you will be busy escaping from them, while you improve your ship, advance your personal story and the stories of the people who have joined you. 

The game is chronologically placed after the events of the previous titles, but the story has been written in such a way that you do not need to have played these titles to know any of the lore behind it. 

The previous titles took, for the most part, place in the Gemini universe, where you could also use a starpoint to travel to Sol. In Starpoint Gemini 3, there are several more universes to go to, each of them as large as any of the previous games is. The developers will also make the modding tools available, which are the same tools as the development team is using. This will allow players to create their own universe and stories. 

When you advance in the game you advance both your main character and your ship. The ship has an AI companion, which serves as a co-pilot and helps you on your travels. By fighting battles, exploring the universe and trade resources, you can gain various materials, money and experience. The latter can be used to unlock skills and perks, which can help you in both exploration and combat.  The many passive skills the game has will help with the tasks that the ships has, like repairs, but also in combat, like improving your skills with a certain weapon.

As you explore the universe you can salvage derelicts and get materials from them. All the items in the universe you can find are hand placed. Once you have collected the materials they can be processed into components, such as chips, antennas and other smaller items. You do need blueprints  to be able to do that, which you can find while exploring the universe and by finishing quests. Once you've learned how to process materials, you can process them further into things like rockets and nano bots, which are far more expensive. The processing can take place in your own ship. However, you cannot process large items there, like wings for the ship or propulsion systems.  

The ship can be equipped with all sort of weapons and as you have full control of how you build your ship, it most likely will be different from ships other players might have. The stats of the ship will change depending on the modules that have been added to the ship. You could create a ship that is very maneuverable or a ship that can take a lot of damage, or has a lot of fire power. You can also customize the way your ship looks. The choice is yours. 

Another difference from the previous games is that you can now visit the planet's surface or dock your ship and visit the various locations in the space port and talk with the NPCs there, which are fully voiced. This gives the option to get new missions, but also advances the story. You do not have to follow the story though. You can roam freely through the universes and completely ignore the story, in which case you could spend something like 100 hours in the game. If you do follow the story it should provide at least 40 hours of gameplay. The narrative however, is very linear and has only one ending.  
There are all sorts of environments to explore, like vulcanic and jungle regions, which have planets that fit the ambient and the lore of the aliens living there. There is a total of 3 other systems to explore next to the Gemini system, but the developers are considering to expand the game after release with more systems. 

Combat, takes place in real-time, in 3rd person view or in 1st person from the cockpit of the ship. You move around freely in 3D to target your enemies and prevent getting hit too much, which with a ship that is maneuverable is easier than before as the previous games had capital ship combat, with large ships, in large scale space combat. The developers have learned however that people don' t really fly the ships as they were designed. Also people like to grow with the ship, where they start with a basic ship and enhance the ship throughout the game. This resulted in the implementation of the new ship as it is in Starpoint Gemini 3.

LGM is considering early access. If that happens the modding capabilities will not be released yet. From previous experience they  learned that they had to make changes sometimes that would break existing mods, which did not make the modders and players happy. The early access should take place September 3rd.

Below is a gameplay trailer of the game.