Star Citizen concept art blow-out
The cockpits are dense with detail - but as impressive as they look, it was important to Roberts that the ships function in just as coherent and finely realised a manner. The game calculates the ship's movement using a model based on rigid-body physics, so the placement of each thruster directly affects how you can turn. Which also means damage to a specific part of your craft will radically alter your manoeuvrability.
As for the overall setting, Roberts describes the universe's premise like this: "Think the fall of the Roman empire. On the western borders there are barbarian races, and there's a schism in the empire - there's an eastern capital, Terra, and the western capital is Earth - the stand-in for Rome." And we know how well that all worked out for the Romans...
If you're intrigued to see more, head over to the Roberts Space Industries site .
PC Gamer Newsletter
Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors.
Boasting economist lobstermen, gas mask aliens with 120 sexes, and the best space dogfights 2003 has to offer, Underspace is a sci-fi RPG well worth your time
Paradox apologizes for latest Cities: Skylines 2 boondoggle, will give refunds for the Beach Properties DLC: '[We] hope we can regain your trust going forward'