Star Control: Origins trailer teases life as an interstellar bad guy

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The Star Control games are all about dealing with alien races: Putting up with their nonsense, convincing them to be pals, begging them not to shoot you, or shooting at them, as the situation requires. With every encounter, you make an impression, and as the new Star Control: Origins trailer makes clear, it's not always going to be a good one.

That's not necessarily a problem, though. An impression doesn't have to be good to be useful, and sometimes a stick will get you farther than a carrot. "You don’t have to be a white knight to save humanity," Stardock said. "In fact, you don’t even need to be nice. Your mission has always been to save humanity by any means necessary. How you do it is up to you."

And if your thoughtless, wildly inappropriate behavior leaves a species or two looking at you contemptuously as "dangerous, murdering humans," well, who cares as long as you get what you want, right?

Star Control: Origins comes out on September 20 on Steam and GOG.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.