DarkSpace is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy computer game developed by PaleStar. It was released in December 2001 and involves multiplayer spaceship combat between three player-controlled factions.
DarkSpace takes place in a persistent universe, referred to in-game as “The MetaVerse”, where players choose from several types of ships and fight for control of planets. It also uses instanced “Scenario” servers, where factions battle for control of a single solar system.
DarkSpace has a long and varied development history. The game began as a small personal project, survived several deals with multiple publishers, and is run today by a mostly volunteer staff on an open sourced game engine.
The first step is selecting one of three factions. Two factions are human: the United Galactic Trade Organization (UGTO) with sleek and well-rounded ships, and the Interstellar Cultural Confederation (ICC) with good long-range capabilities. Players can also choose the alien K’Luth, who pilot fast organic ships and are masters of hit and run tactics. DarkSpace also contains several non-player factions to interact with, such as the Machine Intelligence (MI) race, opportunistic space Pirates, and several other rare and bizarre alien entities.
Players then choose a starship. DarkSpace has several types of ships, such as battleships, troop transports, supply vessels, and engineering ships. Each ship type has different capabilities and plays a unique role in the game. Scout ships, for example, can reveal enemy positions, while heavy cruisers are built for attacking other ships. Players are not limited to a single ship that they “own”; they can return to a shipyard or home gate at any time and select a new ship.
Players can store modified ship layouts in a personal storage “garage”.
When you start playing this game, you have the rank of ‘midshipman’, and you are restricted to the smallest ship types. To control larger ships the player must earn higher rankings by accumulating “Prestige Points”, which are awarded for various tasks such as damaging enemy ships, bombing and capturing planets, building planetary structures, and repairing the ships of teammates. Most ships not only require a minimum rank but also one or more specific “badges” before they can be piloted. In order to fly a larger combat ship, for example, a player has to achieve the “Bronze Combat” badge by inflicting 50 points of damage to enemy ships.
You can play it here.
Enjoy!