In the face of controversy, Cloud Imperium Games has revealed the first story trailer for the Squadron 42 single-player mode of Star Citizen – and maybe greatest assembly of acting talent in video game history.
This Kickstarter is, simultaneously, the biggest success story and biggest cautionary tale in the recent history of crowdfunded video games. Launched by a crowdfunding in 2012 by famed game designer Chris Roberts, creator of the Wing Commander series, Star Citizen is a massive space exploration shooter RPG MMO with an equally massive dedicated single player element, Squadron 42, and has raised over 90 million dollars in crowdfunded money as of October.
However, it has not gotten there without controversy. Accusations of not producing enough content for the money given in by doners have been around as long as Star Citizen has, and CIG’s recent scuffle with The Escapist over its accusations of wasted production money and development time have cast a strange shadow over Roberts’ big dream starship. Having now threatened a lawsuit against a journalistic publication, now is a critical time for Cloud Imperium – what they show now will be seen as a direct representation of how prepared CIG, Roberts, and Star Citizen is for launch.
Which is all to say that, if you have something to prove, a Gary Oldman-delivered monologue about the glory of victory is not a bad choice.
At CitizenCon 2015 – the third annual event for the game’s players – Roberts Space Industries (the marketing arm of CIG) revealed the first teaser for Squadron 42, Star Citizen’s dedicated story mode. United Earth Empire Admiral Ernst Bishop (Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight/Air Force One/way too many others) calls for a declaration of war against the Vanduuls, an alien empire, five days following the disastrous Battle of Vega II. Oldman delivers a fiery speech backed some truly wonderful graphics and motion capture, before the camera pans up to announce the full cast, which is truly insane.
In addition to Oldman, Star Citizen also has Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Mark Hamill (previously in Roberts’ Wing Commander), Liam Cunningham, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies (also a Wing Commander alum), Jack Huston… the list is goes on, with more to be announced. If you’re going to come out against accusations that you’ve been wasting time, presenting a cast like that for your project isn’t a bad way to do so.
Another trailer, this time covering the behind-the-scenes of Squadron 42, can be seen below.
There are many other unknowns about Star Citizen. The controversy and its development are far from over. Squadron 42 is slated for release sometime in 2016 with the full game’s release being unknown still.
