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GDC 2015: Hands-on with Drifter - the ultra ambitious space empire game from Celsius Studios

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GDC 2015: Hands-on with Drifter - the ultra ambitious space empire game from Celsius Studios
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Drifter has been a long time coming. But you can't blame Celsius Studios for taking its time: this is a game that features tens of thousands of planets, in massive galactic clusters, after all. That probably took a bit of time.

Okay, so a lot of its randomly generated. But all players see the same universe, which is important as you'll get to tell your friends: hey, go to this star system to find a cool item, or stay away from this galaxy - it's dangerous.

Like all good space games, Drifter has lots of different things for you to do. You can go mining, start a trading empire, go bounty hunting, take on escort missions. You'll also want to upgrade your ship to hold more cargo or be better in combat.

The game's got a reputation system where you'll become an infamous space pirate if you blow up neutral ships and coppers, or you'll be seen as a force for good in the universe if you take down galactic jerks.

There will also be factions, where your standing with each gang goes up and down based on your actions.

It's a big, ambitious, galactic-sized game basically. But it fits nicely on mobile with touch-friendly controls like all sorts of swipes, taps, and gestures to go into super-fast slipstreams or fire lock-on missiles or dodge enemy fire.

We've been looking forward to this for some time, but Celsius won't put a release date on this exciting iOS and Vita game. You'll just have to wait for it to be done, I'm afraid.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer