Starlink: Battle For Atlas makes a surprise landing on PC next week
Don't do a barrel roll. You'll only be sad.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas, Ubisoft's collectable toys-to-games platform launches on PC on Tuesday, April 30th, minus the toys part. It seems that the plastic, while nice to look at, just wasn't selling so well, but Ubisoft don't leave games behind these days. The PC launch coincides with a soft re-launch for the game on consoles, too, and a free, digital-only expansion called Crimson Moon. Having played a bit of the Switch version, I'm happy to see it making the leap, and abandoning the plastic. While not great, it's not a bad introduction to planet-hopping, space-dogfighting adventure, especially for the younger crowd.
Starlink is a serviceable space shooter action-RPG, with a mixture of space dogfights and terrestrial hover-tank battles against big stompy robots. On consoles, its two main issues were that you could only unlock new ships or weapons through either buying their collectable toy bits (which, admittedly, were cool to play with and could be frankensteined together in some fun ways), or DLC packs. The other problem was its dull story and cast, feeling a bit like a poor man's Saturday morning cartoon pilot. The upcoming Crimson Moon's character designs look stronger than the main cast. Perhaps a sign of improvement?
While there's no word on what the DLC structure for the game will be on PC, if they go the same road as consoles, I'd recommend holding out for a discounted all-in-one bundle. While details on that are still a bit vague, Ubisoft have listed the full system requirements for the PC version. They also confirm that it'll support G-Sync monitors, remappable controls, uncapped framerates and 21:9 widescreen. All the standard mod cons you'd expect from a modern PC release. It'll even support the PS4 and Xbox version controller mounts, so you can use the toys on PC too.
The Crimson Moon expansion looks decent, adding racing missions, bounty hunts, an arena mode, more main story and new ship skins. The only bad news here is while Crimson Moon is free for all (including us), only the Nintendo Switch version will get an optional chunk of paid Star Fox-themed DLC. Not quite as compelling as Ubisoft's bizarre mash-up of Mario, Rabbids and XCOM, but alluring nonetheless, especially if you're me and can still hum the entire Corneria theme from Star Fox on demand.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas hits PC next Tuesday, April 30th. It'll be available via Steam and Uplay. While no price has been announced, the console starter pack (toys included) often sells for under £20/$30.