The Mandate Has (Literal) Space Opera

There's Space Opera, and then there's dudes singing opera over space opera. The Mandate is both of these in its new trailer, which shows off some in-game footage from the Kickstarting starship management game set against a backdrop of Imperial Russian space expansion (Tsars Vs The Stars, I call it.) The devs explain: "The gameplay trailer begins with neutral starship Zukov issuing a distress signal after it is assaulted by pirates. This signal is intercepted by a player who is commanding battle squadron Azimov which is loyal to the Empress of The Mandate. The player engages the pirates giving them the chance to surrender and withdraw, but battle ensues."

Battle! Oh and also character customisation. Our two darkest loves.

Here's the space biff with great big soundtrack:

And here are some hats:

Still a long way from finished, of course, but there's also only a bit of the way into their Kickstarter, which has raised $174k of a cool $500k required to make this happen. I have to say that it does so much so differently from the other big space games that I am keen to see it happen.

It's rather beautiful.