Released last Friday in the UK, Ascaron's anticipated space game Darkstar One is now also available in North American stores, as announced by publisher CDV Software's USA division. Much like Freelancer and other action oriented space games, DarkStar One is all about blasting your way through space in search of answers to some existential questions (like the mystery surrounding the death of your father), while also uncovering the secrets of the mysterious "DarkStar One" ship.

DarkStar One, praised as "the best game of its kind" by some North American total journalists, is an open-ended action / adventure title set in a huge universe populated by a variety of unique alien races. Players will take on the role of an intrepid young adventurer, Kayron Jarvis, as he explores space, upgrading and customizing his ship - the DarkStar One. The game's story, written by renowned German fantasy and sci-fi author Claudia Kern (who?!), will immerse players in a tale of action and intrigue as Kayron searches for answers surrounding the death of his father.

Before strapping yourself in the full version, you might want to give it a test flight first. There's a 900+ MB Darkstar One demo floating around since the end of June, and Blue's got the download mirrors if you're interested.

Word is, the demo contains a huge variety of worlds, equipment upgrades and alien races, offering the player an estimated 2+ hours of gameplay. The demo also contains an extensive tutorial that follows the story line direct from the full retail game. As with the full game, the demo offers players the opportunity to play in free-form mode, creating their own adventure on-the-fly, or follow the storyline to learn more about the death of the lead character's father, and the mysterious ship, the DarkStar One.

Most early reviews are rating Darkstar One at around 80%. Not bad.

UPDATE: Ascaron sends word that "a very small percentage of systems" are affected by a bug when running Darkstar One, "which prevents the disc checking routine and the game working seamlessly together. The main symptom of this is a typical framerate of 10-20fps". Fixing this problem for the community is now their highest priority, and they are currently working on and testing a Beta patch intended for public release today.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)