Starhawk review: on wings of lead

By Arthur Gies on Oct 24, 2012 10.24.12

Starhawk tumbles almost right away, with a campaign that falls prey to the cliches of the "bot scenario as ‘level'." While Starhawk gestures in the direction of a story, moments of exposition feel more like the trailer for a story than actual plot. Main character Emmett is a jerk with baggage, but Lightbox does little to develop him outside of some broad strokes regarding family, revenge, and, well, quotas, or something. The world is never fleshed out beyond its basic premise: on the interstellar frontier, everyone harvests "rift energy." Rift energy is worth a fortune, but has an unfortunate side effect: it sometimes turns people into mutant "Outcasts." The gold-rush-styled Rifters are determined to stake their rift energy claims and defend themselves against outcasts, and the...