Reception
After its release DarkSpace received several positive reviews. Michael Lafferty of GameZone called DarkSpace "a game that looks good, sounds great and plays well", while Brett Todd of GameSpot thought "early every scene could have been clipped from a big-budget movie" and Gamers Hell's Andreas Berntsen said it was "the closest to a perfect online space-strategy game I’ve seen so far". The gaming website Respawn UK named DarkSpace 'Best Space Game of 2002'. However, several reviewers felt that the learning curve was too steep: Lafferty said "when first launched, the tutorial in DarkSpace was somewhat daunting", while Berntsen said "actually mastering the gameplay takes practice, and the initial learning curve can be somewhat steep" and Aaron Daigle from Game Chronicles claimed that "reading the manual and completing the tutorial mode are critical if you want to excel or even just play the game". A common complaint was that DarkSpace suffered from a lack of players. Tim McConnaughy wrote in his GameSpy review that "there are too few players for such a massive strategy element". Berntsen agreed that "there simply aren’t as many players to show what it really can do", and Todd brought attention to lack of players as well.
One of the main goals of DarkSpace was to encourage players to work as a team: in an interview with RespawnUK, Lead developer Richard Lyle stated "we've been very careful about what abilities we give ships, so as to make sure players work together to achieve their goals.". Several reviewers commented on this. Todd noted that "players are intended to work together in their respective factions and complement one another with the specific tasks of their vessels.". Misund felt that "teamplay is absolutely essential", and McConnaughy commented that "players must work together to field a rounded force capable of dealing with threats ... this requires that players work together every step of the way. Darkspace rewards team strategy."
Despite issues with player count and learning curve, several reviews seemed to see potential in DarkSpace. Brett Todd thought that "the groundwork is being laid for DarkSpace to evolve into something special", and Lafferty said "iven some time to grow, DarkSpace will likely be a sleeper hit". Game Chronicles saw a strength where others found weakness, saying "while small in numbers, I think you would be hard pressed to find a cooler group of folks".
In March 2007 DarkSpace announced its 140,000th registered player.
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