Although it’s at least a full year away from releasing, Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has become a major talking point here at Game Rant. Not just because it is, hands down, the most successful crowd funding project, but also because the game looks plain awesome.

So far we have only seen bits and pieces of Star Citizen’s dogfighting gameplay, packaged in such a way to be exciting not informative. But at PAX East 2014, the folks at Roberts Space decided to give fans an unadulterated look at the game, which we have for readers above.

The footage itself actually encapsulates Star Citizen’s full experience at PAX, including some additional details not revealed at the main event, but the real meaty content begins at about the 9:30 mark. There, Chris Roberts himself takes the hundreds in attendance on a journey that, while a little bumpy at first, provides another substantial look at Star Citizen’s multiplayer dogfighting experience.

This particular footage is taken from Star Citizen’s Arena Commander module, which will roll out to backers ahead of the game’s final release. In fact, it’s very possible that the Arena Commander module will make its way to backers within the next month or so. The full Star Citizen experience, on the other hand, is targeting a 2015 release.

As we’ve mentioned before, this is a game that screams Oculus Rift support, so players should watch within that context. But even so, Star Citizen is shaping up to be a very detailed game. And that helmet flip pre-launch proves it still has some personality to it.

At this point, with the game already pulling in $42 million and counting, it’s safe to say that there is a huge amount of expectation on Star Citizen’s shoulders. For fans of the space sim genre, the game represents a return to the heyday of titles like Wing Commander, and a chance for a developer to make a game on its own terms and with fan support.

On the flip side, Star Citizen is also a game to watch for players who may not be interested in the space sim genre for several reasons. If the film does prove successful once released then who knows what future developers might be capable of achieving with the crowd-funding model. Not to mention the potential watershed event that Star Citizen could become.

What do you think of this early Star Citizen footage? Have you helped back the game?

Star Citizen is currently targeting a 2015 release date.

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Source: RSI