DarkOrbit taken apart

DarkOrbit is older than most browser games still running, and the longevity shows in the structure: layered systems, a map that keeps opening outward and an upgrade path with no visible end.

You join a company, mine and fight to pay for a better ship, and sooner or later drift into contested space where everybody wants the same rocks. Combat is positional and unhurried rather than reflex-driven, which is exactly right for a browser.

It is the longest grind on this site and the one with the biggest tail. Its players do not count their involvement in weeks.

The part it gets right

• Space combat
• Ship upgrades
• Company wars

Good match

You want a long haul with a corporation around you and an obvious next objective at all times.

Poor match if you expect to feel powerful inside a month.

The first week here

Get into a clan immediately, even a quiet one. The map makes far more sense with somebody pointing at it and is far safer with company.

Put credits into one ship line. Half-upgrading three leaves you outgunned in all three.