Star Citizen earned the Guinness World Record for largest crowdfunding project ever when its backers pushed the game's budget over $55 million last week and the team at Cloud Imperium is still busy attempting to deliver the laundry list of stretch rewards associated with the ambitious project. We've seen the recent updates to the playable (early access) Arena Commander mode and a preview of the multi-crew gameplay, but fans at last weekend's CitizenCon 2014 had the opportunity to see the first public planetary visit.

The above footage was captured at CitizenCon as the game's creator, Chris Roberts (of Wing Commander fame), unveiled the first look at Star Citizen's planetside gameplay. It comes just a few short weeks after planetary racing (dubbed the 'Murray Cup') was introduced in the 0.9 update. The footage begins in orbit and before the player even takes his ship down for landing, he gives us a brief tour of his craft. Walking around the ship from the inside and looking out the windows at other ships and space stations was pretty mesmerizing and the stunning graphics, powered by Crytek's CryEngine, didn't disappoint upon touchdown either.

Roberts explains during the presentation that this portion of the game is still very much a rough draft, but the team has a strong relationship with its backers and likes to keep them in the loop on where every penny of that $55 million is being spent. The footage stutters a few times, particularly during the leap from space to solid ground, but in the final version the transition should be seamless. Once the landing is complete, the gameplay demo walks us through a pretty stunning sci-fi cityscape.

Star Citizen Planetside Landing

Currently, the majority of the interactive on-foot game components are unfinished; so AI, shops, and other cities are all absent. With the lack of anything to interact with on the ground, the majority of the demo is really just about shining a spotlight on the graphics and the environment. The space traffic in the sky overhead and the high-tech structures look amazing and might remind players of a new-gen version of some of the Mass Effect locations.

The spotlight on Star Citizen's planetside features was just a short excerpt from a two-hour long panel from CitizenCon. The focus of the longer presentation was how the massive universe of Star Citizen and all of its components will eventually fit together into one cohesive and immersive gaming experience. Die-hard fans can settle into their seats and watch the full presentation right here...

What do you think of the first look at Star Citizen's planetside mode? What kind of features would you like to see available while your pilot is on the ground? Let us know in the comments.

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Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.

Source: YouTube