Cloud Imperium Games announces that Star Citizen's Alpha 2.0 update is now available for all backers of the long-awaited space combat and flight simulator.

The developers at Cloud Imperium Games have released the full set of features and patch notes for Star Citizen's Alpha 2.0 update, which is now playable to every person who has contributed money to the game's funding campaign. This latest version of the forthcoming title comes a couple of months after the studio let backers play every available module in development, but Alpha 2.0 contains even more action than before, with large area space battles, first-person combat, as well as multi-crew ships.

Prior to the release of Star Citizen's Alpha 2.0 update, Cloud Imperium Games gave fans a sneak peek at the title's newest content with a video shown in between all of the announcements for last week's winners at the Game Awards 2015. A look at the gameplay trailer, a statement from Star Citizen's creator Chris Roberts about the update, and list of some of Alpha 2.0's key features can be found below.

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"Alpha 2.0 is a major breakthrough for Star Citizen. It represents the first true slice of gameplay that includes much of what Star Citizen will bring to our fans: thrilling space combat in a massive play area, first person battles, and multi-crew ships where you and your friends can adventure together in a portion of the universe on the same ship. It's all technology that has never been undertaken to this scale and depth before in our industry."

Key Features

  • EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) – drift out of your ship’s airlock and venture into the void of space and back
  • 20+ random encounters – combat and exploration (lost wrecks and abandoned space stations)
  • Quantum travel – travel in ships through the vastness of space at 0.2 the speed of light
  • New flyable ships including the Constellation, the Retaliator, and the Vanguard.
  • Large world tech – explore extremely large expanses of space seamlessly, without loading screens
  • Locations to explore:
    • One planet (Crusader)
    • Three moons
    • Three distinct space stations
    • One repair/restock station
    • Nine comm arrays
    • Wreckage to scavenge and never-ending battles in the Yela asteroid belt

In addition to Star Citizen's release of its Alpha 2.0 update, the game is also getting close to arriving at a pretty significant achievement in garnering $100 million in funding since the collection campaign opened roughly three years ago. In 2014, Star Citizen already set the world record as the most successful crowdfunded project of any type in existence, so the additional money is basically just hitting blowout levels at this point. And with devoted backers like the player who spent $30,000 to fund the game, the studio ought to handily soar past that milestone.

Taking everything above into consideration, Star Citizen could very well be considered the most ambitious undertaking in video game history. With so many technical features and gameplay styles being incorporated into the title, it's no wonder the final product is taking so long to come to fruition. Not to mention, Star Citizen's A-list cast of Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, and more, surely added time to the game's production schedule, for wrangling so many high-profile itineraries undoubtedly took some skillful planning.

At any rate, with such a huge financial sum supporting Star Citizen, the bar for quality is set extremely high. That said, there is undoubtedly a lot of pressure on Cloud Imperium Games' shoulders to deliver a veritable masterpiece of epic proportions. So, even though it's still murky as to when the sci-fi game will actually come out, it's best for the studio to take its time during the development process in order to ensure Star Citizen is as perfect as it can possibly be.

Star Citizen does not have an official release date as of yet, but developers have confirmed its availability on the PC when it does finally launch.

Source: Roberts Space Industries (via GameSpot, Star Citizen – YouTube)