Star Control: Origins is set in the year 2086. The good news: the signals from Earth have been received by an advanced alien race. The bad news: they are looking for the source of the signals in order to annihilate them. As Captain of the most advanced starship the human race has ever constructed, the player's mission is to prevent the impending destruction of the Earth through any means necessary.

To that end, Star Control: Origins allows players to land on planets that are now represented as spherical entities with the gameplay updated to allow the lander to jump obstacles, rotate their lander’s cannon and deal with hostile environments and creatures.

Like the classic series, Star Control focuses on the player’s interaction with alien races.  Star Control: Origins introduces a new cast of aliens for the player to learn and deal with. Using the game’s dynamic rendering system, the aliens and their speech are rendered in real-time.

For the music, Stardock has been working to reunite the musicians worked on the previous games. For example, Riku Nuottajarvi, composer of much of the music for the original series, has returned for the new Star Control series.  Meanwhile, for the writing, Stardock has tapped Cracked.com columnist, Chris Bucholz to lead the story and writing effort.

The beta of Star Control: Origins unlocks the Fleet Battles feature in which players assemble ships in a fleet and engage in battle with fleets controlled by either the computer, humans via the Internet, or even friends sitting at the same PC.

The Fleet Battles beta also includes the Ship Crafting system, in which players can literally design their own ships to use in combat, then share them online. Players can also download ships designed by others to play with as well. Ship Crafting not only allows players to decide what weapons and defenses a ship has, but allows total control of how a ship looks.

Star Control: Origins is available for pre-order from Stardock, GOG, or Steam for $24.99. The bundle, which includes Star Control: The Ur-Quan Masters and Star Control: Kessari Quadrant, can be purchased from Stardock, GOG, or Steam for $29.99.