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 free Reinforcements DLC adds a dozen new ships to pilot in Star Control: Origins' combat mini-game, Fleet Battles.

Star Control: Origins puts the player in command of Earth's first interstellar ship on a mission to save the earth from impending destruction at the hands of a hostile alien empire.  During the course of the game, players will encounter dozens of alien civilizations, explore hundreds of planets and attempt to find a way to prevent the malevolent Scryve Empire from finding and destroying Earth.

Star Control: Origins also includes a combat mini-game called Fleet Battles in which players assemble fleets of ships and take them into combat either against the computer or against other players online.  The free Reinforcements DLC nearly doubles the number of ships available to choose from by default.

Star Control: Origins is available 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.