You can play Star Citizen for free for the next week thanks to Invictus Launch Week.

What is Invictus Launch Week? In Star Citizen, it’s an event that marks the period between Emancipation Day and Armistice Day and also the beginning of a new recruitment year for the UEE Navy. It’s also a giant military air show where the "biggest, best and most iconic ships up close at the Bevic Convention Center at Area18 on ArcCorp."

In the real world, it’s basically a recruitment drive for Star Citizen itself.

From now until June 1, you can play Star Citizen for free. And not just make an account, create an avatar, and walk around a few space stations either. You can pick almost any ship in the game and take it for a spin. All those ships that are on display in the Bevic Convention Center are available to test fly, so after you’re done ogling the pretty spaceships you can pick your favorite to see how she flies.

And since this is a military show, most of those ships have plenty of firepower.

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Star Citizen is trying to make this easy for new players, so here’s a handy infographic that will let you know how to get to the show from where you wake up on the space station. Any ship you happen to fall in love with will also be conveniently available for purchase in the pledge store too.

Just keep in mind that Star Citizen has been in development for close to 8 years, raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and yet still manages to consistently miss their roadmap targets. It's enough to get a few players a little upset about how much money this game asks for without actually providing a finished product.

But hey, flying around for free should at least give you a taste of what you're getting into. Then you can make an informed decision if Star Citizen is worth your hard-earned cash.

Source: Roberts Space Industries

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