I can't remember the last time I played a space combat game. Or a rogue-like game. Which is why I'm a bit confused as to how I ended up playing one that is both. But good god, I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
You're a clone. And a clone of a clone. And a clone of a clone of a clone. (It depends on how often you die. At this point I'm not quite in triple figures, but it's close.) And every run you have at getting through the universe, the more you improve your ship and make yourself a little more unkillable. Bit like FTL, thinking about it, though first person rather than traditional sim overview concept.
As such, you're going to die a lot, especially in your first few runs, until you start acquiring upgrades and making yourself a little harder to kill. There's two upgrade patterns in place, those being the permanent ship upgrades that persist through each run, and run-limited upgrades to weapons and devices. These only last as long as you do, which is a bit frustrating but prevents you from steamrolling through the galaxy.
You can also tinker with your ship to add colours and decals and so forth. Doesn't have any particular gameplay effect, as far as I can tell. Just there for a bit of fun crashing (I really need to learn to fly) through the universe with a garish spacecraft.
I've found it impressively more-ish, in both a "just one more level" and a "maybe I'll survive this time" way. The "Encounters" expansion also adds various characters you can interact with, who both set you quests and add a little local colour/snobbiness.
This game has stolen enough nights from me that it's either very good or someone has put significant effort into refining the Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiner box effect.
Combat is fun. Hellish if you manage to annoy the wrong group of villains, who will pretty immediately blow you up, but immensely satisfying once you get far enough into the upgrade tree that you can survive a firefight with half a dozen ships and come out of it swinging. (Trust me it takes a while.)
I haven't managed to quit this yet. I have the worrying feeling I'm not going to quit it until I've upgraded everything and kicked the hell out of all of the quests. It's too late for me. Save yourself.
Highly recommended.
Tagged: Game Space sim First person Average difficulty PC