Recent reviews by Ctr109

I really wanted to like this game. As of this review I have “only” put 46 hours in, nearly two whole days. Strip away the delightful graphics and sometimes out of place, but awesome OST*** What's left? Gambling. This game is a slot machine masquerading as a challenge.

TL;DR: Main-story and event-stories are trash. RNG pretending to be a challenge. Combat that consistently favors the AI. Pointless post battle chores. A map that lies to your face. Some sectors exist purely to ruin runs. No actual feedback when you lose. And a community that mistakes flowchart memorization for skill. Ultimately, this game is designed to bloat playtime. It does not reward intelligence, just obedience to invisible rules.

Story: You literally start on a Federation world in a massive dry dock with NPCs other than yours who have better things to do than join your ship to save the Federation. So what does the Federation do with its galaxy spanning resources? Send three untrained randos in a clunker with one and a half weapons* and no systems, not even a GPS. That's the plan I'm supposed to buy? The Federation can't be bothered to outfit their last hope or even map** their own systems? If this is the best the Federation has to offer, maybe the rebels have a point.
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Events (RNG): Holy smokes. I get it, it's a "hard" game that requires "skill". I browsed the forums and it turns out there's lots of helpful advice to teach n00bs to... Git gud? Learn to mind read a computer? Memorize a 200-node flowchart disguised as “gameplay”? Someone posted a 15 part tutorial with videos several hours long. Do I get a diploma after that? The giant spiders are a meme because the only correct answer is to run. Yeah, I know about the blue events. My bad for not buying a rare and expensive system two sectors ago that I will never be told in-game matters there. How many deaths do the devs expect you to suffer just to accidentally discover the right answers?

Don't even think about being a hero. If you think you hear risk, run. If you see a ship or population more vulnerable than you? Doesn't matter if they're hostile, ice 'em. The game loves to guilt trip you over your decisions either way, but if you do "the right thing" the game WILL punish you. If there's an event where being kind is good for your run, I haven't seen it. Taking a single slave almost counts as heroics, but from a narrative perspective though? I hope it bothered you too. Again, rooting for the rebels here, at least in the case of optimal play.
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Combat (RNG): The combat seems really cool… until you realize that there are correct “options”. Sorry, you're just never going to win with certain weapons or systems. Customization in this game is a red herring. Even top players agree some entire systems aren’t worth it. Even with a full load out, good luck getting your guys to hit anything enough to matter. I’m surrounded by the crew from ‘Spaceballs’. How many screw ups do we have on this ship anyhow? I get it, the enemy misses sometimes, usually one right before they critically strike you a few times in a row.

Let's talk about the weapons. Lots of different ways for you to outfit your ship and defeat the boss, right? Nope, just like with events there are only a handful of correct choices you need to figure out on your own over as many runs as it takes. The game won’t tell you squat.

*Missiles are a joke. Even if you're well stocked (Why do the rebels and pirates seem to have an unlimited budget for missiles?) good luck hitting things. Just shot your last missile with a max rank weapons guy? Flip a coin, nothing says tactical mastery like 50/50 odds at point blank. You're in a solar flare event? Enjoy a barrage of sniper shots to your oxygen, weapons and medbay.

Post combat you need to spend pointless time having your crew fix the ship. The only effect is wasting player time. The effect would be the exact same if systems (not hull) were repaired as soon as the threat ends. Same with system power being limited by a nebula, freaking put my systems back the way you found them. There is no reason that at least O2 shouldn’t immediately boot back up after jumping.

**Map: The map is designed to hurt you. I'll appeal to the story again to point out you work for an intergalactic federation and were given NO MAPS. Knowing the distance between jump points should be basic to such a government. I'd hazard that they built the stupid thing! I understand there is an option that kinda lets you see connections, but if the story made sense you would see all the connections all the time. You shouldn't have to rely on random events to see what's in a sector. I have tried to learn how to gauge how many jumps behind me the federation is, I've tried to gauge how far jump points can be and still be connected. I still get boxed in because a reasonable looking jump just... isn’t connected.
Why? Because screw you, that’s why.

***Music: Rock battle theme? It slaps. I love it. Can’t get that tune out of my head. That said it makes me feel like I'm being assaulted by… a dance group? It makes no sense tonally for a dogfight in space.

Meta: The core loop is deeply flawed. I wouldn't have posted if the game even HINTED at me how to get better after a loss. You get nothing beyond a score card of metrics you didn't know to care about.

If the story were better, I’d accept the ship. If the ships were better, I’d forgive the story.
But these ships, with this story? It’s an insult to the player.

All in all, it pretends to be a game of skill, but it’s a slot machine. Part of the luck is if you were lucky to know what the game wanted from you. If you NEED a guide, it’s a bad game.

As I have read over and over and over “every run is winnable”, but I ask, is every run playable?

If you have endless hours of free time, don't like games with story coherence, and a passion for decoding hidden logic trees, this may be the game for you.

Or it's a skill issue. I'm sure you'll let me know.