WHAT TO EXPECT: Indie title.Traditional roguelike playstyle. Replete with features and content. Procedurally generation levels. Strong RPG elements and elements. Sci-fi themed from a unique universe. Require planning and strategy. Turn-based, grid movement and tactical combat. Large menu of unlockable crafting recipes. Colourful but basic 2D visual. Very difficult and challenging by nature. Requires resource and inventory management. Perma-death and perma-damage affects stats. RNG rolls can be terrible. Huge replay value. Annoying wormhole trap spamming issue. Single-player. Full controller support.
ACHIEVEMENTS: A MIXED BAG. SOME WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT.
STATUS: COMPLETE.
WHO FOR/WHEN TO BUY: FANS WHO ENJOY VERY CHALLENGING GAMES. ON ANY SALE. ITS MORE THAN WORTH IT.

More info below....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719127037
Sword of the Stars - The Pit: Osmium Edition (TPOE) is a compilation of the base game, and two DLCs; the Mind Games and Gold Edition. A sci-fi themed roguelike with a strong traditional style of play. Replete with an assortment of tactical and strategic features and a mammoth amount of content. Set in the universe of the same name it is lore heavy, an aspect that encompasses every morsel of the game. Visuals consist of colourfully cartoon-styled, if basic graphics, with a 2D perspective. A basic soundtrack accompanies some rudimentary but ambience enhancing audio effects.

The player's aim is a simple one - to take a character chosen from 8 starting archetypes through 40 levels of procedurally generated floors. A fog of war obscures the way ahead, concealing a maze of rooms and corridors, along with the odd self-enclosed exterior area. These are revealed through exploration, gadgets or accessing security systems. There are over a dozen or so standardised rooms with their own themed sets of enemies and provisioning systems.

GAMEPLAY
Players navigate by moving from tile to tile, one turn at a time. Grabbing as much useful equipment as possible along the way. Opening or bypassing locked doors, interacting with a wide range of functionally varied systems. Defeating whatever potential pitfalls bar progress. By developing their character's stats and skills. All of which are key to successfully navigate The Pit, to reach the final exit intact.

<Enter wormhole below for more details>

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716149799
+ Choose to play one of 8 starting characters. (Marine, Engineer, Scout, Psion, Ranger, Warrior, Seeker or Striker).
+ 40x levels of procedurally created rooms and corridors filled with traps, enemies and specific items.
+ Lore heavy setting with exotic and racial elements running through aspects of the game making for a unique experience.
+ Large RPG aspects to character building and customisation. Level up and apply points to 4x stat and 26x skills.
Specialise in finesse, might or brains to determine your overall strategy.
+ Lots of secrets to uncover, from: hidden messages, to crafting recipes and SotS lore. Even a secret character.
+ Combat system with fun, fast-paced gameplay and a wealth of ever changing tactical options.
+ A huge and varied roster of dozens upon dozens of enemies. Each with their own forms of attacks, movement rates and AI pathing.
+ An incredible range of inventory; over 50 weapons and around half-dozen grenades to discover. Plus 100 items of equipment to find or craft and use. Rifles, pistols, swords, spears, knives, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and alot more.

<Enter wormhole below for more details>

- Can be overly challenging even on Easy for casual players. The game is designed to make the player fail unless they make the most of resources and tactical situations.
- Everything has a consequence. Some are worse than others. Permadeath and perma-damage. Your stats can go down if you fail drastically in some actions.
- Drop tables algorithm can feel overly rigged during some runs. With certain items and weapons seemingly, purposely held back depending on the archetypes, to increase the challenge.
- Unwieldly inventory management with late game progression. Requires baggage runs from previous to next level, in order to transport excess items that cannot be stored in tesseract wells.
- Runs can feel repetitive depending on the archetype, and difficulty chosen. With the behaviour of the drop algorithm being a big factor.
- High chance rolls can fail fairly frequently, at least not as rarely as they should. Wrecking particular runs.
- A few GUI issues with missing tactical info which would otherwise be helpful.

* Five difficulties: Easy to Seriously. With even Easy being a very challenging prospect.
* RNG is fairly balanced and can be mitigated but can cause a lot of frustration and loss of effort, when it fails consistently.
* Ambience enhancing sounds with a simple midi sounding audio tune for a soundtrack. Plus the occasion voice acted phrase for flavour.
* Split route branches are possible on some levels.
* Can only return to a limited number of floors above to use bypassed systems or collect items left behind.
* Complete games can last a long, long time. Fast and quick modes can shorten the time for those who do not have the time. Providing increased XP gain or only 20 floors to beat.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716073194
The 300h+ of time spent with TPOE has proven to be a wonderfully enjoyable experience. At least for the most part. Tinged with moments of frustration, intermingled with some infuriating times. To the point that for the less hardcore among us, this could prove to be a stumbling block as to whether this is a game worth getting. As a roguelike its features make it stand out in a crowded genre. So to discount it without understanding the full picture, could mean missing out on a well-made and absorbing game. One that possesses a very addictive quality.

QUANTITY & QUALITY
A certain level maturity has been reached when it comes to discussing TPOE. Something that a lot of newly released games do not possess. Even with just two of its DLCs included in this package, it is decked to the rafters with oodles of detailed content. Greater than could possibly be covered in this review. The sheer comprehensiveness of the inventory and skill systems provide an eye-popping selection of choices that allowed for my runs to have a fairly open approach to strategy and tactics.

Anyone who loves to micro-manage a vast inventory of equipment and make the best use of the resources available will find its gameplay mentally stimulating. As they come to juggle ammo and to hope for lockers and other containers, to provide those all vital items when it comes time to open them. It will take a serious investment of time to become intimate with it all. I am still finding the odd item I never came across before even in any of my playthroughs.

<Enter wormhole below for more details>

Despite a number of issues and essentially playing the same game at every level, TPOE is a great roguelike. Its sci-fi setting was unique enough to make it stand out from the crowd. Its stand-out features of procedurally generated levels, massive inventory, lots of craftable items, multi-path skillsets and large roster of enemies ensures a fresh challenge on every floor.

<Enter wormhole below for more details>

Given Steam's restrictions on character limits, you can read the rest of this review by using the link below:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/3191364340729202254/

Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator here.

[h1]IN A WORD: [b] COMPELLING[/b][/h1] [h1]IN A NUTSHELL:[/h1] [quote=] [b]WHAT TO EXPECT:[/b] Indie title.Traditional roguelike playstyle. Replete with features and content. Procedurally generation levels. Strong RPG elements and elements. Sci-fi themed from a unique universe. Require planning and strategy. Turn-based, grid movement and tactical combat. Large menu of unlockable crafting recipes. Colourful but basic 2D visual. Very difficult and challenging by nature. Requires resource and inventory management. Perma-death and perma-damage affects stats. RNG rolls can be terrible. Huge replay value. Annoying wormhole trap spamming issue. Single-player. Full controller support. [b]ACHIEVEMENTS:[/b] A MIXED BAG. SOME WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT. [b]STATUS:[/b] COMPLETE. [b]WHO FOR/WHEN TO BUY:[/b] FANS WHO ENJOY VERY CHALLENGING GAMES. ON ANY SALE. ITS MORE THAN WORTH IT.[/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719127037 [h1]THE LOWDOWN:[/h1] Sword of the Stars - The Pit: Osmium Edition (TPOE) is a compilation of the base game, and two DLCs; the Mind Games and Gold Edition. A sci-fi themed roguelike with a strong traditional style of play. Replete with an assortment of tactical and strategic features and a mammoth amount of content. Set in the universe of the same name it is lore heavy, an aspect that encompasses every morsel of the game. Visuals consist of colourfully cartoon-styled, if basic graphics, with a 2D perspective. A basic soundtrack accompanies some rudimentary but ambience enhancing audio effects. The player's aim is a simple one - to take a character chosen from 8 starting archetypes through 40 levels of procedurally generated floors. A fog of war obscures the way ahead, concealing a maze of rooms and corridors, along with the odd self-enclosed exterior area. These are revealed through exploration, gadgets or accessing security systems. There are over a dozen or so standardised rooms with their own themed sets of enemies and provisioning systems. [u]GAMEPLAY[/u] Players navigate by moving from tile to tile, one turn at a time. Grabbing as much useful equipment as possible along the way. Opening or bypassing locked doors, interacting with a wide range of functionally varied systems. Defeating whatever potential pitfalls bar progress. By developing their character's stats and skills. All of which are key to successfully navigate The Pit, to reach the final exit intact. <Enter wormhole below for more details> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716149799 [h1]THE GOOD:[/h1] + Choose to play one of 8 starting characters. (Marine, Engineer, Scout, Psion, Ranger, Warrior, Seeker or Striker). + 40x levels of procedurally created rooms and corridors filled with traps, enemies and specific items. + Lore heavy setting with exotic and racial elements running through aspects of the game making for a unique experience. + Large RPG aspects to character building and customisation. Level up and apply points to 4x stat and 26x skills. Specialise in finesse, might or brains to determine your overall strategy. + Lots of secrets to uncover, from: hidden messages, to crafting recipes and SotS lore. Even a secret character. + Combat system with fun, fast-paced gameplay and a wealth of ever changing tactical options. + A huge and varied roster of dozens upon dozens of enemies. Each with their own forms of attacks, movement rates and AI pathing. + An incredible range of inventory; over 50 weapons and around half-dozen grenades to discover. Plus 100 items of equipment to find or craft and use. Rifles, pistols, swords, spears, knives, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and alot more. <Enter wormhole below for more details> [h1]THE BAD:[/h1] - Can be overly challenging even on Easy for casual players. The game is designed to make the player fail unless they make the most of resources and tactical situations. - Everything has a consequence. Some are worse than others. Permadeath and perma-damage. Your stats can go down if you fail drastically in some actions. - Drop tables algorithm can feel overly rigged during some runs. With certain items and weapons seemingly, purposely held back depending on the archetypes, to increase the challenge. - Unwieldly inventory management with late game progression. Requires baggage runs from previous to next level, in order to transport excess items that cannot be stored in tesseract wells. - Runs can feel repetitive depending on the archetype, and difficulty chosen. With the behaviour of the drop algorithm being a big factor. - High chance rolls can fail fairly frequently, at least not as rarely as they should. Wrecking particular runs. - A few GUI issues with missing tactical info which would otherwise be helpful. [h1]AND THE REST:[/h1] * Five difficulties: Easy to Seriously. With even Easy being a very challenging prospect. * RNG is fairly balanced and can be mitigated but can cause a lot of frustration and loss of effort, when it fails consistently. * Ambience enhancing sounds with a simple midi sounding audio tune for a soundtrack. Plus the occasion voice acted phrase for flavour. * Split route branches are possible on some levels. * Can only return to a limited number of floors above to use bypassed systems or collect items left behind. * Complete games can last a long, long time. Fast and quick modes can shorten the time for those who do not have the time. Providing increased XP gain or only 20 floors to beat. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716073194 [h1]ANALYSIS:[/h1] The 300h+ of time spent with TPOE has proven to be a wonderfully enjoyable experience. At least for the most part. Tinged with moments of frustration, intermingled with some infuriating times. To the point that for the less hardcore among us, this could prove to be a stumbling block as to whether this is a game worth getting. As a roguelike its features make it stand out in a crowded genre. So to discount it without understanding the full picture, could mean missing out on a well-made and absorbing game. One that possesses a very addictive quality. [u]QUANTITY & QUALITY[/u] A certain level maturity has been reached when it comes to discussing TPOE. Something that a lot of newly released games do not possess. Even with just two of its DLCs included in this package, it is decked to the rafters with oodles of detailed content. Greater than could possibly be covered in this review. The sheer comprehensiveness of the inventory and skill systems provide an eye-popping selection of choices that allowed for my runs to have a fairly open approach to strategy and tactics. Anyone who loves to micro-manage a vast inventory of equipment and make the best use of the resources available will find its gameplay mentally stimulating. As they come to juggle ammo and to hope for lockers and other containers, to provide those all vital items when it comes time to open them. It will take a serious investment of time to become intimate with it all. I am still finding the odd item I never came across before even in any of my playthroughs. <Enter wormhole below for more details> [h1]VERDICT:[/h1] Despite a number of issues and essentially playing the same game at every level, TPOE is a great roguelike. Its sci-fi setting was unique enough to make it stand out from the crowd. Its stand-out features of procedurally generated levels, massive inventory, lots of craftable items, multi-path skillsets and large roster of enemies ensures a fresh challenge on every floor. <Enter wormhole below for more details> [h1]FULL REVIEW:[/h1] Given Steam's restrictions on character limits, you can read the rest of this review by using the link below: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/3191364340729202254/ [quote=]Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] here[/url].[/quote]