Convoy

There's obviously a lot of content in Convoy, with seemingly many more possible events than in FTL, and (like many reviewers have already stated) it has the bones of a good game. But the design is really haphazard and unfocussed at times, which leads to an overall experience that feels much less coherent and satisfying than FTL does. (I don't agree with the claim, by another reviewer, that Convoy "solves" the problem of always being pressed for time in FTL—that's the point.) There are design choices right off the bat in this game, like a weirdly truncated tutorial (why include it at all if stuff like instant-death from obstacles, which is unique and cool, isn't covered is beyond me) and having to replay the same starting message every time you begin the game (couldn't you at least give me an option box to turn it off?). Despite all of this I sat down and played a good amount this weekend, and on the second of two deep runs successfully beat the first boss. And—as this is a roguelike, I was expecting to have unlocked something for my efforts (I only had one thing unlocked to that point). But no. Nothing. Just an achievement. Great. I'll pin it to my wall, whenever I log in to Galaxy again to trip it. That seemed lame, but even lamer still was looking at the unlocks (wondering what I could do differently next time) and realizing that I did unlock something after beating the boss—it just didn't trigger. Killed my faith in the game entirely. Why bother playing if it's not going to do even the basic things it promises to do? I'd hoped that because this game is from 2015, some of the bugs other reviewers had complained about might have been fixed, but I guess not. This game also seems poorly optimized for Mac—I have a mid-2016 Macbook which runs a lot of much newer (and more intense) games fine, but Convoy makes my computer fans run full blast just on the title screen. Probably for the best that I won't be playing it anymore.

Many of the reviews here go into the mechanics of how the game works, so I won't do that here. As someone else pointed out, this game lacks balance. Specifically, the wonky balance ruins the fun for me. When I choose "Easy," I do not expect to die over and over in the first half hour. FTL showed us that Roguelike games, enough tough ones, can have some consistency in difficulty that ramps up through the game (with a really tough end boss). I beat FTL numerous times, but gave up after giving this one a half dozen tries on "Easy." Save yourself time and money; play FTL instead.

It's fun enough that I wish there was more to it. Once you get through the game a couple times there is little to nothing to surprise or interest you. Convoy gets compared to FTL a lot. I liked that in Convoy you know where the resupply camps are. They are visible on the map right away but spaced out enough to be challenging to get to in time while still possible to reach. However there is much more strategy and variety with weapon choices in FTL. In Convoy it is pretty much just having the best gun and that is it. There is a bit of variation as far as weapons that are better vs armor or health or shields but those factors were not significant enough to make much difference overall. The music is also boring. The game seems to be going for a Mad Max/Fury Road type vibe which it achieves to a degree in gameplay, but the music seems more suited to a walk in the park or a happy production game of some kind. When you are actually in battle it's okay, and there is some music on the bigger picture map when you're zoomed out that I liked, but the main tracks of music you mostly hear where a detraction in my mind. You're driving around in a war rig under constant threat of attack trying to scrape together enough spare parts to fix your spaceship and get off planet!! The background music shouldn't feel relaxing or dull!!! So yeah. I liked it enough to want it to be better, but it practice it ends up average. A content patch, small tweaks to the UI here and there, and some more dynamic music would make Convoy excellent!

I stopped playing after 15 minutes because the text of item descriptions and other stuff is so damn small. On my screen I have to get very near to read it and it takes a lot of fun out of it. There is no way to adjust the resolution or the UI, so kinda wasted my money.

I came into this game really wanting to enjoy it. It's got the retro aesthetics. It's got an interesting premise. If there wasn't so many things about this game that I loved, I wouldn't hate it as much. Now, I'm sure my review will be met with cries of "git gud." I've said as much to others, about other challenging games. Unfortunately, this game doesn't feel so much challenging, as it feels luck based. You might run into an encounter you aren't equiped to beat, upon leaving your home base. It has the same level of challenge as poker, if you removed all of the mechanics of skill. If every hand was, "here's five cards. Now, everyone show your cards. Who won?" It is incredibly frustrating. In conclusion, I'd recommend not buying this. You may have already gotten as far as you'll ever get, but for free.