I learned about this game from the Atari booth at the Retro Games expo. They had one of the new VCS systems with the interesting twist-version of the classic controller. Having a proper twist controller would be great for Tempest, of course, but I hadn't thought of it for Gravitar. Playing this refreshed Gravitar on the VCS with twist controller was surprisingly natural. The new game has vector-like graphics, an interesting new way to navigate between levels and more variety of play than the original. Unfortunately this PC version doesn't support the VCS controller. What a missed opportunity.
In addition to being gorgeous and having an engaging story, I've been enjoying how it's easy to explore different combat styles - weapon-heavy vs. pure fighters and drones, or a blend, and they all seem viable. The different officers' strengths add a nice twist as well, but I kind of wish they could advance as the game goes on. It's almost possible to play with just the keyboard, which is cool (and would be nice to completely go that way). This is clearly a labor of love, and we're all benefitting from the thought and care put in to the design.
as a circuit designer in Shenzhen China. (well, I wouldn't know that, but that's how it feels). Each assignment you get is like a puzzle - use the weird/limited parts and space to build little gizmos. Get teased and abused by your co-workers. Curry favor with your boss by playing his daughter's amazing solitaire game. If you liked TIS-100, this is like a more polished / less abstract version of that, but also richer. You're not stuck with the same instruction set for each component, and it's less about routing and parallelism, and more about code (but there's still both layout and parallelism in play). The documentation is great, but you'll have to dedicate a fair amount of time to get proficient, and the learning curve is pretty steeep. Highly recommended for people who love to code (in assembly, and with wacky constraints) and solve puzzles.
My son and I play this together, alternating systems each turn. We are particularly enjoying the dogfights, the sense of exploration and climbing the technology tree. As we advance, we're able to get further, and are having an easier time with the bad guys. Haven't come close to being able to defeat the Corvettes, but that will come in time. Looking forward to seeing how the game evolves, but we're already having a good time with it.
