I would love to see a version of this game that does not rely on random events that are so punishing. Managing a ship and crew and combat etc is VERY well done, but the difficulty is insane.
I eventually gave up and used cheats. Unlimited money, I had a fully upgraded ship and unlimited ammo, still couldn't beat the final boss.
Shame, it was a good idea, poor execution.
A neat concept, but a bad experience.
On paper you need to manage a ship, its crew and upgrades in order to defeat other ship and over come the boss at the end. You have different crew species, different weaponry and different gear you can equip your ship with that will allow you to approach the game differently. You also need to manage resources, as different parts of this ship need power and some weaponry require resources.
Sounds quite solid, but undermined primarily by three things.
RNG. It really is random for the most part. If you are not lucky, then you are not lucky and thats it. The game doesnt offer you enough mechanisms to combat the deck being stacked against you. A bad event, wrong enemy appearing, not enough or too many shops, not enough resources, etc.
Time wasting. Weapons take a while to charge up and fire, most of the time all you can do is wait for the guns to be combat ready and try to knock out the enemies shield and weapons systems. You micro manage attrition you suffer in the meantime, but its still a needlesly prolonged fight for no reason.
Grinding. Im somewhat skeptical about this one as you dont really unlock upgrades, per se. You unlock new ship compositions. Different starting weapons, starting crews, starting layouts. Im not sure how much this will contribute to you success.
The game does have different items you can emply, so Im sure you can develop some strategies for certain runs. But that will require you to go through tons of trial and error until you can see if there really is more to it. Within 10 hours you will probably see almost all the events and items this game has to offer. But then you will have to spend many more trying to "master" them for the most efficient run.
Bottom line, unless you like being kicked in the balls repeatedly until you get lucky enough and are well versed enough in the game to be able to tackle it, there are more enjoyable ways of spending your time.
I played this game since it was beta. It's awesome! This is a kind of spaceship simulation I ever wanted to play. If you like rouge-like games and micromanagement you should try it :)
Read the 5 star reviews, but this game is... not fun. Started on Normal, got no where, tried Easy and finally made it to the end stage (of the first level, I don't know?) and was wiped out by the boss. How you're supposed to level up enough to survive isn't down to skill but pure luck it seems and that for me isn't much fun. At least I bought it on sale so didn't waste too much on it.
not because it exists, but because it's goals aren't to provide you with an interesting and unique experience from playthrough to playthrough. it's actual goals appear to only allow you past certain hurdles every so often to elict the maximum amount of in-game hours. I beat it on my third play though. sometimes I don't even make it past sector 1. i begin to organize in a thoughtful way and the game throws solar stages at me like crazy. I had both stores on a sector be accessable from my jump-in beacon. twice in a row. in sector 1 and 2 when you are making you biggest commitments. i experienced all this is so few gameplays that I knew after just 14 hours I was done. 100% over it.
the game has real appeal. but it's a crap game that treats it's players like babies.