Game is fantastic. But rewind as a mechanic should have infinite use. Game like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and most notably Lone Star. Ruined an experience as I was learning.
Game is fantastic. But rewind as a mechanic should have infinite use. Game like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and most notably Lone Star. Ruined an experience as I was learning.
Gets unpleasantly difficult in act 2 and 3. And you have too low hp, only 5 doom points. And you get boned if special units channels doom in the backrow.
Cant recommend this game.
Why is Pulsar (attack +2 doom after shield broke) increase my doom when it didn't hit my mech????
Either it's very non-intuitive design, or you guys release this game with an obvious bug. Idk which is worse.
final boss causes heavy stuttering to the point of crashing my computer; after it crashed it didn't save my progress per phaseI don't know why beating the act 4 boss's 2nd and 3rd phase caused the game to eat through 16GB of RAM, but it feels a bit disingenuous to have that when the recommended requirements is 4GB and it doesn't seem to be a memory leakthe day 1 update seems to have fixed this issue. disregard
card packs make the pool feel bloated and ironically make the different pilots and mechs feel insanely samey from run to run since you get like 4 of them when it unlocks and you get 3 per run
the modifiers you need to unlock act 4 feel way worse than something like StS since it's basically the equivalent of taking a curse every turn; the fact that it's a random modifier each run makes it feel even more like you're just gambling
in the next fest demos you had situations where your build could not clear an initial elite wave without taking doom; this often occurs even in regular waves due to modifiers like reduced initial hand draw and the one where 8 stickbugs are at the bottom of the screen
the first 3 difficulties are fine but act 4 apocalypse and above feel way too RNG-dependent especially since you're so reliant on good factory draws
If i had to rate this game by how many women i wont have sex with because of its existence, i would rate it full celibacy. of course, im going to have sex with women, and my play time will reflect that. but not because the game isnt amazing, it is, my priorities are just real crazy lately.
I am constantly on the hunt for new rogue-likes, and the demo had me very excited for this one.
StarVaders could be an all-timer, folks. This game provides a tight loop and fun deckbuilding - rare in a world of Slay the Spire clones that forget that tension is what keeps StS engrossing after all these years. StarVaders makes turns difficult, and battles into regular nailbiters.
Let's not get confused - you can get absolutely broken in this game, and on Apocalypse difficulty it feels like the game is asking you to do that. Invaders will be pushing down on you from all sides, every turn. I really love that you can see your doom coming from multiple turns away - the spatial puzzle of the board is really satisfying to untangle. Thankfully, you are given lots of options, if you can figure out how to put them together, to deal with this onslaught. It's a real joy to watch your little bot cascade a chain of effects to clear a battle, and it feels well-earned to do so.
I struggle to think of a game that so closely hews to conventional deckbuilding formulas and yet plays so joyfully with the conceits. I still have so much more to explore, but I feel confident I will be keeping StarVaders in the rotation for a long time.
This game genuinely blows me away. I can't even say enough good things about this.
Slay the Spire is probably my favorite game, and this is the first StS-like I've ever played with anywhere near the depth of StS. It actually pulls off the sandbox feeling that no other clone has ever come close to. I've probably played 25+ different roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire Clones, probably every one of them that you've heard of. Probably half of those have been some version of "StS but with grid combat." This is the first one I've ever played that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts. This is actual innovation to make something amazing, not just unique.
The most important thing is that there's just So. Much. Content. I tried out the demo when it was in early access and I remember saying the demo had more cards than almost any StS clones I'd ever played.
There must be like 500+ cards and I have no idea how many Relics and "Components" (card upgrades.)
The gimmicks are all so fleshed out and combine in ways that actually allow clever emergent gameplay patterns. To draw a comparison to StS, I'll give the Silent's Shivs. An example gimmick of equivalent depth in StarVoiders would be Bombs. I've ended up with a bomb deck 6 times. I actively remember each of these runs. They used almost entirely different cards and relics each time, and played completely different from one another in the moment-to-moment decision making.
Bombs are one of probably 50+ gimmicks of similar depth and complexity across 3 mechs (StS characters/unique pools of cards) and 9 pilots (starting sets of gimmicks.) This game is insane.
This game is awesome. I'm sure other reviews have mentioned the combos, the artstyle, the graphics that are clean but still managed to be packed with so much personality, the endless synergies. My personal favourite part of the game is how much control you have over the difficulty. There are assist modes and other settings in the game that let you customise your playing experience. I really like this, because it means I can play the game when I'm exhausted after a long day and just chill out and blow things up. But I can also play harder difficulties that focus more on strategy and is far less forgiving if i want to too. This means the game can fill both of my favourite gaming niches: casual fun games *and* challenging strategy games in a way that compromises neither of them. I can mess around and find insane combos on easier difficulties, but I can also be faced with ardous, challenging runs where you have to think about and conserve every resource. I really enjoy the rewind feature, too, it's a great way to combat some of the RNG that can make or break difficult deckbuilder roguelike runs. I also like that these rewinds are limited (but you can make them limitless in settings!) which adds just yet one more layer to the choices you make during a run.
A lot of the gaming industry seems to look down on assist modes, and disparage them. I like that this game doesn't do that, and fully embraces customising difficulty.
Just won my first run with an insane combo of bomb cards which blew up the whole level (including me, myself counting as a bomb and blowing up more) every turn. A lot of fun
Insanely addicting deckbuilder borrowing from both Slay the Spire and Space Invaders of all things. It works really well, with plenty of gameplay depth, several different modes to play, and some great art to top it off.
This game is insane. It takes all the best elements of the countless roguelike deckbuilders we've seen over the years, and cuts out all the fluff. Anyone who has even a passing interest in these types of games owes it to themselves to try it out.
I've played a lot of rogueliite deckbuilders, and this one fights in the same ring as the heavyweights: Slay the Spire, MonsterTrain and Balatro and scratches that same itch - just one more run. Incredibly tight game play loop, unique mechanics and great UX.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on my top 5 best games of the year.
This is such an engrossing game! It is so fun and all the characters are so different even within the same archetypes! I feel like there is so much more I can explore and I'm only one day in.
And the music is so good! Such great flow from the gameplay to the music.
Recommended if you get the game while it's on sale. The current asking price for what is given here is way too steep, given the production value behind the game it is rather limited in terms of animation, lack of multiplayer, and there is no voice acting either. This is a $14.99 - $19.99 title at most in terms of value proposition and what it has to offer.
Keep in mind it is the same asking price for Slay the Spire and Hades (just a few bucks away from Hades 2, as well).
But if you don't mind the borderline mobile game aesthetic, this game is quite fun and has a banger soundtrack. There are no plans however it seems to add voice acting. I may change my recommendation in the future if this title doesn't go down in price honestly.
For an equivalent title, check out Starless Abyss (Which is only $19.99 as of this writing), or Monster Train.
It really is good. I just wanted to try it after reading the reviews, and something about it lured me in. Two and a half hours later, I had completely lost track of time — I beat the Gunner difficulty once, and it was so much fun!
Over the past two years, I’ve bought and refunded a lot of games (many with Very Positive or Overwhelmingly Positive reviews), and I’ve really had a hard time getting hooked on anything. Combine that with the fact that this isn’t even my favorite genre — but somehow, this game really did it for me. I just couldn’t stop playing.
one of the good ones
deckbuilding roguelites, i mean. also a lot of fluidity, feels good to play. grid mechanics are good and satisfying and QUICK,
i suspect these people created the game that they wanted to play, which is golden.
+1
Only ~20 hours in and haven't unlocked everything but wanted to leave a positive review on this fantastic game
A lot of content, smooth & clear UI, perfect combination of grid tactics + deck building, lots of variety and very fun synergies
Runs don't take long and the RNG is easy to handle with very generous re-rolls, enemy variety is decent
Can;t think of any negatives TBH except art for the story/cutscenes being sparse, certainly nothing animated at all which felt odd & no voice over either in this game but not a major issue for me personally, gameplay > story
Game is fantastic. But rewind as a mechanic should have infinite use. Game like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and most notably Lone Star. Ruined an experience as I was learning.
Game is fantastic. But rewind as a mechanic should have infinite use. Game like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and most notably Lone Star. Ruined an experience as I was learning.
Gets unpleasantly difficult in act 2 and 3. And you have too low hp, only 5 doom points. And you get boned if special units channels doom in the backrow.
Cant recommend this game.
Why is Pulsar (attack +2 doom after shield broke) increase my doom when it didn't hit my mech????
Either it's very non-intuitive design, or you guys release this game with an obvious bug. Idk which is worse.
final boss causes heavy stuttering to the point of crashing my computer; after it crashed it didn't save my progress per phaseI don't know why beating the act 4 boss's 2nd and 3rd phase caused the game to eat through 16GB of RAM, but it feels a bit disingenuous to have that when the recommended requirements is 4GB and it doesn't seem to be a memory leakthe day 1 update seems to have fixed this issue. disregard
card packs make the pool feel bloated and ironically make the different pilots and mechs feel insanely samey from run to run since you get like 4 of them when it unlocks and you get 3 per run
the modifiers you need to unlock act 4 feel way worse than something like StS since it's basically the equivalent of taking a curse every turn; the fact that it's a random modifier each run makes it feel even more like you're just gambling
in the next fest demos you had situations where your build could not clear an initial elite wave without taking doom; this often occurs even in regular waves due to modifiers like reduced initial hand draw and the one where 8 stickbugs are at the bottom of the screen
the first 3 difficulties are fine but act 4 apocalypse and above feel way too RNG-dependent especially since you're so reliant on good factory draws
If i had to rate this game by how many women i wont have sex with because of its existence, i would rate it full celibacy. of course, im going to have sex with women, and my play time will reflect that. but not because the game isnt amazing, it is, my priorities are just real crazy lately.
I am constantly on the hunt for new rogue-likes, and the demo had me very excited for this one.
StarVaders could be an all-timer, folks. This game provides a tight loop and fun deckbuilding - rare in a world of Slay the Spire clones that forget that tension is what keeps StS engrossing after all these years. StarVaders makes turns difficult, and battles into regular nailbiters.
Let's not get confused - you can get absolutely broken in this game, and on Apocalypse difficulty it feels like the game is asking you to do that. Invaders will be pushing down on you from all sides, every turn. I really love that you can see your doom coming from multiple turns away - the spatial puzzle of the board is really satisfying to untangle. Thankfully, you are given lots of options, if you can figure out how to put them together, to deal with this onslaught. It's a real joy to watch your little bot cascade a chain of effects to clear a battle, and it feels well-earned to do so.
I struggle to think of a game that so closely hews to conventional deckbuilding formulas and yet plays so joyfully with the conceits. I still have so much more to explore, but I feel confident I will be keeping StarVaders in the rotation for a long time.
This game genuinely blows me away. I can't even say enough good things about this.
Slay the Spire is probably my favorite game, and this is the first StS-like I've ever played with anywhere near the depth of StS. It actually pulls off the sandbox feeling that no other clone has ever come close to. I've probably played 25+ different roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire Clones, probably every one of them that you've heard of. Probably half of those have been some version of "StS but with grid combat." This is the first one I've ever played that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts. This is actual innovation to make something amazing, not just unique.
The most important thing is that there's just So. Much. Content. I tried out the demo when it was in early access and I remember saying the demo had more cards than almost any StS clones I'd ever played.
There must be like 500+ cards and I have no idea how many Relics and "Components" (card upgrades.)
The gimmicks are all so fleshed out and combine in ways that actually allow clever emergent gameplay patterns. To draw a comparison to StS, I'll give the Silent's Shivs. An example gimmick of equivalent depth in StarVoiders would be Bombs. I've ended up with a bomb deck 6 times. I actively remember each of these runs. They used almost entirely different cards and relics each time, and played completely different from one another in the moment-to-moment decision making.
Bombs are one of probably 50+ gimmicks of similar depth and complexity across 3 mechs (StS characters/unique pools of cards) and 9 pilots (starting sets of gimmicks.) This game is insane.
This game is awesome. I'm sure other reviews have mentioned the combos, the artstyle, the graphics that are clean but still managed to be packed with so much personality, the endless synergies. My personal favourite part of the game is how much control you have over the difficulty. There are assist modes and other settings in the game that let you customise your playing experience. I really like this, because it means I can play the game when I'm exhausted after a long day and just chill out and blow things up. But I can also play harder difficulties that focus more on strategy and is far less forgiving if i want to too. This means the game can fill both of my favourite gaming niches: casual fun games *and* challenging strategy games in a way that compromises neither of them. I can mess around and find insane combos on easier difficulties, but I can also be faced with ardous, challenging runs where you have to think about and conserve every resource. I really enjoy the rewind feature, too, it's a great way to combat some of the RNG that can make or break difficult deckbuilder roguelike runs. I also like that these rewinds are limited (but you can make them limitless in settings!) which adds just yet one more layer to the choices you make during a run.
A lot of the gaming industry seems to look down on assist modes, and disparage them. I like that this game doesn't do that, and fully embraces customising difficulty.
Just won my first run with an insane combo of bomb cards which blew up the whole level (including me, myself counting as a bomb and blowing up more) every turn. A lot of fun
Insanely addicting deckbuilder borrowing from both Slay the Spire and Space Invaders of all things. It works really well, with plenty of gameplay depth, several different modes to play, and some great art to top it off.
This game is insane. It takes all the best elements of the countless roguelike deckbuilders we've seen over the years, and cuts out all the fluff. Anyone who has even a passing interest in these types of games owes it to themselves to try it out.
I've played a lot of rogueliite deckbuilders, and this one fights in the same ring as the heavyweights: Slay the Spire, MonsterTrain and Balatro and scratches that same itch - just one more run. Incredibly tight game play loop, unique mechanics and great UX.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on my top 5 best games of the year.
This is such an engrossing game! It is so fun and all the characters are so different even within the same archetypes! I feel like there is so much more I can explore and I'm only one day in.
And the music is so good! Such great flow from the gameplay to the music.
Recommended if you get the game while it's on sale. The current asking price for what is given here is way too steep, given the production value behind the game it is rather limited in terms of animation, lack of multiplayer, and there is no voice acting either. This is a $14.99 - $19.99 title at most in terms of value proposition and what it has to offer.
Keep in mind it is the same asking price for Slay the Spire and Hades (just a few bucks away from Hades 2, as well).
But if you don't mind the borderline mobile game aesthetic, this game is quite fun and has a banger soundtrack. There are no plans however it seems to add voice acting. I may change my recommendation in the future if this title doesn't go down in price honestly.
For an equivalent title, check out Starless Abyss (Which is only $19.99 as of this writing), or Monster Train.
It really is good. I just wanted to try it after reading the reviews, and something about it lured me in. Two and a half hours later, I had completely lost track of time — I beat the Gunner difficulty once, and it was so much fun!
Over the past two years, I’ve bought and refunded a lot of games (many with Very Positive or Overwhelmingly Positive reviews), and I’ve really had a hard time getting hooked on anything. Combine that with the fact that this isn’t even my favorite genre — but somehow, this game really did it for me. I just couldn’t stop playing.
one of the good ones
deckbuilding roguelites, i mean. also a lot of fluidity, feels good to play. grid mechanics are good and satisfying and QUICK,
i suspect these people created the game that they wanted to play, which is golden.
+1
Only ~20 hours in and haven't unlocked everything but wanted to leave a positive review on this fantastic game
A lot of content, smooth & clear UI, perfect combination of grid tactics + deck building, lots of variety and very fun synergies
Runs don't take long and the RNG is easy to handle with very generous re-rolls, enemy variety is decent
Can;t think of any negatives TBH except art for the story/cutscenes being sparse, certainly nothing animated at all which felt odd & no voice over either in this game but not a major issue for me personally, gameplay > story
