final boss causes heavy stuttering to the point of crashing my computer; after it crashed it didn't save my progress per phase I 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 leak the 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Another digital crack that I had to complete it as fast as possible so it won't consume my life. If you got hooked in Slay the Spire, Into the breach, you will get hooked too. Highly recommend.

played this during Next Fest and have been looking forward to the release for some time, and the full release did not disappoint. Out of all the roguelike deckbuilders i've played, none of them come close to the number of fun and unique playstyles that this game has, and I've only unlocked 2 of the 3 mechs. Each pilot available for each mech adds a new gimmick that drastically changes how the mech is played. star vaders also does something unique with how the loot pool works that i really like. A problem with many roguelike deckbuilders is that the loot pool can often get diluted as you unluck more cards, but star vaders solves this problem by having a small loot pool for each mech, and then each playthrough has 3 packs of loot each with their own archetype. something that I would like to see added is a more clear turn order for enemies; what order enemies are attacking and adding doom in.

awesome

This game is incredible. I've always been a fan of deckbuilder roguelikes and chess, and not only did they nail that fusion of cardplay and geometric strategy they also hit one of my favorite little mechanical pleasure points - hitpointless game design. The game does a lot without ever making me have to worry about +25% damage for a 6 damage attack. I've played a lot of deckbuilders in the last few years but this one maybe scratches my "can't wait to boot it up again, just one more run" itch better than any other I can think of? Also I read a review somewhere saying the story is whatever which sounds insane to me because this deckbuilder maybe has the most story and best story of roguelike deckbuilders I've played through outside griftlands. Anyway I'm rambling: it's good. Play it.

Space invaders but a roguelike deckbuilder. No idea how it works, but it does! Update, 02.05.25: Dev saw the... 5 reviews that said "no infinite rewinds bad", and added it within 24 hours. Based.

WOW this game is AWESOME. So happy I pulled the trigger on this game. I love the artstyle, the music is fantastic, the gameplay is deeply satisfying and addicting, lots of depth to the strategy and tons of different builds and things to unlock for high replay value. I'm seriously impressed - highly recommended!

I am here to support the line.

Just finished my first run and can confirm this game is a gem and insanely good. I could totally see this being the next "Balatro" in terms of success. Megaman Battle Network style gameplay mixed with deckbuilding roguelike action, the gameplay is addicting already and I can't wait to sink my teeth into more. The music and visuals are on point too and are almost nostalgic to a point that is hard to explain. Don't miss out on this one, get it. Trust me.

If you're a fan of tactical roguelikes, you're going to love this. It scratches that itch. Seriously enjoying it.

This is not first rodeo with roguelike deckbuilders and the first time I played a demo back in 2023, I played for 4hrs. I'm going to play this to 100% and you should too. The game design is excellent. I know the devs were inspired by Into the Breach, but ITB is extremely limiting in what you can do or how you can do it, but Starvaders is not, you can get out of hard situations with a good plan and using all your resources

A Genius Tactical Deckbuilder

Four-Minute Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABP9EM6Bgrk Judging by its paltry number of pre-launch Steam followers, turn-based deckbuilder StarVaders seems poised to go down as one of the best games that nobody will play in 2025. But for the lucky few that give it a shot, you’re in for a real treat. Fans of roguelite deckbuilders a la Slay the Spire and grid-based strategy titles like Into the Breach will feel right at home here, as StarVaders smartly wraps these two genres into a stylish sci-fi arcadey adventure that feels consistently fresh and heavily encourages experimentation. THE STORY Play as three mechs and one of ten unlockable pilots—each of whom has their own starting deck, playstyle altering artifacts, and brief little nuggets of text-based lore. Honestly, I don’t have a whole heck of a lot to say about StarVaders’ cryptic story. Earth has been invaded by three alien species—flying robots, swampy bug fungus things, and... uh, rock robots, I guess? Pretty sure I saw a little ghost at one point. At the end of each run, win or lose, a three-eyed dark cosmic goddess chick will pop up and spit some existential nonsense at you before eventually explaining that you need to win multiple times on the hardest difficulty in order to return the invaders to their void realm for good. Hey, I suppose it’s better than nothing. Still, StarVaders’ story definitely feels like it was cobbled together in an attempt to incentivize repeat playthroughs, but I’m happily here to say that the gameplay alone more than justifies that. GAMEPLAY & CONTENT After picking your mech/pilot combo, you’ll get to tweak your starting deck a bit and then launch into the first of three stages. There are three levels, a store, and a boss fight per stage, which makes StarVaders pretty short as far as roguelites go. However, the game mostly makes up for this through intense, cognitively demanding turn-based combat. Each level, a variety of enemy types and environmental hazards (that you’ll get a little preview of during level selection) will appear on a grid and begin advancing toward you. On reaching the bottom few rows of tiles, enemies will begin channeling DOOM, and if you fail to kill them, they’ll disappear from the board and count toward your DOOM meter—hit five DOOM and you’re DOOMed. But you're not gonna let that happen, are ya? No heckin’ way, because each turn you’ll get a figurative handful of attack, move, and tactic cards you can spend using a set amount of action points in the form of a mech-specific resource like “Heat” or "Energy.” I loved the energy hungry ninja mech you unlock second, as he takes what you thought was a dynamic grid with long range attacks and turns it into a fluid melee hack ‘n’ slasher. Choosing how to best spend your action points per turn will constitute the bulk of your playtime and brain aneurisms, as the enemy’s turns never take more than five seconds. Cards (of which there are hundreds) can be upgraded and/or linked together in fantastic ways with your accrued artifacts, resulting in some delicious arcade style combos that turn an otherwise static grid into a pinball machine of chaos. Really, the game often makes you feel like an accidental genius for stumbling upon what feels like an absurdly overpowered build, only to humble you a few levels later when a new enemy type exposes a flaw in your once perfect strategy. If and when you get hit by an enemy projectile (or your own!) you’ll accrue a “Junk” card that will clog up your deck and result in a debuff if you fail to play it. And should you ever get into what feels like an unwinnable position, (A) don’t give up, but (B) if you do, you get three Chrono tokens per stage that allow you to replay the turn with a brand new hand of cards. While I didn’t die once on easy mode, which was a little underwhelming because it meant I won my first ever run, the game is structured such that winning runs and completing arbitrary objectives along the way unlocks new mechs, pilots, cards, enemy types, and (best of all) bosses. I gotta say, the bosses in StarVaders blew me away. There aren’t a ton of them, but what’s here will push you to your absolute limit, plus you'll unlock new ones each difficulty. My personal favorite was an armored swamp snake named Nessie that accrues DOOM each time you let him/her/it/not sure slither down the board and gobble up poison apples. And no, StarVaders does not take itself too seriously. STYLE Finally, a few words on the game’s style. StarVaders ain’t the prettiest roguelite in the world, but its bright and colorful visuals combine with an exceptionally intuitive User Interface to create a clear, playable experience. Meanwhile, crisp sound design really elevates those crazy combos, and the game's occasional musical flourishes (I'm looking at you, Stage 3 piano solo) are delightful. CONCLUSION In the end, StarVaders is one of my favorite games of 2025. As noted, it’s not particularly long and could probably benefit from a new stage or two. But fans of the format will still find plenty of fun, plus there are endgame challenge modes if you really hate yourself. I’m giving StarVaders a strong aggregate MEGA score of 3.64/5 and am happy to answer any questions you have about the game or my review. Thanks for reading! STEAM CURATOR: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42044015/

Top-class roguelite deckbuilder. If you're tired of deckbuilders that don't deviate very much from Slay the Spire, you can't go wrong with this one. It's a game not afraid to give you crazy combos, but it has enough difficulty options to keep it consistently engaging. The grid mechanics combined with a minimal amount of 'hard synergies' makes the deckbuilding and combos feel a lot more fluid and organic than a lot of other roguelites. Run to run variety is quite good because of this. Do note that this isn't an Early Access release. This is a release comparable to most other deckbuilders after a year of content updates. There is a large amount of content and polish here, including 10 characters split across 3 classes, 3 bosses per act, a pack system that changes up which cards are available in a run, bonus difficulties and challenges for each character. Overall this is just really solid roguelite deckbuilder in all aspects. Lots of run variety, high amount of content, good soundtrack and art direction, snappy pacing and gamefeel. It's priced like a premium deckbuilder, but that's because it is one. Quick Summary: +Large amount of variety with characters, cards, and synergies. +Very good pacing despite being grid-based +Solid art and soundtrack. Nice feedback on player actions. +No Power-based meta progression (and optional skip for unlock metaprogression) -Price is on the top-end of the deckbuilders. It justifies the price, but if it's prohibitive to you then wait for a sale.

StarVaders is a game that manages to blend 2 of my favourite genres, Deckbuilders and Turn-Based Tactics, into a single cohesive package. You'll be using a variety of cards to zip around the map, while blasting an oncoming horde of alien invaders. If you've played any other Roguelike Deckbuilder then you're familiar with the general flow of StarVaders, but it's amazing how different it manages to feel thanks to the inclusion of grid-based movement. This changes the flow of combat so that you're not simply playing a combo based on what you draw, but also where you're positioned on the board. It's the sort of thing that takes a couple of runs to get your head around, and feels immensely satisfying once you do. Heck, I got the opportunity to review the game early, and kept getting pulled into playing additional runs of it while I was meant to be writing my review. I genuinely can't think of a better endorsement for StarVaders than that. If you've been looking for a fresh take on Roguelike Deckbuilders then I highly recommend taking a look at StarVaders. It feels like a breath of fresh air with it's myriad of movement based cards, and grid-based gameplay. For a more in-depth look at StarVaders, consider reading my full review at: https://frostilyte.ca/2025/04/29/tactical-space-invaders-starvaders-review/