Recent reviews by Hobbes

Satellite Reign, created by Five Lives studios, made up of ex Bullfrog employees is the spiritual successor to Syndicate and Syndicate wars. The good ones. Not the horror that Electronic Arts perpetuated, you know, the first person shooter that came with Skrillex making the theme tune (because apparently we really needed Skrillex ruining one of the best cyberpunk game themes in that era). Satellite Reign takes more of its' heritage from the somewhat unfairly criticised Syndicate Wars than the original, borrowing elements from both but then adding some unique elements of its' own, before souping up the graphics, really, really souping them up, and making the whole package relevant to today's crowd.

Does it work?

In a nutshell? Ohmighodyes


The city is effectively one -giant- map, you can travel between districts at will, and the game will happily let you trundle around this huge, sprawling city, exploring all the nooks and crannies at will, various areas are controlled by the key antagonist corporations (The Eternals, Ronin, UzyKorp, Dracogenics, the Wyverns), they're deemed off limits and the moment you enter one, if you're detected you can expect a toasty reception from the guards. At the very least you'll be escorted off site and given a kick in the back, at worst you'll be served a bullet breakfast. Then again, you're not really here to just wave and say cheery words, you're in command of the finest your company has to supply, which at the beginning... isn't much.

You've managed to snag a prototype version of something called "Res_Tech" which allows you to resurrect your agents in the field to some extent, though it's far from perfect, the version you have will not preserve clones, so you'll need to replace them as clones are shot up. You've also a small sum of money provided to you by the corp, and your agents who come armed with futuristic Uzis and the Infiltrator comes packing a sniper rifle.

Poking around the skill upgrade system hints at the sheer potential for carnage your soldiers -will- be able to unleash, but to begin with, you're weak, you're small. The first jobs are going to be skin of the teeth things as you scrounge resources, get a few prototypes and start building up those all important weapons, gear and augments. In this regard, it's -very- close to the original Syndicate games, the feeling of power as you steadily improve your agents from "Joe public with a gun" to "Cyber enhanced machines of destruction".

The persuadertron has been replaced with a button marked "Hijack", which allows you to hack the brainware of pretty much anyone provided you have the appropriate skillset for it, again, initially you can only brainwash members of the public, maybe some police officers and the odd thug, but once you skill up you'll be able to convert Soldiers and even enemy corp members and return them to the clone pool, adding valuable and highly sought after clone bodies that come with built in bonuses to your army.

The flow of the game is realtime all the way, each of your agents is class based, and as a result the game oft feels a bit like a MOBA but single player, with you managing the placement, tactical cover, targetting and skill usage of your various agents. As well as managing their skill growth, gear loadouts, enhancements etc. As you gain power and start adding more skills, you'll find that you get more comfortable with managing the myriad of options available, and you'll be planning your routes in and out of complexes with astute precision. The plan doesn't -always- survive contact with the enemy, but when you pull it off smoothly, you'll feel badass.


The graphics and sound design are very, very evocative of Blade Runner, with it's permanent rain soaked roads, and it's bright, cheery neon which overlays a dying, decrepit city in the most part, with only the areas for the affluent still being maintained to a high standard. It's very much a telling commentary on what a city might look like in the future, and a very dystopian and gritty approach to world building, and in places feels like it could serve as set dressing for the very film I mention. Just throw Decker and some replicants into the world and you'd have the film to go.

The music too, strikes a lot of chords both with the original games, and with Blade Runner, with a lot of heavy use of synth, orchestral overtones, and an almost Vangelis style approach to building the atmosphere. It works brilliantly, ebbing between calm during the times of exploration and stealth, and tension and drama during combat. This is a game that really thrives on the atmosphere it has created, and it really draws you into that atmosphere.


Satellite Reign is an example of how Early Access and indeed Kickstarter -should- be done. No silly content stuff was hidden behind gates, indeed, the stuff offered to backers was cosmetic and if anything -added- to the game for other people rather than took away (by offering backers the opportunity to design things to be put into the game), I didn't back it for reference, but I did "due dilligence" (as these days a lot of devs ARE packing content into backer tiers), and the Early Access was done right, with gameplay and bug fixing shaping and informing the product until it was polished and most of the rough edges were taken out of the game. It's still -got- a few rough edges, but they'll get patched out soon enough, for a 1.0 release this is a remarkably polished game. One that stands up to repeated playthroughs, and offers a lot of game for your money, and your time.

Verdict : Highly recommended

Hacknet takes cues from a mix of places, primarily Hacker Evolution and Uplink, creating a blend that can safely be summed up as a hacking puzzle sim. Your job is to utilise the tools you acquire to probe and gain access to a selection of progressively trickier systems and networks, and unravel the story of a hacker who recently deceased in a supposed accident. Initially you're given control of HackNet, a revolutionary OS that makes you essentially invincible from traditional tracing methods, and a few basic tools, from there your job is to gather the resources you'll need to piece together the mystery of what happened.


Hacknet hews a lot closer to the real nature of exploiting individual ports (even if the programs are automated and require little work to figure out the relevant exploits), and you'll be picking apart servers step by step, usually using command line textual input which makes the game "feel" an awful lot more real than say, Uplink (though uplink succeeded much more from a neuromancer perspective). You'll be learning the concept of using shells to overwhelm proxies, cyclical analysis and syndication to deal with firewalls, and the use of various tools to pry open specific ports to eventually use your swiss army knife tool "PortHack" which will then turn over Admin control of a system to you. Then you get to explore, and use various commands to remove evidence of your tomfoolery.


The game is LOADED with internet culture references, the devs made liberal use of bash.org for IRC logs which litter the servers, taking a "best of" the IRC culture and invariably having some real funnies tucked away on the servers for you to discover, along with various text files with references to games and other internet geekery. There's a lot that's relevant and interesting, and you'll no doubt enjoy what you find as you explore the various servers. There's also hidden paths, servers lying out of the way, and secret side dishes for those willing to investigate and probe various elements of the games rather cavernous depths.


The game is presented in a very slick x-term package, anyone who's used X11 interfaces in Linux will be very much at home here, and more entertainingly, there's the ability to replace your xterm with ones you find, changing up your wallpaper and colour scheme as you progress through the game. The music too, is very well thought out, and very appropriate, with music that's contextual to various events kicking in and ensuring that you get pumped up at just the right times. Even the HackNet OS boot sequence is pleasingly authentic, right down to little details such as memory allocations and devices and the like.


The one big criticism is that this game is hand crafted, this is both a strength AND a weakness, because unlike Uplink, once you've finished the game and plumbed out all the secrets, there isn't much more to come back to. However, what there IS that's here, and there's a good 6-8 hours, is stylish, well written, and very nicely presented. Not to mention a great callback to -good- hacking games, which is something that's been sorely missing as of late.

Verdict : Highly recommended

So, here's the issue that came with the game at launch.

http://sp.zhabite.com/id/thatfuzzytiger/screenshot/628600238318654298

That's basically abusing the review system by offering direct paid inducements for positive reviews. To add to this, the developers attempted to ban any and all reviews that referenced this event as it happened along with screenshot evidence that confirmed it. Censorship by abuse of the ban system. When the steam mods unflagged the screens it left them with the only route of attacking the users, which they did, in my case, calling me a "Hatred liar", see exhibit B:

http://imgur.com/qlIAdwM

This sums up the case against the developer. Now on to the game.


The game masquerades as a skill based game but in reality has a massive set of pay to win mechanics laced into the underbelly (see ruby upgrades for cards), the game plays itself automatically with players setting up their choices before the game begins out of their pool of cards, they pick six, and then launch into battle. Now for the single player campaign, this isn't QUITE so bad, as it basically plays out as a glorified puzzle game, you figure out which set of cards gets you through each fight, and then move onto the next one. So that part works out alright, but in the PVP pool, you basically have to guess based on psychic prediction or...


... you spend money on buying in the most powerful cards (invariably 4 and 5 stars) which means paying out for diamonds. And then upgrade them using rubies (which will cost you more money). In short, unless you've a significant sum of money, you'll not get into the upper levels of the ladder of this game, you might finish the perfunctory campaign (which hasn't been finished off), but as for PvP, your success is strictly defined by either wasting a LOT of time grinding or pumping in vast sums of real, actual money and converting it into funny currency.

All into a game which plays itself.

Verdict : Avoid, avoid like the plague, run fast, run far. And keep running until you find a real, actual game, and avoid this sorry, money grabbing excuse of a "Game" at all costs.


EDIT : Since people can't be bothered to read the thread - Personal attacks will be met with an immediate deletion of the offending comment and a "block all communication", which will prevent you from further comment on this review. If the nature of the comment is severe enough, it will be forwarded to the Steam Mod team for review. Stick to the topic, people love to throw mud and all but really, you're not going to win here. My house, my rules.

Tower defence games often follow a formula, whereby you obey certain rules and fulfill certain criteria. Good tower defence games make this process happen invisibly and provide an experience that is both addictive and challenging, games like the seminal Defence Grid, which is considered the benchmark upon which all other Tower Defence games must be looked upon.

Comparing Terrorhedron to a Tower Defence game isn't really possible, because if Tower Defence is a formula, then Terrorhedron is algebra. It is mathematical purity and brilliance, expressed in abstract form. In most Tower Defence games you have a fixed path upon which the creeps will run and try to get to your base, you may be able to mess with this path by placing towers down, or you may have fixed locations upon which to build your towers.


In this case you do have fixed starting locations from which to build upon, but where it departs from the norm in this case is that the tower build points are merely bases, and from there you add lego like snap connectors from which towers can grow, tree like from the root node. The game takes full advantage of this, with levels working on every single plane of a three dimensional maze, often weaving complicated, tangled paths over cubes or more complex surfaces, allowing you to maximise your opportunities if you're clever and are willing to be imaginative.

That's the key bit, because you can use the snap connectors freely, the only limitation is really funds and how crazy you can get with the tower layout, want to build mighty archways with laser turrets hanging off? Go nuts. I just did for a section of the first level, and it worked beautifully. Here, you -build- the towers, step by step.


With such an expansive canvas, the aesthetic comes as a relief, being clean and abstract, minimalist but without looking amateur, game looks slick, well rendered, and has a thumping soundtrack, and doesn't suffer any framerate issues, regardless of what mayhem is going on at the time, and the clean design of the level layout allows you to keep focussed on the action. Doing the tutorial is mandatory this time, because Terrorhedron requires you to adapt to the fact that this game will have you building corners, arches, bridges, and all kinds of things to create your own defensive setups.

Enemies in this game are represented in a similarly abstract manner, simple three dimensional shapes with various colours representing their health, it keeps things simple and allows for absolutely ridiculous levels of enemies on the screen at once, when combined with the insane combinations of bases and towers, this can turn into an exceptionally busy game in a real hurry. It keeps scaling as you go, so when your carefully constructed strategy begins to falter, you may find that you have to re-engineer and expand to ever greater feats of lunacy to keep the enemies at bay.


In Terrorhedron you take pretty much every principle you've learned from other Tower Defence games and then extend and amplify those concepts, turning them from basics to pure, abstracted concepts. In effect, the game takes the genre, strips away all the things that aren't needed and then refines what there is and adds a few key elements that in turn fundamentally require the player to abandon the comfort zone of "just build a tower", because it's never just a tower, not when you're perpetually adding and extending it. Tower defence is maths, Terrorhedron is the degree course.

Verdict : Essential, even moreso if you are a Tower Defence fan, or a Tower Defence player looking to improve their skills in the genre.

Writer and columnist for Just Reviews, where you can get similar fine reading material. Join our group, follow our curations, and throw me a like if you would like to keep up to date with our efforts!

(Disclaimer : This review is based on a very Early Access version so this is subject to significant change, if material change requires me to update this review, then I shall revise the relevant areas)


You'd be forgiven for thinking at first that FTL had just undergone a facelift. The game plays very, very similarly. Welcome to Space Rogue, another entrant in the opening wave of "FTL-Likes" to go along with Convoy. It's been quite some time since FTL came out, and to be fair nobody has really gone out of their way to try and cook up what FTL achieved, indeed, FTL set the bar so ridiculously high there was a sense anyone trying would have to differentiate themselves pretty hard lest they wind up being seen as a poor version of FTL. So far we've had things like Death Skid Marks (Excellent), Convoy (Reasonable) and now we have Space Rogue. Space Rogue however hews closest to FTL's formula, in so much as it puts you in command of a ship which you fly through sectors of space.


In the current iteration of SR, events are taken from a nice diverse pool, and most of them end up with combat. Unlike FTL there's not a lot of subtlety going on, the vast majority of the time you'll be murdering whatever gets in your way, or you'll be getting rewarded FOR murdering whatever got in your way. There are the rare, thankful occasions when that's not the case, but in this game, combat is the norm, not the exception.

This would be fine if combat was solid and satisfying, currently it's rudimentary. It takes a lot of cues from FTL (with the PiP view of the enemy ship) to allow for specific targetting of areas of the enemy ship, but unlike FTL there's no real benefit to nuking the enemy engines, life support or navigation. Right now the only things that matter are shields and weapon systems, and maybe the medic bay if you have the right facilities.


This is a shame because in some areas it genuinely improves over FTL's combat model, such as the concept of ammo weapons having a shorter reload between shots and then a "long" reload as the clip is refilled with ammo. There's program "Cartridges" which allow you to conduct cyber warfare on your opponents, such as setting fire to target bays, puncturing sections of the ship, and sending their crew into a panic. These are seriously good steps forward.

Equally there's the navigation system, unlike FTL you're not time constrained, so you'll be moving back and forth between sectors, completing quests. Right now it's a very barebones system, with planets you've cleaned out not being of importance or note once you've dealt with them, but there's always the possibility of systems becoming event markers so that after an extended period, sectors become more difficult, forcing you to keep pressing onwards and preventing you from farming for easy planets and mining opportunities.


There's potential here to be sure, there's definitely a good idea of where the game is going, and there are some intriguing possibilities in the future. Right now however, it's a case of "It's a lot like FTL but... not really as good." and that makes it entirely impossible to recommend -yet-. I say yet because there's a patch due in the next couple of weeks, in other words, put this on your wishlist, and watch this space. There's a very good chance that the game will start improving significantly, and that my opinion of it will move more towards a cautious recommendation, and then eventually a wholehearted recommendation.

Verdict : Wishlist it. Wait. Watch. This is one for the future. Right now you'd be investing in potential, but in the future, this may be FTL 2.0, if the devs can take the feedback they've got and convert it into results.

Gratuitous Space Battles was always going to be a tricky one to follow, it was lightning in a bottle, a game where you sat back and enjoyed a cold or hot drink as fleets you carefully designed smashed into each other for your entertainment. It had the benefit of many years of polish, expansion, and even a full on 4X-lite mode which allowed you to involve yourself and lose yourself in a campaign based around those massive, wonderful battles.

It's a game with a very unique premise and therefore making a sequel was always going to be a harsh one to follow up, because whatever was made, it was going to always be held up to not the "initial release" of GSB, which barely anyone remembers, but the final, expansion laden version, which has so much more added to it. Extra races, game modes, everything.


So we come to the second iteration of Gratuitous Space Battles. It's called GSB 2 but frankly I'm going to look at it from a different angle and call it Gratuitous Space Battles "Version 2". What -should- have happened (and Cliffy is going to hate me for posting this) is that existing purchasers should have got an upgrade discount, a significant one, as a way of thanking them for their support and encouraging them to buy in to the new version of GSB. Financially it would not have been perhaps the best option, it's hard to say, but it would have been the most palatable option for the fans and would almost have certainly disarmed most of the initial complaints.

It's important to understand that this is functionally GSB but effectively rebuilt from the ground up, it has a new combat engine with additional classes of ship, a much, much more powerful graphics engine which means that the combat in space looks orders of magnitude more pretty (this is something of a double edged sword for some). However, much like the initial release, it only has the basics behind it, the initial set of challenges, the initial races and building blocks for you to get creative with. The blocks are good, the graphics and layout is a major step up though, but it's very, very much GSB1 upgraded, and there's no escaping that fact.

More no doubt is planned and will be added (indeed, custom battles are in, and more tools are being added into the ship creator screen), and Cliffy almost certainly will add a full fat singleplayer mode of some description (though it's unlikely to be an open ended 4X this time). But once again, we're back to GSB "Version 2.0" as opposed to say "2.7.x" with all the expansions and patches and balancing.


Yes. I expect so, if previous games are anything to go by, this game will see a lot of post-release support, and a lot of extensions which will flesh out the game, solve the balancing, and over time refine a lot of the rough edges. Once the content is in and there's more meat on the bones, and the weapons are more balanced so they have their respective roles (along with the new ship classes), this will without doubt exceed GSB "Version 1", even with its' many expansions.

But claiming it's a sequel and not an upgrade of the original is probably the mistake that's been made, even if it's a perceptive one, this is very much the new version, and it should have been treated as "Gratuitous Space Battles 2.0" and not a sequel. It's not, it's the GSB we all know and love, but it's had the work done to it that makes it worthy of a major revision change, and a major update fee for people who were on the 1.x branch. People who hadn't bought in should still be paying in sum, the full price and deservedly so, GSB remains a brilliant, wonderful gem of a game, one that hasn't aged much (and with GSB2, it has the potential to remain current for an awful lot longer), but perhaps this was one of those occasions where a bit more care for the existing customerbase would have paid off in the long run.


I respect the need for Indie Devs to put food on the plate, but I also know the market, I've spent most of the last decade watching, analysing and monitoring the market as it's shifted, like dunes of sand across the desert. As good as the game is, it's not a sequel, it's the new version of GSB, it's -good- for what it is, but it's still very much in it's infancy, and therefore at least until the rough edges have been sanded off, you may want to wait just a little longer. As much as it pains me to stand against Cliffy, because I've been one of his more positive supporters over time, I feel this time he misjudged the launch and the initial rollout. Nothing unfixable, but for now I'd suggest giving this game more time to mature.


The game has been out now for quite some time, and this still remains a bitter pill for me to swallow, having been, and remaining a supporter of Positech's work. GSB2 has been a commercial misfire. The campaign as it is, is lackluster, and despite my repeated attempts to get a proper campaign structure put in, there was little interest in my suggestions. So what we have now is something that's barely functional and only adequate. There's STILL no significant post release content, even though there's been plenty of patch work and tweaking of balance (which still remains a bugbear, perhaps owing to the additional complexity of the game now with the additional ship classes and so on).

I still believe it should be one to watch, and perhaps purchase at deep discount. But I cannot recommend this at full price as it stands. There's not enough here compared to it's infinitely richer predecessor, and prettier graphics alone don't cut it. Had Cliffy actually implemented a campaign worth a damn, then things might be a bit more promising, but right now? No dice. It seems right now his focus is on Democracy 3, which is probably for the best, as that is far more successful.

Verdict : Wishlist it, and wait for a steep discount.

Updated 4/10/15

(Disclaimer : Review copy supplied by the developer)


It all starts so gently, you get placed on the centerline of what looks like a giant ping pong table that has had its' net removed. The game has a distinctly neon feel to it, with lots of wireframe overlaid over a 3D background and a thumping dance track that settles you in, you are told that the right thumbstick will flip you so you can either shoot up, or down (Geddit, the ship goes both ways... *ba-dum-tsh* ... I'll get my coat - ... and your P45 - Ed).


Initially a few blue wireframe asteroids come sailing from both directions, you hammer them with your dinky ship and it's lovely shooty bangs... and then the game turns the screws. Before you know it you're dealing with lasers cutting off sections of the playfield, rocks smashing off pieces of the centerline (meaning that if you navigate off of it, you're going to die horribly, you have a jump button for this purpose), and bullets that either cannot or CAN penetrate the centerline and thus mean that sometimes you can take cover, and sometimes you can't.

... and it was all going so nicely.


If it were -just- a case of shooting up or down, this would be straightforward enough and a reasonable game, but it goes far, far beyond that. The playfield will shift, changing the rules of the game with death beams which cut the field up into little pieces, side based turrets that plop doomspikes onto the centerline that you must either dodge or hop over. This game rapidly evolves past "Nice" and well into the realms of bullet hell, plus platform hell to boot. It's evil, but it's also brilliant at the same time.


Then layered on top of that is an appropriately excellent house/EDM set of tracks that easily warrant the purchase of the OST on top. They're designed to grow and change as you work through the waves, and do so beautifully, and they have real *punch*, which helps with the whole dancing arcade machine thing as you frantically hammer your way through the ever clustering waves of chaos and mayhem around the edges of your horizon centerline.


At the price point asked, and for what the game gives in return, you'd be -absolutely mad- not to take this one into your collection, especially if you're a fan of score attacks and arcade games in the vein of Beat Hazard Ultra, or Intake.

Verdict : Highly Recommended, if you buy it, the OST is essential

Qvadriga, developed by Turnopia and published by Slitherine, takes on the topic of Roman Chariot racing, applying Slitherine's usual love and care in bringing out a turn based, tactical approach which makes racing strongly reminiscent of Avalon's Circus Maximus boardgame. I get the distinct feeling that it was inspired by it, and it's taken that as it's base and then developed from there, iterating on it and improving and extending on that for the computer and tablet platforms.

You take on the role of a manager of a Chariot stable, home of anything up to four Aurigas (Charioteers) and their associated Chariots and Horses. Before each race you'll get a chance to manage your stables, purchase specialised repairs if necessary for your stable, and make bets on your charioteer if you feel confident enough that he'll win.

Additionally in the campaign mode you'll be racing around the empire of Rome, building up reputation in smaller venues at first and buying and selling progressively more skilled and expensive items for your stable, eventually working your way into the Circus Maximus itself. The campaign comes in normal and epic mode, depending on how much of a challenge you're up for.


Static turns are the way to go, allowing you plenty of time to assess the field and figure out your next move, you've a slew of options to control speed (Hint, you want to go fast, it's a race you know), to move across the various "tracks", the inside tracks are narrower and afford tighter turns but you'll need to take them slower unless you want to wreck the chariot and end up with a dead rider.

The outer tracks mean more distance but you can maintain that speed, this means there's a clear risk and reward involved in working out the optimal place to be on each turn, particularly in the early stages when the field is packed, and you really, really don't want to wind up fighting with another charioteer.


Combat happens as well, there's two options, lacerate (which means using your whip to whack at the horses and the rider, it's more frequent, but less damaging) and crash, which will hurt far more, but can only be done once or twice per turn. Needless to say, the better chariots come with wheel blades, making Crash a far more temping option, especially when a well timed crash will either shred the poor horse to pieces or the wheel on the cart, instantly taking out the rider.

There is also a "watch" option to avoid an attack if you expect one to happen, and a "control" option to better ensure stability if you think you're coming into a turn too fast. There's a lot of control here, and turn by turn as the race unfolds, you'll be required to continually think and re-adjust as you're going along. A few tutorial races will help you get into the swing of things.


Whilst the various events can impose weather effects which do show up in game, a nice touch, graphically the best way I can phrase this is as "Vanilla", along with the sound and music, it's functional and decent. But it's not exactly going to amaze or thrill. One problem I had was that the unity engine used (4.3) kept failing and crashing until I performed the D3D9.DLL fix (Payday2 vets will know what that implies), if you're getting unity failover errors, this is definitely the first thing to look at. It seems that the Unity engine is a bit finnicky. Worth examining if it's a problem.


Functional presentation aside, this is a really, really good game. It's one for strategy buffs though, don't expect heart pounding action, but if you like the concept of a thinking Roman's race through the Circuses. And managing your Chariots and building up an excellent stable whilst gambling those coins to help keep you afloat whilst hoping that your Chariot's wheel stays on for this one last lap... well, this one definitely gets the thumbs up.

Verdict An easy sell to Strategy buffs, especially fans of Slitherine games. Wishlist it if you're not sure though and ask a friend who has it to discuss during a free evening.

FTL did raw panic, and the sheer urgency of a space based roguelite. Mi-Clos's approach to the genre, and indeed the space based roguelite is to go quite literally in the opposite direction. You do not have time constraints as such, as long as you can keep yourself fuelled, repaired and stocked with oxygen you can bumble around the galaxy as much as you like. Instead, what it provides is a sense of overwhelming scale, and of loneliness. This game is crafted around an uncaring universe, a mind-boggling huge, and often lonely place.


The similarities between this and FTL are entirely superficial, you have jump points that you work between, like a spiders web, and jumping between them will burn resources. Like in FTL there's a slew of different spaceships, all with their own idiosyncrasies. That's where the similarities end though, there is no crew in this game, there's only you. There are no weapons to speak of, there are some terraforming tools and a planet killing device which can radically alter the story, but those are special case items. There's no combat, instead you're evading the enemy as you work towards whatever destination you head to, there are no merchants to buy supplies from, instead you're mining and scooping resources and fuel as you go.

You construct your own devices which are then installed into your ship, each device eats up precious cargo space that could be given over to fuel (which you will go through rapidly), repair metals (which you will also go through fairly rapidly) and oxygen (which you will go through less rapidly but you'll come across less often). The game is finely balanced and often you'll find yourself a few jumps away from disaster, where a few bad judgment calls in a row will see your game ended.


Even more critically, you start each game with zero knowledge of the alien language, which is randomised each time, so you will learn the words of importance with each encounter, gradually building up your auto-translator and being able to answer their queries and make trades with them as you go further into the galaxy. The very first encounters where you're stumbling over a few words and having to take almost blind guesses based on the positions of the words "Love" "Hate" "Death" or "Life" can often lead to unintentional hilarity.


The presentation in this game warrants special mention. Both the graphical design and sound presentation are literally off the scale. The graphics are presented in this retro sci-fi comic book approach, with everything done out in this comic book presentation of how space would look as if it were presented in a late 60's / early 70's era comic book The ships, planets, alien races, are all lavished with attention and the environments are spared no expense when it comes to the love and care that's gone into them.

These are places you -want- to visit, time and again. Furthermore the soundtrack that layers on top of this is easily up there with FTL as one of the most suitable and listenable in the genre, it really conveys the loneliness of being in deep space, of being alone in an alien galaxy and trying to find your way with precious few resources and fewer allies. This eerie, sweeping soundscape is of such a high standard I actively recommend buying the OST alongside the game.


Deeply replayable, tough to the point of occasionally being unforgiving, but always rewarding with new, gorgeous planets, and amazing encounters, along with starships designed with as much love and care as the comic book spaceships of old. This is a game that if you loved FTL, you simply cannot afford to pass up. It deserves your attention if you have any love of the roguelite genre at all, and it's a great place to start even if you're fairly new to these types of games.

Verdict : Essential, especially for the soundtrack, and especially for fans of FTL

The roguelite genre is becoming a rather busy place as of late, with all sorts of entries satisfying the various niches and cravings that a fan could possibly desire. This one however is a rather unique and notable entry because the foe isn't something that you'd come to expect, namely - fire. Sure, fire might be an incidental or environmental hazard, but it's not every day you're going to be donning the uniform, putting on a nice shiny helmet and getting your hose out. (Make of that what you will). Here you play a rather cartoony firefighter, based in good ol' London, tooled up with bottles of foam, an axe and water, and it's his job to go charging in to various toasty environments and make things not so burny.


The civillians (Which remind me of the Xbox avatars) and cats you must rescue equate to precious extra minutes and lives, and time here is given out at a rate which means you have to keep moving fast, fast, fast. There's no time to dawdle and take in the scenery, it's a case of zoom in to the room, clear out the worst of the fire in the most efficient manner possible (without taking too much fire damage), use foam to clear out any electrical fires. And on to the next room, if you need to rescue anyone, you time it so you can get them back as you need to refill your water and foam supplies. This is a game that really punishes you for sticking around, as the moment you run out of time, the grim reaper may elect to show up, and if he catches you, that's an instant game over.

This brings me onto the difficulty overall. This game is harsh, as in - "Do the tutorials a few times, then repeat the first few levels until you've got the hang of it" harsh. Because the fire has been programmed in such a way that it will spread if areas that are burning are left untended, and will spit out fireballs that can catch on areas and start up new fires once more, it's very easy to not douse a room properly and before you know it, a room that's "Mostly done" becomes a room full of fire, and you'll lose 20-30 sec having to re-do your work. It pays to be thorough in each room, but without sacrificing too many of those precious seconds.


You're given three hearts (lives) as a means of recovering from mess ups, either from taking too much fire damage, or opening a door that's on fire, or similar misdemeanors. It's very easy to use up a heart simply by straying into areas which are too hot for too long and then having the fire pop up behind you, turning a safe area dangerous, educational in a sense in showing that fire is unpredictable and a roaring blaze needs to be treated with respect, but in game terms, it means you'll be losing lives almost as often as you'll gain them at times. The only thing that keeps you from running out of lives by say, floor 4 are the cats you save, which keep you alive and ticking over.


Thankfully the game does get easier with repetition, cash can be poured into firefighter upgrades which improve drop chance, lengthen rescue revive times, and generally improve the overall hardiness of your firefighter. The roguelite metagame means that in the long term once you've picked up some equipment from one of the shops as you play, and once you've some upgrades in the bank, things smooth off and you'll be making steady progress, getting further and further.


The graphics are consistent and cartoony, and well presented, everything is easy to see and on a pad at least, controls are quick and easy to manage, this is important because quick reactions are fairly vital to not losing your lives in a hurry. The music is equally cheery, though how long before you reach for the "mute" button on it will be a matter of taste, the sound effects are well into the "functional" category, they work, that's it. Not much more to say. What I will give credit for is that the fire spreads and gives a glorious bright display when you open a new room, it can be quite livid and hateful when it wants to be, it's not some horrible bitmap, it feels like proper, angry fire.


It ticks the roguelite boxes, with proc-gen levels, with a persistent upgrade tree, with equipment that makes life easier that you can get during the course of your run, and the game is pretty fun. It's very competent, and the theme helps make it stand out from what is now becoming a very crowded genre. It's not quite among the greats, but as they'd say t'up norf : "It'll do."

Verdict : Recommended