App Army Assemble: Star Survivor - "Should you hop into the pilot seat of this bullet hell roguelike?"

• We handed the bullet hell survival shooter to our App Army community
• They largely enjoyed the game when played in short bursts
• It's slow-going at first but picks up eventually

Star Survivor is a sci-fi roguelike from Erabit Studios that sees you battling against hordes of enemies bullet hell-style. The goal is simple - survive for as long as possible, upgrading your weapons whenever possible to help push back the endless number of foes. All of that sounds a little too stressful for me, so we handed the game over to our App Army to see how they fared.

Here's what they thought:

You play a fighter pilot who battles against oncoming waves of enemies and large asteroids and I found the feel of the game reminiscent of Space Invaders. Choose your best defense shield and fit your ship with a large selection of weapons, kept on cards which allow you to pick and choose. With these cards, you arm all sides of the ship and depending on what you pick, you get the added bonus of a wonderful light show. As you defeat your enemies you have to avoid asteroids of varying sizes and if you have the time you get to destroy them. The gameplay was fun in short bursts and for the price, it isn’t a game that will break the bank.

This is really a top-rate arcade space shooter. It’s what I remember loving about Asteroids with more options and challenges. Simple graphics but with enough variety to ship design to be visually satisfying and a wide variety of weapons to attach to multiple ports. I’ve played the campaign mode mostly and for a short time in the challenge mode. In both cases, it starts off easy enough but quickly ramps up the challenge while giving you access to plenty of weapons and gadgets. Controls are simple and work well. Music and sound are good, though I generally turn the sound off. Really, if you’re an Asteroids fan and want something interesting that you can play in short bursts, this is a winner. Highly recommend.

Star Survivor gave me Asteroids/Vampire Survivor vibes. You make your way across a grid. Each cell on the grid is a sector, enter a sector and the gameplay begins. You control your auto-firing ship and try and take out as many of the enemies as possible in the time limit for that sector. As the enemies are killed they leave dots you can collect, collect enough and you can upgrade the ship via ‘cards’.

I found the thrust control to be a bit clunky, often my ship would get hit as I could not thrust away. The movement controls were not as responsive as I would have liked especially when moving the ship forwards. Graphically and sonically it’s good and although it starts off slow I found completing sectors quite addictive. A definite keeper.

Star Survivor is like a Vampire Survivor clone crossed with Asteroids/Galaga. There are 3 modes to choose from Campaign, Challenge and Endless. The challenge is like the standard "see how long you survive" with a pre-build ship. The Campaign is taking your spaceship through a set of levels and every unlockable weapon/ability travels with you until the next levels as you work your way through. It's a little slow going at first but don't worry the further you get the more it starts feeling like a bullet hell shooter. The endless mode I have not unlocked as of yet. I love the art/style, the music and gameplay works well. I played mostly with touch controls on my phone. It works on Chromebook as well and I tried hooking up a controller but it wasn't responding so I don't think it has controller support as of yet. Another great title by Erabit Studios and well worth the $3.

Star Survivor is a rogue-like top-down shooter - basically, Vampire Survivors in space with a few differences. It's very slow instead of very hectic, it has spaceships instead of very pixelated monsters, and you can influence what abilities you get during a run. It's also a little clunky by comparison (VS runs ultra smooth on my tablet, but SS doesn't).

If you don't know Vampire Survivors, here's the basic gameplay. You control a ship in a very busy space, filled with enemy ships and meteorites. Your spaceship shoots automatically, you just need to manoeuvre it and destroy everything in sight to level up, get new weapons, upgrades and equipment to improve your ship and, well, survive.

Play Challenge mode to get new abilities (cards for a deck you can define), then complete randomized Campaign runs to upgrade those cards. Rinse and repeat and prepare for an Endless game mode that's not yet available, but should be soon.

All in all, a very well-done package, especially given that it's the work of a single developer. My only real issue (past the bugs and the general sluggishness) is that unlike other similar roguelikes (Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Boneraiser Minions, 20 Minutes till Dawn.) this one lacks that god-like feeling you get when a run goes well. I played a dozen hours and unlocked a ton of cool weapons, and yet I never felt invulnerable. Instead, I always felt... relieved it ended. I guess it's true to the "survivor" part of the title because I really felt like a grizzled, tired survivor. And yet, this is a good game, a slightly different approach to the standard formula. Recommended.

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Story: fight aliens, solo ship, you know this one

Sound: Minimal background music, but nice individual effects for various weapons.

Graphics: Small and spritely, but detailed enough for what this is. My only gripe is trying to see the smallest enemies against the dark backgrounds.

Gameplay: Simple and easy controls, no issues with the virtual joystick. Modifying your ship is the real draw here, and it’s what this game does best. Combo weapons can decide success. (Pro Tip: Blade Drones are fun!)

Overall this game excels at something that only a mobile game can, being great fun for 2-5 minutes of gameplay. It’s good as a time waster for short breaks, or for longer sessions. This game is just fun, and a Must Buy for me.

This is a great attempt to keep the "Faster than light" formula but instead of your ship's crew, you control the ship's movement itself. That gives a great new vibe to it especially because every run is different. You can attach weapons and tools to every side of your ship. So you can cover your deficits while the enemies are approaching from all directions.

The controls are nice and some QoL features are given. sound and graphics are promising and you have some speed options to serve different skill levels. Although, the slow speed option didn't feel so good. The animations were not as smooth as the other speed options. An endless mode is announced as coming soon. So although the game feels very well polished and content-wise good in replayability they're not done yet which is nice!

So keep fighting hordes of bug-ish flying enemies, and avoid the asteroids. They will harm you if you don't pay attention!

So far so good game was a bit slow-moving (in the speed of the ship) to start with and I am sure I saw some stutters in the frame rate. But having played it for a few hours. I’m really enjoying this game. I thought it was going to be a fast-paced bullet hell-type game) So far it’s really slow-paced but that suits the gameplay. You play as a star ship having to fight off aliens or other enemies. You collect gold or XP points. Allowing you to either buy upgrades or assign upgrades.

You have a limited number of slots to assign upgrades to your ship. (You have the chance to get more) so you can configure your ship to your liking. Once assigned you can upgrade your weapons. Missions for each level vary. Defeat x number of enemies and collect x number of gold. The game does a good job of keeping you on your toes. As soon as you think you got it easy/found a trick to cheese the level it feels like the difficulty ramps up and you can find yourself having to retreat.

I feel as you upgrade your ship you get a moment where you can cut through enemies easily but they keep up as well so there is always that need to make sure your ship is strong enough. The upgrade loop is nice.
Controls are simple - move, thrust and zoom in/out. (So far I do not have a need to really use this option). The game auto-fires.

At first, I was hoping for some two-stick goodness. But it works for this game. The gameplay is a nice mix of sedate and edge-of-your-seat. As mentioned above You will often manage to get an objective fairly easily. Then have to watch where you go before you get killed. The HUD is non-intrusive and works well on my phone. All the information is there and you can usually see it properly. Enemies are ok to see as well it doesn’t feel cluttered at all. Only when it’s meant to be as enemies swarm you.

In between levels you have the option to visit merchants to buy upgrades from the loot you collected. You also have a path to choose. I’m guessing to the boss of the level. Should you die, you can retry the level but I’m sure if you quit you can’t go on that path again.

I’m not fully versed in these types of games so I don't know the ins and outs of a standard game of this type but you have three modes of play, A deck builder I’m guessing for your upgrades and the option to purchase more ships. So this game has longevity in droves. I would recommend this. If you’re new to this type of game or longtime veteran.

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Star Survivor