Like I said, another Vampire Survivor inspired game. See my Bounty of One review for some context. A trip back to my old roots, as I started off prior to joining the team working on reviewing mobile ports and releases. I totally understand the awful reputation mobile games get, from buggy implementations, to uncomfortable controls, to the egregiously aggressive monetization practices… As much as I too enjoy dunking on the filth of the games industry, I think it is equally important to give credit to games that exemplify the best of the medium. Ok let’s get into today’s game: Star Survivor. So this is one of those survivor-likes that leans heavily into automated weapon firings, BUT you have good freedom of movement: you fly a spacecraft in 2.5D space. This gives you a good sense of control and timing of where your attacks will land, especially since as you acquire upgrades, you can choose which side of your ship to install them. There’s some interesting synergies and twists to the formula that come with this including “quadrant” bonuses for front, back, and side installs, weapon type bonuses (beam, missiles, etc), and weapon fusions. Now weapon fusions are pretty typical to the genre, but now, the game incentivizes you to set up your own pool of upgrades to mix and match exactly what build you enable from run to run. Admittedly, from a balance perspective I’ve yet to fully crack the limitations or rules of how “deckbuilding” as the game describes it works. But from my understanding, there is a comprehensive upgrade almanac that explains weapon types, other upgrades, weapon fusions, and more. And you unlock new options aka “cards” to further cultivate your build.  So for a quick recap of my first impressions so far: takes a lot of classic vampire survivor gameplay, puts it in space, and adds enough customization options to tweak your difficulty and experience to your liking. 

So I played the mobile version of this game. (there is also a steam version that I did not experience for the purposes of this review) I want to highlight my specific experience with the platform – as a whole, pretty darn impressed with the Quality of Life and finely tuned controls. The scope/field of view in the game is pretty wide, and you have full control of how zoomed in or out you want the screen to be at any given time (there are buttons on the side of the screen so you don’t even need to fumble through options). Controls use a “fixed joystick/buttons” setup, but felt really comfortable on my iPhone. I know some players can’t get used to touch screen controls, but I haven’t seen specific controller compatibility options on display. That being said, personally, I was pretty comfortable playing without any peripheral or other controller. In terms of potential limitations in this , I did notice slight stuttering when it came to hit detection, and occasionally, enemy sprites seemed to linger frozen in a fixed position relative to my movement which I believe is a visual bug. But all in all, I never experienced any game breaking crashes or anything that ruined a playthrough, caused any softlock, or anything extreme. 

In this current build, there were two game modes available: a classic roguelike mode where I’d come to realize you do NOT influence the card pool choices contrary to what I mentioned about the deckbuilding aspect. It makes more sense now in context the more I read the descriptions closely. And a survivor-mode that DOES specifically highlight using a curated pool of upgrades based on your selections in the deckbuilder. I think both modes are welcome, with the latter being more closely resembling the classic outlast the timer hallmark of the genre. The former is interesting, as it sets you on a map of level nodes leading towards a final boss mission. And by missions, I do mean there are objectives that need to be met to complete the level beyond simply waiting out the clock. These can range from capturing outposts, destroying asteroids, collecting enough credits/exp, killing alien nests, etc. I really enjoyed the variety at play here, and as you start rising in difficulty, you can start to evaluate which level nodes to string together for victory. There also seems to be a system analogous to Risk of Rain where levels will start at a listed difficulty level, and slowly ramp up until reaching a designated cap. This gives the players the chance to figure out how much they’re willing to push their skills to grind out the level versus rushing the objective to finish and be satisfied with the above average level completion bonus. In addition, there’s these asteroid field storms that pepper the screen with obstacles the longer you stay in a level, which was an interesting touch. I didn’t quite understand what triggered their existence beyond randomness, but I think the idea of these catastrophic events that keep you on your toes the longer you stay around is definitely something I’d love the game to lean into even further.

Definitely recommend this one for anyone who is a big fan of Vampire Survivors, and wants a new twist on the formula. I think the ability to customize which powerups you come across from run to run is a cool innovation on the genre, especially seeing how the challenges the game offers encourages specific synergies for the player to explore. It feels like the systems really reward mastery of the game mechanics and tools at your disposal. 

Star Survivor is developed by SpaceOwl Games

Available on Mobile iOS and Steam for $4.99

Provided free review copy via devs

Hellfirebam has awarded Star Survivor the Indie Gamer Seal of Approval