Distant Star: Revenant Fleet

Just played this game and feel a need to post a review, partially to reflect my thoughts to other players and partially to tell the devs. Yes, this is a pretty cool game. Yes, I liked it, and it scratches a very particular itch that I haven't really found anything else for (small-fleet-command strategy game). But I don't feel like it was quite what I'd thought it would be when I purchased it, and, while I'm recommending it, it's with some pretty major qualifications. tl;dr, it's a good light-strategy game, but I wouldn't call it a roguelike. This review is going to sound predominantly negative, but I did enjoy the game and do think it could be well worth picking up on sale. Not sure if I'd recommend it at full price. STRATEGIC GAMEPLAY First, Ithe battles didn't involve the level of strategy I was expecting. The best fights were ones where I had to watch the enemy chasing my tail, and my tactics involved kiting enemies around to recharge shields and lances, then turning and bla...

hm, most of those negative reviews seem to be outdated because the game really feels different to what they claim. Overall the game is very similar to FTL, you pass through several sectors to reach the final boss fight, every sector has multiple systems, where you can fight, repair, do quests, buy stuff,.... and each jump consumes fuel. Instead of managing your crew during a fight you control your fleet (up to 5 ships) from a top down perspective. -Squad-based RTS style. But be warned, the game is a lot slower paced, which makes it more of a RTS game with some light rogue-like elements rather than a rogue-like with RTS elements (if that makes any sense). Other reviews claimed that the battles are needlessly dragged out but I can't confirm that, they take a few minutes at best and depending on your fleet composition offer a reasonable amount of tactical depth. I've also read a lot of complaints about the harsh difficulty. I played on normal and didn't die until I reached the final b...

[H1]The A'kari of Aos, shattered and few, on a desperate mission to stop the final Orthani victory...[/H1] Distant Star : Revenant Fleet (from here on out I'll call it DSRF, because I like my fingers and typing that over and over will murder my keyboard) is one of the "Second Generation" of Early Access games, having now seen and made it through the initial wave of Early Access highs and lows, we're now seeing a more matured approach to the Early Access platform, with more specialised projects and more consistent and constrained planning resulting in products that actually deliver on their promises. DSRF was sold as a Rogue "lite" in space, where you'd assemble a small fleet of ships, guide them across the solar system, and then engage in a showdown in a final battle much like the genre definer FTL. [H1]The Distant Stars, and the not so Distant Stars...[/H1] Much like FTL, you work your way across multiple sectors, each sector contains multiple jumps, however, unlike FTL, there's on...

Well I saw the trailers and screenshots and a mostly positive review so I decided to buy the game. I kinda regret my decision. I understand it is in the alpha stage which is why I'm really not too mad about paying 7 bucks, but this game is just not what was advertised by the Curators. There were several issues that I ran into: -Heavily borrows from FTL to the point of ripping it off. I can see where they were influenced by FTL. In fact it even has the same basic story, jump mechanic, and star map, which is not that big of a problem. I mean if it ain't broke don't fix it right? However, unlike FTL this game just isn't very fun. -Tagged as RTS but it has no strategy Every encounter I came across was being ambushed by an enemy fleet and trying to defend myself after being hit with opening volleys. I soon realized that the best strategy is to just select all of you ships and just have them fly circles around the enemy to avoid their fire while dishing out your own. It works because unl...

Very much FTL meets a 2D version of homeworld. Nice premise and has a lot of potential I think.

I wasn't very happy with it at first, but then I turned the difficulty down a little, figured out what I was doing, and finished a run. It's pretty good once you get in to it. It's basically like FTL but with up to 5 ships. I found it easier to pick up, honestly. The story's a bit cliche, but well done nonetheless. If you're feeling the itch to play FTL, but don't want to play more FTL, this is the game for you. A couple of tips: 1. This game is hard. If you're only a casual Roguelike player like me, start the difficulty on Rookie, or you'll be lucky to make it to the second system. 2. Choose a support ship. Pulsars are godsends in the early game. The only reason I was finally able to get anywhere in the run I finished was thanks to my little pulsar. After that, choose a light ship that appeals to you, and fill in the role of heavy later on. 3. Explore. Even if you don't have the resources, the experience I earned and credits I collected jumping without supplies more than ma...

The developers of Distant Star: Revenant Fleet have really struck gold with this title. While development is early and it is obvious that a significant amount of content will need to be generated before this project can be considered completed it is already in a state where it is by far worth the modest purchase price. Pros - Excellent Game mechanics - Beautiful levels - Fun real time combat - Already worth the price Cons - The game currently lacks content and can be cleared relatively quickly - The difficulty becomes too low (they need to add varied difficulty levels) - Lack of save feature. It would be fine if it deletes the save on load but we still need to be able to step away from the game. Potential - The promise of meaningful decisions (similar to FTL) - Promise of more content

I'm pretty sure that a lot of people who look at this game think "ah, it's like FTL - but you have several tiny ships that you fly around with instead". For the most part that turns out to be true, but desptite the many similarities to the great FTL, there are few things in this game that seem to click and come together for me. It's the kind of game that I really want to work and succeed, but no matter how many times I've replayed it, things just never end up being fun. The battles, which I feel should be the main pull of this game, tend to play out as waiting games for me. Usually I just order my ships to target one opponent at a time and slowly grind down it's shield and hull, while simultaneously firing of skills, special weapons and other disapointingly ineffective abilities. Then you move on to the next one, and the next, until the current wave is downed. After that you fly a little distance, a new wave spawns, and you start another waiting session. It's all rather uninspiring an...

I really want to love this game. The art style and the concept are great. However, it is in acuality not very fun to play. It is to simple to say a game isn't good "because it is hard", but games like this and FTL wear their difficulty as a game mechanic. In this case said mechanic is broken. It sets up an interesting universe and promise of tactical gameplay, but does not make the process of surviving that world enjoyable. The care and art that has gone into crafting this game is impressive, but it would be nice to be able to feel like it was a universe that is balanced with at least some concessions to enjoyment.

Game has a few good Ideas and seems to be Interesting and fun at first - but this drops really early into the game. Engagements often take to long and are most of the times longer then they should because of bad design decisions. For example the escort mission - you have to escort a transport ship into a station. The transport ship stops everytime enemies appear and just stands still, without any good reason why. There is also a Circle around the point where they arrive, indicating that they are save inside the circle - but they are not! They need to arrive at the middle of the circle. I lost countless transport ship to this fact and its so frustrating to bring a transport ship into this circle, where it stops because enemies appear and gets destroyed. The game has a few inspirations from FTL (which is not a bad thing in any way), the thing is you cant warp off a mission like in FTL, you have to complete it - and the game doesnt mention why. (FTL Drive needs to charge, interference fr...