Star Shelter

Ok so this was just some dumb demo that was sitting in my library forever and I honestly didn't even really want to play it, but when I finally got around to giving it a chance I played through the whole demo and bought it immediately and said "this is what I'm doing for the rest of the night". While a bit frustrating at first, it calmed me when I realized that my focus wasn't so much on just keeping a character alive, but rather upgrading the ship and get plants growing for the next astronaut which you take control of once you're dead, as you play as an endless line of expendable workers getting a little further each time.

So I just finished Star Shelter and have a lot of mixed thoughts on it. If you're looking for a TL;DR version of my review, it's this: Do not buy this game. It has a lot of good ideas and some that are executed pretty well, but you'd be much better off waiting for a sequel that markedly expands on the ideas that are played with here. Now that doesn't mean that Star Shelter is a bad game. It has a good bit going for it. The UI design in both the options menu and at the crafting stations is designed quite well and makes sense for a VR title. Also, the ship-exploring aspect with the numerous ship designs is interesting and provides a nice break of secrecy from your station and the vastness of space, even if the ships themselves are somewhat simplistic. Despite this, its myriad of bugs and number of things that will make you say "well they should've done x and the game would be so much better" will drive you quite mad. The bugs especially. I can not remember a single play session wher...

[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers [/h1] This is an awesome deal. You're not finding a better zero-gravity crafting / survival space FPS experience at this price point. This could easily be priced at $29.99 USD given what you're getting. So there's quite a few randomly generated survival / crafting games in VR. However, this title belongs to be mentioned up there with some of the best in this genre from Subnautica or The Forest. The difference is that this game has been built from the ground up for VR. You're mysteriously stranded in space and you need to rebuild your spaceship. Luckily, there's a plethora of space junk all around that you can salvage for materials. However, you'll need to keep an eye on your oxygen levels, hunger, energy, and health. While you're doing that, your spaceship will get rocked by various space dangers. So you'll need to do quick repairs when needed (which requires you have to energy and parts). So you're always playing this game ...

The controls do seem to work with the valve index controls. However there is no rotation or any consideration for anyone with low mobility.

This game has promise, a rogue-like zero-g survival crafter for VR ticks all the right boxes. It seems to borrow ideas from Lone Echo and Subnautica, but doesn't quite get them right. Where Lone Echo's zero-g locomotion was fluid, in this I found my "body" constantly getting in my way. Quite often I couldn't pull myself around objects because my torso was dangling uselessly in front of me instead of floating behind where I felt it should be. Trying to look at anything below me was likewise hampered. From Subnautica the game borrows the "limited oxygen, make food from the environment" mechanic but leaves out one vital part of Subnautica's formula - the safe haven. Your base of operations here is the Origin, an upgradeable tin can that stores up oxygen and power while you're out scavenging. Unfortunately it's initially vulnerable to frequent meteor strikes while hole the hull and bleed all the vital oxygen you were hoping to come home to. The holes have to be repaired using vital...

Star Shelter a halfway decent game marred by some very serious flaws. Once you get over the initial difficulty hump, it's unbelievably grindy. Then it's capped off by a series of punishing boss fights, and if you lose any of those, your only real option is to start the game over from the beginning. Which is particularly bad because the mid-game is incredibly boring. The initial learning curve is incredibly steep. You start with a barely functional fragment of a space station, and you have to scavenge materials from space debris to fix it and improve it. The initial difficulty is about learning how to maneuver in space without using up all your oxygen (since you use suit oxygen as propellant), and learning what debris to look for. More than anything else, the difficulty in the early game is about food. You starve to death quite quickly if you don't know the rules. Food tubes are pretty rare, and the game doesn't spell out how they work. It's easy to think you're supposed to deconstr...

The only reason I refunded this game was because the meteorites were aggressively common. You couldn't leave your base for longer than a few minutes without getting another warning for impact, and worst, this would happen hundreds of times in just the beginning alone, long before you have the resources required for the automated meteorite defenses. You were forced to stay in or around your base and spend more time defending it against meteorites than actually enjoying the game. If the meteorite function was toggle-able I would've enjoyed turning it off and just exploring and collecting resources. Overall I wouldn't recommend until they fix that issue and update with more content. The game is "completeable" within less than a few hours, which granted, for a VR title is impressive by today's standards, it isn't remotely comparable to games that have been ported to VR, even those done by small indie dev teams. All-too-simple gameplay for my tastes.

This is such a wonderful game with many great things to recommend it. Unfortunately they are all ruined by various different game-breaking bugs that have prevented my progress for several play sessions in a row, and now I've lost all desire to continue. Just a few fun ones: - Mystery O2 leaks - HoloDoors just don't contain O2 - Sometimes you just can't repair ship damage despite having the energy and parts required - Sometimes the Radiation Shower won't work - Sometimes the Med Bay won't work - Sometimes the boss drones will clip through your base walls and destroy everything - Once your base gets big enough the physics don't work right and you can't grab things as well any more A lot of these problems cause you to die and lose your progress. Just because I truly love this game I'll take the time to explain what it does right: - Pushing and jetpacking through space is relaxing, fun, and good arm stretching - The survival crafting progression is good, nice balance - The menus and des...

Game is fun; however, there are still some bugs and parts that kinda feel unfinished. I only give it a negative review because the dev seems to have abandoned this game. There haven't been any updates or fixes for a year.

This is the best VR Sci-Fi game I have had the pleasure of playing. The Physics are solid, the graphics are crisp, and the controls are tight. The Devs are extremely active and interactive. They take suggestions seriously and have implemented many from weapon modifications to 6 DOF movement. Join the Discord and opt into the Test Branch you will not be disappointed. Best of all it has the thumbs up from Dreamphile Studios™ so you know it’s got something great going on about it. "10/10" "★★★★★"