Some of you may recall the original Star Raiders circa 1979 for the Atari 8-bit computers. This is Incinerator Studios update/reimagining of Doug Neubauer original game. I can’t tell you if this game does justice to the original because I never played it, but something I can tell you is that this game grows on you. When I started playing this for the review I had this moment of “Oh man, this game blows” and it persisted for awhile. After some more playing though, it started to grow on me.
The story is pretty simple, you’re a hot shot young pilot in training when the nefarious Zylons attack and you get promoted to essentially “Saviour”. You have your ship which can transform between Attack, Assault and Turret modes which each field their own arsenal and benefits/drawbacks. The various weapon systems can be upgraded between missions using Salvage Credits you receive from killing Zylon Ships and blowing up Asteroids. There isn’t a ton of different options, but enough that you can tailor your setup to your play style.
Pretty much the biggest hurdle I had to overcome was the controls, especially in Attack mode. They aren’t intuitive and take a bit to get used to. There are a few different controller setups and they offer marked differences between them, but even then the game is still pretty clunky until you get used to it. I would like there to be an option for the left stick to be pitch and yaw and putting roll on the right stick. If you can get a hang of the controls, the missions offer pretty straightforward challenges such as destroy all the enemy fighters, or destroy the enemy frigate.
Graphically the game reminds me heavily of a modern day revisit of the old Homeworld games. The game is good looking but the ship designs and overall feel reminds me greatly of the Homeworld style, even the enemy ships fit the bill with their insectoid feel to them. It definitely lends to the feel of a remake of an older game without detracting from it. It’s nice to see a game that focusses on more than just shiny graphics.
The game features an online leaderboard system to compare against your friends based on mission completion time. There is no multiplayer mode, though I think the game could easily have one if the developers had wanted to include one. Achievements range from ranking up to killing x enemies to beating the game. Â It is a pretty cut and dried arcade game in these regards.
All in all, this is a rather enjoyable game that caught me by surprise. I would definitely recommend this game, especially if you are a fan of sci-fi or dogfighting games. At 800 Microsoft Points this game proves its worth after some time, so if you are even remotely interested, give it a go.
