Heat Signature
Tom Francis is quickly becoming one of my favorite humans, and I don’t even like humans.
Heat Signature is one the “main” games that Tom Francis aka Pentadact aka Suspicious Developments. He’s behind Gunpoint, Heat Signature and the upcoming Tactical Breach Wizards. He has done some other stuff like Floating Point and Morphblade but those are a bit more niche, at least in my opinion.
Unlike other space rogue-like/lites where you’re the overseer of a crew and typically deal with resource management as well as real time or turn based combat strategies; Heat signature pits you as a single mercenary out to liberate the galaxy or more accurately, to fulfill contracts for money and glory.
– Real player with 70.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Stealth Games.
NEW REVIEW (the old one is down below):
The game has changed a lot since my old review and as far as I can tell, only for the better.
First I will list all the content, that was not there back then: Contractors (Defender, Jammer, Tracker, Predator), Jammer doors, Clients, Reinforcements, Ship teleporters, Stealth shields, Character traits, possibly more.
Foremost I want to honor the decision to replace self-charging devices with those that only recharge when visiting a station, limiting the resources during a mission, so that each usage has to be thought through way more carefully. The only self-charging devices are the crash and acid traps, but those are far more tricky to use properly than the beams.
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
Solar 2
The screenshots really do not do this game justice. The formula isn’t new in itself (if you’ve played the first evolution level of Spore, Osmos or Flash-game ‘flOw’, it’s basically that idea (bigger consumes smaller), modelled on orbital rotation and gravity.
You start life as a small bit of rock - a tiny asteroid. You must smash into other rocks in order to grow. Grow enough and you will become a barren, rocky planet. Gather more rocks into your orbit and absorb them for your planet to grow. When it’s large enough, your planet can sustain life (which has benefits and shortcomings - I won’t say what as it’s a bit of a spoiler). Once your planet is HUGE, it can become a minor star and draw other planets into its orbit. Be the biggest solar system. Become a binary star system. Become a black hole! Survive as other systems try to attack your marvellous achievement and turn you back into an empty, tiny planet! Best of all, you keep that planet or system. When you reload, you carry on where you left off.
– Real player with 47.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Sandbox Games.
This is the type of game you play when there’s nothing better in life to do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really fun, innovative and very addictive, but with so much out there, I can easily see this little Indie title being forgotten. In some ways it has been. There is no Wiki page, the Steam community hub is small as are most forums for the game I’ve seen. It was part of the Humble Bundle V and as such was thrown in with other Indie titles further relinquishing it to obscurity.
Make no mistake though what is here is a very solid game. The gravity physics are well done. Stars, planets and the like are colorful and the music is trancelike and hypnotic. This game is a fine way to practice patience because you will find yourself growing asteroids, planets and star systems for hours and find little tedium in the process.
– Real player with 46.4 hrs in game
Drox Operative
Update 25/11/2016: Nominated for my “Just 5 More Minutes” Award.
I saw some footage of this game in January 2013 which was enough to tempt me into trying the free demo. My curiosity was piqued but I wasn’t expecting much - just a bit of a time killer to tap away at and fill up a bit of the afternoon. I came away several hours later with the music stuck in my head, feeling as if very little time had passed, then went on to have a dream about Drox Operative that same night. I bought the game from Soldak’s site the next day and have been playing Drox on and off since then without ever having cause to regret the puchase.
– Real player with 71.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Action Games.
Drox Operative can be described as an Action RPG. It has all the elements of an action rpg, for example you have a character(ship) who has attributes that both increase the overall stats of the ships in obvious categories, such as damage, or speed, and which allows you to equip the items you loot from the dead, provided you reach the minimum level in the required stat. The items you collect from the vanquished correlate in many ways with the types of items you would find in an average RPG sporting a normal human(or whatever) character. You have weapons and armour. However, the ship nature of your main character quickly makes its presence known because you have alot of item types which you will not usually find in an average RPG sporting a humanoid.
– Real player with 57.3 hrs in game
Out There: Ω Edition
It’s Tough Out There
I remember playing the original Out There on my Android phone a couple of years ago, and when I saw this game come to Steam I was tempted to buy it again because it works well as a phone game, but isn’t quite the pick up and put down fun I enjoy when I’m on the go.
Actually, this game is a little too deep for its original platform, but also almost little too simple for its own good.
Out There: Ω Edition is about being stranded and not dying. You navigate ‘Systems’ which are typically a type of star (Yellow Dwarf, Supernova, Red Dwarf, and more), collecting precious resources to upgrade, fuel, and maintain your ship and yourself. Every jump to a new system begins with an event, whether it’s a random encounter that gives you a choice, a random encounter that is just commentary, or a random encounter that will betray you and chance ending your journey.
– Real player with 62.0 hrs in game
tl;dr It’s interesting for a couple hours while you’re still getting a hang of the game, then it just becomes tedious when you’re doing the same thing over and over again (fuel + repair). 6/10
I was really psyched to play this game. Loved FTL and the description of FTL without the combat sounded great. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t come through with any of the depth that FTL had. It’s got atmosphere, absolutely, but that atmosphere is thin and evaporates quickly. The only way it’s a roguelike is in permadeath. There’s not enough variety for me to really consider it a roguelike.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
Lightspeed Frontier
Lego’s in space… With guns… what more could you ask for? Your childhood dreams become a reality with this game.
The gameplay is very well made and will only improve. The camera mechanic’s are great for dogfighting/brodsiding other ships and enemies.
This game keeps you entertained by trying to constantly make your ship better, faster, and stronger.
You go from a small trade/fighter vessel to a dreadnought and you can feel the power flowing through it And that’s not the end if it.
You can be a trader,merc,transport you decide. Go from being a small freighter to the deathstar… the choice is yours.
– Real player with 73.9 hrs in game
When it comes down to small ship combat it feels fast and fun, how ever it feels more like a game where giant ships shine more when it comes to gameplay. It is missing some parts that make it feel like a living galaxy but in regards it does feel as if there is so much that can be created for the game, the game is in Early Access so keep that in mind.
What could make it more enjoyable:
-Customisable pieces to make a ship look more unique (such as paint jobs and different models of same components).
– Real player with 72.3 hrs in game
Lost in Transit
Lost in Transit is a unique blend of the classic Asteroids and modern bullet-hell games. As a space-traveling mailman, fight your way through dozens of levels to deliver the final package in your route.
FEATURES
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A tear-jerking story about friendship, packages, and the persistence of a lone postal carrier
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Dozens of levels, each being crazier than the last
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Insane boss battles!
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20 different types of enemies
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Reflect all enemy projectiles back at them!
Star Runner
Asteroids on steroids? An arcade game with a good story? A spaceship tweaker’s dream? At its heart, Star Runner is an intense, challenging 2D space shooter with resource collection, depth and replayability. Zip through dynamically created solar systems to wreak havok on enemy spaceships and starbases while dancing around asteroids to mine them for the materials needed for weapons, thrusters and repairs. Weapons at the player’s disposal include lasers, photon cannons, railguns, homing missiles (plasma, antimatter, nuke) and three special weapons (cloak, wormhole generator, systems hacker). Gather enough resources during your assault to unleash the ultimate weapon – the mysterious StarBuster. It is a lesson in destruction the galaxy shall never forget.
Star Souls
Hi there! Well, I’m from development side, so don’t be surprised by my hours on record. I was responsible for music and sounds, so I’ll just skip that part and try to describe other areas as independent as possible.
Cons:
- There are still some bugs. Some of them are unnoticeable, some of them like to show off, and some of them are actually features, so please finish the tutorial and check out the “How to play” thing in case of any doubts. Anyway, your gameplay shouldn’t be affected much, existing bugs don’t block you from finishing the game and getting all the achievements.
– Real player with 157.9 hrs in game
Hi there!
My impression of this game is quite positive to recommend it to other gamers.
Pluses:
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interesting plot
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funny text quests
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simple and clear UI
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awesome art with unique style
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music sounds great
+Vicky. No comments.
Minuses:
-tutorial could be more detailed
-some little bugs. They don’t strongly affect on the game, sometimes help to win faster.
- not for children, esp. because of some offensive things.
I especially like the music. It works perfectly in the game itself, but it’s also really nice to listen to on it’s own. It gives the game a feeling of tension and urgency when things are getting hectic. It also has a very nice contrast between more ambient and wonderful tracks, while the player searches empty or friendly locations, and the stimulating tracks of hostility.
– Real player with 20.3 hrs in game
StarShip Constructor
Ive had this game a LONG TIME and my best advice is for you to avoid it.
While the game does have its strong points, the developer really has no idea how a game should be built and in what steps/order things should be addressed.
New modules, weapons and gameplay elements go in virtually untested. Problems with the game from 2 years ago still plague the latest release. Block sizing does not matter…Skills randomly stop working. Cargo sizes randomly shift when you take damage and repair.
– Real player with 68.5 hrs in game
EDIT 11 months later: The dev has abandoned this game, no updates, and the game has very serious crashes that will stop you from completing it. STAY AWAY. The concept is good, the game is good, but BUGS ARE TOO BAD.
Considering the price, it’s early access, and developed by one person, the game is going on quite good, keep up the good work!
My recommendatios:
· You have to solve warps. You warp into mines, you warp into allied ships and are then attacked by everyone, it’s a complete mess.
· Undocks suffer the same problem but less often. You get thrown away as if you needed speed to take off a battleship, and if there is another ship or an asteroid, booom!!
– Real player with 28.6 hrs in game
Another Brick in Space
Reminds me of Breakout…
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
A good Breakout clone but unfortunately very short.
I finished the game under an hour. Hopefully there will be more levels in the future.
[Edit:] 30 new levels had been added with the latest patch.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game