Alastrius: Star-Fighter

After playing this game through a whole campaign and chewing through some of the content, I have to say it's one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in a while. This game is unpolished, janky, and somewhat finicky to play, yet it is remarkably fun and is one of the more earnest and sincere attempts to capture the magic of games like Panzer Dragoon or Star Fox 64 while expanding on both and adding quality of life improvements. The premise of the game is a simple one: you're a pilot for an interstellar republic stationed on a battleship called the Alastrius (hence the title). The republic is under attack from within via a civil war, and you and your battleship have to travel back to the capital to root out the insurrection. If this story sounds token and little more than a framing device for the action, it's because it is. I'll be frank: the story is not why anyone should play this. Instead, what we get is a quite competent on-rails flight shooter featuring branching paths via in-level triggers, a selection of unlockable ships to fly each with their own traits and quirks, and a scoring system that rewards multiple playthroughs to get better scores. Make no mistake: this is an arcade shooter at its core, and one that studied well under industry giants of ages past. The thing that stands out the most with this game is the flight control. It has a semi "twin-stick" format where the player can aim at one area of the screen and position themselves in another. Holding down the right mouse button increases movement speed at the expense of an energy gauge, and makes it easier to dodge attacks. This system allows for quite a robust freedom of control given the on-rails nature of the gameplay, and it allows for on-the-fly movement and dodging as well. Another thing I liked is the graphics, though I realized this is subject to personal taste. It's clearly low-poly with basic textures and lighting, but it does look rather pleasant and generally justifies itself as a UE5 game. One standout area visually was the snowstorm planet, where the heavy fog and bright lights from projectiles made for quite a scenic battle. The game also packs an impressive amount of content for such a small package. There are well over 10 levels and quite a complement of ships as well. The game is also deliberately designed to where you won't see or unlock everything in a single playthrough, so going back and replaying is paramount if you want to fully enjoy this game. All that said, for as much praise as I'm heaping onto this game, it is FAR from perfect. There are a few niggling technical issues that could potentially kill your enjoyment of the experience. Small enemies can be hard to hit with the laser cannons. Enemies can attack you after you have passed them. The levels vary wildly in quality with some levels having more standout action than others. The voice acting is...not very good, and can be a bit grating on the ears. And I'm a bit iffy on the permadeath mechanic where losing a ship prevents you from using it for the rest of the playthrough. I feel it can be a bit too punishing, especially since each ship plays differently from one another. Regardless, the game is fun, and the devs are still maintaining it and providing bug fixes, so a lot of these points could be invalidated several weeks down the line. Overall though? I'm very happy with this game and don't regret my purchase one bit. It's a fun bit of arcade action that plays closer to the classics than something like EX Zodiac or Whisker Squadron do. While both of those games are more polished with better production values, I feel this game understands the rail shooter experience better and has better mastery of genre convention. It's a simple, fun game, and sometimes that's all you need. Recommended.