Catharage

Hours played at review time, across 45 reviews with recorded playtime.

positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up

I will preface this review by saying this game isn't for everyone, but I found that it was for me. This is the kind of game you get with a solo indie developer who understands his vision and refuses to water it down to a mass-market commodity. It is initially inscrutable, which I personally found intriguing but may be a source of frustration for others. It appears complex, but the essential game loop is actually simple and familiar. Its gameplay alternates between tranquillity verging on boredom and pandemonium, usually culminating in disbelief when your hours-long run is ended abruptly and rudely. The aspect of the game that players will likely find most polarizing however, are the ship and camera controls. Although the developer has attempted to streamline and facilitate customisation of the controls since the initial release, they are still inherently complex and for the majority I suspect, highly unintuitive. If you are not comfortable with 6DoF control, this game is not for you. If you tried Homeworld and were frustrated with the camera, this game is not for you. You have been warned. Persevere, and you will find that the meat of the game is resource gathering and ship-to-ship combat, both of which are relatively straight-forward in execution. For combat, again think Homeworld, but with fine-grain control over the weapons and abilities of an individual ship. You do also have the optional opportunity to command a minor fleet in a limited fashion, but this is not a feature I relied on heavily. Through the many classes of ship on offer and ranged against you, there was enough nuance and variety in these mechanics that I didn't begin to feel jaded until I completed the initial goal of the game around hour 30. To my surprise, this unlocked a further layer of end-game content that I wasn't expecting and which provided an ongoing challenge. Taking this account with the relatively low asking price, the game offers a great dollar-to-entertainment ratio. As a rogue-like, the gameplay loop and resulting progression is both familiar and well-crafted, with a large contingent of unlocks and permanent upgrades to accumulate, supporting a variety of feasible play-styles. The resources that these unlocks require are only obtained when extracting (deliberately choosing to end a run), so there is always an element of risk/reward involved in each run. Extract too early and you receive a relatively paltry reward compared to the initial effort required to mould your ship into something remotely effective. Continue to test your luck in search of additional loot and despite frequently feeling over-powered, it is likely that eventually you will be murdered at long range by a single unexpected shot. Despite the justifiable feeling of unfairness that accompanies this, it is a testament to the compelling “one more run” nature of the game that I continue to play. The game utilises an untextured and minimalist approach that seems to be common recently in Unity-developed games. In this case, it results in attractive and frequently grand visuals, aided by the backdrop of immense, mysterious and ruined structures that populate the environment. Both the stability and performance of the game was adequate on a mid-range machine. I experienced only the occasional crash when saving and then attempting to resume a run. Thankfully, the game recognised this and honoured the resources that I had accumulated, significantly reducing the impact of this issue. I look forward to seeing more from this developer.