NOVAE: Last Light

There’s no character or stage selection because you get to control a spark that’s meant to ignite the birth of a new universe. Although the stakes are high, the gameplay is similar to a survivors title, but with plenty of differences. You still move around the area, in this case space, collecting gems dropped by defeated enemies to become stronger. Your main weapon fires automatically, and it’s the only one you get. It shoots in a circle around you, allowing you to deal with threats from every direction, but there’s no auto-aim. The biggest difference is how progression works. Every gem you collect immediately grants an upgrade, so there’s no need to gather several of them to fill a bar or level up first. Each gem lets you choose one upgrade from a random selection of three. You can increase your damage, add piercing shots, extend projectile range, unlock the ability to create black holes, and pick from a few other options. There isn’t a huge variety of upgrades, but the upside is that you can become incredibly powerful very quickly. In fact, you can spend as much time upgrading as you want because there’s no timer constantly pushing you forward. Your objective is to find three (more in later stages) stars placed at random locations in the area and then defeat the boss. In other words, if you take your time preparing instead of rushing straight to the stars, you’ll most likely come out on top. After defeating the boss, you move on to the next area where you start from scratch against tougher enemies. You also get to carry over one free upgrade from your previous run, although it doesn’t make a huge difference. Even so, if you spend enough time upgrading, you shouldn’t run into many problems. There’s no limit, and you can increase your fire rate and damage to the point where almost nothing can get close to you. That changes once you reach the fourth stage, which introduces enemies that keep their distance and attack from afar. If you haven’t died before then, this will probably be your first defeat. Fortunately, that gives permanent upgrades a real purpose. You buy them with sparks earned after each run. The selection is fairly limited, but it covers everything you need. You can purchase three permanent stat upgrades, health, damage, and speed, with each one having five upgrade levels, along with four permanent powers. Everything is inexpensive, so unlocking it all doesn’t take very long. As you can see, the amount of content is limited, so it might be smarter to wait for a discount, especially when there are longer more content-heavy games available for less money. The minimalist presentation keeps everything running smoothly, but the interface needs some work. Pressing Esc during a run doesn’t pause the game. Instead, it instantly returns you to the main menu, ending your run and costing you all of your rewards. On top of that, there isn’t even a Quit button in the main menu, so you have to force close the game.