Wrath and Retribution

Frisch raus und gleich ein Upsi. Ich wollte nur kurz mal reinschauen, da ich die Demo schon gespielt habe. Und schwupp waren knapp 100 Minuten vorbei. Man steuert ein unscheinbares Raumschiff, dieses wertet man mit neuen Waffensystemen auf und levelt diese auf. Dann wollen wir mal unsere Galaxy befreien. Andere Planeten, andere Schiffe kommen dazu. Am Anfang bin ich sehr oft gestorben und dann wieder von vorne. Wenn man aber erstmal ein paar gute Waffen findet und diese dann savt, behält man diese auch. Oder wenn man seine Upgrades kauft im Hauptquartier, behält man diese ebenfalls. Es ist ein Nischenspiel und manches wiederholt sich. Man findet auch mal Schwächen, um ein Schiff zu zerstören. Dieses kann man gut ausnutzen. Für ein Spiel zwischendrin immer eine Runde wert. Meine Lieblings Waffe ist der Hammer

[b] Tentatively yes, but only if the combat looks fun to you. The game has some balance concerns in other areas, but the combat is fun and in-depth. So, if that's what draws you in then get the game and play it in small bursts for some fun space combat[/b] The combat is really fun and there's tactical depth and customization available to your ship, but getting there is incredibly frustrating due to balance concerns and the effects it has on the roguelike design of repetition. It also made quickly made me feel like I was beating my head against the wall for petty amounts of currency to get upgrades. For me this highlighted how much the game relies on its great combat to pull you in -- which isn't a bad thing of course, but I felt the repetition wasn't worth it for me after an hour. Ultimately, this game fills the void of old fans of TIE Fighter and other similar niche games. So, it's exciting to see developers still working in the space. -SOS (defense) missions are heavily unbalanced. You'll be facing an enemy capital ship and a swarm of fighters. Unless you've unlocked some very high DPS weapons you'll never kill the enemy before they kill the allied unit. It seems the dev intended for players to not even attempt these at lower power levels, but why are they even available then? You try, you lose, then more of the sector gets taken by the enemy and now your options are even more limited. -Balance between enemy fleet strength & some other mechanic i forgot the name of. Obviously inspired by FTL's "fleet chasing you" mechanic in which you must always stay ahead, this game has a mechanic that increasingly limits your options of what areas you can go into on the map as time goes on. Apparently, this can even happen while you're in a mission. I got mission failed mid-fight because the area I was at somehow fell to the enemy fleet even though I just killed 90% of the enemies for my mission objective. -Input lag with menus. The game doesn't seem to respond to any mouse input until .5 seconds after the fact -Transition is awkward. Mission over. Changing menus. Music ending. There's a micro-freeze then transition to the next screen. It's not a PC lag, it's as if the game is thinking longer than it should creating this very noticeable lag. It doesn't affect game performance, but it's jarring. +/-There's lore if you want it, but I was uninterested and just skipped it +/-You can destroy weapon hardpoints off enemy capital ships like our favorite fighter games of old, but this is actually a poor tactic. Why? Find a blind spot and hug the enemy ship and just beat their HP down. This is the most efficient way because you may only need to destroy 1 or 2 weapon hardpoints to create a blind-spot as destroying all hardpoints takes a lot more time and at greater risk of losing. Destroying hardpoints doesn't damage the health pool of the ship. The hardpoints don't share a health pool with the overall ship. There's no collision damage so you can just hug the ship like a moth to a light and spam your weapons. +/-As said earlier, the combat is really fun and engaging but each mission is a rehash of others. You solo fight a swarm of enemies with variation depending on what you picked. Heavy fighters, light fighters, corvettes, battleships. It's really cool, but gets repetitive very quickly. +/-It'd be really nice if we could have allied ships to help us especially on particularly difficult missions like the aforementioned allied defense missions. +/-If the dev decides to patch out (nerf) my cheese strategy against capital ships then fights against them will feel more cumbersome as you wittle them down. If the weapon hardpoints detracted from the overall ship's HP pool then that would be very rewarding and help remove the cumbersome-feel as you do zoom and booms (fly by fast with pew pew, turn around, repeat) +The dev is very responsive and very active. I've observed them taking criticism to heart and adjusting accordingly. That's really awesome to see and I hope to come back to the game later on and see how it's improved. +Pips! Pips for each weapon type! At once point I had two different projectile type weapons with different velocities so I had two pips to track which is fine. The fact this is even a detail is really cool and exciting. +Space dodge! (spectral shift) to help avoid incoming fire or missiles. +6DOF +Cool music (awkward pacing during transition periods) +Meta upgrades +Lots of cool weapons and variety (kinetic, energy, armor piercing, shield piercing, missiles, etc.)

This REALLY scratches the itch when I'm away from my full sim/hosas setup! Pleasantly surprised at how fun the core flight/dogfight experience is, and I cannot wait to see where this project goes.

I loved this game! The dual stick control, aim with right stick, strafe with left stick, is the control scheme I wish all space games used. I really felt I could get in the flow of flying. So many space games coming out seem to favor mouse+kbd control and I don't know why. I wish the game had more story and depth. The story writing is actually very interesting already, I just wish it was presented with more content, rather than just the Merlin monologues. Cinematics, or at least beautiful still frame/concept art would go a long way I think. Also, the variety of enemies felt really limited between levels. It was very fun fighting big capital ships, and targeting specific systems. But I felt I knew what all the enemies would be like after the first level. If more content is added, I'll definitely play!

If you like human vs AI dogfights from games like X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and Descent Freespace. you will probably like this game. Like other rogue-lilkes, you will fail a lot as you get better and upgrade your ship. You have to get the hang of how upgrades work (e.g. items held in inventory at mission end are eligible for an upgrade) and when upgrades become permanent-- recent game updates have simplified this. There's no fiddly management of energy between engines, shields, and weapons, and not a lot of plot. You might see that as a plus or a minus. It is currently limited to mouse and keyboard, but that suits me fine. I find it pleasant to sit down and fight a bunch of battles.It's very satisfying to take down an enemy in 30s that used to take 5 minutes of hit-and-run tactics! It's good work from a solo developer, who is actively supporting the game and listening to feedback. I think it's a bit misunderstood and underrated-- not a perfect game, some rough edges, but well worth the $15 I paid and I find myself returned to it to relax instead of playing the more complex, big-name games that are waiting in my backlog.

Really enjoyed my time with this game so far. Wrath and Retribution is a really solid space combat roguelike with fast-paced gameplay and a surprisingly addictive progression loop. The biggest highlight for me is the combat flow. Controls are easy to learn, movement feels smooth, and the dash mechanic makes fights feel intense and satisfying. Navigation and menu flow are also straightforward, so getting into missions is quick and painless. The BGM deserves special mention because it fits the combat perfectly and really helps create that high-speed sci-fi atmosphere. I also liked the huge variety of weapons, modules, and upgrades. Experimenting with different builds is fun, and the ship upgrade system gives a strong sense of progression between runs. There are still a few things that could use polishing but overall the game already has a very solid foundation. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoy fast-paced space combat roguelikes.

I don’t play a lot of space sim games but have fond memories of wing commander and the roguelike hook brought me in. Was a little tough at first to figure out combat (and I do feel like missiles are way better than flak generally) but once I did I found myself very much hitting that “just one more run” dopamine rush. The gameplay itself is fun and tight. Could be a bit more depth to it, but worth the $20 ticket to ride. Developer seems quite active with ongoing updates improving the game quite a bit so I’m hopeful. Fun little indie. Sound design and synth music score is underrated - on my 5.1 system this thing slaps!