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Vampire Survivors meets FTL in this extremely addictive game

1K View2023-12-14

Star Survivor

8.3

ActionDeckbuildingSpaceSingleplayer

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SHOULD I PLAY STAR SURVIVOR?

Buddy, did you read that headline? Star Survivor brings together the aesthetics and general sci-fi vibe of FTL, one of the best roguelikes ever made, and Vampire Survivors, one of the biggest indie hits of the past few years. Yes, you should play Star Survivor. Just be prepared to lose a lot of free time to this one.

TIME PLAYED

It’s hard to even estimate how many hours I’ve lost in this game so far. Maybe ten? Maybe twenty? Time seems to just slip away when I start it up. I can say that I’ve had multiple successful runs through the campaign mode, have unlocked and powered up quite a few cards, and have tested out all four ship types that are currently available. I’m already eagerly awaiting the endless mode, which is not yet in the game.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT STAR SURVIVOR?

• Plotting a course through the galaxy. The core Star Survivor gameplay is as simple as any Vampire Survivors-like game, but it definitely gave me FTL or even Star Fox vibes with its galaxy map. Each run through the campaign involves picking which path you want to take through the star system. I enjoyed strategizing about whether to focus on combat areas where I could level up my ship or take detours toward merchant vessels to spend some of the credits I’d earned on upgrades.

• That undeniably perfect gameplay loop. Does Star Survivor borrow its core mechanics from Vampire Survivors and earlier games like Magic Survival? Yes, but how could I hold that against the game when it gets the feel this right? Taking out hordes of enemies, grabbing balls of experience to level up, and equipping new weapons or powering up existing ones—there’s a primal and pure appeal to these mechanics, and it’s all done great here.

• Some sci-fi spice. One of the most notable differences between Star Survivor and Vampire Survivors is the feel of movement. Since I was controlling a big bulky spaceship rather than a tiny pixelated dude, turning was slower, and I had to make careful use of my thrusters to maneuver around the battlefield. Add in asteroid fields and mining stations that I could camp at to earn credits, and there’s just enough new here to give the game its own identity.

• Light deck-building elements. Another big distinction for Star Survivor is that the weapons and upgrades I found as I leveled up were all part of a deck that I could put together and modify before each run. I was also able to spend credits that I built up across runs to purchase permanent boosts to those cards. The deck-building element isn’t too intrusive, so you can ignore a lot of it if that’s not really your thing. But it’s just one more layer of fun strategy to consider, and one more layer of unlocks to seek out.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT STAR SURVIVOR?

• It can be a little too easy. To Star Survivor’s credit, it has five difficulty modes, ranging from beginner to “impossible.” You’re even rewarded for playing on harder difficulties with more credits earned. That said, veteran Vampire Survivors players may want to crank up the challenge from the start. Playing on standard difficulty, I won my very first run without a single death, and that’s despite having access to multiple retry attempts. I had more trouble with some of the other ships I unlocked, but in general the normal difficulty setting is tuned on the easier side.