Among Us Review - Better Late Than Never

Publisher: InnerSloth

Developer: InnerSloth

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: iOS, Android

Among Us released over two years ago, but the jellybean/astronaut online game is currently seeing a massive surge in popularity that began in early September. The world may have started out quarantine by playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a wholesome game about friendship and taking care of our islands, but after many months of pandemic life, we're hungry for the void of space filled with chaos and deceit. That’s what Among Us is all about.

Developed by InnerSloth, the foundation of Among Us is simple: a social deduction game where a player is either a crewmate or the lone imposter. The imposter must pretend to do the assigned daily tasks in the game while stealthily killing off each crewmate one by one. If a body is discovered, a crewmate can call an Emergency Meeting to have a group chat trying to figure out who the imposter truly is.

There is only one level aboard a spacecraft where players see sectioned rooms where daily tasks are. Using basic vertical and horizontal movements, the imposter and crewmates move from room to room to accomplish their respective goals without giving any other players cause to vote them out. Each Emergency Meeting discusses who is suspicious and who is not, and the player that has the most votes against them is effectively gets the boot. Players that are killed then become "ghosts" to see how the rest of the match plays out.

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This is where the game gets hilarious. Picture this: It's my first time playing Among Us, and I am the imposter. I don't know the tasks or where they are; I am just a blundering 2D astronaut bumbling around looking for stealthy ways to try to eat my crewmates. I'm confused, but I use that to my advantage.

One crewmate suspects me, "purple," and hurls out the most offensive accusation ever seen in-game: "Purple is sus" (a popular slang version of "suspicious" that is the root of all Among Us memes). I panic, but then try to see myself through their eyes. "I'm sorry, I was just following you guys," I reply. "This is my first time playing, I'm not really sure what I'm doing." My response lands the way I need it to, the rest of the players now feel the need to teach me instead of suspect me. Little do they know it's the last thing they will ever do – at least until this match is over.

This is the level of intrigue that makes Among Us so fun despite having basic visuals and only one level. Another charm is that it also has meme-quality features as seen in its comedic art style and low-budget animations. Friends turn against one another, bonds are broken, and the chat is absolutely comedic.

Among Us takes meme culture to its highest peak with parody costumes, my absolute favorite being the sticky note for your face that has "dum" written on it. That, or the toilet paper. The costumes add a personal touch to gameplay in addition to several color options, skins, and even pets. Does this add stat value? No, but it adds customization that allows players to immerse themselves fully in a way that stays inline with the "don't take this too seriously" feeling that Among Us offers. 

 

What makes this game such a hit for me is that a lot of online games today are set up in a way that you have to play with friends, otherwise the entertainment value can decline drastically. One aspect of online gaming that turns me off when I want to play solo is the severe level of trolling that can turn hateful and malicious at the drop of a hat. While it's easy to just turn the other cheek, sometimes I don't want to have to do that, I just want to enjoy the game. The entire nature of Among Us is basically one giant troll, so the usual suspects in the online gaming community really lose their power here; you're encouraged to troll, making it an ingrained mechanic, removing the feeling of satisfaction from people acting in bad faith. 

Another refreshing aspect that makes Among Us worth checking out is the minimal time investment it requires. Some online games are built to keep you playing for months on end; I often joke that Destiny 2 and Apex Legends are second marriages because of the grind for the former, and the desire to be the best in the latter. With Among Us, you can play as much or as little as you want and still have a good time. When I want to stream for a few hours, this is a good fit because of the type of interactive content it produces, but I can also pick up the free mobile version and play for 10 or 15 minutes during my lunch break. There are no levels, there is no Battle Pass; there is no penalization for playing as little or as much as I want, which makes it easy to return to again and again. 

As much as I enjoy playing Among Us, I have just as must fun watching it. Its simplicity makes it easy to boot up for streamers, and the conversations about who is sus are great entertainment for active livestream chats. 

Diving into Among Us, I see the charm despite its simplicity, and I can't help but to love the way this game makes me look at everyone as if they are super sus. Among Us is what it is, and unapologetically so. This year may be bad, but having fun experiences definitely isn't; Among Us provides a much-needed reprieve from reality without taking itself too seriously.

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Score: 8.5

Summary: Among Us is hitting its stride two years after launch, and is the perfect representation of how integrated memes are within our entertainment infrastructure.

Concept: Complete assigned tasks as a crewmate or kill your way to victory as an imposter

Graphics: Minimalistic graphics that appeal to meme culture while inspiring insanely realistic fan art

Sound: No voice acting and sparse sound effects help facilitate the suspicious atmosphere that Among Us thrives on

Playability: Though simple and one-track, this s an experience that has unlimited replayable potential due to its hilarious and unpredictable in-game chat feature

Entertainment: A clever take on the "whodunnit" genre while a tapping into what makes meme culture so relevant and universal

Replay: High

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Mafia: Definitive Edition Review – Loyal To A Fault

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Hangar 13

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Stadia, PC

Mafia: Definitive Edition is an interesting time capsule that not only lets players experience Tommy Angelo’s rise in an ersatz ‘30s-era Chicago dubbed Lost Heaven, but will likely inspire greater appreciation for how far the industry has come since 2002. Hangar 13 has rebuilt the nearly 20-year-old game, bringing the visuals up to contemporary standards and adding a few quality-of-life enhancements while ultimately respecting the original’s core design. It’s an admirable approach, but then you have to actually play the damned thing.

The early Mafia games used their open worlds differently than their competitors, with cities that aren’t really interactive playgrounds, but are more similar to film soundstages. You’re free to peel off from the next story beat and explore side streets and back roads, but don’t expect to find much in the way of optional activities or interesting secrets. Instead, the narrative relentlessly drives you forward, with the end of one chapter propelling you right into the start of the next. Need to catch your breath? Too bad! It's an interesting approach, and one that I’d probably enjoy more if the story was more engaging. Unfortunately, Angelo’s tale is disjointed and boring, with time skips that undermine how you’re supposed to feel about the relationships that he apparently builds over the years.

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Angelo’s story is told in flashbacks as he’s going over his past with an investigator. He starts his rise as a taxi driver pulled into the mob by happenstance, then becomes the victim (and participant) in all the intrigue, backstabbing, and capers you’d expect. There’s an interesting tale in here somewhere, but the timeline moves so erratically that I never felt connected with Angelo’s plight as a man caught between loyalties. We meet his eventual wife and are told that they love each other, but their interactions are so lifeless and sparse that Angelo’s eventual speech about the importance of family feels hollow and unearned. The newly recorded voice performances are solid, but inconsistent. Some characters, like Angelo and Don Ennio Salieri, give understated, naturalistic performances. It’s jarring to hear them interact with characters like Paulie, who gives his lines a livelier (and occasionally hammy) read. Sometimes, it felt like these characters had been yanked from different stories.   

Nearly every mission predictably ends in a hail of gunfire; it’s a gangster story, after all. In addition to tossing molotovs and filling the air with bullets, I also hurled a consistent stream of profanity at my television. The gunplay is simply terrible, with weapons that feel sluggish and underpowered. It’s not uncommon to dial in several headshots before an enemy registers the damage, flopping to the ground in a dramatic ragdoll flop. Rival gangsters glide between cover points like Fred Astaire on ice skates, or pop in and out of safety in suicidal frenzies. Melee combat is even worse, with successful button-mashing rewarding you with canned finishing-move animations that look like hokey fight choreography from a middle-school production of West Side Story. And woe to those who trigger one of these unskippable animations in the middle of a battle. Enemies may be able to shrug off your bullets, but you’re not so lucky.

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Ultimately, it’s difficult to shake the very real feeling that you’re playing a relic from a bygone era. There are some set-piece moments, such as busting down a warehouse door with a rail car or escaping an abandoned prison, but the thrills that they may have once offered are brought down by the subpar gameplay you’re stuck with once the smoke clears. The worst examples are the times when you’re forced into stealth sequences. There are only a few of these sections, thankfully, but the “raise the alarm means game over” failure stakes make them more about frustration than in building tension.

The original Mafia was well-received at its release, and I’m sure a lot of people remember it fondly. For me, it’s something that’s probably best seen as a foundational statement in a series that got better over time and subsequent entries. As part of the Mafia trilogy, it’s an interesting footnote on what came before. As a standalone game that can hold its own against modern titles in the open-world genre? Fugetaboutit.

Score: 5.5

Summary: Mafia: Definitive Edition is an interesting time capsule that shows how far the industry has come since 2002.

Concept: Revisit Tommy Angelo’s ascent in Lost Heaven’s criminal underworld, in a complete remake of the 2002 open-world game

Graphics: The visuals are an improvement over the original, but dodgy animations and lackluster environments pull the experience down

Sound: The new orchestral score occasionally seems better suited for a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The licensed ‘30s tunes add to the atmosphere

Playability: Gunplay is awful, melee combat is unintentionally hilarious, and forced stealth sections are a reminder of how far games have come in the years since the original’s debut

Entertainment: Faithful almost to a fault, Hangar 13’s remake puts a glossy finish on a title that is fundamentally musty by contemporary standards

Replay: Low

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NBA 2K21 Review – Living Off The Legacy

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Visual Concepts

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Just like the star athletes that adorn its cover every year, NBA 2K has created a strong legacy, launching it to the top of this generation’s sports games. The series has maintained solid gameplay while never forgetting about innovation, and I appreciate the risks Visual Concepts takes even when they don’t completely pay off. NBA 2K has advanced sports storytelling, character customization, and the level of detail we expect from overall presentation. However, once you’re on top, you have to fight to stay there, and a bad season or two can haunt you. The current-gen version of NBA 2K21 is not a bad game, but it does not live up to the legacy Visual Concepts built. 

While this iteration lacks improvement in most off-the-court situations, the classic gameplay on the court remains a keystone of this entry. I love how players of all different levels can play the NBA 2K series and get as deep into the mechanics as they want and still have success. Every possession becomes about finding the best path to the basket, knowing the right window to pull off the perfect pass, or setting that screen to free up your point guard to drive to the net. It never gets old, especially when you nail that devastating drunk. This year, expect some improvements to the A.I., such as your big man in the paint making a bigger impact on defense. The A.I.’s reaction time could be better; their biggest offender is some late executions when I requested a pass and not recognizing when the window has lapsed. Plus, they still make weird hiccups like backcourt violations for no good reason. 

Outside of the A.I., Visual Concepts also made a slew of other additions, from new shot types to the inclusion of oversized point guards. But the biggest shift is to the pro stick for dribbling and shooting. Dribbling is more full-featured; jump shots can now only be initiated by moving the right stick down, which provides a wider range of motion for more advanced dribbling moves, which I used to give me more success at beating my man off the dribble. The change that didn’t click with me was the introduction of “pro stick shot aiming,” which eschews the timing meter fans have become accustomed to. Now, a target window resizes based on your player’s skill and a few other factors as they shoot. As a longtime player, I struggled with shifting the stick left or right to hit the target. In the past, the timing meter punished you if you didn’t keep the stick straight when shooting. Now, it’s too easy to accidentally shift the stick a little too far, causing you to miss a wide-open shot. I like that the stick aiming is more challenging and means that I can’t take any shot for granted, but I miss the predictable rhythm of the timing meter. I adapted after a while, but it’s hard to break old habits. You can turn the stick aiming off in the game and go back to the old timing meter, and I’ll admit, once I did, I was much happier. 

Other than that, the changes across all modes feel limited. If you’re like me and spend most of your time in MyCareer, you can treat yourself to a new cinematic experience to play through as your created character called “The Long Shadow.” This year’s story centers on a young player named Junior, who is living in the shadow of his dad’s career. It’s not as over-the-top and produced as what we saw with Spike Lee and the Frequency Vibrations storyline a few years ago, but it’s a more grounded tale in managing the expectations that come with being a top talent and finding your own place in the game. It isn’t the most memorable plot and takes some predictable turns, especially with a girlfriend storyline, but it does its job at giving you a backstory. As a plus, star acting bolsters its scenes, especially Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy) as Junior’s father and Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Lovecraft Country) as an old family friend who becomes your agent. My favorite part was that Visual Concepts brought back the college experience here, giving you 10 officially licensed colleges to pick from, and put great detail into recreating the crowds’ chants and the look and feel of each arena. 

NBA 2K21 also has a new Beach Neighborhood, where you can take your MyPlayer to do everything from complete in 3v3 streetball or 5v5 ProAM games to shop for the latest apparel. The cool cosmetic items are all overpriced, so I didn’t even bother with making my player look cooler. Worse yet, to be able to stand a chance and not embarrass yourself when competing here, you’re probably going to need to grind in MyCareer to earn VC (2K’s virtual currency) or purchase it to improve your player’s stats. As for the new Neighborhood aesthetic, I like the change of scenery, which was inspired by Southern California's local beach community; it feels inviting and colorful in a time when many of us are stuck indoors. That being said, it is more window dressing than a huge attraction in NBA 2K21, and it’s the area of the game where I’ve experienced the most crashes, especially when traveling between areas. 

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I was most disappointed in MyGM, where you manage a franchise and make the big decisions when it comes to trading, scouting, and managing prices. This mode is practically identical to last year, and that is not a good thing. The conversation system still drags down the entire experience with pointless blabber about hand soap and waffles. CFOs constantly ask you to raise prices, and coaches demand you make ridiculous trades. You have action points to spend each day, but not enough meaningful things to do with them. The mode also doesn’t focus enough on big events and moments in the season; I should be feeling the stress of making the playoffs or trade deadline, and if a big-star player wants to test free agency, it should be a huge beat – not relegated to a measly social media post. The skill tree to unlock abilities like better scouting or more sponsorships feels more compact than last year, but it’s another area where Visual Concepts needs to get more creative and interesting. Unlocking new abilities just doesn’t feel impactful. 

Similar to MyGM, MyLeague still shines in your ability to customize rules, teams, and rosters to your liking, but it also remains basically unchanged. The WNBA is back here, which I love because Visual Concepts really commits to making the experience feel like a women’s game with a more technical and team-centric style, but sadly you can still only play for a season.  

MyTeam, where you open packs to create the roster of your dreams, offers a great deal of events, challenges, and rewards to keep you logging in and ensuring your team is in top form. This year it added seasons, which are free and (similar to a battle pass) you get rewards purely through meeting certain gameplay criteria. It also introduced the Exchange, which lets you trade in extra or unused cards for more powerful ones. I like that the Exchange lets you deposit cards you’re not using for something better, but be warned you have to give up a lot to get many of these valuable cards. While this mode is still where players will probably spend the most of their VC, these are at least some steps in letting players earn cards that don’t always require putting down cash.

As we approach a new console generation, Visual Concepts is building a version of NBA 2K21 from the ground up for the new systems. As a result, this current-gen NBA 2K21 feels left in the dust. It still offers the strong gameplay the series is known for, but compared to last year, it’s not making many leaps. I know I’ll still play it a good amount until I move on to the new-gen edition, but it’s disappointing that loyal fans playing on current-gen consoles didn’t get more of an upgrade. It still gives you a decent basketball experience, but we’ve come to expect better and more. 

Score: 7

Summary: The current-gen version of NBA 2K21 is not a bad game, but it does not live up to the legacy Visual Concepts built. 

Concept: Bring back the fantastic gameplay with a few tweaks, but without making meaningful changes across the various modes to make it stand out from last year’s iteration

Graphics: Accurate player models with realistic movements help sell the experience. I noticed fewer graphical hiccups than in previous years

Sound: The commentary is still some of the best in sports games, and the crowd reacting to the highs and lows of the on-court action puts you right in the moment. A stellar soundtrack provides great background beats

Playability: The new shot aiming has an adjustment period bound to frustrate players, but improved mechanics to dribble off the right stick fare much better

Entertainment: NBA 2K21 still delivers the thrill of being on the court and producing spectacular plays, but it lacks innovation and fresh ideas

Replay: Moderately High

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Hades Review – The Highs And Lows Of Repetition

Publisher: Supergiant Games

Developer: Supergiant Games

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: Switch

Developer Supergiant Games is known for creating titles with rich narratives and sophisticated themes, and one of the great triumphs of Hades is how those elements are seamlessly integrated into a roguelite structure. Through a seemingly limitless array of character interactions and plot progression, Hades seeds its storytelling over many hours of repeated runs, as you lead your character along one attempted escape from hell to the next. In addition to weapon and character upgrades, new story insights are among the most satisfying rewards. But that also means that you’ll be eager to see those plot threads resolve, and to do that, you should prepare for an especially long road.

Zagreus is the son of mighty Hades, who rules the realm of the dead with a barely controlled anger only matched by his insistence on total control. He’s the definition of an overbearing father, and Zagreus’ desire to strike out on his own feels as much like a family drama as the retelling of a familiar mythology. His quest to find a mother he’s never known brings him into contact with a who’s who of Olympus and the Greek ancient world, including Zeus, Athena, Achilles, and Medusa. The constantly shifting dynamics between these characters makes for great fun, from the sibling rivalry among the Olympians to reconnecting old flames like Orpheus and Eurydice, and I love the way story tidbits creep in both between action sequences and during them.

Each escape attempt encompasses a series of isometric arena battles, assaulting an impressive variety of enemies in throwdowns that demand precision and careful observation. The combat is fast-paced and challenging, nodding more to stylish action games like Devil May Cry than the isometric RPGs it might look like at first glance. The sense of adrenaline is always high, but there’s also a potential for encounters to devolve into frantic button mashing as you spam out every available attack to bring foes down before they can unleash their worst counters.

New weapons unlock regularly, and they can dramatically change your playstyle, from the precision of the Heart-Seeking Bow to the furious melee dominance of the Twin Fists of Malphon. The most impressive design feat is how even the same weapon inevitably feels different on each run, as god-gifted boons alter and enhance individual armaments, spells, and other abilities. As I got into the rhythm of flowing from one death into my next attempt, I was consistently excited to see how my approach might change.

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Among the many familiar names encountered, Zagreus gets to know the good-natured Sisyphus, who endlessly pushes a boulder up a hill he will never top, never complaining of his task. It’s an appropriate allegory that speaks to the broader game, which kept me engaged thanks to its slow drip of character improvement and fiction, but along a path that felt increasingly Sisyphean the longer I played. I spent dozens of hours picking away at the various plot threads and chasing upgrades. It’s enjoyable, but as the hours wear on, my interest in the same sequence of chambers wore thin. I longed for a wrap-up, even as the game demanded more escape attempts. Even after “winning,” that tease continues for hours more before a proper conclusion.

The story is stretched across too many hours of play to maintain excitement throughout, but there’s absolutely a rich bounty of content to uncover along the way. Hades is a massive game, with a wealth of additional content to appease even the most hardcore of engagement. A “god mode” offers a gradual increase in damage resistance after each death, putting victory in reach for even those with a cap on their skills. On the other hand, risk-takers looking for more rewards can eventually access a way to increase the difficulty. Alternate boss fights, new weapon aspects, hidden storylines, and plenty more invite the player to get lost in Hades’ potential. These variants and additional options provide life to the game, long after the charm of standard completion attempts begins to wear out. 

Even serious engagement doesn't ensure story completion without many hours of investment, and only the most dedicated players will see the full spread of what Hades has to offer. But Supergiant’s latest opus is a beautiful and thoughtful twist on Greek mythology, flipping these old stories on their head and transforming them into commentaries on modern relationships. High-octane action gameplay may pull you into hell for the first time, but I suspect you’ll stay to find out about this eccentric and fascinating family.

 

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Score: 8.5

Summary: Supergiant has crafted another beautiful game, this time a story-laden roguelite that demands dozens of hours to fully experience.

Concept: Fight your way out of hell over and over again as the son of Hades

Graphics: Stylish and painterly touches lend the action an exaggerated, animated aesthetic

Sound: In keeping with Supergiant’s heritage, excellent voice acting and dialogue create some wonderful characters. The high-octane musical score is fun, but can wear thin after several dozen runs

Playability: Hades finds variety in its many weapons and playstyles, and each is balanced thoughtfully for a tight and challenging ride

Entertainment: A cleverly reimagined take on Greek mythology with fast and challenging combat, but seeing it through to the end is an endurance challenge

Replay: High

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13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Review – A Future Drawn From The Past

Publisher: Atlus

Developer: Vanillaware

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

As a narrative genre, sci-fi has limitless possibilities. It encompasses far-flung concepts like time travel, rampaging monsters, android assassins, and more. Even with all of that within reach, most sci-fi stories limit their scope to exploring just a few big ideas. However, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim shows no such restraint. It’s an all-inclusive, pulpy feast that draws inspiration from every corner of the sci-fi kingdom; it’s The War of the Worlds plus The Terminator plus Neon Genesis Evangelion plus several other well-known media that would spoil important plot points if I mentioned them. But here’s the most amazing part: It all works together.

The bonkers story and gorgeous art are the main attractions in 13 Sentinels. It also has some tactical combat, but the game is primarily a visual novel about a group of teenagers who pilot giant armored suits called sentinels. They do this to save the world from an invasion of seemingly alien beasts, but the characters also deal with own personal drama along the way, navigating their relationships and desires in the midst of the looming crisis. I like how the tale gradually shifts its focus, starting with a familiar school-life setup before layering in the more outlandish developments. For example, one girl has a crush on a cool new student, while another befriends a mysterious robot. I won’t ruin any revelations or surprises here, but I was ultimately satisfied by the journey. It sometimes relies too much on homages rather than its own ideas, but even as a tour of popular sci-fi concepts, the story is entertaining.

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Though you still advance through plenty of dialogue boxes, 13 Sentinels gives you more agency than typical visual novels provide. Your actions won’t change the final result, but I was still impressed by how modular the narrative is. Protagonists have their own arcs divided into chapters, and you can jump between them freely. You can get to know the girl obsessed with U.F.O.s, then switch to the boy who loves kaiju movies. My initial intent was to finish one entire arc before proceeding to the next, but that isn’t possible; your progress with some characters is contingent on meeting other conditions, so you need to leave them partly finished and follow other threads. However, these bottlenecks aren’t frustrating. Instead, they build mystery and anticipation, sometimes leaving off on cliffhangers that had me excited to unlock the next sequence.

Some character arcs can only continue once you have cleared certain battles, which is the other major component of 13 Sentinels. You engage in tactical combat across different sections of the city, unleashing missiles and lasers against hordes of advancing enemies. The best thing I can say about this whole mode is that it is mercifully unobtrusive; fights aren’t difficult enough to be a significant barrier to your progression (unless you set them to hard), so you can plow through a bunch of them and then get back to the story. I like the systems that support the combat, like purchasing and upgrading moves for each of your 13 sentinels, but your time on the battlefield doesn’t have the depth to make all that tinkering exciting.

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The combat encounters aren’t even cool to watch because the tactical mode uses simplified and generic representations that don’t do the action justice. It’s a shame the sentinels are disappointing when you’re in the cockpit, because their designs look awesome when you see them up close in the narrative campaign. In contrast to the visually bland battles, the story scenes all feature lovely 2D illustration. You watch striking sunsets and visit cozy homes full of delicious-looking food, all while controlling characters brought to life with stylish animations that express their personalities. Stunning art is developer Vanillaware’s hallmark, and that tradition continues here – as long as you aren’t in combat.

Vanillaware’s previous games include fantasy-inspired fare like Odin Sphere, Muramasa, and Dragon’s Crown. With 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the studio doesn’t just dip its toes into sci-fi; it jumps into the deep end with a story that takes inspiration from the genre’s most iconic works. While that doesn’t result in the most original plot, it is still a fun and ambitious experience that combines high-school drama and huge robots in a (mostly) beautiful package.

Score: 8

Summary: Vanillaware's sci-fi story is a fun and ambitious experience that combines high-school drama and huge robots in a (mostly) beautiful package.

Concept: A bunch of teenagers attend high school, pilot enormous robots, and try to figure out time travel in a hybrid experience that is part visual novel and part tactical RPG

Graphics: The character and environmental illustrations are stunning, but the visuals in battle look painfully generic by comparison

Sound: I played using the Japanese language track with subtitles, though English dialogue is available as a free download

Playability: Interacting with the world is easy, and issuing combat commands is straightforward

Entertainment: Even with lackluster battles, the constantly escalating stakes and evolving story pulled me in

Replay: Moderate

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Star Renegades Review – Pixel Paradise Lost

Publisher: Raw Fury

Developer: Massive Damage, Inc.

Release: 2020

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch

In Star Renegades, only you can save the future from an evil empire. However, your scrappy crew of futuristic space raiders is destined to face insurmountable odds. The solution to staring down endless deaths in the face of super soldiers and murderous mechs? Travel from dimension to dimension to find the reality where you can finally set things right. 

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Star Renegades is a turn-based, roguelike, sci-fi experience where your goal is to liberate planets and eventually take the battle to an enemy mothership. You deal with party wipes often and get sent back to the start, but you can keep some powerful unlocks and new characters to bring along on the journey. A new run often feels like a fresh start, pushing closer to a classical roguelike instead of the permanent boosts and comfort of the new-age roguelite. Star Renegades is tough, and can even seem blatantly unfair at times with surprise bosses and one-shot kills, but the pixelated and picturesque jaunts are worth taking again and again, even in the face of your inevitable demise. 

Crafting your crew for each adventure is fun. Pick from an assortment of deadly but vulnerable backline shooters and snipers, frontline tanks and brawlers, and supports that can fit wherever you have room. The combat system is simple at the onset, but rolls out more complexity like area-of-effect considerations, formation placement, and defensive tactics over the course of a four-stage endeavor. Watching your attacks play out is almost hypnotic; Star Renegades’ art style is impossible to ignore and breathtaking to behold, especially in combat. The turn-based timing system is simple and efficient, with you knocking your opponents off the action bar with critical hits and break attacks before they can unleash on your crew. However, rolling through the earlier planets on every new run becomes laborious as you try to quickly reach the meatier segments that test your skill and luck.

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Especially in the endgame, critical enemy movesets and incoming abilities can be unclear due to a busy and often unhelpful user interface, which can lead to unfortunate deaths even if you’ve mastered the combat system’s intricacies. Despite plenty of loot to discover, each character levels up in a linear fashion, so you’re using many of the same moves and abilities each turn and each run. This can make plodding through the first few acts feel like busywork without much variation.

A camping system allows you to build relationships between characters through a card-based conversation system, adding some variety to the mix by unlocking special and fantastic team attacks. If you build up enough relationship rapport during a run, you could even unlock progeny characters that play close to the parent’s ability set with a minor change in an attack or ability, allowing you to change a core kit slightly. It doesn't amount to much for all but the most dedicated optimizers, but it adds some longevity for those who want to play again and again.

Star Renegades looks incredible, has a solid combat system, and succeeds in beckoning you back for run after run until you eventually surpass the final foe. While you may not immediately grab your blaster for another play after you’ve surmounted the radical difficulty spike near the end of a run, there are a lot of great systems at play here.

Score: 8

Summary: If at first you don't save the galaxy, give it another go or ten.

Concept: Stop the evil empire, one dimension hop at a time

Graphics: The pixelated art, animations, and environments are absolutely gorgeous

Sound: A sufficiently spirited selection of sounds keeps you energized during your many attempts

Playability: Star Renegades is challenging, so be prepared for a difficult and punishing experience

Entertainment: Beautiful, deadly, repetitive and harsh, Star Renegades is a stylish adventure worth playing

Replay: High

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