The draw to a game for everyone is subjective. Are you more inclined to play something if the art direction is interesting? Do you care more about the gameplay loop? Or does the genre make or break a game for you? It’s safe to say that all of those things are important to consider, and Star Renegades had me ready to jump in as soon as I saw a trailer last year.

Massive Damage, Inc. is a relatively new studio, founded in 2010 with a pretty notable game coming before this in 2016: Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander. I don’t blame you if you never played it, but for a while, it was what all the big video game sites could talk about. Naturally their sophomore outing would be equally exciting, right? I’m not sure what’s different, but this one feels like it’s flying under the radar, and that’s a shame.

It’s been a while since I’ve played an RPG where the combat is king. While this is tactical, this isn’t a sRPG like Rainbow Skies, but more along the lines of Zeboyd Games’ stuff, or the more recent Battle Chasers Nightwar. You’ll find mild exploration, dialogue, and constant strategy assessments in long battles. And if the gameplay wasn’t enough, it is stunningly beautiful to look at, regardless of the view point.

You’re going to be taking control of a rag-tag team that has to save their universe from the invading forces. If you fail, you’ll send a little robot named with letters and numbers that equates to Justin, or Just In, to an alternate dimension to help them save their universe, and so on, until MOTHER is defeated. No, it’s not Jenova, and you’re not going to see Kadaj, Yazoo, or Loz, but the enemies you face are about as messed up and confident as them. There are twelve classes of characters you can recruit, with six usable per battle. Each class has their own specialties, and it can honestly get a bit chaotic when you’re going against a large group of enemies. Starting out, you’ll face a couple at a time, but it’s not long before you’re going against five or six regularly.

One of the nice things about combat is that you mostly know what to expect each round. There’s a bar at the top of the screen that shows you were enemies are in terms of turn, and where you’ll be depending on the action you choose. There are also arrows showing you who each enemy is targeting. Some moves will blitz and take affect right away, and these are great for “breaking” an opponent, or pushing their turn off the current cycle. This buys you time with a character they may have been targeting, allowing you to either avoid taking damage to your armor or health, as the others will only drain the character’s shield. There is a lot that goes into this, such as buffs and debuffs, weaknesses, statuses, and more, but the game does a good job of quickly explaining the combat in the opening tutorials, and you can figure out the rest pretty quickly.

In between the combat you’ll be exploring the over world. Initially I wondered what the point of this was as the dialogue is mostly unnecessary (albeit funny), but later on you’ll find you can pick up items on the map, and you’ll be limited in your exploration. You have to pick and choose what you care about – do you want to fight that really difficult adversary for an item, or does your party need full health and repairs because someone fell in battle? You can see most adversary traits (kind of like the Nemesis system in the Shadow of Mordor games) in a hierarchy called the Throne Room. You can access this from your menu any time by clicking Imperium. It’s helpful to get a feeling for where your team should go, as you’ll see their strengths and weaknesses, and some team builds aren’t meant for particular adversaries.

At the end of a day’s cycle, you’ll find yourself in a camp. You’ll also be in a similar situation when flying to the planet you are supposed to save. Each character has cards that can do different things, such as bolster shields, add damage or buffs, heal armor and health, among others. Each of these cards also holds a value for building a relationship with the person it’s used on – building relationships unlocks passive and active skills, and can lead to some other special stuff down the line. It’s a neat little touch, especially when you’re trying to decide if you want to boost a couple to their next level, or if you should heal the party member that really needs it.

The game isn’t without its faults though. I’d say the biggest hit to the game is its UI. As much as I appreciate everything the game tells you, there’s simply too much to look at, and figuring out everything going on in a battle later on can be tricky as there’s so much to look at and you may not realize you’re not clicking what you want. I know I wasted a number of character turns and it was too late to cancel as it was my final choice for the turn. While it’s not a huge issue initially, every single move counts later on, especially against bosses. Another thing that confused me early on was how to level up. I thought maybe I had to die to do so, as I was level one at the end of the first world and about to fight the boss, and things were looking pretty grim with the battles I was in up to that point. Then I noticed a big LEVEL UP section in the upper left of the screen – I just needed to hit square. Everyone was then level three and I could equip the gear I had been finding, and all was good. Ironing out little things like this would’ve made the experience that much more enjoyable.

As much as I love to recommend games based solely on their art direction, the gameplay here is definitely meant for a certain type of player. If you enjoy turn-based combat, and don’t want to simply hit a button repeatedly to win because you need to actually think, this will take you on a ride you likely won’t forget. With procedural generation keeping things fresh, you can play this over and over until you feel you’ve fully conquered the Imperium.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Drop Dead Gorgeous
• Interesting Strategies in Combat
• Fun Cast of Characters

Cons

• Obtuse UI
• Battles Can Go Lonnnng

Star Renegades was developed by Massive Damage, Inc. and published by Raw Fury. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on PS4 and played on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Star Renegades, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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