Starchon is the debut title from Canadian developers Freelance Games. At its core, the 5-year-old PC game – now an XBLA Indie game – is a souped up Asteroids clone, with droves of enemy ships, a slick presentation, and a fairly deep customization system added in. It’s held back by some balancing issues that are most noticeable early on, which is a bummer, since it means there’s a chance you’ll get burned out during the first half of the game.
Honestly, it’s a fine game, but its potential for retro satisfaction isn’t quite met. Either too many upgrades are needed too early in the game, or the necessary upgrades cost too much. Either way this amounts to the same thing: too many levels are punishingly difficult. You spawn, battle wave after wave of enemies for a minute or two, and die, or your base is destroyed, which amounts to the same thing. Then you spawn again, and you do this over and over, until you have enough credits to purchase the next weapon or shield upgrade, which themselves require mass and power upgrades to attach to your ship. See my point? Then again, you’ll breeze through many of the middle and later levels because of all the upgrades you’re forced to accumulate early on.
On top of that, enemy ships are smart as whips. It’s almost like they can tell when your ship is wounded, and that’s when they decide to gang up on you. They’ll dog you until you’re dead, and you’ll quickly start to feel like Slippy in Star Fox 64, only without a Fox McCloud to save your sorry green ass.
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Sure, docking your ship at your base carrier in the middle of a battle replenishes your health – as well as that of the carrier – and allows for upgrades on the fly. But for some reason, docking can take up to 10 seconds, more if you make the mistake of pressing Y while on the wrong side of the carrier. The game takes control of your ship, which will come to a full stop and either move away from the carrier before heading toward the docking bay, or repeatedly bounce against its hull as if it can’t find the correct path. All the while your ship is getting shot to hell.
It’s possible to bring your ship or the carrier back from the brink of death by docking at the last minute, which besides being cheap, isn’t even reliable due to the wonkiness of docking. A better solution would have been for your ship and carrier to heal between areas, which they currently don’t.
Level progression is wrapped in an unnecessary shroud of mystery. According to the “How to Play” section nestled in the options menu, you advance by destroying all the enemies in a given area, then manually opening the solar system map and choosing a new destination. For some reason, though, travel is inexplicably initiated automatically on some levels, often with enemies still remaining in the area.
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But the core game is fun, and to its credit, it isn’t bogged down by any pesky story elements. Like other games with Asteroids-like controls, you’ll often find yourself engaged in a beautiful space ballet, circling around enemies while attempting to keep your shots centered. Plus, your ship’s backwards thruster – which is exactly what it sounds like – adds an extra layer of maneuverability. It’s especially useful for beating a hasty retreat while maintaining fire on enemy ships.
Upgrading your ship by mounting different weapons on the front and sides provides some deep customization and variety in combat. There’s always a lot going on, with alien swarms warping in on all sides and enemy carriers that need destroying. On certain missions, it really feels like there’s a war going on, on a scale larger than your individual skirmishes – you’ll watch enemy ships traverse the star map on their own, and you’ll even hop to areas where a battle between your allies and enemies is already underway. This is what Freelance needs to capture in the sequel, along with fleshing out the customization system and tweaking the balancing issues.
Starchon also lacks several features that would have made it easier to recommend, like score multipliers, special powers or pickups (like bombs, heavy beams or a booster), and multiplayer. Freelance has revealed in the comments of their own website that plans for Starchon 2 are already underway, though, and they’re actively seeking player feedback. That’s a good sign for the future of the studio and the franchise. Then again, for a buck, how can you go wrong?
