STAR MATH: Interstellar Rogue 2

A fun puzzler and a niche game, but be warned...
*** You will do math. LOTS of math. If you do not want to do math, you do not want this game. ***
However, if math is your jam, STAR MATH could be great for you. Be warned though, this game is NOT REALLY a rogue-like.
PROs:
+ Unique gameplay.
Essentially, from your pool of dice, harness the power of your left brain to chain and match target numbers to strategically destroy ships. The intricate system of stats is impressive, each having large or profound effects on gameplay. I personally found the subtlety to be rather amazing. If you even remotely enjoy working your brain, STAR MATH will probably be the best math game you've ever played. If you don't... uh, maybe you can enjoy it if you're a masochist.
+ Huge roster of ships.
A large appeal of the game is unlocking different ships, each with up to three abilities, providing different numbers of dice (your basic building blocks each turn) and their potential value range, weapon types, special abilities (some *gasp* do not require math), and a whole host of stats that do have an impact on gameplay. For instance, four fast ships might reach jump points in Jump Target missions in six turns, while your slowest might take 41 turns to do the same (don't do this unless you're very patient).
+ The music is actually really good!
The largely royalty-free and orchestral score fits the game's vision perfectly. I wasn't the biggest fan of the music in the original Interstellar Rogue (a bit too techno for my taste), so this has been a pleasant surprise, as was the ability to switch tracks while in-mission. I wouldn't complain if there was another song or two, though. :)
+ Expansion of the Interstellar Rogue lore and universe.
Did you fall in love with the original and want to know more? The quotes in each friendly and enemy ship tease you with the universe's trivia. Encountering new ships and checking out their descriptions appealed to my sense of discovery.
+ Much improved computerized voices than in the original Interstellar Rogue.
Also not as repetitive ("Fuel level critical").
+ Actually got me to learn more about math.
For example, one ship has an ability, Collatz Conjecture, which I actually looked up (thanks Wikipedia!). Also, it's been a while since I've memorized my times tables, so I've noticed doing math in my head becoming faster and easier. I mean, how often do you need to calculate areas of circles in day-to-day life? Not nearly as often as before playing this game!
+ Decent tutorial.
Much improved over the original game, but still a bit light. Some of the terminology borders on confusing (e.g., each ship has a "Shoot Number", which just means it has a target number; match that, and you can damage enemy ships or heal your own). The actual gameplay is easy enough to pick up, though.
NEUTRALs:
0 The time to complete a mission varies quite a bit between types.
You might be able to finish a Credit Mining mission in one turn by destroying one ship, but a Jump Target mission might require you to complete 6 jumps, each taking 6 turns to complete. Of course, this is made worse because I usually WANT TO DESTROY EVERYTHING, so these missions probably take longer than if I was willing to skip turns and take some damage.
0 Some abilities' descriptions are a bit vague.
For example, the Collatz conjecture, but trial and error and/or Google are often enough to figure things out.
0 Some slight fuzziness in the math.
Nothing serious, but do note that there are some unmentioned limitations. For example, there are no decimals, only integers. Ships' powers will round to the nearest integer (e.g., multiplying by pi, taking the square root, etc.), but your basic division will not round-- the game will not even allow you to attempt, say, dividing 3 by 2. Also, the maximum dice values are +/-9999 (10 and 100 for baby and kids modes).
0 Some ships/stats could be have greater utility.
While fast ships are great for Jump Target missions, the extra dice of larger ships are more useful in every other mission type. Even with the differences in ship's special abilities, these only have a minor effect beyond personal preference (for example, I prefer the squaring over the Collatz conjecture since its easier to head-calculate). Dice ranges have a profound effect on gameplay, but while nice to have, I could adapt to whatever I had. Other features, like the ability to heal your own ships, are only useful on rare occasions. Perhaps they see more use in Hard mode (or if you are bad at math?).
0 Fairly slow upgrades.
Although you can upgrade your chances of receiving more gold and gems among other options, it can take a while to earn enough to unlock some of the most expensive ships. This is probably intentional since unlocking ships is part of the appeal, but if your OCD requires you to unlock everything, it'll take some time.
0 No story mode.
A story mode wasn't present in the original Interstellar Rogue, but having a basic one here could further flesh out the Interstellar Rogue universe and reduce some of the repetitiveness.
CONs:
- Not really a rogue-like.
If you loved the original Interstellar Rogue's gameplay, this sequel is a LARGE departure from that. There's a lot of math (obviously), but more notably, there is no exploration or carefully managed inventory resources, just a series of areas to advance through with missions to earn gems and credits to unlock upgrades and ships.
- Repetitive gameplay.
There are a limited number of mission types. Each of the 100 areas contains 50 missions; completing 15 allows you to advance, so yes, there is grind. The boss fights in every tenth area are a nice change of pace, and the appearance of new enemy ships as you advance is pretty neat. I was at least 15 hours in before I started to feel the repetition, but your mileage may vary. This game is easy to come back to and play a quick mission or four, however.
EDIT: I highly recommend Hard mode should the game feel too easy. Having "why won't you die already?!" enemies really ups the strategic aspect of the game.
- Potential font size issues.
The game defaults to fullscreen and the font scaling appears to not be friendly to certain display sizes. A potential workaround is to use windowed mode (press Alt-Enter) and resize the window manually. Incidentally, windowed mode also allows you to easily pull up the calculator app to use while playing.
- Not the most user-friendly.
The game lacks some user-interface features like remembering the previous mission's ship selection. Selecting ships will have you clicking all over the screen for each of the four ships. There also is no Sort feature for your large roster of ships. In-mission, there is a LOT of clicking (there are at least two clicks per dice you have per turn, at minimum), so keyboard shortcuts would be a welcome addition. All of these are relatively minor annoyances, but if you're playing hundreds of levels, the lack becomes much more apparent to your wrists.
- Mispellings.
Although far fewer in number than in the original Interstellar Rogue, there are still a number of them. If STAR MATH is to be a classroom tool, these should be ironed out. It'd be perfect for that role.
BOTTOM LINE:
A worthy game in the Interstellar Rogue universe, but drastically departs from the original's gameplay. Still, surprisingly fun!
While entertaining in its own right, I think many (including myself) hope for an eventual return to the original's rogue-like dogfighting (even if I'm kind of terrible at it). Kudos to the dev for trying something new, though.
If you're not a math-anthrope and would like to support the dev's endeavors, STAR MATH could satisfy your itch for the unconventional.

I'm not good at math, but this game made me better at math in the moment. It's so good.

A fun little game, if you're the kind of weirdo who likes sudoku and other number problems, this will probably appeal to you. The short mission format means you can pretty easily boot it up and play a mission or two if you have a few minutes to kill. The developer has a history of supporting and improving their games, so I'm hoping to see a few updates.
That said, it's not perfect, the progression of unlocks can feel pretty slow, and the "jump target" missions seem to take WAAAAY longer than the other types, for similar rewards, so that probably needs to be addressed. Still as a fun, surprisingly addictive little puzzle game, it's pretty great :)

Excellent math puzzle game, having to combat gives you the the will to make an effort. Also love the art style, loved the previous game too. Thank you.

edit: I have refunded it for personal money reasons, and I bought it again, not refunded cos I did not like it!
fantastically fun and addictive, hope there is a sequel and/or an update to this one