LONESTAR

Overall the game is very fun as others have stated - however - after having beat it on max difficulty with *most* pilots, my biggest complaint is that some bosses will completely ruin entire strategies, without you having a way to know it's coming.
For example, the boss that limits how many cards you can play in a turn completely invalidates any deck that wants to use card advantage, combinations, and scaling mechanics and instead forces you to use a setup with a ton more firepower but less synergy. The boss that destroys your defenses from front to back severely limits the synergy you can get from your units and also ruins any defensive deck that seeks a longer battle.
On their own, it wouldn't be the end of the world... *IF* the game let you know who you would be facing. However, because you have no way of knowing what you'll run in to, it feels like complete RNG as to whether or not my awesome setup is actually awesome or not. It's gotten to the point where I've given up my quest to beat the game w every pilot on max difficulty, simply because of all the time I've wasted on great runs that were killed by boss RNG.
I'd honestly advise removing those mechanics entirely and instead balancing the game in other ways. They completely invalidate what should be the most fun way to play... A synergistic, scaling, and combo filled deck / ship that let's you use all of the things you've accomplished and gathered throughout your journey to arrive at the end with a deadly and powerful setup.
It almost makes me want to not recommend the game, but that would be unfair to the devs who *have* overall put out a good product.

I have seen this compared to FTL a lot, but it's more like a Costco-brand Cobalt Core. It shares the same concept of position-based weapon firing lanes. What is unique here is that your attacks directly cancel the enemy attacks in the same lane--biggest number wins. So your defense is quite literally your offense.

Overall, the game is pretty good and has a solid selection of weapons, support modules, events, player pilots, and enemies. It could use a few more player ships though. Two isn't enough.

My biggest complaint is that it has been too easy so far. Someone new to these kinds of games will struggle, but experienced players will destroy it from the first run. I have not yet reached an ascension level that I would consider hard yet, and I can't say whether it will pick up.

Overall, Lonestar is well-designed and polished with gameplay elements that bring something unique to the genre, and a high level of quality that is a bit below the true heavyweights. It's definitely worth picking up if you need something new to kill a few nights with, and even though it is EA, it already has enough content.

Yo, this game is incredible. I would best describe it as a mix of Slay The Spire and FTL, but in its own way.
But what i like most in this game is that the mechanics MAKE SENSE. When you put the right combo pieces together, everything behaves exactly as you expect it to, and the game is somewhat balanced with that in mind, for YOU to be strong, and putting ridiculously strong enemies in front of you to beam into pieces.
You can still break the difficulty curve if you play it well and get bit lucky, its a Roguelike after all, so you will not always get your dream combo.
Overall it is just fun to play. Easy 9/10.

This game is a delightful little component builder where instead of cards being the main focus, instead it is the components of your ship. It plays as a mix of Backpack Hero and Cobalt core. One of the big pros of this game, is energy is a small deck instead of a single number every turn. This adds a randomization that requires you to strategies around and use carefully rather than a number to be used every turn. This extra strategic element helps you overcome poor rng around what unit/upgrade/vacation/etc. you might have gotten and make games feel more fair.
Pros:
Really enjoy upgrading and modifying the components
I like how forgiving it is about letting you start battles over and try again. An accidental misclick or stupid mistake doesn't ruin an hour+ of play, each battle becomes a puzzle to solve.
Quite a few different treasures
Lots of different pilots
I prefer the vacation and shop call system over the traditional tree style path system
Cons:
No story, not much dialogue
Only 2 ships
Early battles and even the entire first stage can feel pretty samey since there isn't much variation to the early game

TL;DR Best Rougelike I've ever played.
After 100% the game (all pilots currently out beating the hardest difficulty, all treasures, all units, and all achievements), I thought I should leave a love note to the best Rougelike I've ever played. Looking for a quick 20-40 minute "in between" game? Looking for a cheap game with deep mechanics? Looking for a game that is different every run depending upon your choices? Look no further than Lonestar!
For early access, I've encountered no bugs (a fresh feeling with the gaming market today). The difficult is perfect; some runs (10%) the stars align, and your a bounty hunter who can not be stopped. Most of the time (80% of the time), you can scrape by, make it deep into a run, and the victory (or defeat!) feels like you could have made better decisions throughout the run. On occasion (10%), you get wafflestomped, reminding you that the power of RNG is the core mechanic in this game.
But you can curb the RNG! Just don't play at the higher difficulties! This game has so much to offer in a little package. I can't recommend this game enough; if you're looking for a game to play that's challenging, deep, and powered by RNG, look no further than Lonestar.

Very fun. It is indeed FTL meets Slay the Spire.

Many different Pilots that change synergies and playthroughs in game.

Only early access so there's not enough ships, but really fun

"FTL"-like, but with a tremendously deep battle system that requires "Into the Breach" style planning of each turn. I spent minutes planning a turn to make a defeat into a victory, which is tremendously addictive.
Devs took two of my favorite games, extracted the best parts, and made a beautiful new game.

This game is worth it at full price, which is very rare praise from me.