Starless
Starless Night is a single player RPG style closed world game. Follow the story of an average fisherman sent on an otherworldly quest to retrieve the missing pieces of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, and Lyra, the Harp to restore order to the Heavens. Solve ancient puzzles, hide from deep sea monsters, and fight famous constellations, all to once again bring light back to the Starless Night.
Features
-Starless Night features a single player story mode inspired by the night sky and the Greek myths behind the constellations.
-A ‘smashing’ two-player mini game.
-Explore the five oceans of the world, each with their own unique aesthetic.
-Solve a series of puzzles, each more complex than the last!
-Fight against Greek heroes and cunning crows.
-Meet a family of crabs who provide helpful hints to the player in times of need.
-Explore the colorful undersea worlds filled with gorgeous flora and fauna with the free range camera movement.
-Starless Night’s soft pastel and low-poly design, make it an appealing game for players of all ages!
Steam User 13
Curator page here--> DaRevieweD #214 <-- New review every week
"NOT A STAR TO BE SEEN-!!"
Here's The Thing:
You are “CLN-1”, though not for long as you’re one of many fellow clone colonists AND would-be-victims onboard the Yggdrasil Ark. Something- or someone, has woken you up from cryostasis and it’s on you to get your colony on the right course~
PROS;
:) HOW… STAR-TLING~
I’ll call it now, but no other aspect of Starless can match the caliber of enjoyment that its survival horror gameplay supplies! Essentially a top-down 2.5D version of Alien Isolation! The crisp & highly strategic action centers around you either sneaking past, hauling butt, breaking line of sight, or gunning down (yay) nasty foreign bodies as well as armed automatons. Furthermore, the randomly wandering threats can detect you both visually and audibly, so do be mindful of your clomping around!
The learning curve is quite daunting yet giddying, because you start out as good as naked what with you relying solely on your chicken legs. Steadily, however, you deck out that arsenal of teleporters, noisemakers, illumination devices, firearms, and traps… if you can uncover them. And while you do come into a range of electronics fairly quick, they are the lesser versions and therefore more unreliable; you may want to rethink using them or risk being weighed down. While devoid of puzzles, there are still obstacles to get around mostly in the form of your peskily draining energy bar shared by all your tech and timed switches.
The latter of which you must be within range of for 4-5 seconds to unlock ammunition, notes, and door mechanisms. Not unlike the insufferable wait of trying to save in Alien Isolation…! And speaking of, progress is saved constantly here and what that means is every blunder, which often results in death, will count towards the undesired outcome of jeopardizing your colonization mission! To be exact, you have 250 lives / colonists- I’ll let that sink in… 3 hours is what it took me to reach New Earth! Endings-wise, I’d say there are two in total, including outcomes branching of said two but with slight variations and some wrong ends~
TIPS:
1) Some gizmos can stun the enemies when timed *just* right!
:) A STUNNER- DROP DEAD GORGEOUS EVEN!
The visuals are how I imagined an animated version of Alien would be like and it comes in a close second as to what makes Starless so attractive. There’s a clean and polished look to every element of the interface; the seamless visualization of the airlock pathways from within the shuttle, the live feed of vital indicators broadcasted to you after you dock, and even the text is of a neutral blue tone…
Despite us pretty much exploring its world in an obfuscated manner and never getting to see many close-ups of anything, save for when you awaken from anabiosis or death is but inches away; I kind of preferred it that way because some things can only be left to the imagination! In fact, and ironically enough, the game shines the brightest when you’re staggering in the dark corridors clinging onto your shambling memory!
Musically, not much to write Earth about, but there are a library of sci-fi sound effects including those of a phaser, beep-boop, whirring machinery, growls, and many more! Most of which have unnerving echoes that freeze you for a split screen while they scramble and rattle your lizard brain. I have a faint suspicion of there being a full-blown OST, but they’re on the muted region and in-keeping to the background~
:) THE TRUE ARK NEMESIS IS!
Ok, approaching uncharted and spotty territory here, but I must first point out that I can see the vision with which this game set out to be. A story vastly inspired by several Alien films, paying homage to them, but one which made the hearty decision to strike out on its own- even if it doesn’t know exactly where it is that it’s heading or how to handle everything it’s got.
The scariest thing about it is that a significant chunk of the series of events which led up to the explosion remained a giant blur by the end! But also, while the “alien organisms” pose great danger, the biggest danger of all originated pre-outbreak… or so it goes, I mean we don’t even know much of these creatures to begin with. Given time, the 250 lives become a mere statistic in the probability of the colony’s survival~
CONS;
:( OH MY STARS; NOT SO CLN AFTER ALL!!!
Gameplay grievances include, firstly, how the threats have 20-20 vision and can react to the sight of you just as well in overpowering darkness as they do in normal room lighting…! I suppose it could be seen as a testament of the creatures’ excellent eyesight, but it presents an unfair and aggravating advantage over you!
Furthermore, sounds played pivotal roles in Alien Isolation, making all the difference between an early death and a delayed one. But the xenos here didn’t really make all that much noise, much to the detriment of what could’ve been one of their extra charms; and, again, turns the darker sections into zones of senseless demises!
I wasn’t fond of how the motion tracker or wall detector were equipped at all times and automatically in use, sapping your already very precious energy reserves. I would rather have them be switched on-off at the flick of a designated key~
:( JUST. AN. ELLEN. CLONE.
On the matter of “plot”, Predator and Wreck immediately comes to mind, for it too was deeply bewitched by the Alien franchise and ended up falling short. Both artificially created these situations that are nothing but caricatures and simulations of the “Alien (1979)” experience, except this one did it slightly better, not to forget engaging!
But between fitting in as many references to Alien whether they be passing mentions or in-your-face about them; the unnecessarily convoluted and riddled-with-holes story doesn’t simply take a backseat, it establishes a whole settlement there! No lie, the “endings” amount to just a sketch of a scenery and a few sentences (which we already know) then boom back to main menu! Yet they expect us to play this multiple times!?
:( BAD DECISIONS HAVE A RIPPLE-Y EFFECT!
As much as the three Arks were well-designed and differentiated, it became rapidly and abundantly clear to me that they were more “levels” in design as opposed to proper level design, and didn’t make an ounce of sense in terms of layout…
While the horror initially stemmed from the creatures, that soon gets worn out due to how boring they were, and with no staying traits or quirky behavior whatsoever… They just goofy! Displaced purely by a fear of progress loss instead, becoming a very mechanical cat-and-mouse without any elements of real surprise anymore~
BUGS:
x Holding two directional keys will make you run in place!
x The xenomorphs (let’s be real) will end chases by themselves because of their AI.
NITPICKS:
~ The absence of an options menu makes me depressed…
~ Note-reading becomes disabled when piloting the shuttle?
~ Tasered enemies will go rabid and seek you out even when you’re in-hiding!?
"AND YET, ONE IS WELL WITHIN OUR MIDST~"
Last Words?
Ultimate Alien fanservice, at least in terms of steely gameplay & appetizing visuals. They say stars align, but not the case here, as there weren’t many to begin with. Also, the story is a black hole~
7 / 10
Shoutout to Indie Gems, for GEMME-ing a key! Follow them here right now for more well, y’know~
Steam User 4
It kinda really is Alien Isolation in 2D. Although not very long I had a great time playing it.
Steam User 4
Beautiful short hide and run game. Nice graphics, different endings in sci-fi environment. References to an Ailens and have a cat. What i miss is only some music.
Steam User 2
This is an excellent game for a few evenings. It is a top-down arcade with horror, puzzle and even roguelike elements. Your character is one of the colonists on a spaceship. She (all of the colonists are women) aims to save the rest of the colonists and reactivate spaceship engines after the death of the crew.
When your character dies, you will play as the next colonist. But all actions, which your previous colonist performed, matter. For example, you need to activate three panels in a room full of aliens. The first colonist can activate only two of them and die. After that, the second colonist has to activate only one panel.
You will find a lot of gadgets during the game. For example, you can find a teleport, a gun, a night vision device or a trap. You can choose gadgets based on seen rooms.
The main cons are controls, graphic design and music (or, more precisely, the absence of music). You can't change controls and it is a big problem. All of the controls are bound to the keyboard (for example, movement is bound to WASD), but gadgets are bound to a left mouse click. This feels disconnected and uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, this game is interesting (and even unique in some mechanics) and I recommend you to try it.