LONESTAR Reviews

Its fun, easy to return to. You don't feel bad about losing and restarting, because there is always a surprise build right around the corner. If you like the idea of random loot and accidental fortune this is an easy buy. While there is a lot of chance to what items you may uncover, there is still plenty of self guidance towards how your builds play and the type of ship your ultimately building. Do I go for another item to boost my weaponry, or choose to aim to try my luck at better numbers to enhance my current build? Would like to see more ship style, which is why I enjoyed the last update which included another ship and unique mechanics.

Big fan, fun and takes a little getting used to. Better as it goes along.

I don't want to put anyone off by using the word 'math'. Most games have math underlying the combat system. This one just lets you see what is going on. If you don't like guessing at what is happening to resolve combat, or you dislike chance based combat resolution. You will probably enjoy this. It's all logic and it's all there for you to work out; and it's fun. The balance is good, the progression is good and victory is very satisfying. The mix of module selection and placement and energy system work well.

5 Stars A game is a series of "interesting" choices, beware the illusion of choice most games try to trick you with. This game understands what makes choices interesting in each step of the gameplay loop. Just starting a run gives you an interesting choice and it just goes up from there. A perfect blend for each step makes this game truly "replayable" In the top running for game of the year and should awalys be on the honorable mentions lists.

I learned about this game through Northernlion's stream and ended up having a great time winning with each ship on all of the difficulty levels. Mixing and matching the large number of cores, pilots, treasures and their synergies was a lot of fun, and the dopamine-kick from a broken build was excellent. Special shout out to the writing/writers; I don't know why the developers are trying to improve the English localization because its direct/blunt and slightly awkward humor is funny and stands out in comparison to other games in the genre that try too hard to be cutesy funny. My only dings against the game are a) the limited number of ships (3) where 6 probably would have been the sweet spot and b) the only viable builds at higher difficulty ratings are ones in which you are generating or getting free energy. I was never able to get a "jammed" build to work and I probably never will.

What a fantastic game! It's a cross between Slay the Spire and FTL, two of my favorite games.

A very fun roguelite. I remember reading for a lot of roguelites that some tactical games are "more like a puzzle". That would always make me avoid games... I don't want a puzzle game, I want a roguelite with broken builds. However, this IS a puzzle game... and it is still awesome! You slot in numbers to weapons/support and you know exactly what will happen. If you screw up, you can rewind to the beginning of the battle. As long as you can solve the puzzle (and have the tools to do so, which often you may not...), you can win.

This is the most surprising title for me in a while. This is the first time in a very long time that I have seen a developer implement replayability in a game where it doesnt REQUIRE you to die or finish the game multiple times just to progress. Usually you either have to grind experience by dying a few times or you need to fully complete the scenario to gain enough XP to unlock more content to play a FRESH run. This game did none of that. I not only didnt encounter any unreasonable difficulty spikes but also finished the scenario on the first run (the difficulty wasnt too high) which was enough to unlock enough new content for another go. The second finish actually unlocked a new ship (which changes the way you play) and tons of other things. 2 more runs later I got the 3rd ship. No grinding. Also after the first run you can up the difficulty if you want. Pros: - Very well designed progression system with organic replayability - Combat system is interesting with lots of stats to use - The RNG gods has a neutral relationship with you and will not go out of their way to ruin your day - There are LOADS of different enemies. - No bugs encountered (Yes, this actually needs to be said these days....) Cons: - So far only 3 ships, not a big issue since there are many aspects (like your captain) that changes how you play. - Sometimes I found it frustrating when reading the tooltips on how a mechanic works. Most of the time I just had to experiment to see what something does. They could improve the in-game wiki to describe this in more detail. PLEASE NOTE: most of the mechanics are easy to understand without even visiting the help section. All in all it is a gem of the genre that I dont regret buying.

The build variety in this game is some of the best I've ever seen! The replay value is [i]very[/i] good and you rarely get to reuse previous strategies / cookie-cutters. Very often, the 9-unit limitation on your spaceship is super frustrating -- until you realize that it's a key element of the game design. Once you accept that it's meant to force you into making tough decisions (e.g., "is this rapid-scaling legendary attack unit better for the overall build, than this common support unit that buffs everything else?"), you can really start to appreciate the gameplay loop. This focus on decision-making also applies between battles, where you get to spend "vacation days" on stuff like shopping, repairs, upgrading, and random events. Once again, you have to weigh your options as you (typically) don't have enough vacation days to do everything. Also, don't be deterred by "scary math" that I saw mentioned in some of the other reviews. There's no more math in this game than any other roguelite deckbuilders. There's a great preview system that clearly shows the effect of any given move in a round, and you can restart a battle as many times as you want with no penalty. There are 9 difficulty levels. I have beaten them all with one of the three ships so far, and have yet to actually lose a run. This doesn't mean the game is easy though, but I do spend a lot of time overthinking my decisions and frequently use the "restart battle" feature on the higher levels. If that's not you, lower difficulties are equally rewarding and enjoyable; I typically play on difficulty 7 or 8, as I find 9 to be a little too sadistic for me. (especially if [spoiler]one aims to solve the mystery of the universe[/spoiler].) tl;dr: buy this game if you like being challenged by big-brain deckbuilders and don't mind the relatively strict constraints that prevent you from snowballing into OP-livion.

I will premise this by saying: I feel this is a game moreso geared towards those well-versed in roguelikes and/or deck builders already. It lacks an amount of prettying polish that leaves it a little rough around the edges, with boring visuals and a story so forgettable I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what it’s about other than “spaceship fights”. That being said, the mechanics and QOL pieces in this game give a die-hard roguelike fan a great game to dig into. The concept is simple: place the numbers you draw each turn into your lasers to increase their power. Make your number bigger than your opponent’s to deal damage. There’s all sorts of different ways to get to that beautiful churning engine point that we all love in these types of games- using positioning of your guns, or even your ship; accruing treasures (relics) to augment your ship; and even upgrading your numbers to draw bigger and better ones are just a few ways to make a winning strategy. You really hit a big “a-ha” moment the first time you generate a flood of energy all in one turn. I strongly appreciate that this game’s per-run progression is heavily altered from the typical Slay the Spire map feel that’s becoming a little too pervasive. You have to fight 4 enemies per galaxy for 3 galaxies to win a run, and it’s always in the same difficulty curve of enemies each galaxy. It has a wide enough variety of enemies and bosses though that you don’t feel like you’re facing the same ones over and over, and different enemies really force different strategies- sometimes even remapping where your guns are to optimize for a fight. In-between enemies, you have a number of vacation days to spend on various events, mixing up the traditional branching tree navigation of roguelikes. The three ships you can use aren’t too different from one another, but there’s a ton of captains you can use, with some unique to their ship type. I haven’t used anywhere near all of them, and some seem pretty lackluster to top tier options (Dango all the way baby!), but with as many options as you have, it’s inevitable some won’t make the cut. Though it is nice to have some that are wildly different playstyles for replayability! There’s a meta progression system, pretty standard for the genre. You unlock new captains, new units, new treasures for succeeding. As you keep winning, you unlock new difficulty levels (your ascension levels), and they really provide a challenge as you climb the ranks. The part I really want to point out is the various QOL features in the game. As someone who doesn’t put in the effort to mod games, there are a lot of small fun things I feel you’d normally have to add in yourself. For starters, all the damage you and your enemy are going to take/deal is very clearly displayed. The UI is fairly simple, making for a nice and easy to learn experience- and an excellent Steam Deck game! There’s an in-game save scum feature that just lets you retry a fight with no penalty. As someone who admittedly has done so in many a Slay the Spire run, just offering a quick reset button if I make a stupid misplay or want to try a boss again adds to my willingness to push the difficulty in this game. There’s also an optional post-game boss rush where you fight several bosses back-to-back with no healing in between. As someone who’s often sad at the end of a particularity busted run, it’s awesome to have a little victory lap when you’ve got that beautiful 1-turn-kill ship up and running. To summarize: overall, I think if you've sunk tons of time into Balatro, FTL, Slay the Spire, Hades, or any number of other rogues and are looking for something new, Lonestar is a great little game that’s designed for you. I don’t think it’s in my all-time greatest hits of the genre, but it’s absolutely been a great way to fill the gap while waiting on something else big and new to come out. I can see this being a pick up and put down rogue I’ll keep coming back to every now and then, and definitely recommend it for us devoted roguelike fans!