Under A Star Long Cold Reviews

this game is pitched on the idea that it's goal is (probably literally) impossible, so the setup is just the pretext for a stealth toybox with a handful of tools. the issue is that the enemies aren't particularly fun to gunfight with or stealth kill because of the simplicity + clunkiness of the mechanics. i could forgive that if the world were compelling, but the level design is so careless that i've got no inspiration to give it another run. money just laying around on the ground all over the place feels really lackluster in a game with the emotional stakes that this game promises with it's opening monologue. it's sci fi vision & big setpieces are also generic to a fault. ultimately a pretty underwhelming experience.

as always, the vibe is here, it hits hard. the mechanics are on point, its very polished, its the kind of small game i'll see myself play from time to time.

short, sick vibes, game most likely genuinely impossible to get anything more than 30% of the way to your goal, yet theres no reason not to try and explore what you can do when it feels this good to play, and on the chance that you can beat it somehow. Other people have said sandbox, yea it could be that. Reminds me of how it feels to look at progress of climate action lol

So good. Another fantastic experience from Merlino Games that conveys so much through minimalist game-play. Part-way through my first run, it started to dawn on me what was happening. Writing this after finishing that run. As usual, the environments and traversal are huge positives. Low text, only vibes. BUT THOSE VIBES TELL YOU SO MUCH. The time limit is a new twist, but it absolutely drives home the experience. Definitely a must-play if you want your games to be art with a message.

Oh, I like this. Extremely simple, though VERY enjoyable. Enrapturing environment, music, and character designs. Love the roguish elements. I wish Freyre's works were longer and had more context, they would be bangers.

Good! Quick and nice looking, feels like a MGS V mission. Controls well and is the right kind of pace for a stealth game, im my opinion

A neat little stealth-combat open world experience where you must collect $50,000 before the 30 mins are up. I think I enjoyed the overall look and feel of the game, the environment and its structures felt alien and areas has identifying landscape markers to make each feel a little bit different. I was a little disappointed that there were no interior spaces and buildings didn't feel like they had a purpose other than looking computer-mechanical; a little bit of contextual clues would've been appreciated. If you're a fan of Star Wars' art style and the PS1 and PS2 3D graphics aesthetic, this should be a recommend for you.

I didn't really get this one. The world/level feels pretty barren and slapped together, and since the objective is to collect a big pile of money, it feels like the whole game is just running between landmarks. You can easily win the gunfights, so there's not much point doing the stealth, and indeed you're on a time limit, so you may as well sprint risky and fix mistakes with your gun. I did get the message, but I thought it was pretty on the nose, and since the gameplay wasn't very involving I just sort of gave a 'yeah alright' and moved on. I do recommend the bundle with It Comes In Waves, The Chameleon, and No Sun To Worship tho, so you may as well pick it up in that.

Alright. [i]Under A Star Long Cold[/i] is done and dusted? Notice I framed that as a question? I am not entirely certain it is actually possible to beat the game, technically. It is possible however to run out the timer and it's possible to die. But to actually accomplish the game's main goal? I don't believe it's possible and I'm not sure that's really even the goal to begin with. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3404879786 The story is that you, whoever you are, are 50k gold pieces in debt. In order to keep the people to whom you owe money from killing you, you need to get that cash and get it quick. To that end, you are dropped off on a planet that is about to die, and you have thirty minutes to find enough cash and then GTFO before the planet gets wiped out. In order to accomplish this, you will run around the map stealing as much gold from the locals as possible while trying to avoid them killing you as a result, lol. The core gameplay is similar to [i]It Comes In Waves[/i], also developed by Antonio Freyre. Except in that game, there is more than one gun and what you need to collect is different. And in this one, there is stealth. But the shooting and exploration are more or less identical even if your goals are different. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3404879739 So, why can't you finish this game? Well. I don't believe there is even 50k gold on the map. There are static treasuries that seem to have about 5k in gold each and there are randomly generated little objects also worth a chunk. Beyond that, gold placement is RNG, and each pile of gold is only worth like 100 pieces. You can kill guards and they will drop a small amount of gold as well. Or, you can sneak up on them and either stealth kill them or hold them up, and that seems to give you about 300 gold per. But...you only have 30 minutes before the planet is destroyed, and stealth burns a lot of clock despite actually being a perfectly functional gameplay mechanic. And, I think even if you are 100% efficient in raiding the treasury areas and stealthing all the guards, you still would need the RNG gold and item drops to happen perfectly along your path. And if every single thing lines up exactly as you need, I still don't know that there is actually 50k gold on the map. However, if somebody actually has gathered 50k and seen the ending, I'd love for them to share that experience in the comment section. All that said, as mentioned, I'm not even sure getting 50k gold is the true goal of the game. I think to some extent, it's simply about trying to acquire as much as you can in a run and trying to beat your best runs. And I also think to some extent, this is about kind of experimenting with the gamers themselves. Seeing how many runs they're willing to playthrough, and how successful they are in perfecting the map. And just seeing overall what gamers are willing to tolerate in pursuit of an unreachable goal. And I think that's all kind of interesting and cool. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3404879699 Visually, I've noticed this dev prefers a Star Wars aesthetic with random set pieces such as a giant skeleton, for example, to spruce up the map a bit. It's pretty cool despite being a reasonably small sandbox. The audio didn't really stand out to me here, but it is present in the form of some background stuff as well as the sounds of the guards and combat in general. IDK. To me, this was a fun little experience, and it is currently on sale for $1.49 at the time of this writing, which is the ideal price for this game. It's worth a look, but with the understanding that actually beating the game does not seem to be possible. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]