Starship Rubicon Reviews

Fun little game with some depth and customization if you like games like Asteroids. It has an FTL feel with the campaign but does not present the player with enough weapons and upgrades before the end to make it feel like you have improved your ship. However, there is ship customization that you can start the game in your fully customized ship as you please but that removes any meaningful progression during that run. Great game to get on sale

It's like a modern take on asteroids, the controls are simple, the gameplay is simple, yet has enough finesse for you not to just fall asleep at the keyboard. The game has a good sense of humor, and the customization aspect, like the rest of the game: is simple but rewarding. My only real problem with the game is that it's really short. But you can make your own missions and ships too, so that's pretty cool.

More thorough reviews already exist. I'll just laud a couple of things: [list] [*] the clever writing (scientifically literate item texts, cohorts capable of changing a run's tenor, and a just payoff [spoiler]not in spite, but in light of railroading[/spoiler]). [*] the aversion of power creep (few strict upgrades, elegant ship designs receive stat boosts and cheaper maintenance). [/list] Oh, and there's a couple of pseudo-features ([spoiler]deleting the only layout of a ship in the hangar produces unintended UI behavior and re-locks the ship; reloading a mid-campaign save adds to the bank each time[/spoiler]) that I don't mind at all, really.

I played this game during my last semester when i was writing essays and i gotta say that this game was really good to help me focus and relieve some stress. I would not say it is among my favorite games but for its price it is well worth getting and if you are like me who handles stress with playing games this will probably be a perfect fit. Every game is quite short and the purpose is very clear, there is not really much storytelling (which i think is good) but is focuses on being a pure space shooter which is does really well. Overall worth getting and quite entertaining.

The first time i've played the game, i got many problems with framerate and there was many bugs with sprites. But the Dev is aware and care of your situation and solved the problem rapidly. The game itself is nice, take some rogue-like elements, RPG items, Asteroid gameplay and a huge replayability, take all of those things into a shaker and tadam : Starship Rubicon If you like games like Starsector, space game and shooter, this is for you !

The pixel art creates a familiar game style as well as a clean and beautiful design. It's easy to grasp the basics, yet the detailed physics engine, creative stages and lots of diversity in enemies and friends show how much thought went into the creation of this game. The game is easy to get into and play for short amounts of time but has a lot of depth and complexity to explore that make you play it over and over again. There's lots of ship customizability that makes the game accessible to different playing styles - you can play fast and action-packed, slow and calculated, or luck of the draw by stocking up on weapons that allow you to run around in a confused panic and then deploy all your ammunition at once. The amount of variation between the different ships and types of levels allows for all sorts of challenges, and the ability to save up and unlock new options means that you never get stuck doing the same thing over and over with no progress. Also, the game has a lot of style. Both the graphics and music are really captivating. There's a wide variety of ships, weapons, and enemies to interact with. If you feel like tutorials are for chumps you can get pretty far just by ramming into your enemies (and fist-bumping your friends). If you like figuring out the intricacies of a game there's a lot to explore here, from critical hits to reflecting lasers off of inanimate objects and shields to creating your own levels. If you despise fighting and just like drawing cool contrail patterns, you can usually pull that off too. Your onboard computer, who narrates much of the game, has plenty of snaky comments to make when you fail. The allies you can acquire will have conversations with each other, making it fun to gather different groups together. Sometimes, there are biscuitfish, which are like biscuit-shaped cuttlefish. They float around in packs and trill and cycle through the colors of the rainbow. I don't understand them but they make satisfying sounds if you blow them up. I would definitely recommend this game! It's well worth the price and a great game to come back to again and again.

It's a cute, entertaining Asteroids-style Newtonian space shooter with some Roguelike elements, a bit of humor, a nice spacey and retro vibe, and an easy to understand but actually rather interesting ship customization system. And, thankfully, no sideways thrusters, which are just silly in games like this.

Ship customization, unlockables.. what more do you need for a space arcade shooter? Sounds are bit dull maybe, but music is great! Better game than what it looks on the videos!

So, I havent had all that much time with this game just yet, but... even after just 90 minutes, I can honestly say, I think this game is brilliant. It's good enough that it leaves this impression on me that quickly... for me, this is very rare. Starship Rubicon is an interesting beast.... it uses a whole pile of different elements that were inspired by many seperate games. But the thing that makes it so good is that it takes all of these disparate elements, smashes them together... and they WORK together. They dont conflict with each other at any point. At it's base, this game uses Asteroids-style gameplay and controls. You have a "thrust" button to move your ship forwards, and then other buttons to turn it left or right; you also have a "boost" function that you can use. There are even actual asteroids floating around in many areas, which work pretty much as you'd expect, and generally making your life that much tougher. From there though, the game goes in it's own seperate directions. Your ship is not static, but is instead made of various "parts" that you can equip, that give abilities or change stats, or things like that. This includes changing both your basic weapon (and you can have more than one) or your special weapon, an activated ability that has a cooldown and also knocks out your shields for a bit upon use. You cant just equip everything though; each piece of equipment has a shape to it, sort of like blocks in Tetris. You have to fit these blocks inside the ship properly, or they cannot be used. What's more, some items are meant to modify others, and will only work if linked to the system they're modifying, which means you have to place it adjacent to that system for it to function whatsoever. So this can create some interesting decisioni-making when you're changing your equipment. Equipment can be either found in battlefields, or bought in stores. Stores are easily the most frequent way to get equipment. The rate of equipment actually being FOUND is very low... a bit TOO low in my opinion. You end up not getting all that much total, which is a shame, because it reduces the amount of interesting decisions that you'd need to make. There's no need to decide between two items after all if both of them easily fit onto the ship. If you're not getting enough items, you wont be filling it. So there's a bit of RNG issues here with this system, but it's not enough of an issue at all to detract from how well it works. There are many different weapons and things to find, so look for them, and try them out, and see what kinds of builds you can make for yourself. Most of these different items and such are also just plain fun to use.... that's ALWAYS a plus. Between missions, you're sent to sort of an overall sector map. It's very similar to the map that FTL uses, in that you move forward from one node to the next, with each individual node having specific links to other nodes to choose from. Around each node, you can see icons representing the different enemy types that are going to appear in that area, so it's important to learn these and have a look as you make decisions. Other things will appear here too, such as hazards, or the existence of items or "money asteroids" or shops or various other things. You can also find other ships to rescue, and if you are successful in saving them, they will join you on your quest. Each one provides a unique ability that becomes active whenever they participate in a battle with you, and you choose when to bring them in by clicking them on the sector map. They have a cooldown time afterwards, and can also be knocked out by enemies during battle... so take care of them, when you bring them with you. The one big problem with them though is that they just arent very bright. Asteroids in particular will give your AI allies alot of trouble as they repeatedly crash into them. By the late game, these guys arent as useful, simply due to the fact that they'll be knocked out of the fight too quickly to help much. And on the note of the enemies you face, each type is different from the last, and you quickly learn to recognize each by it's appearance, which is very important. There are different approaches that you should take depending on just what you're fighting, and what weapon you're using, and there can be many enemies at once. Some enemies may have beam weapons, or maybe homing missiles, or shields, or even the ability to shield other enemies. And of course, it wouldnt be a shmup of any sort if there werent gigantic bosses to fight at the end of each sector. All in all, there's alot going on for this game, and I think there's plenty of replay value; naturally, everything is procedural when it comes to the maps and sectors and such, so each game will be different. The campaign is short, but that's typical for this genre, and probably for the best. Is it worth your money? If you like shmups at all.... I'd definitely say yes. It easily lives up to it's asking price and more, I think. I can definitely recommend this one!

Clearly inspired by the best elements of its mixture of genres (arcade gaming, FTL, Starfox) with many nice throwbacks. The exciting gameplay has an adventurous streak and is enhanced by some seriously delightful sci-fi music and sound design. Starship Rubicon also has surprisingly creative writing, a fun equipment allocation system (symmetry rules!) and even more customization. Memorable and easy to load up and have fun with, the game is a great example of good indie games. Easily one of my favorites.