Starward Rogue

Developer: Arcen Games, LLC
Steam Release: Jan 2016
Hours Played: 5.6
Similar To: Binding of Isaac / Enter The Gungeon / Larva Mortus / Pixel Boy
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Starward Rogue is a twin-stick shooter that's more or less an arcade version of Binding of Isaac in space. Set in a space station with glass floors and around 150 rooms for a 5 floor run, you control a hovering spaceship in top-down view. You charge through rooms while shooting and destroying various enemy ships while collecting a mountain of drops and pick-ups that include credits to spend in shops, extra missiles, health, various boosts and keys to unlock doors - all with the purpose of reaching the final floor's boss and ultimately the final boss on Floor 5. Rooms can be quickly cleared in small bursts of around 30 seconds while those that contain bullet-hell style bosses may take a little longer.  It is a sparkling and shiny game with simply designed enemies made up of geometric shapes and uncomplicated environments.

BALANCE & PACE
Rooms range from the small variety containing few to zero enemies, the medium-sized ones that may be maze-like, to the large open type that may contain a tricky squadron of ships plus a mini-boss or two. Some include portals that need to be entered to warp over walls, while others have blocks concealing goodies behind them that require the use of missiles to destroy. Like The Binding of Isaac, you may purchase various items such as extra missiles or boosts from shops with credits or even health. Initially the game is a blast with action being explosive and fun but after familiarity sets in or if you allow your session to drag on for over an hour or so, a feeling that you're just going-through-the-motions tends to hang over proceedings. 
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 
The general idea and even the presentation for the game has clearly been influenced by The Binding of Isaac. Retained is the mini-map in the top-right corner that shows revealed rooms and there is also much information on the left of the UI that shows information such as amount of keys and total credits collected. Total energy and remaining missiles is shown in the bottom-left. Apart from its outer-space setting and faster arcade-like gameplay, Starward Rogue's main departure from The Binding of Isaac lies in its graphics which are sharp and crisp. The enemies also tend to be smaller and the pick-ups such as health squares and credits are tiny. The pumping music is good in small doses but I personally preferred to have the music switched off.
    

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Once you click on one of five profiles and chosen Start New Game, you'll be asked to enter a few parameters. First you'll need to choose one of six ships that each handle things slightly differently and have varying perks and abilities. Additionally, you have five difficulty settings from Very Easy to Misery. At first, the game challenges you to clear five floors but this gets bumped up to seven once you've reached that first challenge. There is also a screen that tells you: how many of the 152 enemies you've killed; how many of the 260 items you've collected; how many of the 12 mini-bosses and how many of the 21 main bosses you've killed. There are a couple of screens showing a monumental list that indexes all these individual stats and, finally, the game shows how much has been completed as a percentage. 

CONCLUSION
Being a virtual sci-fi version of The Binding of Isaac, Starward Rogue offers an interesting alternative to that classic game. It's explosive, features sizzling sound-effects that suit the mood and certainly grips and holds the player from the start. Furthermore, judging by the 97% of Steam users who approve of the game, it comes recommended. However, despite the positives and the fact that it's truly a good blast to play, with a total of just over 150 rooms to clear per run, it really does become a slog in the latter stages if you aim to complete a run in a continuous two hour session. Death should never come as a relief in a game but when I missed the final, floor 5, boss by a handful of rooms I was kind of glad it was over. The moral of the story? Play the game in short bursts.