Ark Defender

Interesting premise! It's a decent enough game, nice genre-mix but some improvements could take it to the next level. -Art- Firstly, I think the art needs a little touch up. As it is, it makes the game feel cheaper than it has to be. The first thing I noticed were the edges, they could be smoother. The UI art sticks out like a sore thumb in the corner, they look like placeholder elements. IMO, the ships could have better complementary colors, I can't really say exactly what it is but the colors kind of make it look off and cheap. Maybe slight changes in the color tone would make it feel just right. I can say that when looking at the store page, color decisions kind of put me off but the gameplay ideas drew me in. I think the ship shapes are great, I had no problems with that. -Gameplay- There are great ideas here and it's fine as it is but IMO this game could [b]embrace the shmup[/b] more. In a lot of ways, it could feel faster. I think everything could move faster and it would be fine. Given the stationary position of the player (which is good and what makes it unique) [b]adding a defensive right click option[/b] (e.g. similar to what those green enemies in the first few zones drop off- like a temporary small shield field) would add new depth and allow the game to be faster with more enemies. The only time I felt the game came close to this was the trap event. I think the whole game can be like that and get there faster. I started out with normal which was too easy except for the first boss and the trap event. I tried the hardest difficulty and even that took a while to start up. I like the ideas with the population a lot, but I'd like to see more interactivity. For example I'm not sure how much pop health affects anything, I ran most of the game at 0 health but nothing seemed to happen? I assume that's why disease outbreak events happened later on? But they were easily manageable so I never felt it was an issue. Besides, there is no real way to consistently increase it besides the hospital ship which requires an upgrade to increase life, but even then it only happens at increments of 1 with a 40% chance. Maybe I was unlucky but I didn't even get any tech points until like level 30. This is what I mean when the game can be faster, if these points mattered more and we could interact more with them the game would feel faster. I have similar thoughts on happiness. More abundant and frequent unlocks (besides ships, gun types, flotilla types, defensive options, energy options) would be nice. What makes a good roguelike is the sense of frequent progress. Hades does this very well, obviously it's an unfair comparison but I think its design philosophy can teach a lot. FTL is the closer inspiration and that has a similar formula for unlocks, but you can also buy guns within a run in that so you get the sense of accomplishment and progress that way. -Soundtrack- It's okay and appropriate for what it is. Obviously budget is what it is, but with a more faster gameplay a more upbeat track would complement it nicely but I can't say much on that. -Conclusion- Overall I like the ideas, there is fun to be had in the game, but it can do more with what it has. Honestly, this is like a game Ssethtzeentach would review years down the line and make it pop off, but it needs some improvements to make it stand out a bit more.