Battlevoid: Harbinger

Mobile game.

I got this game because I thought it would be similar to the battles in Day of Saggittarius, and I found exactly what I was looking for. I haven't played many games of this variety, so I can't compare it to others in the genre, but the space theme is super cool and it runs great on my laptop. I love space!

I suppose some grace can be given for where video game design was 10 years ago but nevertheless, this game is full of wasted potential. The basic gameplay is compelling but the progression is nonexistent. It's not even a proper roguelike since your failures don't even lead to meaningful progress. It's super slow progress to unlock new ships and every freaking ship is just as weak in the early game as any other, no matter what stats it carries. And why is it weak even when it has 3 times the shields or hull of the starter ship? Because rng of ship placement and map layout just kills you plain and simple. So despite what some of the advocates may say, no, losing is not fun.

kind of wish there are more of this kind of games.

TLDR: Honestly I cant recommend it if you pay for it. The game is basically a collection of small annoyances and these glimmers of lost potential. There's too much wrong to make it worth a purchase. To many bugs, too much bad controls and far far too many confirmation dialog boxes. YES I want to repair for free, NO you don't need to ask if I'm sure. 3 Bad sectors? Sure. But make the 3rd one unique. What they did was 2 hull damaging sectors and 1 shield damaging. Rather than being mechanics to fight against they are just annoyances as well. Like path your movement AVOIDING bad sectors by default. If I can take the same steps to get to my goal but one way doesnt have an asteroid field to make me stop in my tracks and sit waiting (Which is basically all the bad sectors are, boring pauses) then just have it path me through the clear sectors. For the Devs: Roguelike does not mean hard enough you die and have to restart every 10 minutes unless you get lucky. The entire game could be renamed Guerrilla Tactics Simulator.

If you ever have a few spare hours, definitely check this out.

I really enjoy Battlevoid! I got this game because I liked Space Haven from the same devs, which I also recommend. I am not sure how best to convey what I enjoy in this game. It looks simpler on the surface than it really is. I did need patience to get better and discover a few tactics that make winning easier. I had a lot of fun at first, just running in there "guns blazing" and getting my azz kicked pretty bad each time. Then I felt a bit frustrated for a while, because I had not figured how to improve yet. There are a lot of details to learn (like weapon types, distances, timing of attacks) and I was making many mistakes. Once I improved this became fun again, and I am still having fun after 54 hours in. About "grinding": I read some reviews complaining about grinding. I would not call this grinding, but it is a careful progression while getting stronger, and any mistake can be fatal. But each time I lost a good ship or got game over, I knew I had only myself to blame, it was not RNG but my own lack of care. Only part where I can (partially) understand why some players get impatient is the unlocking of the bigger ships. I did not unlock most of them yet. I am not even sure I will continue playing long enough to unlock them. Is it bad design, unbalanced? I am not sure. It keeps me looking forward to next game in case I unlock a bigger ship. The ones I have are already big, heavy and slow enough (like the heavy carrier) and it already takes a while to fully equip such a beast. My usual gameplay loop looks like this: - destroy a couple of helpless enemy ships - use the weapons or scrap they dropped to upgrade my ships - think a lot about which combination/upgrade of weapons will make me stronger - feel powerful, forget humility - attack another "helpless" target, except this time I did not look at the map properly so reinforcements arrive and land right on top of my ships - panic for the rest of the battle, trying to save all my ships - if I am lucky, not lose the game in a few seconds - become careful again for a while... until I feel powerful again and make the same mistake

Nice little 2D space battle game. Responsive Devs proven to solve problems :)

Well polished roguelike space combat sim.

[Edit after 10 additional hours: The game is just really really bad. Even on easy if you don't play overly safe and just grind away there's no hope for you and you'll still spend an hour to earn 1/20th of an xp level to play with other ships] ~The game is very unbalanced and you have to hug stations for awhile and kinda cheese enemies. ~The actual number of weapons in the game are incredibly limited (none of which you control) ~You level up incredibly slow so you'll be level 2-5 for seemingly forever locked to tiny ships. ~Your speed is so sluggish even on 2x it feels like you're flying through molasses. This game is very much an auto-battler, you just get to open the map. I wouldn't call it a roguelike at ALL so IDK why it's tagged that. There's no incremental run-only random powerups or upgrades. The map screen works more like a board game where you and the enemies have a turn to move or you can skip a turn (wait). It's interesting for a few bucks, but it's a rip-off for full price. If you like the option to RTS click a very slow moving space ship with one of like 3 or 4 weapon choices in total this game might be for you. You'll know within the refund time. The game feels unfinished, half baked. (And it seems like it's sequel is no better. Changing to a thumbs down primarily for feeling unfinished and expecting players to repeat the same game over and over just to unlock new ships soooooo slowly)