BroodStar

I feel like this game would have been better as a regular shmup. The research tree is incredibly bland (full of 1 and 2% increases to random things). Multiple games I found zero upgrades to my primary weapon so the runs just felt boring

Getting straight to it, I love Broodstar. I'm always searching for those rare gems that have near-infinite replayability, and this game has it. No two runs are ever the same (unless you want that, just enter a seed number) and the strategy of mixing and matching modules gives Broodstar so much depth. Want to upgrade your fire rate to insane speeds? Add a homing missile to your secondary weapon slot? Dash through enemies to kill them and boost your damage output? How about flamethrowers spewing out in 8 directions? You can do all that, provided you get the modules for which you seek. Once you get to the later stages (15 per run), you'll probably start to feel invincible if you picked the right build. I'm definitely a fan of shmups, so Broodstar needed a good shmup core in order to work. Thankfully it does, as controlling your ship is smooth, the game runs great on pretty much anything, and it just feels satisfying to blast your way through hordes of bugs/flies/eyeballs/worms/etc. Even without all the upgrades and stat mechanics this game would work on its own. Visually it's nothing that will blow you away, but will give you great 90s arcade nostalgia vibes. The CRT filter is a nice touch too, for that old arcadey feel. At first you may feel cramped with the big panels on the sides taking up your screen space, but it helps the aesthetic of a vertical screen cab. Plus there's a lot of useful data of which to keep track. Can't talk about this game without mentioning the banger of a soundtrack. Most areas have a different theme and they're all killer tunes. Fits the mood perfectly. I subbed to the YT of the artist for this very reason. To sum it all up, Broodstar takes the shmup category and turns it up to 11. The sheer variety of builds you can create, permanent upgrades to unlock, and secrets to discover makes it a must-buy. Highly recommended.

this is the good ♥♥♥♥. absolutely worth the buy. killer music in the later levels.

The game is enjoyable and relaxing, BUT it is rather raw. Having "lock" an upgrade and "discard" an upgrade would be awesome. It would be a significant improvement to have more clear upgrade descriptions and classifications. It would be pleasant to have a more user-friendly (maybe more modern) UX with an upgrade explanation in a pop-up by hovering over an upgrade icon, etc. It would be great to get a balance fix, as for now, drone build, laser weapon and tones of other upgrades, in general, are somehow unpleasant and not so efficient. It's a great game with unique vibes and excellent perspective. I hope developers will find a way to fix, improve, balance and polish. Good luck!

👉🏻 In BroodStar Each run consists of 12 procedurally generated levels. Modifiers and various events can be randomly applied to each level. Video review: https://youtu.be/Keykq6RoaSs ✅ Over 200 ship modules that can be combined! ✅ Modifiers change the behavior of enemies and introduce new hazards. Each level can have events such as, - ambushes, - bosses in the middle of the level, - other events that, when triggered, provide a new objective and generously reward the player when completed. ✅ More than 79 Steam achievements are also available in the game, and both Xbox and Playstation controllers are supported. ✅ At the end of each level, you will receive a score for your run, which includes - number of enemies killed - evasion bonus - damage received - boss completion time ✅ Broodstar consumes less than 6 watts on the new Steam Deck OLED, which at 67% battery life will allow you to play for over 6 hours, and at 100% charge, about 10 hours. That's a more than excellent figure! ✅ The game plays great, I didn't have to change the controls, everything works as it should.

Bland and Slow, is how i would describe the game. -Your character moves too slow by default and no amount of speed increases really help -bullets and enemies are just nowhere to be seen, there is simply nothing going on most of the time, or what is going on is so minimal it doesnt really register. -the research tree and modules, the roguelike elements of the game, are either completely useless/insignificant or extremely powerful with no inbetween. EX: ROF increase module that increases your fire rate from 1.00 to 1.02 (yes that is an actual upgrade) -I beat normal mode first try and didnt unlock hard mode, no idea why or how you unlock hard mode, but i had zero desire to do another run in the hopes it would unlock hard mode. -The stages drag out for way too long and the runs overall are way too long in general. The 1 and only run I did I was bored about halfway through just wondering when it would end. -The "challenges" are so trivial and pointless i question why they were even included. The first time i ever booted up the game I ironically cleared all of the challenges and the 2 boss rushes my first try. If i had to give it any positives, it would be that some of the soundtrack is actually really good. And that's about it.

Fast roguelike with pretty short runs

An amazing game, I bought around 30 games last Winter sale. This game is the cheapest of them all but I have been playing this game the most. I couldn't recommend it enough.

This is one I return to regularly, so I figured I owe it a review. It's extremely well done and can be enjoyed in short sessions. It also doesn't matter how long it's been since I last played. There's not much to have to remember. Just fun roguelite shmup. I look forward to this dev's future work.

An entertaining and competently-designed vertical shooter rogue-lite, Broodstar immediately grabbed me with promises of persistent progression and build variety, and it delivers on both. Tense but fair difficulty with predictable boss attack patterns, varied soundtrack that evokes various SNES/Genesis-era titles, and extra challenge modes round out the offering. It didn't take me long at all to get my first win- it's pretty easy to get a snowballing powerful build going. I found it more accessible then Stellar Interface or Sterredenn, and for the low price it is well worth your time if you are a fan of scrolling shooters and/or roguelites.