[i]"Hovership Havoc is...... TOUGH (all caps fully intentional) and if you're looking for a challenge - this is it!"[/i]
Hovership Havoc is a sci-fi-themed twin-stick shooter that puts a ton of emphasis on your ability to "kite" your enemies, and sometimes their bullets, around, while avoiding enemy projectiles or lasers, obstacles that will trap your ship into a corner, and crashing into enemy robots or turrets.
In fact, I'd say kiting and grouping up loosely spread-out enemies into a tight bunch is a particularly useful skill to have especially if you play as the "shotgun-like" hovership, Pulse Cannon, since due to its low shot rate and high risk of weapon overheat, you'll want to make every shot count.
Fyi, the game features 4 different hoverships, each offering a unique feel and hence, gameplay. Your play style will definitely need to change depending on the type of hovership you play as. Generally, you'll also want to play the game NOT like a typical space arcade shooter where you'll basically have your left mouse button pressed throughout a game - the overheat issue is real and can literally get your ship destroyed.
The game even has 30 different, randomly-generated abilities in which you can only equip 2, Each level usually has 1 new ability that you can pick up and then assign to either your Q or E key, and you'll need to really decide which abilities to keep and which ones to replace when something better comes along.
Of course, you'll also be facing quite a variety of enemies, ranging from stationary turrets to numerous robots and ships of a myriad of sizes and abilities, forcing you to change and adapt your play style and strategy as these enemies are spawned into the map.
That's not even including certain barriers and obstacles on the map you'll be playing on that seem to be so well-positioned to "lull" your ship into a tight spot where every avenue of escape you may have are gradually being closed up by the incoming army of robots.
By the way, if your ship is destroyed, there is no do-overs like in typical space shooters where you may have up to 3 lives per playthrough (or more/less), hence earning the game the label of being "roguelite".
However, note that the game does seem to have a few "preset" maps that it chooses from rather than procedurally generate a new one every time you cleared a map. This explains why I've encountered several very familiar maps in my multiple playthroughs, where the enemy spawning positions and order are at least 90% similar.
Hovership Havoc also has a rather satisfying progression system where every level up will grant you a limited number of points that you then invest into various stats whether it is to get higher weapon damage or increasing your movement speed.
This is good and all, but here's the [b]really[/b] interesting part... you can actually reset any of your stats to return the invested points just to reinvest them into something else that complements your play style more. Plus, if you happen to level up during a game, you'll get a nice full heal, giving your hovership a new lease on durability just so you can clear even more rooms within a single run.
As you progress, you may find certain "rooms" easier to clear, but generally, the game does scale up the enemies' difficulty as you advance, challenging you every step of the way as you try to cap out each of your ship's upgrades.
P/S: Hovership Havoc touts of having cool third-person boss battles but I've yet to encounter a boss in this game so I can't really comment on that, except that I expect boss fights to be really, really awesome :)
[h1]Watch me play![/h1]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgVm8XRNBDQ
Not a pro at this type of games but I'd like to think that I've improved quite a bit by the time the video reaches its midway point (at around the 36:53 mark). Still made some mistakes though - hey, I'm not flawless :)
[h1]TL;DR? Here are the Pros and Cons[/h1]
[b]Pros[/b]
+ Challenging gameplay with well-varied enemies that scale with your ship as you level up
+ A flexible progression system that's separate for each of the 4 types of hoverships, guaranteeing plenty of replay value
+ Cool electronic music, if you're into that kid of music.
+ Epic, third-person boss fights
+ 30 different types of ship abilities, out of which you can only equip 2... which ones you get are entirely random.
+ Nice list of stats for players who are into those
[b]Cons[/b]
- Maybe this is just me but I find that the electronic droning sound that plays whenever you move your hovership quite unnecessary and annoying.
- Rather high skill ceiling even for players who have played twin-stick shooters pretty competently before. Movement of your ship takes a bit of getting used to as well (WASD+mouse). I guess you can consider these as part of the "challenge".
[h1]Tips[/h1]
Even though I'm not an expert player, I did pick up a few quick tips from my playthroughs that I find incredibly useful
* Turrets can be destroyed and should be destroyed as fast as you can, especially those turrets with rockets and shields... these are super annoying.
* In fact, I'd suggest taking out anything that shoots back at you first. You can kite the others in the meantime... just take note the obstacles and don't back yourself into a corner!
[h1]Overall[/h1]
If you're up for a challenge and you enjoy a solid, roguelite twin-stick shooter/bullet-hell game with a cool sci-fi theme, Hovership Havoc will definitely help you scratch that itch! The game has a great and very flexible progression system for each of the 4 different types of hoverships, allowing you to invest and reinvest your points into stats as necessary. Plus, and this is probably the most impressive thing out of all of these, the game was developed by a single developer from scratch!
[h1]Side note[/h1]
[quote]If you like this review and would like to follow me for more, please feel free to drop by my curator page:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33780629-The-Midcore-Gamer/[/quote]
