Lost Fleet

[i][b]Game Review:[/b][/i] Purchasing this game will net you a horde-survival, space-based shooter with unit building capabilities in the form of purchasable ships that can be remotely commandeered by you, your friends (in co-op), or by friendly AI. Your main goal in the game is to [b]escort[/b] your [b]Mothership[/b] from one warp gate to another, whilst surviving the ever-escalating onslaught of enemy units, ranging from [b]Rival Ships[/b] (like pirates), hostile [b]Space-Fauna[/b] (which include space sharks and flesh-borne abominations made from bigger flesh-borne abominations), and the [b]Void-Spawn.[/b] Your secondary objective is to [b]amass and safe-guard[/b] a number of [b]resource-gathering units[/b] to mine and collect [b]space matter to convert into money,[/b] which can be used to increase the number of gatherers, or bolster your fleet of combat-capable ships. Your tertiary objective is to fulfill side-objectives that can be done within the arena/world you find yourselves in. Some arenas have neutral defenseless ships that, when successfully escorted/defended, will reward your fleet with a hefty sum of cash. Other objectives include destroying entrenched enemy production facilities/units that constantly produces small strike-ships that harass your convoy. While a decently-sized fleet could theoretically weather the onslaught, eliminating that source of pressure does wonders for your fleet in the long run. In the early game, you are given a choice between 'piloting' a Mule or a Bee, the former being a slow and fragile resource-gathering unit and the latter being a nimble drone-like defense unit. (Both of which are free for player/s only) From there, you, your friends (in co-op), and a handful of friendly, AI-controlled resource-gatherers will collect this game's main resource (that I dub as space matter) from asteroids. Once mined, these can be collected and taken back to the Mothership for processing, netting you a respectable increase in cash. (Do note that the money is divided and shared equally between players). Once one has acquired a sufficient amount of cash, a player can purchase one of a dozen ships to call-in from the Mothership. These ships range from resource-gatherers, supportive, defensive, and offensive ships, as well as their overpriced Capital-like variants whose presence alone shifts the entire dynamic of the battlefield. One ship-type however, cannot be acquired by players through purchasing power alone. Instead, the coveted mobile Refinery ship can only be acquired by leveling up your Mothership, which can be done by surviving and eliminating enemy units, as well as completing side-objectives. This ship gives Mules an option to deliver materials to either the Mothership (which does not deviate from the shortest path to the exit Warp Gate) or the Refinery, which can be piloted and stationed near Asteroid Fields, thereby shortening the time spent by Mules delivering the materials to the Mothership. Of course, it must be said that every ship, even strike craft, is tied directly to the Mothership's Jump System. This means that any surviving ship you and you allies have, will all be carried over to the next arena/world. Believe me when I say this... [i][b]You're gonna need every single ship you can get.[/b][/i] [i][b]Reviewer's Take:[/b][/i] The game is shaping up slowly my dudes. I believe that purchasing this game was a good decision on my part, and the same could be said for you guys too. Not only does it cater to my lizard-brain's desire for endless explosions and carnage, it also caters to my desire to directly influence the battlefield, juggling between giving orders to AI ships and assuming direct control over a ship. Despite all its (current) flaws and jank, the developers appear to be genuine about their desire to make this game work. And it shows. Not only has the game received consistent updates since I last checked, but has also garnered a small, but dedicated community. So yeah, some good stuff right here folks. For anyone reading this review, give this game a try my dudes.

I had some great high hopes for this game. As an avid space fleet lover, this game looked like it would hit the marks perfectly. Building up a fleet, Large fleet battles, Epic excitement. And I was excited, until I actually played, and found out that it was none of these things. In Lost Fleet, every zone you enter, you will be overwhelmed. Every ship you build, will be destroyed within a matter of minutes. You do not stand and fight, you do not get stronger. You build and deploy to distract the enemies long enough reach the gate and/or charge up your warpdrive and flee, and repeat this pattern until you are inevitably overwhelmed to impossibility. This games tends to feel as though it is one of the roguelite genre, similar to FTL, or any other roguelite game where each playthrough you are augmented a little more and more until you can actually win, but this game does not offer any sort of meta progression. You play to fail, again and again, and again, with no improved survivability or means of making the game any more viable to play. Maybe it is simply that it was just on the opposite end of the spectrum of space games i was looking for, maybe I am just bad, or maybe it's something else entirely, but this game is not about progression, fleet battles, or anything of the sort. It is about failing with nothing you can do about it.

This game is pretty basic and it's not what I was expecting. If you want a simplistic space shooter coop game, it fills that role decently. There is no shields, the combat system seemed basic, and I had trouble figuring out the controls. Iv played alot of space sandbox games from x4 to elite and this one felt like it needed alot more polish and complexity to the mechanics.

Currently this game is eager to capture the gameplay that made homeworld 1 and 2 so desirable. It's striking it's own path with some analogous features such as the command view, but ultimately for a small team I'm very excited to see where they take this small project. During my initial playthrough I will say the UI and controls leave more to be desired, but ultimately the groundwork for a great experience is there and I'm excited to see it through.

The game has substantially improved since I first downloaded, controls in particular. AI controlled craft can be hit-or-miss though this game is best played Co-op anyway. I'm enjoying the new maps but I hope their will be more playable factions with their own unique spacecraft.

Ive always wanted this game since its been featured by Splattercat years ago, and now ive bought it because i actually see the potential of this game and would like to show some support to the developers and provide feedback for the game's improvement Controls: [strike]Personal flight controls need polish. For instance, taking inspiration from War Thunder's plane controls, implementing an indicator for the delay in the weapon's aiming direction, separate from the player's camera placement, could prevent over-adjustment. Slowing down the response time of the ship movement, emulating an actual plane, might enhance the experience. The current mouse cursor constantly steering the ship feels unfamiliar; consider changing it.[/strike] Introduce a button for free look when piloting a ship. During the RTS section, consider unlocking the free look button. Constantly pressing the right-click button to adjust the camera angle can be cumbersome; allowing for free movement without the need to hold down a button could enhance the experience. Features: Include a basic tutorial to familiarize players with the game's controls and mechanics. Highlight fundamental concepts like increasing the mule's number or jumping to another sector. Implement a simple macro AI system, enabling players to give AI preferences or pre-orders for certain ships. This could prevent production hindrances when players are engaged in dogfights. Provide an indicator for the number of specific ships already owned in the buy menu. Differentiate the color of the text indicating 'refinery' as it currently blends in with the blue nature of the ships. Refine the AI behavior for refinery ships. Improve self-preservation instincts, such as avoiding enemy cruisers during mining. Ensure that ship AI, like the Cyclops, uses its full potential at a safe distance. The revenant's broadside short range weapon will never hit bigger targers because it will always stay out of range during engagement. Enhance fighter pathfinding to avoid collisions with obstacles instead of slamming into enemy or aesteroid, particularily in maps with floating objects, the both sides will just shot at the rocks until it moves away. Bug where commands are canceled unexpectedly in RTS. (after testing, the command was actually not removed, but rather AI will behave weirdly when given the defend order, cyclops will try to shoot refinery, carrier will slowly drift away from its target and so on) The dragon and zeus spawn by anything will always stay at the motherships side instead of engaging enemies like all other fighters The tracking of the flat cannon is god awful, its ok if some of the weapon has no tracking capabilities because its not meant to shoot at smaller targets (although minimum tracking is still required, ive seen flak cannon missing bigger target such as paladin and slingshot), but the flak cannon must have decent tracking to be effective, my 3 paladin that was meant to be a fighter deterrent takes forever to finish of 3 sabre, Improve personal spaces for all ships, ensuring smaller ships like the Camel are more dispersed, following around their mothership so that we could order the mothership to repair specific ship. Making small ships spawned by motherships unselectable could streamline the RTS screen and potentially save processing memory (NOT from programming background, just my guess) The PD system needs a hard upgrade, better tracking, faster turret rotation, range to effectively track bombers, double the bullet per shoot, right now a capital ship simple cannot act as an anchor for other ships if it encounters the other carrier ship with equal value because it can barely deal with any fighters effectively (Best example could be found at the skirmish mode, maxxing out initial cash and only spam pagasus, and notice that the opponents 4 biggest capital ship struggle to even kill 10 of them before dying)

Wholeheartedly yes. One of the most enjoyable space flight games I've ever played

First thing to get off "Don't buy unless you are ready for EA" I have bought the game previously and refunded.. Now after some time, I went again the rabbit hole. The game had few updates, still rough around the edges, but it's getting slowly there. Right now if you want to try the game there is around 1.5h -5 max gameplay before you get bored, but iam ok with that because this looks like one person development game and i dont mind supporting them.

Very fun game with lots of promising features. I had a lot of fun building an enormous fleet that not only killed the enemies, but also killed my computer. Would love to see the AI fleshed out a little more, hopefully making the ships stay further apart from each other. I would also like to have a way to see all the different ships that I have, with some controls or presets on how they behave in command mode. All around, lots of fun spaceship chaos with some strategy. Looking forward to where the game goes in the future!

I will leave this review here because I can feel something cooking, I can feel it but I have yet to fully see what you want me to see. Support this dev. Yes, it is a slow sizzle cook to perfection. Yes, there are its downsides. Should you wait, probably! Should you wait for discount, I guess you could. Should I negative review it? No... Unless they run away with the money. It is still in Early Access so give them some slack.