Nova Strike

I bought this game for 10 € with the intention of playing it for 10 hours to see if the game is worth the money. Video: https://youtu.be/3oa3LijtfpU I finished the game in a bit over 4 hours. I rated the game on these three simple categories: Gameplay (3/5) Content (2/5) Monies Worth (2/5) The gameplay of this game is decent, but it lacks in content. I will give the game a thumbs up, since i like the gameplay, and if there will be added more content to it, i think it will be worth the money.

I can't recommend this to most folks, but if you are looking for something extremely relaxed and repetitive to pass the time, it might be worth checking out. I'm not generally very good at shmups but this is arguably one of the easiest, simplest and most repetitive that I've ever encountered. The grinding loop, high score chase of the description is what caught my interest originally, but none of the design elements gel. My first attempt lasted over an hour and the only reason my round ended was because I was so bored I ended up listening to a podcast and got distracted by my email on my second monitor. I tried to pick it up again for two more short sessions to give it a fair shake, but found nothing to change my assessment. In other words, the 'come back stronger' loop is extremely slow and there is no motivation to 'come back stronger' when you have seen most of what the game has to offer in the first 5 minutes. There is a tiny handful of enemies that you will see over and over, although the few bosses are comparatively well designed. The score attack element doesn't work as the main bonuses cannot be achieved without upgrades and by the time it would take to get them, you would likely have to play the same 2-3 minute level nearly 100 times, and any slim challenge that was there would be completely gone by then. With some planning and careful design, this type of game could work. There needs to be more scoring mechanics (timing or placement of shooting, bullet grinding, combos... anything), greater difficulty with shorter loops, and then some more variety of enemies. Once again, the 'bullet hell' tag loses it's meaning on Steam. While the graphical presentation is nice, the music loop is astonishingly brief considering the long length of a play through.

This game could be good, but every run quickly gets exhausting due to large amounts of dead-time with no interesting decisions to make, especially in the first level. Most of this dead-time happens when you finish a wave; you can spend a good 10-15 seconds slowly and mindlessly cleaning up the last few enemies, and then you have to waste another 10 seconds for the screen to slowly scroll upwards to the next wave. When you do the math, say 22 seconds x 7 waves, you can easily have ~2.5 minutes of boring downtime per level. Just waiting, waiting, waiting in every level. It gets better when you unlock the shortcut to level 2, but even then this game doesn't quite give you no burning itch to try again and again. Shame because this game is polished very well, has very nice graphics, and it occasionally has its moments of brilliance.

Nova Strike is an excellent retro style shoot 'em up arcade-like space adventure. Weapon systems are classic in nature with a number of newer elements added to give it that fresh feel. The enemy designs are done with a lot of creative care and they all look awesome! The game is short with only 3 chapters: 6 levels with the 7th being the boss fight of that chapter, but that shouldn't deter you from owning a game like this. It's well worth it!

Great retro pixel shmup with roguelike upgrades.

I NEVER give a dysfunctional game a passing grade. Even if it worked, it is so uninspired and lame that I would fail it anyway. I have played plenty of unfair and not-so-good arcade schmups (mostly from Capcom) such as Tyrian this game seems to try to imitate and fails horribly at it. None of them had been feces-tier so far. This game is exactly that. Case to point: 1. Gatling does not even fire. I died twice because that damn thing is plain broken. Why put a sub-weapon into the game that does not work. There are other things like that too. There is an active AOE chip that is supposed to damage enemies but does ZERO DAMAGE. This game reeks of untested. But when the enemies have similar AOE weapons - they work perfectly. NEAT! 2. The game lags up when it creates projectiles (a deal-breaker in a game that tries to be a bullet hell game). 3. The game drops any inputs randomly, even when it is not lagging. I have never before seen a game like this where the inputs randomly fail. 4. Having to hold main fire button instead of making it a toggle. 5. Too many buttons in the control scheme. Why do you need 4 skill buttons and 4 for guns. You could have 2 buttons if you combined it with a direction. 6. There is no real benefit in dying. You just have more credits to start with, though you will have enough anyway and the more expensive upgrades are gated off for the later levels. 7. If you die you go back to the beginning even if you cleared a stage. It is not a NES era anymore, guys. Playing the 7-level stages again is Gitmo tier torture. It is not like the 2-minute fast levels in classic schmups. These ones take forever. 8. The main gun is borderline useless. It fires a single projectile that that takes multiple hits to kill even the weakest of enemies. That makes the game an annoying torture of trying to avoid enemy projectiles while somehow trying to clear the screen despite facing walls of bullets that prevent you from doing any damage. You CANNOT ShOOT DIAGONALLY. That means the enemies that shoot vertically will almost force you to take damage just to get a chance at taking one of the multiple shots at them required for taking even the most basic enemy out. You can pray that the skill and the sub-weapon shots - that you cannot shoot while you hold main fire for some forsaken reason - fire instead of being input dropped for the 10,349,442nd time that session. Get Tyrian instead. It is free.

忽闻游戏四块几，垂死病中惊坐起。 四舍五入喜加一，钱包夸我聪明逼。

[h1]Nova Strike - ★☆☆☆☆[/h1] Пройдя игру, осталось лишь странное послевкусие. Если Alien Shooter – это пародия на Doom, то Nova Strike ощущается как пародия [b]на самого Alien Shooter[/b], с легкой, но неубедительной примесью киберпанка где-то на задворках космоса. ⭐️ Рейтинг: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5) [b]❤️ Достоинства (Единственное):[/b] 🔹 Пиксельная эстетика [b]👎 Недостатки (Главное):[/b] 🔹 [b]Управление – Отвратительное:[/b] Отсутствует возможность его редактировать, а управлять кораблем некомфортно. 🔹 [b]Левел-дизайн выглядит как будто его сделала нейросеть:[/b] Примитивные, безликие уровни без логики или стратегии. 🔹 [b]Сомнительное техническое исполнение:[/b] 🔸 [b]Спрайты:[/b] Выглядят дешево и неаккуратно. Эффекты (например, дым) имеют отчетливо видимые пиксельные края, разрушая погружение. Таких мелочей немало, в особенности бросаются в глаза тени. 🔸 [b]Кредиты – Бессмысленные:[/b] Нет мотивации их собирать [i]сразу[/i]. Да, они дают возможность покупать апгрейды на корабль и оружие, но то, что они не пропадают и их можно спокойно забрать [i]после[/i] уничтожения всех противников, удручает. 🔸 [b]Предсказуемость:[/b] После гибели игра тупо повторяет ту же схему появления врагов. Знаешь наперед, где что будет – реиграбельность нулевая, [i]хотя была речь о процедурной генерации[/i]. 🔸 [b]Нет ограничения FPS:[/b] Игра выдает 500+ FPS без видимой пользы, просто нагружая железо. 🔸 [b]Локализация:[/b] Отсутствует выбор языка. Переводы – только через взлом файлов. 🔹 [b]Нет поддержки модов:[/b] Игра исчерпывается за пару часов, после чего ее можно только удалить. 🔹 [b]Никакой изюминки:[/b] Nova Strike не предлагает ни одной оригинальной механики или фишки. Максимально посредственный и невнятный представитель жанра. [b]🚀 Итоги:[/b] Nova Strike оставляет ощущение сырого, недоделанного и технически слабого проекта. Разрушенное базовое удовольствие от управления, уровни, словно сгенерированные нейросетью, и полное отсутствие мотивации или уникальных идей делают ее пустой тратой времени. Обещанная процедурная генерация так и не появилась. [b]★☆☆☆☆ (1/5) – Не рекомендую.[/b] [hr] Finished the game, and all that remains is a bizarre aftertaste. If Alien Shooter is a parody of Doom, then Nova Strike feels like a parody [b]of Alien Shooter itself[/b], with a faint, unconvincing sprinkle of cyberpunk somewhere in the cosmic void. ⭐️ Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5) [b]❤️ Strengths (The Only One):[/b] 🔹 Pixel aesthetic [b]👎 Weaknesses (The Reality):[/b] 🔹 [b]Controls – Atrocious:[/b] No option to remap them, and piloting the ship is deeply uncomfortable. 🔹 [b]Level Design Feels AI-Generated:[/b] Primitive, bland levels devoid of logic or strategy. 🔹 [b]Questionable Technical Execution:[/b] 🔸 [b]Sprites:[/b] Look cheap and sloppy. Effects (e.g., smoke) have blatantly visible pixelated edges, shattering immersion. There's no shortage of such flaws, with poorly implemented shadows being particularly noticeable. 🔸 [b]Credits – Meaningless:[/b] Zero motivation to collect them [i]promptly[/i]. Yes, they allow buying ship and weapon upgrades, but the fact they [i]never disappear[/i] and can be casually scooped up [i]after[/i] eliminating all enemies is utterly baffling. 🔸 [b]Predictability:[/b] Upon death, the game mind-numbingly repeats the exact same enemy spawn patterns. You know exactly what's coming next – zero replayability, [i]despite talk of procedural generation[/i]. 🔸 [b]No FPS Cap:[/b] The game pushes 500+ FPS with no visible benefit, pointlessly stressing hardware. 🔸 [b]Localization:[/b] No language options. Translations require hacking game files. 🔹 [b]No Mod Support:[/b] The game exhausts itself in a couple of hours, after which deletion is the only option. 🔹 [b]No Unique Hook:[/b] Nova Strike offers not a single original mechanic or standout feature. It's the epitome of a mediocre, forgettable genre entry. [b]🚀 Verdict:[/b] Nova Strike feels like a raw, unfinished, and technically feeble project. Destroyed core enjoyment (controls), levels seemingly AI-generated, and a complete lack of motivation or unique ideas make it a waste of time. The promised procedural generation never materialized. [b]★☆☆☆☆ (1/5) – Not Recommended.[/b]

Great little game! Like the music and art style. Still trying to beat the first level, but I am already hooked.

solid graphics, shootem up with store system and Rogue Like elements, special features are special weapons, some of which can be bought or acquired through the Roguelike element. If you die, you can spend upgrade points in a Rogue Like upgrade store system. motivating. It's a slightly easier shoot em up, but not as easy as the negative review says.