Power of Ten

People call it repetitive - I call it formulaic, and that's not a bad thing in of itself. You collect resources, (try to) defend planets, shield them with said resources, and all on the clock. It could be fun, but I didn't like the way it plays. The controls in particular feel strange. By default, the game doesn't use your typical twin stick controls, and I tried this control scheme - but I found myself unable to do anything in a combat situation (and fighting is quite intense). I tried different schemes, played on both controller and keyboard, but all schemes just didn't feel right to me. This might be a me problem, though, I'm not exactly a twin stick veteran. The combat is... okay? Nothing noteworthy. You can equip different weapons - if you find them - but all of them felt pretty weird. There are different ships which have different special abilities that grow stronger with skillful use, and that was pretty nice, but eh. Finally, the game starts with a very gripping story about an expedition gone wrong, told from the perspective of a loving couple... and then you wonder "what does this have to do with anything?". The writing in the day-to-day gameplay is pretty meh, which unfortunately is the result of the aforementioned formula. Perhaps there's more to it, but I've already run out of goodwill. It's rather pretty though, and the sound design is nice - could use more variety.

I really want to like this game. It looks awesome and the first few hours were fun, but it got rough in the later half of the game. First, it was fun, I enjoyed it and glad I bought the game. I'm probably done with it after two runs. The ship upgrades started to not feel like upgrades, especially after getting about a dozen or so. The "When you use your ship ability 3 times..." bonuses started to show up every time. Didn't want to get 'em but they kept showing up. Also, there were a few upgrades that felt like downgrades. The "get this temporary bonus for a permanent debuff" type stuff. I feel like the ones that added a virus really shouldn't be there. That said, I feel like the virus really shouldn't be a thing. Something that makes you take double damage I could understand, but a one-hit death debuff? I don't really get it. I feel like it might be better to remove it or change how it works, especially as a rogue like. I also had an issue getting health back. It feels like I went thought the last 1/3 of the game getting bunches of weapons to scrap, a few dozen upgrades, and literally only saw one heart. If it had to sum things up it all felt like it was designed to be unfair, which is totally fine, but ended up being implemented in a way that made things feel frustrating more than challenging. I think getting rid of the debuff and negative ship upgrades (maybe having a way to lock out some upgrades in a meta progression way?), removing or changing the virus (taking double damage is fine, insta-death isn't), having a way to manage loot drops (maybe every third/fifth/seventh max upgraded box drops at least one health), and some way to drop a weapon would go a long way to helping the game feel more challenging over frustrating. The core game is good and I think with a few tweaks I would really like it. maybe a power of ten 2 could have the changes. hope you keep working on games and thanks for making this one.

I love this game and can't get enough of it! I just love to vibe with it and get in the zone. The creamy color palette is just beautiful, and fitting with the pixel art. As if the aesthetic wasn't enough, the mechanics feel so good too. I'm playing with a controller on pc, and it feels great with twin stick control. There's a little bit of drift when stopping, little details like that. Feels like an elevated addition to the bullet hell genre. I'll think I've had enough but I keep coming back after trying other similar games.

I will begin with my summary and if you choose to read on thank you. Power of Ten is one of the most unique roguelikes I've ever played, there is very little like it on the market. Its combination of movement and combat is hard to learn but once mastered the player becomes a god. Highly recommend picking the title up if fighter ship combat even remotely interests you. Power of Ten is such a phenomenal game in its niche on the roguelike market. With most roguelikes however, its systems can be unforgiving and downright brutal. Its movement especially can be a shade brain breaking, having the cursor be an 'anchor' of sorts with the ship orbiting around the cursor and dealing damage and dodging all at once. Once you get the hang of the pivoting and gyrating your ship needs to do to survive, PoT's potential unlocks beautifully. The customization with each ship and weapon combination only amplifies PoT's depth, some ships want to stay at medium range dispensing hell and others want to get in nice and close. The basic premise of the gameplay loop is dead simple, gather recources to power up planetary shield generators to protect the planet from the enemy factions landers. The enemy faction is called Deadeye and they can be quite the nuisance even from the beginning. Powering up shield generators is how you gain equipment caches, which reward you with weapons and well equipment. The rerolling aspect is a nice touch, because theres 5 tiers of cache you get with yellow being the worst and rainbow the best. On top of the initial combo you select at the beginning of your run like with any roguelike there are upgrades as you protect each system you visit, and most are a GODSEND. Its vitally important that you specialize a couple of upgrades (if possible) into ammo generation early as running out of ammo can be a death sentence. There is even value in the upgrades that make your ability summon projectiles or drones to get even more ammo economy out of your scrappy little ship. My personal favorite is the Radar upgrade that reveals enemy flotillas and stations. PoT's graphics is something I do want to touch here as well. Initially the ship starts out really barren with only a couple of color combinations, but as you progress more and more colors and trails unlock allowing for your perfect paint job. The background art is also phenomenal interstellar dust clouds and far burning suns look amazing. They also make an effort to make the background active with scenes like interstellar fauna coasting by or a deadeye fleet being hounded.

Really tight top-down space combat game, with multiple ships, loadouts and upgrades to choose from. Very satisfying to figure out optimal ways to play, loadouts, try different weapons and their combos, etc - and the final fights have just the right amount of difficulty and satisfaction of figuring it out and living through it. Would love to see much more from this dev - especially a game like this in a more sandbox, dynamic-world environment. Empire building in space with great gameplay is still a dream of those who played EV Nova way back when, which haven't necessarily been covered yet even by great names like Starsector. Absolutely love the starting storytelling section as well - such cool art and storytelling, although the story told at the start doesn't seem to tie down to the actual game / pilot / ending. Still, great work. The price is a steal, definitely worth as it seems to be on sale a lot. Godspeed dev!

I just couldn't get engaged with this game at all. Keyboard and mouse controls work fine, but the controls in general do feel a little strange. Not strange enough that it's a dealbreaker by any means, but I did feel like my ship wasn't always doing what I wanted it to, and even though I knew that was my fault, I wasn't sure what I could do to improve on it. I pressed W to go forward and let my mouse take me where I wanted to go most of the time, or A and D to strafe but also fire to the side of my ship. It's snappy and aiming feels accurate, but something about it feels awkward. The weapons all kind of suck. You can only carry 2 at a time, and there quite a lot of weapons, and they drop all the time. I think when I bought the game and knew it was a roguelite that the weapons for my ship would be a big draw, but they just weren't. Ammo counting down without super regular pickups doesn't help either. Running out of ammo means you fire slower, a lot slower, and I think when you do find ammo, it's not much so you're likely to get stuck in this low firing rate loop. I upgraded my ship a few times, but all the options I got there didn't seem interesting either. There's a reroll option which costs 10 of some sort of currency, and the game doesn't tell you how much of that currency you have as far as I could tell, at least not on that screen. It's an okay game if you have nothing else to play, I guess. The game does have a lot of small redeeming qualities about it. It's fairly vibrant and some of the enemy ships seem cool and every friendly you fly past has something to say that adds a bit of character. The weird thing is I think I'd recommend buying the soundtrack instead of the game. The soundtrack is great!

Cannot see damage sources for the life of me, pretty much every damage you take, the one you just couldn't tell apart from debris or cosmetic effects pretty much kills the whole fun

Definitely worth the price. I don't remember where I picked it up but so glad I did. The atmosphere, art and sound design are phenomenal! The gameplay is great too. It's difficult but not impossibly so. I was able to beat it my first day, but it has higher progressive difficulties like Slay the Spire or Against the Storm which I am yet to dig into. My only (small) complaint is that the momentum of the game comes to a halt after each system when I fly around collecting everything I can, but this is a small gripe and I am not sure how I would solve it (because I also appreciate the breather)

pretty fun. good music. i like how it's stylized. a bit frustrating but that's on my end, not the game's. overall fun

Cool game :)