Radio Free Europa

It's an interesting take on a rogue-like with its choices in play style, upgrades, and pacing that you can use to solve the main problem; making it past stage 1. Every stage after 1 has their own beasts to handle with weapons unique to said stages that you have to work around and overcome all while listening to an amazingly immersive sound track that hopes to drown out the sound of incoming fire. Weapon customization and ship upgrade descriptions take some experimentation at first to determine functionality, however I see this as a positive aspect of the game akin to giving a kid a clock and a screwdriver. The fun is in the experimentation and exploration of the subject. During the later stages, the power of the ship that you chose becomes more apparent, and if not prevented in the previous stages so too the weaknesses. RFE has been a fun game to play, and an even more fun game to try to 100% tldr;Radio Free Europa is a fun, challenging rogue-like that invites experimentation upon the base game-play once the basics are understood.

Yes, I know I only have a few moments in this game. But let me tell you, its AMAZING!!! The graphics are top notch. The swarms of ships attacking you, require you to really think ahead and avoid taking a lot of damage. When the boss comes in, it is squeaky bum time if you are not ready for it. I think this might be a new addiction for a good while! My kids were even wanting to take a turn. I highly recommend you pick this up.

*Early Access* Fun bullet hell. Bring eye drops and a durable controller. Game has great bones and has a nice progression element (per-run). Will you choose to buy new weapons or use ship agility/durability upgrades?

Radio Free Europa is an enjoyable arcade space shooter, with some nice gameplay touches, but a cumbersome between-stage phase to get upgrades and a weird loot structure. The play here is enjoyably rich. Your ship direction matters for shooting and for thrust, so there's an added physicality/mindfulness to the action, and you have a dodge-type move that has added movement utility and enhances the play rather than is just some iframes. The enemies have a variety of armaments to deal with, and staying on top of them takes a lot of attention and some acquired know-how. This is not an easy game, and your first time against new enemies tends to not be pretty, and may even have you quite mismatched. It's very much an arcade slanted roguelite: you have little cross-run progression (a few loadout unlocks rather than upgrades), and your goal is very score oriented. No grinding to bring the game up to the level you're supposed to get to play. You also start with a nice variety of starting ship options, each with their own movement and weapons, and they definitely play differently. Scoring offers a hit-chain based multiplier to add interest and challenge you. It feels a little at odds with some of the play aspects, but maybe skill can overcome that, and either way chaining adds engagement. There are a lot of in-run upgrade options, with many different weapons to play with. The system for using them has some issues and is a bit cumbersome, unfortunately, both mechanically and conceptually. There's a lot of information tied to icons and things you just need to figure out from bits of information scattered around other upgrades. For example, one of your weapon attributes is shot lifetime, but you only know what that icon means from seeing it used on the shot lifetime upgrade. There's no icon or concept key in the manual (which is on the main screen labeled "Compendium"--don't ignore that thinking it's one of those lists of things you've seen). You also can't actually use a drop without salvaging about 10-30 [i]times[/i] as many other drops, and your primary shot is made of two weapons that each take their own base and upgrades, which makes for some tedium and limitation you work through between levels, but each slot can also have additional weapons added to it that all fire together. I'd like to see the loot/upgrade aspect get some improvement and more of a fun-bias, but as it is, you still have more things to play with, as well as some added interest to which enemy zones you choose (enemies do affect drops quite a bit). It's a small project, which you will notice, but it does manage its own specialness and unique flair, which is always good to find.

First of all, I LOVE the boss ship soundtrack! Very hooking and it will definitely stay in my head for a while. At the beginning, maneuvering was pretty hard since I wasn't used to the controls but once I got the hang of it (using controller), the movement was really smooth. Figuring the game out after that was quite easy: Shoot and don't get shot too much or you'll die. Seriously, it can happen fast, especially in later stages. Weapons and upgrades are pretty fun to figure out and can give you some actual combat power. The graphics are beautiful but sometimes confusing since it was hard to see where a shipwreck is lying around due to the brightness of some elements of the background. Thank goodness that there's a radar helping out with that. Overall I think this game has some potential and I'm looking forward to future updates. For a solo developer it's definitely noticeable that a lot of work has been put into it.

All i can say for this games bosses is "bullet hell" This game looks and feel phenomenal. And the fact that the creator of this game made it ALL BY HIMSELF is a feat by itself. He had no devs helping him with art, no people he hired to make the code, he built it all from the ground up. and the fact that i know the guy that made this game is kinda cool aswell good job Scott

Very fun little roguelike. The right amount of nostalgia mixed with modern graphics and features. Lots of depth and things to unpack. Couple things you should know: 1. Read the compendium! Tons of useful info on how the game works. 2. When you "repair" / buy upgrades, they need to be installed before they'll work. 3. You have tonnage available at each slot on your ship - install multiples of weapons at each. Upgrades take weight, so balance this, but it will help you late-game.

This is a good, cheap space shooter, with a nice amount of variety to its ships, flying, weapons, enemies, and upgrades. Inventory management could be more convenient by far, and it's a difficult game, even on easy, but still worth its price point (especially on sale) for the other aspects.

Original Review: Really enjoyable space roguelike! Quite scratched the itch for space based destruction and ship customization. There are a lot of weapons and weapon mod combos that can make things fun, weird, and super powered. Get out there and start blasting! Hope you enjoy as much as I have. Edited Review after a bunch more time in the game: I did want to note that I engaged with the dev on ideas and QoL for the game, they were receptive and interested and made some changes based on my recommendations. It was a very pleasant experience and I continue to wish them well for what is obviously a labor of love. Good luck blasting out there, friends!

[b]Review: Wednesday 24, August, 2022[/b] I really liked the game. The game is fun. It gave me some MechWarrior vibes with the way you salvage stuff after you complete a mission. Don't expect the UI working as every game UI, but if you keep with it, you will get the hang of it. Also, you have to get the hang of the way your spaceship moves, but after that, I found the combat pretty fun. I use keyboard and mouse to play by the way. The game is still underdevelopment, and it seems like it have a lot of stuff already that you can try in your runs. I hope the full game is even greater than it already is, with more stuff and more polish. [b]Score:[/b] I give it a 4 of 5 stars with what I have played. [b]Conclusion:[/b] I really think that with more polish this could become a real gem. It's good already and I think the price isn't bad either for what you get now and specially for what you are probably going to get in the future. It gave me the desire to play it some more, so that is a very good sign. Give the game a chance as I should have done before talking stuff xD.