Rogue Eclipse

Exactly what I want from a ripping roguelike space battler, what a blast this is out of the gate.

[h2] Preface: [/h2] This is a game that I’ve been missing out on for years, while being completely unaware that it needed to be made in the first place. My first thought upon booting up Rogue Eclipse was a wave of overt nostalgia from a game I used to play on the Sega Saturn as a kid called ‘Panzer Dragoon’. That title was an unforgiving on rails shooter that focused on enemy and environmental awareness, coupled with a neat lock on system that allowed you to target multiple enemies (or environmental hazards) at once. I could definitely feel some influence here with how the lock on functioned, coupled with how your ship drifts and the aim compensates in turn. On this note, there’s a remake of Panzer Dragoon that came out a couple of years ago that was done very poorly. So, if like me you harbour fond childhood memories of an armoured dragon taking down giant mechs, do yourself a favour and play this instead. This is where the comparison ends though, the game is definitely in a niche of its own for several, quite novel reasons that I’ll get into below. [h2] Sound design: [/h2] There’s some stellar work here in the music department, with the tracks being an interesting fusion of modern heavy metal and with some strong influence from eastern scales and instrumentation. This will be the soundtrack to you blowing up waves of enemy vessels, avoiding barrages of cluster missiles, and inevitably: your frustration at being turned into fine paste by an errant rock or rail gun round to the face. It’s a good job the music slaps with how many times you’ll be repeating some levels. All in all, the ship effects sound great, with a satisfying blend of sub dropped explosions, set to a symphony of laser pings and cannon fire. There’s also plenty of diegetic audio cues to let you know which systems have recharged or what’s currently the most likely threat to your life in of that moment. These are genuinely very helpful and I ended up relying on them more than my eyes at times when ships were out of my line of sight. The only note I’d add here, is that I would enjoy more voice lines from your handler, as it feels like a rather shallow pool of quips that she comes out with mid combat. [h2] Controls/Combat/Gameplay: [/h2] There’s no dancing around it, this game is [b] HARD, [/b] even at the recommended difficulty. You can be doing amazingly well one second and immediately fly into an enemy ship/rock/missile/your own self doubt and have it all ripped away in an instant. This is somewhat balanced by just how responsive the controls are, which, in practice meant that every time I ate dirt, I felt it was my own poor decisions that led to my demise. This really does make all the difference to the enjoyment here, when I was dying to stupid mistakes as opposed to jank hitboxes or floaty controls. The game does have a saved progression system that allows you to skip through levels that you’ve previously completed which makes it more approachable in one way, given that you don’t have to fight through every stage to get to a boss you’re stuck on. It’s more like a bonfire outside a fog gate in Dark souls as opposed to the way traditional roguelikes handle their saved progression. On this note, there’s some meta progression between runs in terms of how your ship is built up and what components are used. Think of this screen as Armoured Core Lite in terms of available customisation. There’s a decent amount to fiddle with, but it doesn’t get into the weeds with how much power systems take to run or any sort of micromanagement like that. It’s simple, intuitive and gives you a lot to choose from in terms of secondary weapons, ship designs and secondary boost modules. [h2] Art Style/Narrative Setting: [/h2] The art style in this game is really pretty. Set to the backdrop of ‘arabesque futurism’ (really cool term honestly), it’s a blend of eastern aesthetics slapped on top of shiny, aerodynamic fighter squads and massive, skyscraper style motherships. There is some narrative here, in terms of how the story progresses and the lore you uncover along the way. This is very much secondary to the gameplay though and happens in small skippable bursts that never quite take you out of the action. Gameplay is king at all times here and Rogue Eclipse certainly doesn’t try and pad itself with fluff to extend its running time. Speaking of which, I haven’t beaten the game yet; hence I don’t quite know how long the running time is. That said, I can confidently ascertain the difficulty curve between acts fully determines how long you’ll spend getting your first credits screen. After this, there’s supposedly different game modes and a chapter select; I haven’t gotten there yet though so I’ll edit this at a later date with more info. [h2] Final Thoughts: [/h2] Rogue eclipse successfully carves out a wonderful little niche somewhere in between old arcade space shooters of yore, combined with the more responsive controls of something like Elite Dangerous. Further nestled in there we have a roguelike format and the customisation options of Armoured Core; thus, we get an aesthetically pleasing Frankenstein’s monster of a game that feels both fresh and nostalgic at the same time. I would definitely say that the difficulty is a main part of the enjoyment (and frustration here) and even on its recommended difficulty I’ve found this harder than doing charmless, demon bell runs in Sekiro. That said, with each run I see my skill level improving and getting past the next big hurdle becomes the new goal; immediately followed by another rake to the face when I figure out how to get over it. As an addendum, I really want to see more developers try and have some fresh takes on Space Rail Shooters, without the rails. I’ve had an exceptionally fun time with Rogue Eclipse, and I’m itching to play some more once my headache from dying too many times wears off. [h3] Dev Notes: [/h3] • I like the risk of rain style increasing difficulty over time meter, but it took me a little while to work this out; perhaps there should be a popup for this to drill it into you that expedience is of the essence here. o As a further note here, I really feel the meter should stop ticking up when the last enemy dies. Sometimes I was stuck driving around an asteroid so I could warp all the while crying at the threat meter creeping up as I was stuck in rock traffic. • Had a few bugs when I was playing including a hard pc crash when I tabbed out of the game. I also found I couldn’t get my mouse curser to go away even if I was using a controller. o Another bug I hit was sometimes your handler just stopped talking and it was a bit unnervingly quiet for the whole level until the next sector. • I sometimes got spawn killed by ships dropping almost on my head if I was accelerating in their general direction without much room for manoeuvring out of the way. This kind of felt bad and I would definitely like a bit more of a buffer between me and the new spawns/immediately ensuing rain of nukes that come after me. • This is genuinely a really cool game; props for making something I never thought I’d really see again, with a brand-new coat of paint and several mechanised bells and whistles! • I keep getting a bug that shows I have new stuff unlocked when I have nothing unlocked in the customisation options upon checking. • I didn’t see an option for remapping control schemes, and this is something that definitely should get added for people that have specific preferences.

Repetitively boring gameplay Enemy AI does nothing but simply circle your ship. Sound seems muffled and not crisp at all, apart from the dreadful soundtrack which I turned off after about 5 minutes of gameplay. Really not recommended. Ran fine on Steamdeck

A bombastic, streamlined rogue-like which opts for high-octane, intelligent, dogfighting in space; throwing yourself at the enemies won't work beyond the basic TIE-fighter kinda enemies. You've gotta systematically position yourself and pick them apart to have a chance. I got the chance to play this over the course of its development, and it's bloody fantastic imo. Genuinely a fun time, and a clear labour of love.

Its fast paced and frenetic. But for a roguelite I expected to be leveling and choosing upgrades during gameplay, not during level intermissions. On top of that, I don't see any weapon variety or modifications to alter gameplay. All the upgrades appear to just be more armor, more bullet capacity, or higher damage output. That makes the experience flat and boring. I don't think I can recommend it for now. If the devs add more flavor later on, I might change my review.

ゲーム自体は楽しめるが、ゲーム性の変化に乏しく、ゲーム進行が単調に感じ、デモ版からの進化をほとんど感じない。 操作は簡単で、3次元をあまり意識しなくてよいゲーム性なため遊びやすい。 グラフィックやサウンドが良いが、視覚エフェクトが過剰で視認性が悪く、一部の音声がノイジーである。 機体デザインは独特で面白いが、敵のデザインがモジュラー式であるため、全部似たように見える。 このゲームには複数のチャプターとセクターが存在するが、セクターの構成がランダムであるため、チャプター毎の変化を感じにくく、ゲームの進捗を把握しにくいので、ローグライクである部分が裏目に出ている。 レーダーやインジケーターは存在するものの、ロックオンシステムやカメラワークに難があり、画面外の状況を把握しにくく、敵がプレイヤーに張り付く仕様であるため、常に全方位からボコられる構図が多発し、プレイヤースキルで対処できる余地があまりない。 敵の構成はかなりランダムなため、セクター1から大型艦が複数出現することもあり、ゲーム攻略には運の要素も大きく影響する。 ローグライク部分は平凡以下で、一時強化はあるが永続強化が無く、強化自体は微妙で、ほとんどの特殊兵装は使い勝手が悪いので、一騎当千的な状況にならない。 接触するとゲームオーバーであり、フライト・パス・マーカーが無いのに、トンネル潜りをさせられるのはローグライクゲームとしては意味不明すぎる。 一見するとカジュアルなゲームに感じられるが、実際はプレイヤーに不利な理不尽な難易度設計になっている。 ゲームの最適化が不十分で、グラボがほぼ全開で稼働し暖房器具と化す。 このゲームはローグライクであるためリプレイ性を売りにしているが、リプレイするほどのゲーム内容を有しているとは感じないので、1500円以下なら有だろう。

I've been following this game for some time now, played it at PAX and had a great time with it. Everytime I jump on I get lost in the gameplay. The style is also so unique that I don't think I've really played another game like it.