[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]
[i]Simple Sky[/i] is top-down twin-stick space-shooter/score-chaser with some unique ideas. The simple and bright artwork gives the game a friendly appearance, but after I headed into the main game, I quickly realized that it gives the player no quarter. There are 10 difficulty settings, and only two are unlocked in the very beginning. Well, so far, I have yet to unlock another. Please keep in mind that this game is in Early Access currently, and some of my discussion may be outdated by the time you are looking at the game.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
The idea is simple, you start off as a ship with a main and secondary weapon, all of your movements use your energy reserves that spontaneously regenerate, and every action has a cooldown. Enemies start coming after you in what almost seems like a survival arena and you need to fend them off until the boss encounter for that particular stage, after which you can complete the stage and move on or stay behind to gather some more resources, though with a finite absolute time limit. There's a visual countdown to when things start going haywire if you stay too long, so it's not difficult to gauge this.
During your time spent on any level, finding local planets of various sizes and mining their resources will be very important. These resources are currency that you also get by killing enemies and you can upgrade your ship every time you reach a preset "value." You need to be docked on a planet while you upgrade, and this isn't difficult, you can run headfirst into a planet and that counts as docking.
When you make an upgrade, you are given a choice from 3 random selections. You can gradually maximize your firepower, your abilities, your cooldowns, HP, etc. through your various upgrades. You can even increase how many selections you get when you upgrade. If you get lucky early on, you can take an upgrade to make it possible to upgrade mid-flight, which doesn't seem like much, but is actually a huge boon. Or at least I think so.
In each level, you are constantly being hunted by the boss, which slowly approaches you from afar. You can see where it is and where you are, along with locations of the different planets on the minimap. It would seem that either avoiding the boss in the beginning or heading right in may each have its own benefits, I have yet to figure out the perfect strategy.
The individual runs in this game are usually pretty short. If I don't have a good combination going for me from the first few upgrades, I find that I can rarely make it to or past the 2nd boss. With some nice upgrades working in nice synergy, I was able to get to what I thought to be the final boss on the easiest difficulty, though I still struggled to live to the end. I would say average runs for me when things are going well are around 15 minutes or so.
There is a lot of movement based on your momentum, and because you are a ship moving around in space, you can expect to have some arcing movements and annoying "sliding-on-ice" feel as you try to maneuver around. This is just something to get used to, it's a game decision that will make a lot of people throw their hands in frustration but it's a decision specifically for this game. Once you get used to it, it won't feel so bad.
[h1]Controls[/h1]
Keyboard and Mouse required, and for some reason I had to launch this on my laptop, since on my main PC, the keyboard was being recognized in the menu, but once the run started, it wouldn't respond. I do hope that this gets hashed out and not too many people buy and need to refund due to unrecognized keyboard controls.
[h1]Graphics[/h1]
The artwork in this game is nothing to write home about, everything is pretty simplistic in design. It has bright colors and simple designs that give it a bit more friendly appearance, but the game mechanics beg to differ.
[h1]Music & Sounds[/h1]
The music gets super repetitive, to the point that I had to turn it off
[h1]Audience[/h1]
This is where I struggle a bit. I would say more for people who don't mind repetitive deaths and are okay with working through the initial slow bits in an arena-survival/shooter game. The run becomes more enjoyable when you can survive the initial start-up phase, which can be over quickly if things fall in nicely, but can also draw on for a while.
[h1]Pricing[/h1]
Early Access base price is $9.99 with regional pricing. It does have some replay value in that you are trying to chase the high-scores in kills during your runs while also trying to beat the game as fast as you can--the two leaderboards on Steam. I think the price is fair as far as people who enjoy the game are concerned. Those who cannot stand it have plenty of time to experience it prior to making a decision to refund, if truly they determine it's not worthwhile.
[h1]Personal Wishlist[/h1]
1. Have the issue fixed so I can play on my main computer, but the problem is that I have no idea what the issue is.
2. Having a bit simpler initial stages of each run when it comes to upgrades. I find that it's the part I enjoy the least and it tends to drag on for a while, and for me that's the do-or-die part of the run. If I make it, the rest of the run is enjoyable, if I die, then I have to start over from scratch and keep my fingers crossed.
3. More clear-cut synergy effects when upgrading, maybe showing some numbers/stats or highlighting which other prior upgrades will benefit, etc. It would be nice to know whether I am making a good decision or not when upgrading.
4. The mid-flight upgrade option comes up infrequently and I personally dislike the fact that I have to dock to upgrade prior to getting this. I almost wish the requirement to dock to upgrade would be removed completely.
5. More weapons/upgrade options, etc.
Bottom line in regards to this section is me saying that for these kinds of games to keep me interested, I need to see faster earlier progress to get to the fun parts, to keep me coming back and playing another run. It's not difficult to start another run after the previous, but the desire to immediately start is definitely hindered by the knowledge of the beginning grind. It may be only a few minutes, but it's enough to make me hesitate. With that and some additional QoL changes to facilitate smoother and more streamlined gameplay, I would enjoy it a lot more.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
[i]Simple Sky[/i] is overall pretty fun, and so far I am enjoying myself. I realize that this game is in Early Access and so I hope to see some improvements in the aspects that I have requested, just to make it even more fun. I have confidence in that this developer will make the game better from its current build as there seems to be an update every time I look at it, especially with the latest one around a request that I had made.
Current score 7/10 (written Oct. 9, 2021).
Thank you for reading.
[quote]I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.[/quote]
