Space Mercenary Defense Force is a super fun and creative take on the hoard survival type of game. You start with a basic auto-targeting laser, and then every level up you can upgraded your ship, laser, or add a module to one of four directional slots on your ship. The direction of the modules do matter, and it adds an interesting strategic element - should I place my attack facing the rear, to better handle the hoards of enemies that try to chase you down, or facing the front, to tackle the dangerous bosses more easily? Then once you've added a module, you can further upgrade that module on future level ups. Upgrades can often follow different paths, meaning even if you pick the same module it can feel different in a new run. Should I make my laser flaming or ionising?
Once you've chosen some modules and upgrades the enemies will start to ramp up, and you'll have to survive 20 minutes and defeat all the bosses that appear at set intervals. I really like how the game is on a 20 minute timer, it makes it really easy to pick up and play knowing that there's a set end goal in a set time. The bosses start simple but ramp up in difficulty, and the fights can feel different depending on the modules you choose.
Once you've played a few runs you'll have earned some credits to spend on ships or astral upgrades. I found the rate that you gain credits very fair, and I could usually buy a ship or a few upgrades after every run. The different ships have module slots facing different directions, for example one ship might have modules that only face up or down, or diagonally, and there's one ship without any module slots at all, meaning you'll have to rely purely on the laser for the entire run. It's a fun self imposed challenge!
Astral upgrades enhance the game in lots of unique ways. You have a few standard +5% laser damage type upgrades, but the further you get into them the more interesting and unique they get, for example, there's a section that lets you place down a beacon every level that enhances your movespeed / fire rate / deals damage to enemies in the radius, depending on your choice. I like the variety these add to the game, and I enjoy experimenting with different combinations of upgrades.
There are also Celestial Modifiers, which you start to unlock after your first win. These usually modify the game to be harder in one way, and to grant you some help in another. For example, the first one is enemies gain +25% HP, and your modules gain +15% damage. Some of them really shake the game up, like the one that greatly increases the blast radius of explosive enemies, and the ones that double the damage of everything to make the game more threatening.
There are areas for improvement, for example I think the game would benefit from greater normal enemy variety, and I do think it's a little on the easy side once you work out some good strategies. I think bosses should have a lot more health, or could have invulnerability phases, because if you learn to build right you can shred most of them before you see many of their attacks.
I think balance is going to be a big focus going forward - for example, some of the modules don't actually need you to aim, such as ones that drop turrets, or set fire to nearby enemies. A lot of these feel strong just by virtue of not having to aim, which takes away from the interesting module positioning decisions you have to make. I think as long as the modules you have to aim have a great feeling payoff, I'll be happy - I love watching the mighty space anchor just plough through the entire swarm of aliens, SO satisfying!
Overall I think the game is incredibly fun and has a lot of replayability for its price point, and I think it has huge potential. It's getting regular updates, we got 3 new modules very recently and I already love the vampire scythe!
