Star Island

[h1]Introduction[/h1] [b]Star Island[/b] is a short and sweet boss rush game with practically no plot or story surrounding this game. You’ll be tasked with defeating multiple bosses consecutively to earn a badge that presumably makes you more respected in this world or something. Even though there is little replay value after finishing the game once, the time that I played through [b]Star Island[/b] was an enjoyable one. [h1]✔️Pros[/h1] • Short and sweet boss rush game • Cheap for the asking price, though not much content • Can be slightly intense at times • Bosses all have somewhat unique attack patterns that can be difficult to dodge at times • Nice visual art style throughout the game • You’re given some maneuverability mechanics to help fighting against countless bosses [h1]❌Cons[/h1] • From the looks of it [b]Star Island[/b] looks like a reskin of all the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=MACKINN7]other developers games[/url] with some subtle differences • Not much replay value after completing it once • The visual effects are a bit too much at times, to the point where sometimes you don’t know what’s going on • Constant sound of your weapon firing gets irritating quickly [h1]💢Bugs[/h1] • Pressing a button in the menu will also result in your character shooting or using a potion, whichever one you pressed • The sound effect slider also adjusts the music volume at the same time [h1]🕹Gameplay[/h1] [h3][b]Boss Mania[/b][/h3] [b]Star Island[/b] doesn’t waste your time with any sort of story or plot and just throws you in with the bare minimum amount of information required for you to get going. You’re able to change your character to have different starting stats before you go headfirst into battle and that’s all you can do to prepare. The game revolves around mini-boss battles that you have to defeat consecutively without dying in order to win a badge with no real incentive to why you want this badge in the first place. These bosses are all somewhat unique with different attack patterns that never get complicated to learn but even though their attacks are simplistic, you have to pay attention to what sort of elemental attack it is. Some of them you can use the invulnerable frames of the dodge to avoid taking damage, whilst others you have to get completely out of the way to avoid taking damage. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t get all that complex in general, half of the time you’ll be holding down the shoot button that constantly fires either left or right that has the range of the entire map and because it shoots so much you slowly move backward whenever you fire from your weapon. The other half is dodging the bosses attacks which can be brutal sometimes depending on how quickly they attack or their range. You’ll be given visual indicators to show you where the attack will be and what elemental attack it is. You’ll need to be quick with spamming the dodge button for some attack patterns. Despite sounding rather dull, the game actually presents these boss battles to be slightly thrilling and exciting to defeat. Even though you can defeat these bosses within a few minutes, it can still feel slightly intense as sometimes you won’t be given much time to shoot the boss before having to concentrate on their attacks to avoid taking damage. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2218400665 [h3][b]Dodge, shoot, dodge, repeat[/b][/h3] Your character has a small amount of maneuverability mechanics to help you fight against these bosses. One of the main mechanics that will help get you out of trouble is gaining a 3-second shield after either taking damage or using a potion. It helped out a lot, especially when you get to the harder bosses and their attacks start slightly stack on top of one another, without the shield you’d take constant damage so I really appreciate this mechanic. Apart from the shield, you also have a dodge that has invulnerable frames to avoid taking damage from specific types of attacks. Stats also play a big part in [b]Star Island[/b] and even though it’s pretty bare-bones you still need to pay some sort of attention to it. Your attack, defense, life regen, luck and attack speed are all pretty basic, and even without trying you will easily be able to max them out quickly within the run which is particularly needed on the higher difficulties. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2218399139 [h1]🎧Music & Sound[/h1] The soundtrack is simplistic and even though there isn’t much variety, there is enough to keep it interesting for me to leave it on. However, all the sound effects are drowned out by the sound of your weapon, and since you’ll be shooting a lot of the time, it gets extremely irritating quickly. Of course, there’s an option to turn off the sound effects but the [i]sound effect[/i] slider turns down the music as well. [h1]🎨Graphics[/h1] Visually the game looks fine for what it is, even though the same sort of colour palette is used for most of the levels there’s a small amount of variety which I appreciate and sometimes completely different backgrounds. However, the visual effects seem over the top to the point where sometimes it’s hard to understand whats going on. From your weapon firing to the boss using their attacks which can range from a simple massive explosion to a plane flying over and shooting constantly there’s just too many effects that clutter the screen. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2218399845 The bosses you come up against only really come in a handful of different shapes and sizes until they start reusing the same ones but with different colour schemes. It does seem a little lazy, but you have to appreciate the bigger boss battles that are a lot more unique and memorable than the smaller and less impactful ones. [h1]💭Closing Thoughts[/h1] Despite [b]Star Island[/b] being a relatively short game (and looking like a reskinned game from the developers’ other titles), for the asking price what do you expect? You might get an hour or two worth of entertainment but there’s not much else once you’ve completed the game for the first time. Even with the added difficulties, there isn’t much replay value but the game is definitely enjoyable for the hour or so you’ll be playing it. [i]This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers[/i]