Star Knight: Order of the Vortex

I'm not the biggest fan of rogue likes nor bullet hell games, but this absolutely blew me away! This game is simple and pure fun! You can unlock new ships, new crew members, and new difficulty levels as you play the game, and the amount of combinations you can get each run with the equipment lends itself to a lot of replayability! I went from one run having all guns, to having another run with only summons, to having another run where I tried to maximize the amount of credits just to see how high of a number I could get! The only complaints I have with the current version is that the UI elements can be a bit wonky now and then, and due to how the enemy spawn you can have attack patterns that overlap that feel a bit unfair. This attack overlap doesn't happen often, but it feels a bit sucky when it does. Aside from those two nitpicks, I've had nothing but a blast so far! Easily worth the price of a Big Mac.

I really enjoy this game so far!! I have played a couple of other games similar to this game; however, Star Knight made an emphasis on the different weapons, upgrades, and upgrade paths. That with the RNG of getting different upgrades after every level makes each level and play through different. Looking forward to see where this game goes!!

I'm awful at these kinds of games (and most games in general), but it's still super fun to play! I'd love to see higher than 60 fps support in the future, but something tells me it's a bit too ingrained to change at this point... It's only a few dollars, give it a shot! Definitely make sure to play through the tutorial so you don't miss anything important.

Video: https://youtu.be/VIDtVQWWQ0A I'm a few days late in writing this review, but here I am. I had hoped to actually unlock more ships so I could babble on about them, but every time I play some silly thing happens where I get pulled away and end up getting all exploded and such. So I haven't quite unlocked any new stuff. But, given the way the game works it's easily one of my current games to replay. You've got 3 stages, with 6 levels each, and some roguelike weapon progression during them. The boss battles are certainly the major stand out portions of the game. They're really cool, super satisfying, and easily my favorite part of the game. I've been really enjoying it thus far, and I feel pretty confident we'll see a lot of great updates as Early Access moves forward.

Tried out the demo and it looked pretty fun. Bought the game and I'm having a great time. Fun gameplay, feels like an old arcade game but with rogue-like elements. You slowly unlock stuff, but it doesn't feel like it's gotten any easier or harder due to unlocks so far, the crew and crystals I've unlocked so far have all come with 1 upside and 1 downside, and they feel relatively balanced to me. One gripe I have is that if you kill the enemy ships quickly by taking a lot of damage upgrades, you lose out on money in level. Maybe pure damage builds would be too good otherwise compared to healing/utility ones, but it feels bad when you decide to go for maximum murder. Something I think may be a bug is that there is a relic that heals all allied ships (the ones you summon with summoner upgrades) whenever you dash, but if you do not hold a directional input and spam spacebar (the way to dash) you stay in the same place and can very quickly spam heal all your summoned ships. Doesn't seem gamebreaking, but definitely makes that upgrade way better and make your summoned units immortal besides boss combat. Luckily the upgrade doesn't heal your ship, so you can still lose with it, but I'm assuming that's not intended. That is the only bug I've encountered so far, and it's pretty minor, so I don't mind.

This is a pretty fun game. As an 80s kid, I love the retro style. Figuring out powerful weapons synergies is cool, and makes each play thru unique.

Very fun and addictive game. Lots of combos to create and the game is the right difficulty. Challenging but won't make you cry.

First time playing a bullet-hell style game. Wasn't sure what to expect, but this was a pleasant surprise. This game exceeded my expectations and despite how many times I died, I kept going back in. This bullet-hell style game unlocks more as you progress, unlocking new combinations to try. No run is quite the same as every power is randomized. With what is available, you're runs will be quite unique. This game is simple, the controls are straight forward, and the pace will hold your attention. My only complaint is that I wish that there were more levels, but since this is early access I know that more content coming.

I don't play a lot of games like this but so far I've had a lot of fun. The customization and different builds you can create are cool and add a lot of replay value. Runs aren't too long so its easy to pop on and do a run or two and there is a lot of progression to work through. It gets a bit difficult, especially as you progress through the difficulties but never feels impossible. Definitely recommend if you like rougelikes or bullethell games.

Solid roguelite play. All the weapons feel decent, gameplay is fun, runs are short. The current game is a little easy as I'm currently at difficulty 7 of 12, and I'm yet to lose a run or really be too close to it. Current runs are 3 area of 6 zones each, but theres plans on extending it to 5 which would probably be the sweet spot. Some weird art choices, like the asteroid field overlay on the levels needs an uncheck option, and I'd like to see a highlight on the ship but the bones are really good here. At it's current price it's worth picking up as it's a pretty enjoyable game and the music in the runs is solid. Edit: They've added areas and added the options for highlighting and removing the background to make it a little cleaner visually. It's just a rock solid experience now.