Startide

Startide is a strangely boring shoot-'em-up, strongly reminiscent of the 2003 freeware title Warning Forever mechanically but much slower-paced, to its detriment. Essentially the entire game is fighting bosses by destroying them part-by-part from the extremities inward, since only the outermost parts on a limb take any damage, with the scaling falling off such that hitting any part other than the two outermost is almost worthless. So, it's all about slowly circling enemies, minimizing the amount of hits you take, and slowly wearing them down. Of course, with a system where you both regenerate health and destroy the boss's weapons as you fight, this means that essentially all stages get easier as they go on, which contributes to the tedious feeling. Likewise, there's not all that much difference between stages - some will have time limits, and some will have breaks for asteroid fields (which are to your advantage, since you regenerate health and super bar during this time), and as you go on you fight five different alien races, three of which have their own gimmicks, two of which matter - except for stages where you are attacking supply trains, which are similar (you still destroy armed parts coming off the train, from the outside in, then destroy the "core" that contains the supplies) but involve different enough mechanics that they at least feel like something different. Startide is also not free of minor issues that I felt dragged the game down. The biggest one is that I felt the 4th alien race was the hardest to fight by far, which made the entire end of the game where you fought the 5th race feel very anticlimactic. Another is that, instead of getting notably harder (except when you fight the 4th race) or more interesting, stages just require you to fight more bosses in a row, which increases both the likelihood that you'll mess up and die sometime during them, and makes you have to replay even more when you die. The least and silliest gripe is that the game gave me a giant laser cannon with only one fight left before the rest of the game was fighting the 5th race, and due to how the mechanics interact, the giant laser cannon is useless against the 5th and final race of aliens. Ultimately, I don't think I was expecting tedium from a shoot-'em-up. It's a genre with quite a few bad entries, but few boring ones, but Startide somehow managed to be. Check out Warning Forever instead, it's a significantly more fun freeware take on many of the same ideas. (Postscript: Startide has a workshop functionality, but I felt it was somewhat limited in terms of being able to create interesting things due to fairly low "cost" limits, hopelessly degenerate designs like my Invincible are quite possible, and there's no real ship design community for the game. It's at least fairly easy to use, but I didn't think it was notable in any way.)

Glad this got taken off steam.

After playing the first 3 or 4 levels, the game may seem like it could be decent; but then the repetition really kicks in. It's just not all that fun fighting similar bosses over and over again. The game feels more like a chore than anything else. The game also has some unpolished sections, such as the campaign menus and dialogue. I do like the idea of the boss creation mode; but the surrounding game doesn't do much with the concept.

[h1] Fight big boss dudes. Destroy the cargo and move on to the next big bad boss. In the meantime get attacked by deadly peasants swarming you like flies. General idea is good it's just each stage require divided attention - shooting boss and avoiding projectiles from all sides. Game have plenty of mechs to unlock - design is good. Some customization like different modules to equip. Sounds are ok. Campaign consist of exploring the map and picking another battle, while some planets contain only some unlockable. You can also build your own mechs and chill out for a bit with your badass robo. Not bad neither good so just giving slight recommendation on this one. [/h1]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131972629 Startide é um jogo de ação de mechas que mistura a liberdade de movimento e combate de um twin-stick shooter com a jogabilidade de shoot'em ups de nave espacial. Seu grande diferencial é o fato de não ter fases estruturadas, onde enfrentam-se vários inimigos fracos e um chefe no final. Ao invés disso, toda fase terá logo de cara um chefe, que pode ser seguido de outro, e outro. Os combates em geral são rápidos, de início durando 30 segundos a 1 minuto, até onde pudemos cobrir no vídeo, e portanto as fases não são longas. Há também algumas fases diferentes, que contam com naves menores para atrapalhar, ou objetivos principais diferentes, e servem bem para remover a monotonia de ser um jogo "arena" na maior parte do tempo. O jogo traz também um editor de chefes, que permite ao jogador compor o corpo de um chefe, escolher e posicionar suas armas, e enfrentá-lo quando quiser, e ainda por cima compartilhar seu chefe com os demais jogadores, através de uma ótima integração com o Steam Workshop. É possível jogar o modo História sozinho, para ver a história, liberar peças de chefe para o construtor, e também liberar habilidades e novos mechas para o jogador. Cada mecha liberado possui stats diferentes, como também armas, e portanto a jogabilidade muda bem com cada robô, aumentando bem a rejogabilidade do título e deixando ele menos enjoativo. Há ainda o modo Infinito, que possui suporte à cooperativo local para 2 jogadores, onde enfrenta-se chefe após chefe, com o objetivo de ter um desafio maior e ainda disputar no placar de pontuação com os demais jogadores. Enfim, o jogo inova bem em seu formato, que por vezes parece muito raso, mas as fases rápidas podem ser uma boa alternativa para quem não é fã de carteirinha de jogos de nave com fases mais longas e cansativas.

This is the most boring, unfinished game I have seen yet. It looks colourful on the store page, but my god how boring it is. I hate to write negative reviews, but there's no excuse for this kind of shoddy junk.

Very nice casual arcade game. Infinite fight with the bosses ( ships ) in single, co-op or campaign. But also allowes you to make your own bosses and send them to the fight with the other players. Old school arcade game with nice graphics and good soundtrack.

A barebones shooter with annoying sound and forgettable music. The menus and the dialogue in the also-barebones campaign mode are full of spelling and grammar errors. Everything about this game is amateur and unpolished and it feels like it was slapped together. I'm glad I got this on sale because I don't recommend spending more than $5 on this.

Startide is one heck of a good time! I love the look and feel of this game so much. From the variety of mechs with unique weapons, to the multiple special abilities with active and passive effects, the game does a great job of putting you in control of how the battles play out. I really enjoy the Boss mode where you can build your own custom boss and upload it for other to try and defeat. Finally the love and attention to detail put into the game really shines through in all aspects. It may be simple in it's delivery, but don't be fooled, this is going to be a hidden gem that way to many people will end up missing. Don't be a statistic and give this one a shot. If you wanna see some game play and personal impressions I've provided a link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaihiUtej38

I understand the concept of the game. But isn´t fun. The background always rotating ... always irritating! No zoom in or out. No sensation of, definitively, destroy a large ship. That just disappear. And ... the pattern of bullets and secondary enemies is too basic ...