Steinstern: Spacewar

[quote] A review copy was provided by the developer. [/quote] 🔶 [b] Steinstern is a top view shooter game with some rpg system[/b] 🔶 Ok graphics, but all dungeons look like the same https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3451957480 Gameplay is good, classic shooter game, with multiples weapons to collect and use on your ships (max 5 weapons can be equipped at the same time) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3451957697 After each level completed, the maze gets longer and longer, with tougher enemies. Nice too get new powerful weapons during gameplay, but unfortunately weapon level don’t scale with current stage level (on stage level 6 you can still get weapon level 1-2-3) 5 difficulty levels, with a random stage creation before starting a level https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3451957292 [b] Unfortunately, the game is really repetitive, and doesn’t work well after stage 10+ completed, because too much long level, weak weapon scale and all dungeons feel the same [/b] 💚💚💚 : - Good base gameplay - Nice rpg & weapon system ❌❌❌ : - Really too repetitive, all dungeon look like the same. - Don’t work well on higher stage level, because weak weapon scaling system, and too much long stages. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

Got it on discount, music is cool, upgrades and map design is all good . Co-op is smooth too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i96q7rOefTI

[i]This review is posted on the same day the game released. Future updates to the game may fix some problems in this review or expand the game further.[/i] A charming little space shooter that's a little rough on the edges (more about that further down), but blends elements from Action RPGs. It's quite simple, but for the price point it works well. Your ship can level up, increasing its base stats, and the gear that randomly drops have different modifiers that slightly affect their damage output, fire rate or range. Mazes are randomly generated, though scale in size with map difficulty. However, the environments do get repetitive after a while - something that may probably be fixed in a future content update? Mazes don't seem to have a limit, which may become a performance problem when playing on map levels 12 or higher (the circles on the doors even start clipping through the mechanism itself!). At this point levels are long enough to maybe take 12 minutes to clear. There's currently relatively few weapon types but it's diverse enough to come up with something unusual or funny. There are some slight bugs or other oddities in some areas and places, but given how quickly the developer fixed bugs I reported after playing the demo, it's very clear that they're passionate about their product and have an open ear to feedback. [b]In short[/b]: Fun little ARPG maze-crawler for a bit. Eager to see if the developer will expand the game in different ways.

Fun indie game with friendly developer.The game takes care of you and here is one example - I didn’t immediately realize that you can equip multiple weapons, so I ended up selling one of the good ones. But the developer took care of us and added the option to buy weapons back. The visual design is great, including the smoke effect on the ship when your health is too low. Good music and sounds effect. The puzzles are fun, though the number of them is a bit disappointing. There’s also the option to customize not only the seed but the puzzle and enemy seeds separately. Here are some tips for getting the most difficult achievements (though they’re actually very easy). If you set “easy” in all seed fields when starting the game, you’ll get a level with only one enemy, which helps with the following achievements: “Ninja” complete the level without taking damage “We Are Unworthy” complete the level at 100% without taking damage “Flawless” complete the level without shooting enemies It’s also easier to complete other achievements this way, and it’s recommended to manually enter different seeds to get achievements related to clearing specific room types

I'm giving this game a very *light* thumbs up. I know people tend to want to look at the bad first, so I'm going to do that. CONS: The depth - this game has very little depth. What you see in the trailer is basically everything there. There's two types of levels (square and hexagon, and they look/function pretty similarly), and they just... generate endlessly. There isn't really a *goal* for playing this - you just play it. It would be impressive if there were bosses every few levels or an end point to reach (to then allow infinite playing after beating that). In addition to this for depth, you'll notice (at least at the time of writing), that this does not list roguelike as a tag. The leveling up of weapons and your ship aren't bad, but there's not a ton of decision making there - it just makes things a bit better without the typical things I personally like in roguelikes. It feels like it has the making of wanting to be a roguelike without actually being one (level generation). The graphics feel fairly simple - for example I could see a college student getting somewhat close to this. That might be a side effect of the lack of variety, but if you compare this to games like Really Big Sky, you can see how the graphics here are fairly static - like an explosion is just a graphic that appears - it doesn't have an effect on nearby entities. I think some more post-processing could perhaps go a long way there. (I do like the googly eyes on the ships though - don't take those away). NEUTRAL: The music is fine - it's like a radio and just loops through a few songs. It's fitting for the game, but you might get tired of it quickly. The door unlocks are ok - they're kind of simplistic and feel a little like busywork at times, but I guess they serve the purpose to prevent you from just rushing right through an area. I'd personally like more types of unlocks though (such as defeating a special harder enemy for example). PROS: Having a coop mode is always a great idea - I didn't get the chance to try it myself at least yet, but it's something I generally enjoy. The gameplay/combat does flow well. I recommend going up from normal difficulty right at the start, but the inclusion of a dodge roll (which does *not* give invicibility to be clear) actually makes the dodging and weaving through bullets satisfying and fun. This is not to be understated - - this is important as I could see myself muting the music (since I've heard it all already), lowering the audio, and just chilling with this game with a podcast on. It has the "Casual" tag and I agree there - if you want to chill with some top down shooting combat for a bit, it can definitely deliver on that. Other: Oh yeah I feel like the store inventory management is a bit fiddly - it would be nice if there were buttons to sell all weapons below a certain tier, or all unequipped weapons, all with one press.

It's great to find a hidden gem from a fellow passionate developer! At first, I played on normal, but then, I cranked up the difficulty to max, and I enjoyed finding strategies to survive. For example, when you activate something that will likely cause enemies to spawn, have an escape route mapped out so that before they appear, you can be on your way to the nearest choke point. I was also intrigued by the leveling system. The guns can be upgraded past 10, which surprised me. I don't know how high it goes, but it would be delightfully funny and satisfying if you can take it far enough to one-shot even the biggest enemies. 😁 I do think the tutorial should mention the special weapon; I didn't even notice that was a thing until two hours in. Also, there should be an achievement for clearing a level in "very hard" mode without dying. That was tough! 😅

I am really enjoying this game. I've got 6 hours in and it is perfect for relaxing and zoning out. It reminds me of an older generation of games but with very fluid controls. I like gathering different types of weapons and seeing which combos are most effective. Great value for the price!

It's a pretty nice little game but there's not much depth to it. Upgrading weapons is pretty limited (only dmg?) and the level ups are slow and either pretty strong (10% crit %) or underwhelming (2% dmg). I wish progression and scaling was faster and more in-depth.

Steinstern is a smooth and stylish SHMUP with awesome music, clever sound-based puzzles, and intense space-maze action. Fluid controls, smart upgrades, and procedurally generated challenges make every run fresh and thrilling!

A twin-stick top-down looter-shooter with increasing difficulty and some riveting music. You can find and/or upgrade gear during a run to keep up with foes and mazes of increasing complexity and challenge. The mazes gradually increase in size as you progress. Its not particularly deep but what is here is very fun and especially concentrated, so much so that I usually find myself thinking "just one more run". I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a no-nonsense looter-shooter experience.