Hello Commanders,
I didn't see a thread yet for this game that came out last week on iOS so I thought I'd pop in and let everyone know about it! Aspiring mobile Commanders should take a look:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogue-star/id914339023?mt=8
I picked this up the day it came out and I've been completely hooked! It has a very similar gameplay loop to the original Elite: buy goods to trade; jump to sector; speed toward station; get interrupted by pirates that need to be fended off; sell goods at station; profit; repeat. Only with a few added distractions thrown in to spice things up. For instance, while warping toward a station you may get interrupted by convoys looking for a temporary escort. These are always very quick side-tasks which see you fighting off one or more waves of attackers. In addition to the escort payout, you receive bounty for each enemy destroyed, but be careful - your accumulated escort and bounty money get wiped if you die before docking at the station (in addition to losing any cargo you might be carrying)! I find this adds an interesting risk-reward mechanic to travel. Do I take another escort job for a bit extra cash and risk my hold full of high-priced goods, or leave this convoy to its own devices?
Another interesting addition to the trading aspect of the game is that you don't just buy commodities from a list; instead you purchase them through a neat little auction mini-game where you bid for goods against 3 competing alien traders. Its a fun little distraction that adds some flavor to the buy-low-sell-high cycle of making money. While quick and fun, the auctions can sometimes be a bit frustrating as you need to pay a (small) fee to enter and there is no guarantee that the particular commodity you want will come up before you are forced out of the auction for not bidding. You get three chances to win an item to continue or you get booted. The same goes for your competitors so sometimes it can be worth it to pay a bit more for an item if you can kick the guy who keeps bidding against you.
Then there's the combat. Taking its cues from various games from the past, Rogue Star is a great arcade dogfighter with a similar feel to the good old X-Wing games. You will even need to manage your energy levels between shields, lasers and engines! Fighting takes place with full x, y and z-axis freedom from a first-person perspective (no cockpit view sadly, though I understand not wanting to crowd the screen on a handheld device). A virtual analog stick and buttons serve very well for controls, though they can be a bit touchy until you get used to them. Situational awareness is achieved by an Elite-style compass that shows enemy and waypoint positions (hollow dots are ships behind you, solid in front). Fighting is fast-paced and satisfying. It's great fun to add power to lasers, drop throttle a bit and swing in behind an enemy for a kill, then quickly pump energy back to shields and turn to face down his wingman!
Lastly, Rogue Star just oozes personality. Whenever you dock at a station (a fully automated process, for good or ill), you will be greeted with a detailed character model of the station manager. These are all (as far as I've played) interesting alien creatures and they all have snappy things they say while you're browsing the menus. This extends to the auction competitors too. It still makes me laugh when I outbid someone and a text bubble pops over their portrait with an exclamation that I can't actually post on this forum! Your ship's robot will complain about how hard you make it work as well as shout encouragement during battles. Truly a lot of thought went into making the Rogue system feel like a real place.
So far, I've gushed about all the great things on the game, but there are a few drawbacks that should be noted. First, it's pretty simplistic. You will basically be repeating the trade loop described earlier continuously. There are missions to undertake, but they consist of making simple deliveries with low payout. Though to be fair, I've just received a mission that seems to deviate from the norm and has a higher payday to boot, so we'll see where that goes. Next is the size. There are only 8 sectors to visit which seems a bit small, and as yet I haven't seen anything like asteroids or other stellar phenomena to discover (but again, I haven't seen the whole game yet). Also, there are no upgrades for your ship. Progression seems to be limited to trading up your ship for the next better version (or higher if you save up). I would certainly like to see more ways of customizing the individual ships in a future update. Overall, these are very minor issues that do not detract from the game if you go in with the right mindset: it's great for quick sessions on your phone but you might find it a bit shallow if you want epic marathon gaming with it.
I also want to touch on difficulty real quick. Rogue Star is hard! At least at first. The starter ship seems to be made from cardboard and tin foil. That, combined with the slightly touchy controls could see many fledgling commanders hitting a wall as it will seem that meeting two pirates at once is a death sentence. Perseverance is key here and once you get used to the controls and learn how to properly manage your speed and power settings, the combat will begin to click and you will start to make significant progress. Below are some of my tips for surviving combat in the early going (spoiler tagged for those that want to try for themselves first):
Those are my thoughts on this game so far. I find it to be of very high quality and very fun and is made by a very small developer who deserves support for this effort. This game receives the Official CMDR Saari Seal of Approval and Recommendation (Seal may not be recognized by all governmental and administrative bodies in the known galaxy)
TL;DR: Anyone who is a fan of space games and owns an iOS device really should check out Rogue Star!
P.S. I am not affiliated with the developer in any way, I just really like this game!
I didn't see a thread yet for this game that came out last week on iOS so I thought I'd pop in and let everyone know about it! Aspiring mobile Commanders should take a look:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogue-star/id914339023?mt=8
I picked this up the day it came out and I've been completely hooked! It has a very similar gameplay loop to the original Elite: buy goods to trade; jump to sector; speed toward station; get interrupted by pirates that need to be fended off; sell goods at station; profit; repeat. Only with a few added distractions thrown in to spice things up. For instance, while warping toward a station you may get interrupted by convoys looking for a temporary escort. These are always very quick side-tasks which see you fighting off one or more waves of attackers. In addition to the escort payout, you receive bounty for each enemy destroyed, but be careful - your accumulated escort and bounty money get wiped if you die before docking at the station (in addition to losing any cargo you might be carrying)! I find this adds an interesting risk-reward mechanic to travel. Do I take another escort job for a bit extra cash and risk my hold full of high-priced goods, or leave this convoy to its own devices?
Another interesting addition to the trading aspect of the game is that you don't just buy commodities from a list; instead you purchase them through a neat little auction mini-game where you bid for goods against 3 competing alien traders. Its a fun little distraction that adds some flavor to the buy-low-sell-high cycle of making money. While quick and fun, the auctions can sometimes be a bit frustrating as you need to pay a (small) fee to enter and there is no guarantee that the particular commodity you want will come up before you are forced out of the auction for not bidding. You get three chances to win an item to continue or you get booted. The same goes for your competitors so sometimes it can be worth it to pay a bit more for an item if you can kick the guy who keeps bidding against you.
Then there's the combat. Taking its cues from various games from the past, Rogue Star is a great arcade dogfighter with a similar feel to the good old X-Wing games. You will even need to manage your energy levels between shields, lasers and engines! Fighting takes place with full x, y and z-axis freedom from a first-person perspective (no cockpit view sadly, though I understand not wanting to crowd the screen on a handheld device). A virtual analog stick and buttons serve very well for controls, though they can be a bit touchy until you get used to them. Situational awareness is achieved by an Elite-style compass that shows enemy and waypoint positions (hollow dots are ships behind you, solid in front). Fighting is fast-paced and satisfying. It's great fun to add power to lasers, drop throttle a bit and swing in behind an enemy for a kill, then quickly pump energy back to shields and turn to face down his wingman!
Lastly, Rogue Star just oozes personality. Whenever you dock at a station (a fully automated process, for good or ill), you will be greeted with a detailed character model of the station manager. These are all (as far as I've played) interesting alien creatures and they all have snappy things they say while you're browsing the menus. This extends to the auction competitors too. It still makes me laugh when I outbid someone and a text bubble pops over their portrait with an exclamation that I can't actually post on this forum! Your ship's robot will complain about how hard you make it work as well as shout encouragement during battles. Truly a lot of thought went into making the Rogue system feel like a real place.
So far, I've gushed about all the great things on the game, but there are a few drawbacks that should be noted. First, it's pretty simplistic. You will basically be repeating the trade loop described earlier continuously. There are missions to undertake, but they consist of making simple deliveries with low payout. Though to be fair, I've just received a mission that seems to deviate from the norm and has a higher payday to boot, so we'll see where that goes. Next is the size. There are only 8 sectors to visit which seems a bit small, and as yet I haven't seen anything like asteroids or other stellar phenomena to discover (but again, I haven't seen the whole game yet). Also, there are no upgrades for your ship. Progression seems to be limited to trading up your ship for the next better version (or higher if you save up). I would certainly like to see more ways of customizing the individual ships in a future update. Overall, these are very minor issues that do not detract from the game if you go in with the right mindset: it's great for quick sessions on your phone but you might find it a bit shallow if you want epic marathon gaming with it.
I also want to touch on difficulty real quick. Rogue Star is hard! At least at first. The starter ship seems to be made from cardboard and tin foil. That, combined with the slightly touchy controls could see many fledgling commanders hitting a wall as it will seem that meeting two pirates at once is a death sentence. Perseverance is key here and once you get used to the controls and learn how to properly manage your speed and power settings, the combat will begin to click and you will start to make significant progress. Below are some of my tips for surviving combat in the early going (spoiler tagged for those that want to try for themselves first):
As soon as you warp out at your destination sector follow this setup:
-Throttle to Full
-Lasers to 100%
-Shields to 33% (this will reset Lasers to 66% and Engines to 0% - that's what you want)
Having high lasers will allow you to kill ships with far fewer hits: taking down enemies fast is key, especially in multi-ship fights.
If you are taking a while to destroy an enemy, turn to face the wingman for a bit. Do not fixate on one target!
After a fight, ALWAYS put your Shields to 100% power and recharge them before engaging warp: they DO NOT recharge while traveling.
Have fun!
-Throttle to Full
-Lasers to 100%
-Shields to 33% (this will reset Lasers to 66% and Engines to 0% - that's what you want)
Having high lasers will allow you to kill ships with far fewer hits: taking down enemies fast is key, especially in multi-ship fights.
If you are taking a while to destroy an enemy, turn to face the wingman for a bit. Do not fixate on one target!
After a fight, ALWAYS put your Shields to 100% power and recharge them before engaging warp: they DO NOT recharge while traveling.
Have fun!
Those are my thoughts on this game so far. I find it to be of very high quality and very fun and is made by a very small developer who deserves support for this effort. This game receives the Official CMDR Saari Seal of Approval and Recommendation (Seal may not be recognized by all governmental and administrative bodies in the known galaxy)
TL;DR: Anyone who is a fan of space games and owns an iOS device really should check out Rogue Star!
P.S. I am not affiliated with the developer in any way, I just really like this game!
