• Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Posted: **October 22nd, 2018, 7:15 pm**

I'll be direct, this is a really good fun game and the reviews don't do it justice.

It's essentially a more action-packed version of No Man's Sky with more varied planets and activities, and almost zero farming for materials. What it lacks in the sense of isolation, it more than makes up for with fun things to do. Predominantly, this means fetch quests, combat or puzzles (and even some platforming) but it keeps layering on the systems so you always have something new to work towards and you can feel your ship developing.

The Starfox content on the Switch is pretty good, too. I'm not a massive Starfox fan to be frank but this captures that Saturday morning cartoon vibe really well. It's tonally a lovely game to inhabit for a few hours with only one sporadic member of the cast being a bit annoying; most are spot on, no depth but well acted and capture the intended mood very well.

The highlights are the fluidity and speed of flight, with seamless transitions between surface, air and space. You'll be barrel rolling and boosting and skimming and looping within a few minutes. It feels just right. Combat is also excellent and while I can't say it's on a par with Destiny, there is something of that game here that the gunplay reminds me of. That may well be too generous but the weapons and dogfights do feel great.

It seems to be DOA because of the price and TTL stuff but it's going to go down as one of my unsung favourites of the year, I'm sure, hence me singing about it.

Posted: **October 22nd, 2018, 10:26 pm**

I’ve been playing this too man, everything you’ve said is true, it’s really not a bad game - just a little bland I feel.

I’m about 10 hours in, I’ve had a few two hour sessions then a really long 4/5 play last Friday.

I got stuck in a sort of loop of doing silly little quests on the planets as I didn’t know, or rather missed, the fact that I had to upgrade the Equinox to progress the story.

By this time I’d seen a lot of the structures enemies and mini quests. The main story did seem interesting though and it felt very good to play.

I’ve just learnt to modify my mods, to combine them into super effective mods - so I can see how that works, which is neat.

I must say though, if it wasn’t for the Star Fox link, is probably be fully out by now but as it stands I’ll probably play it again.

It’s a sort of weird cross between the planet scanning of Mass Effect 2, the mech to mech combat of Titanfall 2 and the exploration of No Mans Sky.

The Arwing model is sick though.

Posted: **October 22nd, 2018, 11:50 pm**

It hasn’t fared too well at retail apparently.

Posted: **October 23rd, 2018, 9:34 am**

I’m surprised Ubisoft ever thought it would.

Posted: **October 23rd, 2018, 10:50 am**

Genuinely, it's a shame.

I've never played a game which handles surface to air to space flight mechanics and combat with such breezy aplomb. It makes NMS feel like Elite Dangerous, i.e. really boring. It feels almost Nintendo in its joyful movement, even ignoring the Starfox tie-in. It's also very pleasantly challenging. Beneath the kiddy cartoon toy exterior, there's a pretty robust shooting game with various elemental combos to take on the different baddies. My favourite is freezing them with a charged ice laser thing and then DAKKA DAKKA with some lava machine gun for the THERMAL SHOCK bonus.

If they'd jibbed the toys, cut a little of the grind and just went all in on the Starfox concept with more set pieces, I think it would be another Switch classic. As it is, it's 'just' very good fun. The giant bosses and stuff are awesome, the kind of thing people would be flipping their shit about if they were in NMS.

It does feel like it's been sent out to die, sadly.

Posted: **October 23rd, 2018, 11:44 am**

Yeah, the combat is great fun, I have to admit that.

The big battles against the larger nasties is a joy and like you say using the elemental combo’s is very pleasing.

I can imagine Co-Op being fun too.

Posted: **October 26th, 2018, 4:36 am**

Saw the figures in a GameStop today and I have to admit, they look fairly neat. But i notice there are pilot figures in addition to ship figures. How does that work?

Posted: **March 6th, 2019, 9:44 pm**

Stanshall wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2018, 7:15 pm I'll be direct, this is a really good fun game and the reviews don't do it justice.

It's essentially a more action-packed version of No Man's Sky with more varied planets and activities, and almost zero farming for materials. What it lacks in the sense of isolation, it more than makes up for with fun things to do. Predominantly, this means fetch quests, combat or puzzles (and even some platforming) but it keeps layering on the systems so you always have something new to work towards and you can feel your ship developing.

The Starfox content on the Switch is pretty good, too. I'm not a massive Starfox fan to be frank but this captures that Saturday morning cartoon vibe really well. It's tonally a lovely game to inhabit for a few hours with only one sporadic member of the cast being a bit annoying; most are spot on, no depth but well acted and capture the intended mood very well.

The highlights are the fluidity and speed of flight, with seamless transitions between surface, air and space. You'll be barrel rolling and boosting and skimming and looping within a few minutes. It feels just right. Combat is also excellent and while I can't say it's on a par with Destiny, there is something of that game here that the gunplay reminds me of. That may well be too generous but the weapons and dogfights do feel great.

It seems to be DOA because of the price and TTL stuff but it's going to go down as one of my unsung favourites of the year, I'm sure, hence me singing about it.

This is pretty much how I feel, just found this thread! A few months late but I am very pleasantly surprised by this game.

Posted: **March 9th, 2019, 3:08 pm**

Right, I've not touched this since it came out really but was chatting on Twitter and though maybe I'd pop back in with a podcast on in the background.

Four hours later and I'm fully back up to speed and understanding more of the gameplay loop and how chill it can be.

Since this games pretty limp launch the toys and add-ons are now almost, or in some cases, cheaper than half price.

Having already spent the full whack on the launch pack with the Arwing, I was quite happy to see that the add-on weapons were half price in Smyths, so I grabbed them all. You can effectively get the weapons digitally by purchasing the digital codes in the eShop but you know, more plastic crap is always welcome in my house. The handy thing is that once you've connected them once to your ship they unlock digitally so you don't have to faff about with the ship controller if you don't want to - which I don't.

I'm enjoying the chill gameplay, the handing and shooting of the weapons feels nice.

Its a great podcast game, clearing planets and watching the numbers go up.

I'm pretty keen to see what this StarFox add-on is like that's due in the summer now - bring it on !!!

Posted: **March 14th, 2019, 10:54 am**

@Suits am I taking credit for your renewed interest in this game? Saw you were on it again last night

I continue to be bowled over by it, I hit a major plot point

Spoiler: show: Dreadnought battle, rescuing St. Grand only for him to die immediately

and the story really is grabbing me, as is the surprisingly deep space combat. it seems to just get better and better!

Posted: **March 14th, 2019, 11:29 am**

Hahaha, yeah partly

.

The other thing was Damian McFerren on Twitter posted something about it and we got chatting about it, so I went back in to take another look.

I spent some time reading the in game lore then understanding the planet management physics and it was really satisfying.

I’m at the very very end now.

Very much enjoying it, it’s one of those captivating 7/10 games.

Looking forward to seeing what they do with the StarFox DLC in a few months.

Posted: **March 16th, 2019, 12:33 pm**

Finished this up the other night, in a sort of limp fashion.

I'd explored and levelled up so much that the boss fight was a total cake walk.

I was spamming the fire button to try and work out the dance you have to do to beat him, find out what his weaknesses etc.... when he suddenly just died.

That said, it was cool.

Once you beat the game, the world stays open and a there's plenty more to do that ties in and makes sense story wise.

I'll keep going I think as it's a wonderful podcast game and the fighting is satisfying.

I'm worried now though that I'll be well over levelled for the StarFox DLC when it lands and will just plough through t without too much thought. We'll see.

Posted: **March 17th, 2019, 11:41 pm**

Cool! I’ve just finished the Star Fox missions myself, very enjoyable indeed. Think I’m fairly far in the main campaign.

Posted: **March 18th, 2019, 2:37 pm**

Picked it up on Switch yesterday with the Starfox stuff. Looking forward to getting stuck in

Posted: **March 18th, 2019, 3:18 pm**

YES !!!!

Posted: **March 19th, 2019, 12:02 pm**

Worth the £19.99 for the ''Good Luck'' and ''Do a barrel roll''

Posted: **March 21st, 2019, 4:45 pm**

End credits have rolled.

What a total surprise this game was. From suddenly being offered it for a fiver to having a quick go to check it works to becoming obsessed with it during most of my available gaming minutes it's been an absolute blast.

Highly recommended. Of all the comparisons this game has had, the biggest for me in terms of world-building, theme, everything is Mass Effect. Throw in what is easily the best Star Fox game I've played and you have a winner. Sadly lost in the mire I am betting thanks to the needless toys-to-life element which you absolutely don't need to play / complete the game.

Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Re: Starlink: Battle for Atlas