レビュー

• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2023

  Deep Space Shooter is a very run of the mill console (Switch) ported 2D retro pixel vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that looks like it was copy + pasted from a basic template from Yoyogames for the craptastic GameMaker Studio blight on gaming construction kit. The only differentiator here is that you're locked into 5 lanes horizontally (but you're free to move up and down as much as you want, not that that makes a difference). This is a very bland, very poorly done shoot 'em up with no real merit or value for serious PC gamers, and compares poorly to older shoot 'em ups like Galaga, which you can play for free. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics. The game only displays in a ridiculous mobile phone 9:16 pillarboxed aspect ratio. It's possible this was designed for mobile or something, but there's simply no excuse for this in a modern PC game. The controls and game handling are notably very clunky and unsmooth here. It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed. Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing. They dropped the ball on this one. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers. Because this is a console game, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the inferior console gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the console-centric developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for consoles forces upon a game. Once more, console peasants have made gaming worse for everyone. Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is often used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. Deep Space Shooter didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for finishing the first level, and only around 33 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game. The poor quality of this game is reflected in the general public reception. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. That's right, only 3. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in the game is to be expected. Gamers just didn't take this low quality game seriously, and for good reason. Deep Space Shooter is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 2, 2019

  [h1]Maybe not very deep but definitely a solid retro-style shoot 'em up[/h1] In [i]Deep Space Shooter[/i] there's not much story to speak of. Enemy (alien?) spacecraft fly in from all cardinal directions and you shoot them while dodging their attacks. There's lots of different enemies with various weapons like basic shooty shoots, missiles, and lasers. In story's later stages and in the endless mode it can get crowded if you're not careful. In the story mode there's 12 big bosses to fight too. Game auto-saves in the beginning of each stage. I found it a bit on the easy side for shoot 'em ups. I died 6 times: once in an early boss, thrice in the worm boss (which was delightfully challenging), and twice in the last boss (again, a fine one). I liked all bosses though, even if most weren't that difficult. I think none of them were unfair or too easy either. I enjoyed the set of marvellous retro tracks that play in the background a lot. [h1]What's special: Weapon upgrade mods[/h1] Enemies sometimes drop weapon upgrades. There's three different kinds, and their effect depends on which weapon slots you equip them. It's remarkable that there's no UI (aside from the menus). You have limited health but no idea how much of it is left. Furthermore, which weapons are equipped (and in which slots) are seen only by their effect. Their slots can only be switched by a quick maneuver of dropping the weapons and reclaiming them in the opposite order. It's a bit clumsy but I can't help but find it also charming. [h1]Only keyboard and some other issues[/h1] Controls are not rebindable: WASD or arrows move the ship and 'spacebar' shoots. 'g' drops a special weapon. What's funny is that the ship moves up- and downwards smoothly and continuously but sideways in distinct, jumpy, fast maneuvers (in total, there's five distinct "lanes" like this). This takes a bit of time to get used to, but since the enemies come up and down only in the lanes, it's not a big deal. After getting used to, it also partly helps dodging the shots, because the ship moves so fast sideways. However. - There's mouse controls in menu but it's not used otherwise. - There's also no native controller support, unfortunately. - It's fullscreen by native but Alt+Enter let's you play windowed if you prefer it. - No direct screenshot functionality (through Steam), oddly. [h1]Conclusions: a great shmup[/h1] The campaign's 24 stages lasted about 1.5 hours for me, including all the deaths and subsequently required stage replays. There's achievements for beating stages and for surviving sufficiently long in the Endless Mode. For its price ($2: I got it for $1 on sale), it's a good shoot 'em up to spend an evening. [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9997062/]~Twistorian Curator~[/url]
• gamedeal user

  Feb 5, 2019

  Obviously a rip off of deep space wafuis u can tell by the title. 10/10 would wank to again :)
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2020

  The horizontal lanes-based movement is a pain, and it is not consistent with the other game actors. If this were trying to simulate an old electronic LED or LCD game, I might be able to relate, but I'm not a fan of this mutation of the genre.