SuperCluster: Void

Used to play Starflight (yea, the 30 year old space simulation) and trying to play this one

It lacks a decent tutorial and I'm at the moment building a fleet - found out when you build a ship it appears inside a shipyard

Now need find out how to arm and fire missiles >_<

5/10, will change when it gets better

man this is a gem of a game it's not much to look at but it was a fantastic playthrough making me want more... it's been 3 months er so since i beat it and i still want more!

Relatively fun game, I'm a sucker for the whole upgrading your ship, flying around space, completing quests style of gameplay.

That said, not without drawbacks.
As you can no doubt see from the screenshots, it is not a pretty game, most of the stuff really does look like it was done (admittedly pretty well done) in mspaint. That said, the graphics are functional and it's relatively easy to tell at a glance whats what, except when it comes to ship equipment, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to tell at a glance what you have equipped currently, only a picture of the item instead of including its name is present.

Music is... Present, doesn't stand out to me either way does the job. Sound design is decent for the most part, though there is a missile launching sound that really really doesn't fit.

Controls feel a little weird to get used to- but they work pretty well it's not hard to get to grips with.

Storyline looks fairly standard so far, somewhat interesting and I am a sucker for a good from the ashes plotline. That said there doesn't seem to be much in the way of worldbuilding or oppertunities to find out about races involved, including the non-human Trask that you play as other than that, each race has a hat. The cowards, the lazy bunch, the religious zealots, the warlike dummies, the snack-obsessed blobs with robot arms.

Ship combat AI is poor, you can punch well above your weight class simply by flying around a target and shooting inwards, the AI having a tendancy to aim where you were. This is a good thing- because to level up and gain access to new equipment or the like is a hellish grind, both in terms of gaining 'xp' to improve abilities (multiple levels required to buy one, not to mention unlock the ability to make new equipment) and in terms of farming resources, with even basic ships and starting equipment upgrades taking significant investment to improve requiring you to strip multiple planets bare of resources or blow up multiple fleets of pirates personally.

Stability is the pits, the game will crash seemingly at random every several minutes, was reported back in december to no reply.

... I have enjoyed myself I really have and I started writing this with the intention of clicking the yes button to recommend the game, but having written all that- I just can't. It's fun. I can't work out why.

This game had some potential but its full of bugs and the endgame was obviously impemented in a rush
Give it a go if you like such kind of games, but be aware its worse than other games in this genre.

Game may have potential with more content but as it is right now.... it get super boring real quick....

There is not much to do in the game, you fly around land on planets do the resource collection "mini game" and fight bad guys every now and then...

There is a story line type quest but you just get thrown into it (at the deep end I might add) after the first 2 and have to fly around looking for races to give you missions, to add to that these missions are very lack luster after you do get them, fly to a race home planet/base/ship and find X amount of something, bring it back...

There is also no nice or easy way to make/or get resources (as far as im aware) the only way is from planet surfaces or enemy ships, and from my experience planets don’t seem to “restock” so it’s a one time run… There is also trading with gold to a trader ship (which is where you’ll most likely get what you need) with gold you get from the pirate cargo ship you randomly encounter in hyperspace…

Overall pretty boring

A really fun casual space explorer. Well worth the price and fun to play. The mouse controls work well. I run it on a windows tablet ( with a keyboard and mouse ) so it should work on low end systems quite well.

If you're into simple RPG elements, a basic Gathering system combined with old school Asteroids combat like style than this game is for you. I can appreciate the simplistic nature of the game but for all that it still draws me in when I play to see how many resources I can collect and how many ships I can add to my fleet. Definitely worth the $5 price tag.

Very enjoyable game, and great response from the developer.

In terms of gameplay and positives, I can't say much that hasn't already been covered, but this game is definitely worth your time, and is an excellent deal even at the non-discounted price.

What stood out to me is that I had a problem with my save file that consistently caused a crash a good ways into the game. I emailed the developer, and had a response within THREE minutes, followed by a diagnosis in less than half an hour - I was told that the game was being patched presently, and that I'd be good to go in thirty minutes to an hour. This is hands down the best response I've ever had from a developer; if you've seen Logan's responsiveness in the forum, you also know that this isn't an anomaly. This is someone who is in it for the love of gaming, and exactly the kind of developer I hope to see succeed.

Cheers, Logan - you're a class act.

Gameplay in progress and review to be modified accordingly.

[The basics]
Solid 2D space game in the vein of StarControl. Thrust/inertia mechanics, planetary resource gathering. Upgradable vessels, numerous vessels to construct. Alien species to contact/befriend/fight. Some things to note:

[Positive]
The RPG mechanics seem to fit in rather well, allowing for not only an upgrade of the ship, but unlocking specific pilot/ship abilities in addition to constructing new equipment. I can see how others might view it as "tacked on", but I don't share that opinion. I never felt like I was grinding to the next level. By the time I had the resources I needed to tackle the next upgrade, I had usually unlocked something else via leveling.

Plotwise, I'm getting a strong Ur-Quan Masters feel, and that's not a bad thing. I really hated combat in SC2, and the combat here is far more responsive. Your ships can load themselves out with a varying number of weapons (based on vessel, larger ships tend to have more slots, but that's not an absolute) with different firing arcs, patterns, and damage. SuperCluster: Void may not have the mind-crushingly large universe of SC2, but it's definitely a love letter to the games that inspired it.

[Gripes/Frustrations/Minor Issues]]
-This isn't without its flaws, however. At the time of writing, the dialogue choices... don't seem to matter a whole lot. Species A wants you to do something, and it seems like regardless of what you say, your only real choices are do it (which is assumed required to advance the story) or not, and continue faffing about. In another instance, you're attacked by agents of the villain and given choices as to what to say, but don't so much as get a response for it. I don't quite know why it's even been included.
-Planetside, there are some odd "bouncy" moments when your ship hits any of the boundaries. Not impact or damage, but depending on your thrust, you can go bouncing off of what looks to be nothing, or the horizon, or the left and right limits on planar exploration. A minor gripe, but be aware.
-Your Radar (minimap) is Great AND Useless. Vessels, planets, satellites, all show up on your radar screen. The drops from ships destroyed, however, despite taking up as much on screen real estate as some vessels, do not. I hope you remembered where you blew up that pirate cargo ship while outrunning the cruiser flying escort, because at the moment, it's fly around and hope for the best.
-ONE. ZOOM. SETTING. That's it. You get a base view and cannot change from that. It's pretty close to the ship you're flying, which makes the above problem even more grating at times. Still not a game-killer, but it does engender some serious frustration at times.
-The game is mildly unstable. I've had 3 CTD events inside of 2 hours of playing. This cost me serious game time, and made me genuinely reconsider if the nostalgia it invoked was worth the annoyance. (It is, or at least, I still feel it is. The game is fun)
-There's nowhere to refuel in your home system which makes no sense. Especially when it starts churning out vessels on its own. Yes, the stars near-ish to your home territory all have merchant fleets that will refuel you, but the beginning of the game you're watching your hyperspace fuel tick lower and lower with no indication of what you're supposed to do about it. Neither did I read about that in the tutorial anywhere. And it's a good tutorial, being relatively non-invasive and explaining what all the various screens you come across will do. I'm surprised that was overlooked. Maybe this is a petty gripe, but it really had me furrowing my brows for the first hour of gameplay, which is never a good sign.
-Don't try playing this with a keyboard alone. Just don't. Yes, the developer has put keyboard controls in for steering, but they are not what a game like this needs. Thrust is directional. Press left, your ship rotates super fast and starts thrusting to the left. Press down, same thing, downward. Now add inertia into the mix and it's a nightmare. You cannot rotate your vessel effectively with keyboard alone. The mouse and keyboard combined are a great interface and the game plays incredibly that way. I see what the dev was trying to do, but for the moment, it's fallen flat.
-The enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired. Kiting seems way, waaaaaay too effective. Further, there seems to be an engagement radius for the enemy ships. This is a problem because your guns reach farther than the enemy can react. It's quite feasible to park yourself outside of range of the enemy and pelt them from a distance until they go boom. Sound and screen-shaking effects let you know you're scoring solid hits. A bit exploitable at the moment. It's handy, especially when trying to farm Pirates for Gold and basic element drops, but still.

[All my complaining aside...]
I'm enjoying the game. I'm going right back to playing it after posting this. It should be noted that the developer follows the forums, and has a listed email contact as well, so serious bonus points for that. Logan McClure seems to be very responsive, and has already taken a lot into consideration from other reviews.

[Bottom line]
It's darn good for a fiver. 8.5/10 at current, with potential to get better. More than worth a look.

This game is really fun and chalenging, a couple thing i suggest is to add a way to have multiple saves, and a sort of creative mode to just play around in.

As a BIG fan of Starflight and Star Control series this game was a must buy for me, especially for that fair price. And I do NOT regret it. The mood of the game feels right. Art and visuals are subjective and you need to consider yourself wether you like them or not. The planet exploration is a minigame and a bit shallow and repetitive for my taste but its ok. There seems to be many grind involved to gather the resources to properly upgrade your ships and modules. But I did only "mine" planets in the beginning until I could afford a better ship and modules. Later on destroyed enemy ships provided good supply of resources.
The story keeps some suprises and is partially funny. There was alot travelling involved, but the warp mechanic made it relatively quick. Also the playstyle changed quite a bit and depended on where I was in the story progress. In the beginning I had to find resources for upgrading, then I had to find the other species and follow the story. In the end there were huge battles going on.

However, some "downsides" I encountered and which may be adressed by the developer.
There is no indicator on the starmap which systems I have already visited and harvested. Am I supposed to keep notes of the systems I explore? A green check mark or circle or something would help immensly to orientate and plan next travels. Also being able to add notes (merchant) to a star would be great. or at least getting an overview whats in a system (owner, planets, special structures).
Also a quest indicator would help. Why must I find a star with a certain name by pointing the mouse over each one? This was just a PITA and unecessary from my POV. Looking manually for where to travel adds no fun to the game.
The game has only one savegame. You can save inbetween or "Save and Exit". So if you did something ... less intelligent you are forced to kill it (Alt + F4). A simple load option would be WAY MORE convenient. Also its advisable to backup your savefile from time to time, just in case.
I have not seen to be able to influence the procedural generation of the solar systems and planets (seed, amount). And it seems the starting region is always the same.
There are many moons and planets with a temperature of -314° celsius. The absolute minimum should be -273! And even this should hardly be reached.
The closest planet to a sun is glacial with -190°C, the farthest ist desert with 200°C. The moons around a planet also vary widely in temperature. So the generation is purely random and not plausible (procedural).
In the first 10 systems I found no single Toxic planet. In the next the 3 innermost are Toxics.
I mainly found resources on the planet and moon surfaces. It would be great if you could find crashed ships, left/lost material/modules, messages and all such stuff which makes the game a real adventure. Also stuff drifting in space would make exploration WAY more intersting and satisfying.
The resource indicators on the surface minimap are very hard to see (dark green above dark grey). They should be orange or something.
There should be a notice/indication how dangerous a surface is (zero to 3 red skulls fe). When your shuttle gets destroyed you seem to loose the collected resources but get a new shuttle. It takes a while until you can judge from the temperature range how dangerous it is.
The surface exploration itself does not feel like exploring a whole planet but just a tiny fraction of it.
The ship controls are that it points in the direction of the mouse and thrusts on right click. This is a bit annoying. A set speed (scroll wheel) would be more suited imo. And I miss strafing.
It seems you can't upgrade your surface shuttle. Adding some hitpoints or a shield would be great.
I had a crash of the game repeatedly when attempting to land on a specific planet.
Replay value is low due to the heavy and repetitive resource grind and static story. There could be some (procedural) side missions (carry this there, kill 5 pirates etc).
Selling 1000 steel to a merchant requires 1000 clicks! This cannot be made more convenient (slider, enter amount)?
The game ended suddenly. Just no more missions in the log. Pretty unsatisfying.

Warning: The following is a spoiler/cheat. Don't read it if you want to avoid Spoilers.
Since planetary exploration is boring and time consuming you can abuse that the game does not save the state of pirate fleets. Search for a system where there is a pirate fleet with cargo ships (40 gold each) at the first planet. Destroy and loot it. Save the game and quit. When you continue the pirate fleet is there again and you still have the resources. This way you gain resources AND Xp much faster. Then you can simply purchase all resources you need for ships and upgrades at the merchant ships. And you quickly gain the levels for unlocking better gear.

Summary: decent indie game obviously inspired by classic Starflight and Starcontrol games. Any Spacegame fan will do nothing wrong by purchasing it. I hope it gets some updates and improvements to adress the mentioned issues. Although there are many "issues" in my list its nothing really game breaking. So I can still recommend the game to space adventurers.

Note: I usually play with Steam in offline mode so my time in game is not counted properly. I have at least 10 hours into it.

Update 27.05.17:
Developer has adressed some things I mentioned in a patch.
Load Game Button, below absolute zero temperatures, resource colors on surface minimap, risk stat for planet exploration. Good work.

if you are looking for a very simple space game with some rpg element. you should give this game a go.
if you are like me, looking for games like: StarSector, VoidExspance, X-Series, SpaceRanger... then maybe this game is not for you.

very simple and flat 2d grafic with almost no effect. the menu is very basic. the movement and shooting work with mouse only. few hotkey for skill, inventory and etc.. no option for reassign keyboard keys. the RPG element is very basic. killing hostile target and get experience to gain level. level up will unlock skill, ship & gear, which you can build.

this game cant fill my hunger for more customization nor harder challence. to be honest. this game is more like a mobile game than a PC game. as for me i will give a no recommendation.

This little gem came out of nowhere for me i noticed it close to release and being a spacesim fan I had to get it, it's cheap imo. The game has more depht than i expected at first and tons of star systems to explore with randomly generated content it's awesome, i got into some epic space battles already but i have yet to build my fleet, I like the story it's really classic also some of the gameplay reminds me of Star Control or Starflight I think the developper did a really nice work! After the tutorial sequences ((Which are still pretty openworld/freeroam)) tons of quests will open up and I don't want to spoil anything but it's really well-put together and I can see quite many hours to complete the storyline, I hope we can keep playing in the galaxy and mess around after beating the story though!

I also love the hyperspace system in this game it's neat, and i like blowing up the enemies it feels satisfying!