Arc Savior

The flight model and combat system are surprisingly solid, but everything else is lackluster. The story is bland and short (beat it in about 2-3 hours), the missions are overwhelmingly repetitive, and the final boss is a boring slog. All assets (including the music) are most likely Unity Asset Store crap, which makes the game very generic looking. Oh, and zero voice acting for the story. You have to read the text boxes that pop up mid-combat.

For how short and dull it was, $15 is a godd*mn insult to anyone who buys it. If it goes on sale for less than $5 then you might get your money's worth, but you'll still be disappointed.

TOO TOY

Arc Savior tries to present 15 missions in 3 different story arcs that tells a coherent story, but the game relies way too much on try-fail-retry loop where you are tasked with learning what you failed to do each time. However, the lack of any checkpoints means if you miss any step, you have to redo the WHOLE MISSION. So instead of space combat, it became more of a shooting gallery where your success is not measured by your combat prowess but trick-shooting, while playing Simon, the perfect repeat performance. Let's just say, if I am unable to pass the level even with help of a trainer, maybe the game's a bit too hard.

I played the first 5 missions, plus the tutorial mission. I understand using a trainer is lame, but I just want to see the next mission. Turns out, the game was being very literal in mission 6. It literally wants you to put yourself pretty close to the engine of the command ship, but not so close as you get cooked by the "exhaust", but close enough so that when the other enemy ships fire their big beam lasers at you, they'll hit the command ship's engines as you dodge aside. And do this while infinite number of enemy fighters will strafe you.

Then once you disabled the engines, then you proceed to shoot out the shields of the command ship, the take out its hull, thus complete its destruction. Then somehow, see if you can run away (spoiler: not possible).

Okay, fine. Let's go into the next mission, start a new arc. Mission 1, ought to be easy.

Okay a freighter starts to have engine problems in an asteroid field, and a bunch of "interceptors" (fellow Terrans, either bandits or rebels) attack. Killing them is no problem. Then sudden the game throws a curveball at you. The freighter suddenly decided to go kamikaze, and bridge lost control of the ship. It's heading directly into a minefield. So you have to not only get in FRONT of the ship, but also shoot the mines while not have the ship ram you out of the way. If the freighter got hit by too many mines, you lose.

Except you weren't told that. Your dialogue actually says "I'll take care of the freighter." Take care of it how? Ram the mines myself? Use missiles? Not at the speed the freighter's doing! I barely have time to aim! As I said, I really tried passing this by turning on the trainer, which gave me a bunch of options like infinite health, infinite missiles, and I still can't pass this level, because I can't shoot those mines fast enough. j

Which is the point I quit playing. At lest I got a bit further than last time. But it's still ridiculous.

A very hesitant dislike for me. I feel like the space combat systems and mechanics are sound for such a game, but the missions really need more polish. The mission tuning and balance really need work. Dialogue pops up in the heat of the action (including instructions) so if you don't take a quick look you may miss what you have to do next. I guess the turning point for me was an escort mission where a freighter was so much more fragile than my fighter despite being about 10x my size, going through an asteroid field filled with enemy fighters and finally deciding to go head first into a bunch of mines. Could have been a more impressive game.

A decent template of a basic space combat game. As much as the feeling of the controls could be more refined, the developer at least gets that space fighters shouldn't control like ass, because duh they are in space, and as a video game they should be fun to fly regardless. The barrel rolls are a bit of a mess though.

Visually and musically it is not spectacular, but certainly enough effort was put in by the obviously very Indie developer here. It is a lot better than other similar budget games in terms of base game play.

Unfortunately it has been overpriced for today's market, where it is probably worth not more than 5 USD. So I can only recommend it given a steep discount.

Too much text box.

I got this on sale for $5 and change with no idea what to expect from the game, and I am still disappointed.

The world around you as you played felt dead, and it becomes especially apparent when you get the one big space fleet battle in the second to last mission, with the bigger ships not interacting with each other at all. The physics are worse than nonexistent, holding W propels you forward semi normally, and bringing your ship to a complete halt the immediate millisecond you let the key go (completely jarring). Meanwhile, the AI fly their spacecraft like a normal craft no issue. The camera was especially jarring during more intense moments. The plot is very basic, having been done better on space sims of the past, not to mention many typos throughout the game. The difficulty ranges from too easy to ridiculously hard and will change for no justifiable reason.

Most frustrating of all, there is no reason for ALL weapons to be locked to a 750 in-game meter range cap. All other games I've played (including games outside of space sims) go out of their way to differentiate between different range caps for different weapons. For example, a vulcan would be short ranged, followed by plasma at medium range, then lasers and missiles at long range, capping off the super long range with a railgun/gauss rifle type weapon. Some games even went as far as to let certain projectiles fly past their intended range at the cost of reduced damage, but that is just a bonus to what should be standard in games involving more than one type of weapon (+different range caps).

Another thing you would expect from a supposed space sim according to the steam tags, is the ability to travel beyond the one area you are plopped into in any given mission, yet the warp gates are just props meant to look pretty the moment you enter a mission.

Overall, if you are looking for a space game of any variety, look elsewhere.

Space shooter that reminds me of many good old games. The ship behaves 6DOF like from Descent. The cockpit view is much appreciated. What you see is what you get.

You might like it, if you like Starfox/Aces of the Galaxy type games. I say "type games", because those games' levels of quality are on a different level from this, and I want the comparison to focus specifically on the gameplay type and not the rest of what made those games what they were.

This is a third-person spaceflight shoot em' up or in other words, an arcade-style flight combat game, in space. The production value is very much on display, and the game almost immediately gives off indie vibes. I think it gets it right on what it mainly does, but it doesn't do a ton of stuff.

The visuals immediately look a bit generic. Certain things about the texturing or lighting are somewhat attractive, but it doesn't impress in the year it was released. An exception to this and also slight break from the rest of the game stylistically is the ship design. The ships are nicely made and have a certain aesthetic to them that I wish the game leaned into more; there is a distinctive almost Gundam-like anime quality to them. There is a cockpit view, but it's a token thing. All in all the ships are good.

Soundscape is generic. Music is forgettable.

The gameplay is about as simple as it can get but it plays nicely and it satisfies. It revolves around a 1-2 punch setup and everything plays fine. Really not much more to say. I set out on Normal difficulty, and found that it's not challenging. I didn't increase the difficulty because I didn't necessarily want to increase my time with the game through any repetitive means.

There is story campaign over which the game takes place, but it is very short. The 3.4 hours listed constitute the time it takes to beat the game's levels. The narrative is mostly trivial stuff; it's not winning any awards, let's put it that way.

The best light I could paint this game in is that it feels like a third-party SNES title. The way it moves and the things it manages to do basically would fit as being a legitimate SNES title if released 30 years ago, minus the little things the Japanese do to make their games replayable or feel bigger than they are.

If you liked the aforementioned games and you see a sale you could give it a go. I think it's worthy on those terms.

I love these types of games. Was raised on Blast Radius.

Music is great. controls are great.

I think the missiles are unbalanced. Combat shouldn't be spamming missiles and waiting for them to replenish. I basically use the other weaponry for fun.

A serious problem is I cannot read the mission text that appears during encounters. I'm flying around killing other fighters while important quest dialog is quickly appearing and leaving the bottom of the screen.

I'm 50% of the way through the game as of writing this

thanks for keeping the genre alive!

So, I was gonna hold off posting a review until I finished the game, but I keep getting distracted and haven't gotten around to beating it. Which is a shame. It's a good game in a genre that's severely lacking in games in general, let alone good ones.

So, at first, I wouldn't play it, because it didn't support my Hotas, and after waiting a surprisingly short period of time (like, a week), it suddenly did. Which is great! The developer really went out of his way to make people happy with our peculiar and nitpicky control preferences. The only problem with using a hotas in this game is that it makes a lot of the dogfighting pretty easy in the earlier levels. I mean, I'm at the one level that feels like a Cowboy Bebop episode (which is awesome), so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm not super-duper far into the game, I don't think.

I also like the 'backup' controls. It makes sense, and it makes dogfighting a joy. Fly in, guns-a-blazing, target one specific enemy, hit the reverse thrusters, blow up enemy, target next, blow him up too, hit the forward thrusters hard and fly through the enemy formation before they shred you...It made sense and it felt good. If I could couple/decouple my engines as well, it would likely be one of my favorite arcadey space game flight systems.

Overall, the visuals are good, the gameplay is nice and the sound is just dandy. Would recommend.

Excellent but very basic; no voice acting so you have to read everything. Graphics options are also basic; resolution, detail level and v-sync.

Score: ?/10 pending further playtime but definitely a 5 at least.

I used to play one game at a time.

Now I want to play a rotation of games at the same time: one third person, one strategy, one RPG and one space ship.

I think I found my space ship game.

Controls are exactly where they should be. Visuals are cool. Sound effects, too. And you fly 3D, not 2D as some space games around. And it´s not super hard as some other games.

Looks like I will have a lot of fun with this one.

UPDATE: I got back to this game after almost a year. Sadly, it gets ridiculously hard after, like, five missions, with more than eleven to go.

I don´t play games to get upset and waste time trying to find trainers and cheats that only work if you pay.

I don´t mind a difficulty curve, but a game that gets this hard so early... like, how can I shoot down a cruiser if there are five, six other ship shooting at me from all different angles??

If mission five is like that, I don´t want to try to finish this game.

Changing my review to "Not Recommend".

UPDATE 2: Changing my review back to "Recommend". I came back to the game, changed my strategy here and there, and managed to pass the mission.

The next mission already seems hard as *ell, but the fact that I missed the game enough to come back to it was enough for me to try again. I´ll try again, one mission at a time.

So, that´s it. Be advised. I recommend it. It´s a good arcadey space ship game (if that´s what you´re after), BUT expect sudden spikes in difficulty.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Shortly after picking up this game I was reminded of two things; firstly how much I enjoy this type of game and secondly how much I now suck at this type of game (hey, it has been a long time since Starfox!!!). Arc Savior is a really well polished and fun game; luckily for me it has a nice and gentle difficulty slope that is accompanied with some detailed tutorial missions that showcase the various gameplay mechanics. The combat is frantic and you often get a sense of "AHHH!" while flying too close to an asteroid or enemy ship; at the same time the controls are excellent and navigating the complex battle grounds is a breeze (albeit a very shooty and dangerous one). This plays surprisingly well with a keyboard and mouse although it would be even more fun with a controller. This is definitely worth a look if you enjoy shooters or just fun and well made games in general! :)

A space flight game with controls this arcadey really needs something to fill in the gap left by making the controls really easy to use. Some sort of chaotic battle scene stuff or something, not fighting handfuls of slow-moving or stationary units while you strafe around in a circle.

What should have been a good game absolutely ruined by artificially inflated difficulty (Deus ex Machina mechanics handled really badly on a number of levels, matters not how good you are as a pilot or how smartly you've handled things) and UI issues (the number of times where your screen is 1/3rd taken over by people talking while your still in the middle of dogfighting is really infuriating - even worse they're usually talking about things you really need to pay attention to or your going to fail the mission).

Also an extremely linear game for a space sim which is a downside but not necessarily that bad a thing if the rest had been handled decently.

This was the game I've been waiting for.

TL;DR: Fun amalgam of Star Conflict-style graphics with Everspace-style gameplay (it's still mission based, not roguelike). A little room for improvement as far as movement goes.

First, let me get this out of the way: slow, turtle-paced games like Elite Dangerous and the X series bore me to tears. They're gorgeous but not for me. I prefer fast-paced arcade-style space combat.

Okay, with that out of the way, let me say: this game is basically what I've been looking for with a few exceptions. My favorite space game so far is Star Conflict. That game is starting to suck as far the micro-transactions go, but I love the PVP and the purchases are worth it to me. But even when playing Open Space missions or bot skirmishes, I still miss the one-on-one dogfighting.

So for that I play Everspace, Strike Suit Zero, House of the Dying Sun, etc. And while I love bits and pieces of those games, on their own, none of those scratched that "itch". I loved everything about the gameplay and space combat physics of Everspace -- I feel like they perfected the one-on-one starfighter movement with keyboard-and-mouse. I loved the fast-paced story and big capital ship missions in Strike Suit Zero. I liked the House of the Dying Sun, but I play it the least. It kinda reminds me of nBSG, but that's it.

But it's like this game takes the graphics style of Star Conflict and matches it with space combat/ship movement similar to Everspace. And while that sounds like a match made in heaven, Arc Savior has room for some improvements (IMO).

What I think could be a little better:

1) The movement of the ship feels a little tight, rigid, and jerky. I like how the ships in Everspace are kinda "floaty" and have a tiny bit of "sliding" when they maneuver. It sounds like it would be annoying while playing, but it's not and adds a little bit of flair and fun when dashing around. In Arc Savior, while the ship movements are almost exactly similar, the ship moves and stops in quick, tight, jerky motions. It stops on a dime and takes off immediately. That in and of itself isn't bad, but it kinda takes away from the swooshy, cinematic feel to movement.

Well, honestly, I thought I had more nitpicks, but I'm still playing, but so far this game is a LOT of fun, especially if you like Star Conflict and Everspace.

This is a really fun, arcade style shooter. I am playing with a mouse and keyboard and they work really well. The graphics are really good, and the performance is right up there with it. I am above Recommended spec, and I am getting 144 FPS (144hz montior) with no hitching, no lagging.

There are a lot of different ships that you earn as you progress. You also get to choose what module upgrade you want on your ship before going into combat. You also pick out your weapon load out, you pick your energy weapon that takes down shields, pick your projectile weapon to destroy the ships once the shields are gone, and then pick what Missile you want to use.

This lone developer did an excellent job and the game is well worth the money you will spend on it.
Highly recommend it.

I have finished the game, on Easy, and it was a great ride all the way through.

Good little arcade type space shooter I am really enjoying this one and would definitely recommend it.