DreadStar: The Quest for Revenge Demo

Killing aliens in space is one of the oldest video games concepts out there, given the fact that it was the premise of Space Invaders a couple of decades ago. However, the genre evolved a great deal since then, which is how we now have games like Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous. On the other hand, retro shoot ‘em ups are still quite popular, depending on what you enjoy the most.

DreadStar: The Quest for Revenge is a classic shoot ‘em up with a few interesting elements added on top, although the core concept is pretty much the same. Hence, your main goal is to survive a constant onslaught of enemies while dodging their missiles and shooting back with your own weapons. You also get to improve your ship along the way and fight huge bosses.

One of the interesting elements of the game is the fact that you can visit the base in order to make repairs, purchase better ship parts, or just sell what you already got along the way. It may sound like a simple idea - and it actually is -, but very few shoot ‘em ups have such a straightforward system that allows you to customize your experience along the way.

As always, boss fights are part of the deal, and you have to survive them using everything at your disposal. On the other hand, it becomes quite simple to do so after you pick up on the enemy’s attack pattern, because all of them rely on cyclic attacks that can be dodged quite easily. Even so, it’s still a challenge to get out alive, especially since it only takes one shot to lose a life.

As for the graphics, they as retro as they can get, but that’s not a bad thing at all in this case. Everything looks authentic and enjoyable, which is especially true for the artwork and the ship designs. Granted, the backgrounds can be a tad boring and empty most of the time, but then again this is barely an early demo that’s going to be improved in the future.

Even if it has its fair share of flaws, DreadStar: The Quest for Revenge is still on its way to greatness of the rest of the game is going to be just as good as this demo. Hence, the fans of the genre should keep an eye on this in the near future.