ShipLord

Space shooters are usually extremely challenging and stressful, mainly because they require fast reaction times and good eyesight. The screen is always filled with lasers and explosions, which means that you have to keep moving while also navigating a literal minefield at the same time. Granted, you get the chance to fight back whenever enemies try to attack you, so at least there’s something to help you unwind.

However, it could happen that you have no way to defend yourself against incoming threats, thus leaving you with only one option: dodging. It’s no walk in the park to waltz between asteroids and lasers, but the challenge is that much greater. As long as you do not mind being frustrated on a regular basis, the increased challenge could be a good thing, on the other hand.

ShipLord is a game in which you control a spaceship that’s unable to shoot or fire any kind of weapon, only move around and collect stuff. The dodging is actually the key gameplay element, which means that you’ll be doing for the entire duration of the game. It’s very similar to a roguelike, in the sense that you can only die once, but you’ll only have to restart the level, not the entire story. Even so, it takes a lot of effort to collect quasar - the required element - and it’s a bummer so see the effort go to waste when you die close to the finish line.

As far as the story is concerned, it’s nice to see that there was an attempt at all, even if it’s a very thin plot with not much impact on the actual gameplay. Hence, the last energy source in the universe happens to be the quasar, which is a glowing white substance spawning where old planets have died. Naturally, powerful aliens are trying to harvest the said energy in order to cause havoc around the universe, but it is your duty to stop them and defend Earth at the same time.

Each level is unique when it comes to background and landscape, but the gameplay is the same from start to finish. There are a handful of quasars visible at a time, but only for a short period. If you do not collect them fast enough, they respawn in a different part of the screen. This means that you’ll have to stay on the move at all times, which is that much more difficult to achieve when you take the asteroids into consideration.

Thankfully, you have a few tricks up your sleeve as well in the form of special abilities that can be activated when you need them the most. As such, you can use a shield to protect against all damage, a repulsion device to push away asteroids, as well as an energy beam that allows you to attract quasars toward you. Each one of these abilities has a pretty unforgiving cooldown time, so it’s up to you to decide when they are needed the most.

However, these abilities can be augmented by buying upgrades with the extra quasars after each level. You can only purchase a limited number of upgrades, but some affect other gameplay elements as well. For instance, you can decrease the quasar spawning time, which helps you pick up more of it without having to wait for too long. The upgrades also come in handy when you want to get better scores in previous levels, because there are three different awards that can be obtained.

Even if the ship moves in two dimensions, the actual environments are in 2.5D, which means that objects like planets and asteroids are rendered in 3D. Thanks to this, the backgrounds look pretty nice most of the time, although you shouldn’t expect anything too great either. While the planets are pretty impressive, they get a bit repetitive after a while, especially since there is not much else to look at.

The boss battles are exciting and very difficult as well, which may cause additional frustration to those who are not accustomed to the genre. You basically just have to avoid a series of devastating attacks by moving around the missiles and laser shots, which is easier said than done. On the other hand, you only have to do this for two minutes, so it’s not that bad.

In the end, ShipLord is more or less what you expect it to be after you get acquainted with the gameplay mechanics. The fact that you cannot attack at all is obviously frustrating, but the challenge is what makes the experience exciting. Thus, if you are in the mood for something with a retro feel and a hardcore difficulty level, ShipLord is the answer.