Space Pirates And Zombies

Released: 15 Aug 2011

Reviewed: 2 Jan 2022

Platform: PC

If you're in the mood for something from simpler times, this little space game is a nice little space shooter. You pilot a little 2D ship, or any one of your ships in your fleet (which expands over time), warping from system to system towards the centre of the galaxy, upgrading as you go using the game's magic currency "rez". Combat is kind of slow and clunky, but it's entertaining.

Pros

You can control each ship in your fleet
Ships are totally customisable with different equipment
Lots of different kinds of equipment
A decent progression system as each star system is a different level
There's a research tree where you can improve skills in each area like beam weapons and shields
You unlock new ship types by collecting black boxes of destroyed ships

Cons

Only runs in a maximum of 1920x1080
Combat isn't particularly engaging. It's difficult to nail down why exactly, but I think it's because beam weapons only last a few seconds, there's very little feedback on when you actually hit something, and it's difficult to tell what's going on. It's not bad, it just lacks much agency in being able to tell what's happening. Basically bigger numbers win.
Escort and defense missions usually fail pretty quickly

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