Deep Space Reflections Review (PC)

Deep Space Reflections made me think of quarters and of how many of them I have spent down at the arcade, trying to make progress in too difficult titles, rather than staying at home to discover the wonders that my PC, under-powered as it was, could offer.

The game takes the core ideas of the arcade space and introduces a unique twist that increases the difficulty by giving gamers increased control over their actions to some extent while making it harder for them to take out opponents.

The game will not appeal to everyone, mostly because of its repetitive nature and limited graphical quality, but it does show the kinds of interesting takes on classic experiences that small indie teams can deliver.

Deep Space Reflections is at the moment offered on mobile devices and the team at developer Alliciant Games is also seeking to bring it to the PC using the Greenlight process on Steam, with the title now only offered via the Humble Store site.

Story

Deep Space Reflections envisions a future of humanity in which we have managed to encounter alien life and found out that it was not too interested in talking with us and would rather use spaceships to try and eliminate us from the face of the galaxy.

Unlike more classic arcade experiences, the title clearly cares about its story and uses a cast of characters to explain the situation and to create a narrative that's in many ways similar to Battlestar Galactica.

Humanity needs to survive and find a place among the stars and there are serious ethical choices to make to achieve this goal but Deep Space Reflections never manages to reach this level of gravitas, and the combination of story and mechanics can feel a little silly.

Deep Space Reflections angles of attack

The writing is not atrocious in itself, but there's a clear disconnect between the big emotions that the characters are expressing and the fact that no other human being is ever shown in the game, and it's impossible to care too much about an abstraction.

Deep Space Reflections is part of a genre that has never relied too much on story to impress, and I believe that something more unique and that occupies less of the player's attention could have served the title a little better.

Gameplay

Deep Space Reflections is a classic take on the classic arcade space with a unique twist that changes the way the player approaches all the core mechanics, forcing them to be more tactical in their approach and long-term planning.

The humans featured in the title's story have managed to discover space travel, but it seems that their weapon development is lagging behind a little and a humble deflector emerges as the best way for a capable pilot to stop the alien threat.

The mechanics are simple: instead of moving on the bottom of the screen, dodging enemy fire and shooting their own weapons at the enemy fleet gamers will have to move up and down on the right edge of the screen, standing in front of enemy lasers and missiles in order to send them back to their source.

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Gamers need to make sure that as little damage as possible goes past them because each new hit takes down the level of health of the remaining human fleet , which is constantly regenerating at a relatively slow rate.

Initially, it's very easy for players to move their deflector in the best position, and then choose an angle and try to get all enemy shots to hit the ships that launched them, but Deep Space Reflections soon becomes frantic and leaves little space for plan creation.

Some of the enemies move around, making them difficult targets while others will only fire when the player shield is not in their line of sight, and the different types of opponent projectiles move at a variety of speeds.

This means players will have to consider which are the biggest threats and focus on those first while trying to prioritize shot blocking, hoping that a lot of enemy shots strike their ships on their way back to the left side of the screen.

As the campaign progresses players, also get access to special powers, ranging from an EMP strike to a napalm attack, a temporary turret or even a black hole, which can be used to make opponents less effective or to deal damage to a higher number than the deflector itself can.

“Deep Space Reflections can be a very challenging experience even if gamers turn down the difficulty level and extra help because the deflector himself is limited in its power and a level can quickly get very crowded, meaning that gamers have very little time to deal with the incoming fire.”

The game does not feel unfair, but it's relatively easy to reach a level of frustration that requires a short cooldown break, especially for those gamers who are uninterested in the actual story.

My strategy, which tends to work most of the time, is to take out stationary enemies with direct deflections if possible while relying on my damage special powers, especially upgraded napalm, to make sure that roamers cannot cause too much damage.

There's enough replayability associated with Deep Space Reflections when it comes to upgrades and combat situations, but the game could have used a little more variety for each of the battles that gamers have to get through.

Graphics and audio

Deep Space Reflections is an indie game created by a very small team, and unfortunately, the weakest area of the entire experience is the way it looks, which might be a problem for its ability to attract a wider number of players.

The design of the space environments in which the battles take place are very basic, and the enemies look like something from the ‘90s, the kind of spaceships that are recognizable for players during engagements but fail to communicate anything regarding story.

The developers at Alliciant Games understand that it's important to use the limited graphics to serve the gameplay and manage to make it easy to understand what's happening to how performance can be improved.

The story moments are also affected by the limited detail of the characters and by the fact that there's nothing more to power the narrative than talking heads without too much personality.

The idea powering Deep Space Reflections is good enough that it deserves better graphical quality, with a focus on some unique designs for the aliens and more variety when it comes to the areas of space the gamers get to explore.

Fortunately, the soundtrack of the title is very good, the kind of combination of ideas and genres that I am ready to listen to even when not playing, simply because of the feeling of tension and action that it can create.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion