Developer: Juggernaut Games
Publisher: Juggernaut Games
RRP: £14.99 (Steam)
Released: 23rd May 2017
Available on: Steam
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
Approximate game length: 40 Hours plus
Being a Crawler isn’t the easiest job in the world, or the safest, or the most well paid… actually its a pretty crappy job, but if there is one thing that makes up for it all its that you are the one who decides what jobs to take and when. It’s freedom, of a sort. Sadly you’ll always be dancing to one corporations tune or another but at least this way you can choose the track and the dance. Take solace in that when you are wiping alien guts off your armour for the fourth time today.
In StarCrawlers you play as a Crawler. What’s a Crawler? You may ask. Well a Crawler is someone who takes on jobs that corporations, groups and companies don’t want to be officially tied to, the dirty work such as exploring abandoned spacecraft or corporate espionage. Typically they’re freelance adhering to no singular master, although some have got favourites. In this game, you assemble a team of Crawlers to take on jobs and eke out a living. However as the game progresses its clear that your actions are having consequences far beyond what you imagined.
If any of what I wrote there appealed then this may be just that game for you. StarCrawlers is a 3D dungeon crawler with a sci-fi setting, however it’s not just the theme that set this game apart from most others in the genre.
But we should probably begin at the start, specifically with the character creation process. This game starts this by asking you what class you would like to play as, you’ll be given seven to choose from and each will have a small write up that will inform you what can of weapons, armour and shields you can equip. There’s also a handy button that will allow you to view what abilities you can obtain as you level up. Next comes your background, this is how you grew up. You get three choices which themselves are dictated by what class you chose and these will allow for certain dialog options to appear during special events in the game. After this comes the ‘adulthood’ section, this part handles what you did when you grew up, once again there are three choices but each choice will improve two stats that are listed at the bottom of each selection. Lastly, you have the ‘Now’ section. This is the most recent part of your history, this influences your starting reputation with certain companies, how much money you have and what equipment you start with.
As you can see it’s quite in depth, however if you’re expecting to alter your characters look in any way I’m afraid your out of luck there.
Unlike most dungeon crawlers such Legend of Grimrock and Vaporum where you are dropped into a dungeon and have to work your way out, this one is mission based and has a hub screen where you can rest, re-equip, and take on new jobs.
Most jobs will increase your reputation with a faction and decrease it with another. Actions you perform while on a crawl (the in game term for a job) also affect your standing with various factions. Such as stealing classified intel while on a job and selling it later will lower your standing with whomever you are stealing from but also increase it with whomever you’re selling it to.
Some jobs won’t have a negative impact on another company, sometimes you get hired to investigate a mine owned by the company that’s hired you. However if you steal from that company it will still lower their opinion of you.
Not all jobs actually involve going on a crawl, some jobs specifically take place in a virtual space, in these types of jobs you remain anonymous from your target until your ‘masking’ points run out. Once they are gone you are immediately removed from the job and your reputation takes a hit. Generally the only thing that can lower your ‘masking’ points is failing on a percentage option, however some of the defensive programs aim specifically at your masking points. These hacking jobs actually function very similarly to the combat while on a crawl except that between each combat you choose which ‘node’ to move to next.
Since I mentioned the combat I suppose I should talk about it here. StarCrawlers works very differently from most dungeon crawlers in that when you encounter an enemy you are take to a different screen. When in this screen you find that this game uses a active time battle system similar to Child of Light or Final Fantasy VII (the 1997 one). It should be mentioned though that for some reason the game would stutter for a brief period after combat.
Earlier I mentioned that both factions and reputation play a rather important role in this game. There are over twenty different corporations, companies and groups that you will be attempting to court. Doing a job for one will almost always affect your standing with another (usually negatively).
This in turn affects the game as these companies can inexplicably change how your weapons and armour perform. If you’re in good standing with a weapons manufacturer then those weapons will perform better. This also means that if a mission is set somewhere owned by a company or group you’ve pissed off then it will be a bit harder to accomplish.
The people you have on your team will make a difference in what you find and how you can work your way through the level as well as influencing dialog options that appear. For example if a door is locked perhaps the hacker can open it by accessing a nearby panel, or the soldier could just bash it down.
It has to be mentioned though that the levels are procedurally generated, which sadly can make some levels feel very cut and paste, especially the non-story related missions. I personally didn’t find that to be such a problem but I couldn’t help notice that the story related missions generally tended to be a bit more imaginative with how rooms were laid out or what was in them.
Speaking of the story, I rather liked what the developers have done with this game. The narrative is full of twists and turns that those of us who have watched way too many sci-fi shows and movies can see coming. However that doesn’t make them any less fun plus in this case I had a hand in how this all plays out because depending on which corporations you side with different events will occur.
I have to say I’ve really enjoyed my time with this game, the difficulty curve is a bit on the brutal side but since you can choose your own jobs you can make sure to grind with easier missions first. It’s clear that the creators of this game are really into their sci-fi, the whole game is riddled with little references either in the environment or in dialog.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Legend of Grimrock
Vaporum
Shadowrun
