Invade This!
Everyone loves a good mash-up. Surprising combinations of songs that shouldn’t work together but somehow make something wonderful as they are weaved together. Many games I enjoy do similar with their mechanisms; combining ideas to create something unique. Not more than the sum of its parts, but a whole new construction. An evolution. StarVaders from studio Pengonauts represents this type of evolution perfectly. It is a mash-up of turn based tactics, deckbuilding, and space invaders. It is a game that has absolutely possessed me.
The core of StarVaders is fairly straightforward. Choosing a pilot you jump into a mech and land on a rectangular grid in the bottom 3 rows. The long side of the rectangle stretches above you. Invaders spawn in the spaces above where you begin. Every turn you’ll move your mech around, attack invaders, and activate abilities by playing cards from your deck. At the end of your turn the invaders will advance down the grid, attack back, and activate powers of their own. If they hit you then some junk cards will be added to your deck, clogging up your hand when they appear.
Over the course of 3 acts you push back against the hordes. Each act sees fights across multiple arenas and then you take on the Boss. Like the mothership in the original space invaders these are bigger and tougher, but the SpaceVaders versions are much more varied than a large flying saucer. You’ll even unlock new enemies and bosses to go up against as you play, keeping the runs feeling more varied.
If the invaders get into your starting area, those bottom 3 rows, and survive till the end of their next turn, they disappear and give you doom. 5 doom means your run comes to an end.
That’s the basics. It is far from everything that StarVaders has to offer. This is a game that opens up slowly and surprises at every turn.
The fights you pick each act come with rewards: artifacts to buff you, new cards, upgrades to existing ones. All fairly standard deck building/ rogue-like fair. The choices you are given all feel significant with many of the cards and artifacts opening up new and varied tactical options. When you choose an encounter you get to see the potential of the reward, but not the specifics. This allows you to carve a path of your own choosing. Over the course of the 3 acts you will add cards to your arsenal, maybe remove ones you feel you no longer need, buff yourself to an ever more powerful state, and upgrade cards to your hearts delight.
Let us rewind a bit. The first time you load up most games you get a tutorial, right? Even if it is the type of game you have played a lot, you have to move around, shoot etc. until the system is satisfied you can do all those things. It can be a bit irritating. StarVaders doesn’t want you getting annoyed and instead treats you with respect. It gives you a choice between a ‘full tutorial’ and ‘just an overview’. I chose the latter and found it more than enough to get started.
The reason it was enough is that StarVaders has a best in class tooltip structure. You can get information about any card, invader, artifact, or other items by hovering over them. You can then go further into any object and get a full rules breakdown for it. If that object references something else you also get information about that. When choosing cards to play, add, and upgrade if those cards reference another card type you get a little reminder underneath of how many cards of that type you have. So if a card says ‘draw all 0 cost cards’ it will show you all the 0 cost cards in your deck. I was constantly impressed by how comprehensive the help was without being intrusive.
It is also generous with mistakes, but not to the extent where such errors are inconsequential. Each act you get 3 chrono tokens. You can spend these to effectively re-roll the encounters you are about to choose, the cards and artifacts you are being offered, but most importantly to undo a turn you just took. If things didn’t quite work out on a turn you can spend one of these tokens to rewind to the start but also completely reshuffle your discard into your draw and get a new hand of cards. These are refreshed at the start of each act
StarVaders is a game that constantly opens up, keeping you coming back to the game to try new ideas. There are 3 classes in the game, but you only start with 1: The Gunner. This class spends heat to play cards. You can go over your capacity on a turn which burns the card you play to do that, making it dead weight in your deck. When you do at the right moment, this extra oomph you get can be incredibly powerful.
The first pilot you play with, Roxy, has pretty simple cards: shoot, move, throw bombs around. Each character gets some unique cards and an artifact to start with. Roxy’s artifact gives you more heat capacity and cards to draw the turn after you burn your first card. Suddenly burning cards can be the key to winning an encounter.
Then you unlock Noel. Noel is a Gunner as well, but Noel can freeze cards. This takes away their burnt status and also keeps them in hand between rounds (normally you discard all unplayed cards). These are minor changes, but feel really fundamental to the way you approach each level.
The second class you unlock is The Stinger. Not only are they more close combat focused but they use power instead of heat to play cards. You have a battery of extra power you can use whenever you see fit. Of course both of those resources can be manipulated with cards and artifacts. You are in amongst it as The Stinger: zipping around the map, shocking enemies, destroying them for power. It feels very different to The Gunner class. You feel more dynamic, but also more vulnerable as you are frequently surrounded.
Then you unlock The Keeper, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. It changes your perception of the game completely. Each class opens up the design space of the game, and then the pilots within those classes change your approach to that class. I have unlocked every class and character the game has to offer, and I’ve been delighted with the possibilities every time I have. Each character gives you a new reason to play the game, and there are multiple ways to build those characters’ decks. I could write more extensively about those options but I think discovery is part of the joy of this game.
StarVaders is a game that starts with a simple premise and then consistently gives you new ways to play. Every character, each new card, the array of artifacts, the different enemies, make each run a challenge and a joy. I’ve enjoyed every single run, even the ones I’ve lost. Every choice you make feels significant, every win feels earned. Each run is unique, interesting, and lets you play your way. Let it invade your life.
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