The final frontier, the cosmos, the big empty – whatever you want to call it, the general theme underpinning existence outside of Earth’s atmosphere is that exploring outer space is a grand and audacious task for anyone. Almost as big as trying to navigate through the asteroid belt that is developing your own indie game while serving as Gaming Journalism’s favorite grump.
That’s the situation that Yahtzee Crowshaw, and by extension,Starstruck Vagabondfinds itself in, as this interstellar life sim aims to find an audience outside of loyal Second Wind Patreons, and become a beloved jewel in the crown of the indie community. It’s easier said than done, but seeing as Yahtzee is partway responsible for much of the jokes and sarcasm I pepper into every conversation, he’s done enough to at least warrant a fair shake from me. So join me as travel to the outer reaches of the known universe inStarstruck Vagabond.
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Starstruck, But Not Awestruck
Just for anyone who hasn’t been following this game’s development journey, this one is, as mentioned, a Yahtzee Crowshaw game in which you play as a spaceman out of time who, due to a poorly-timed cryosleep, awakens to find out they are the last human lifeform in the universe. It’s a classic Fry from Futurama situation, minus the sad dog waiting for you to come back. I’m not crying; you’re crying!
Tangent aside, right from the offset, this premise allows for Yahtzee’s dry humor and signature nonsense to shine through. There’s enough loyalty to the interstellar fantasy principles present in Douglas Adams novels, for example, to feel like you are at the beginning of a grand adventure that demands respect, but equally, enough of Yahtzee’s disarming and juvenile humor that keeps things loose and fun throughout.
The best moments ofStarstruck Vagabondare undoubtedly when these storybeats pop up, as you get to see firsthand why Yahtzee single-handedly held The Escapist together through tumultuous times. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, allowing you to recruit Waifu companions and engage in every conversation with the abject apathy of Marvin the Robot. But these moments are so few and far between, as the game leaves you to wander the cosmos, completing deliveries in the interim before another event occurs. Which neatly brings me to the core gameplay, which fills the space between each event punctuating the story.
Interplanetary Drifter For Hire
Any veteran life sim fan will know that, if a game such as this is going to succeed and thrive within the genre, one thing needs to be airtight in terms of design, and that’s the gameplay loop. Right from the start, you can see that this is where the vast majority of the development time has gone into.
The game isn’t going to win any awards for its rudimentary pixel art, but that’s fine so long as it feels intuitive right from the off, and suffice to say, Yahtzee has nailed it here. The gameplay feels like a 2D-pixel mash-up ofDeath StrandingandAmong Us, where players will need to land in different quadrants of space, pick up odd jobs, pack cargo into their tin can of a spaceship, and then attempt to get to their drop-off in one-piece.
Every system within the game walks a tightrope of complexity and simplicity, with the complexity coming through the multitude of systems to ensure gameplay variety, but this potential roadblock is managed by making each of these tasks so easy to grasp that, once you’ve done something once, it becomes second nature. Whether that be fueling up your Warp Drive or cleaning your Air Cleanser.
The game gives you all the tools to drift around space, exploring freely, helping those you come across, and naturally, getting sidetracked by the many oddities of the cosmos. But, this is where the first point of criticism comes. After the initial wave of exposition and onboarding, it all begins to feel a bit hollow.
You see, the game fails to offer an overarching goal to work toward, akin to a Community Center in Stardew Valley, or the Lake Temple in Coral Island, leading to a lot of aimless deliveries in a bid to explore a little further. But if you don’t know what you’re exploring for, or in what direction, then it all seems a little pointless.
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It’s always best to have a North Star in games like this, especially considering the mindless and repetitive nature of the gameplay present in life sims, and I suppose it comes down to what you want fromStarstruck Vagabond.
If you want a “Post-Dad Game,” a term coined by one Yahtzee Crowshaw himself, then that’s great, because that’s what you’re going to get. A game with lots of mindless chores and incremental improvements to be made, which require minimal brainpower, freeing you up to listen to podcast hosts babble nonsense in your ear as you go.
If you are looking for substance, however, it’s not to be found in abundance here. Once you have played through the first hour of this game, you’ll have seen the vast majority of what this game has in store for you, at least from a gameplay perspective. The game has lots of planets and star systems to explore, but much like games likeNo Man’s SkyandStarfield, just because they exist doesn’t mean they warrant visiting.
Everything feels a little copy and paste in this regard. All star systems are more or less the same; the events you encounter when traveling from one planet to another never feel like the nuanced troubleshooting puzzles they are aiming to be. The delivery system, which is your lifeblood and your main means of making money, feels like a chore rather than an engaging practice like mining, fishing or farming in a traditional farming sim. Not to mention, it takes an age to get anything done.
A Little Too Leisurely
It might have been possible to overlook all mentioned above had this game introduced any sort of stakes. Even in a game likeStardew Valley, you have exhaustion, you have a health bar that comes into play in the mines and you have a time limit before the day ends. All of this is absent inStarstruck Vagabond. You have no end to your day, an endless supply of stamina-restoring biscuits and a health bar that I would wager most players will never see deplete at all.
This all sounds like I’m saying this game isn’t worth your time, but that’s only partly right. It’s a game that hasno respectfor your time. The best parts of this game are, at least in my eyes, the time spent manning your ship and making hotfixes, the time spent beeping and booping in your console and flying your big ol' tin can, and of course, engaging with the narrative aspects.
While the gameplay is initially fun and intuitive, it becomes mundane, fails to grow in scope and gets in the way of the game being able to consistently engage players with what little genuine substance it has. This is not a game that boasts a world dripping in lore or landmarks, nor is it one that has jaw-dropping visuals to fall back on.
Instead, this is a game, much like the life sims that have come before, that needs to tick all the boxes on the serotonin-dispensing checklist to succeed. But, sadly,Starstruck Vagabondtries too hard to be a lovechild of multiple genres and ideas and stretches itself too thin to the point that it feels like a vague and unimpressive imitation of them all.
It’s easy to be wise after the event, but it seems clear that this game would have been so much more engaging had it dropped the Life-Sim angle and embraced more of a space-based RPG adventure angle or something that allowed the writing to be the star of the show. One has to give credit to any one-man development team that manages to get their project over the finish line, but this one, much like a lot of space-based games of the modern era, focuses on filling the vacuum of space, but never stops to ask if what’s occupying the space is really worthy of a gamer’s time.
Closing Comments:
Starstruck Vagabondis an audacious attempt to provide a space-based life sim that doesn’t go to the same well as many developers have done in the post-Stardew-Valleylandscape. In this bid to stand out from the rest, however, this game feels like a smorgasbord of simple, repetitive and generally uninteresting mindless chores. The game has a solid foundation with understandable, intuitive mechanics and the promise of an addictive gameplay loop. And while it delivers in one way to offer a ‘switch-your-brain-off’ sort of feel, the game feels as vacuous as the setting. The humorous writing does help to motivate you to begrudgingly push for the finish line, but in the end, it’s all just busy work, and not the fun kind.
Starstruck Vagabond
Version Reviewed: PC
Developed by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, Starstruck Vagabond is a life simulator with a sci-fi twist. Waking up 2000 years in the future, a space captain must make a living by transporting cargo.
