Developed by Math Tide and published by Thermite Games, LONESTAR is a strategic Roguelike spaceship deck builder.
I found myself truly surprised by LONESTAR. I know I have said this a few times now, maybe I just discovered love for Rogue-like Card Battles, I don’t know. What I do know is that I had fun playing LONESTAR.
However, this praise must come with an *asterix* for the word ‘Had’ holds much value today. My time enjoying LONESTAR was cut short, not long after I just got the hang of it. It seems in the rush of finishing development of their game, Math Tide forgot to add the most important aspect of the game… A goal!
A LONESTAR TRAVELLER
The idea is quite simple. You are a bounty hunter, and you have a ship with limited slots. You place weapons and modifiers in these slots, respectively. As the game progresses, you get more items for slots, more slots, and other random helping hands.
As for the gameplay, you must fight and destroy other ships in 1on1 combat. Win and you proceed to the next round, lose and you start from the start(Classic Rogue-like stuff.)
To fight, you are dealt some cards. These cards have random numbers between one to ten on them and are one of three colours(Blue, Red, White). Each item in your slots reacts differently to these cards and must be them to the best of your ability to win the fight.
Both ships line up their weapons in their turn, but the battle happens at the same time. This repeats turn after turn, till one ship is destroyed.
A LONESTAR PROBLEM
Now, for the stuff I hated.
The tutorial is all over the place, leaving you more confused than anything. The number differences in attack do not always work as they should. This could be a feature, but LONESTAR never made it clear.
All the upgrades have very confusing descriptions, and it gets very confusing to know what you want.
The difficulty jump between each enemy is insane, leaving you very little room to experiment with your moves. This often made LONESTAR’s battles seem dependent on luck.
In the grand scheme of life, all of the above are things that can be overlooked. However, what ruins this game fore me is the lack of reason.
The Missing Reason:
The big dopamine rush that games like LONESTAR have to offer is the ability to unlock and try a new variety of items and objects. LONESTAR heavily lacks in this department.
Starting from the beginning, you are shown two locked ships and a list of locked pilots. The feeling screams that this is what you strive for, what you must unlock. Things take a turn.
First, you will unlock a set of pilots. Before starting a run, you must pick one to man your ship. These could be men, women, aliens, or even animals. These are dozens of different pilots who barely change anything in terms of how the game is played. They all do have some sort of power-up with them, but that does not change the game in any way worth the time and effort.
After that, you have the two unlockable spaceships. Sadly, the starting one is the only one worth using. The others are just fat in front of fire and have upgrades that just don’t compare.
Suppose you take an interest in the game’s minute upgrades and changes. Sadly, you achieve all this just above level 10. A place you can reach within your first or second playthrough. Not nearly enough to get your money’s worth from the game.
So that’s the final statement, isn’t it?
A LONESTAR’S FINAL WORDS
So that’s the final statement, isn’t it?
LONESTAR had potential, but it burns out fast. Once the novelty fades, you’re left with a shallow loop, forgettable unlocks, and no real reason to keep playing. It’s not broken, just hollow — and not worth the effort.
