Above the Stars

About

Above the Stars is a single player action game. It was developed by ArmanDoesStuff and was released on October 30, 2020. It received positive reviews from players.

Battle wave after wave of heinous enemy ships. Tackle ruthless foes and fight to defend your planet and species from sure fire destruction. There to keep you company, your ever-upbeat (often inappropriately so) AI assistant, Mac. Deploy a sprawling system of structures across the world to smite your foes Level them up and then upgrade them even further with individual bonuses Empower your ship…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 20 reviews

humor5 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

The voice acting is charming and adds a lot to the overall experience, making the story engaging and humorous.
The game offers a fun blend of active and idle mechanics, making it enjoyable to play and easy to leave running in the background.
Despite its short length, the game provides a surprisingly memorable experience with meaningful upgrades and a compelling narrative.

The gameplay can feel shallow and repetitive, with some mechanics lacking depth and balance, leading to a tedious grind.
There are several bugs and unclear descriptions in the skill tree and upgrade systems, which can hinder progress and understanding.
The game may overstay its welcome, as some players feel the final achievements require excessive grinding without sufficient payoff.

story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The game's story, fully voice acted and engaging despite its short length, has been praised for its ability to evoke emotional investment in characters, often surpassing longer RPGs in impact. While the narrative is amusing and features cute voice acting, some players feel it lacks depth and resolution, with a desire for more development and interactions in certain storylines. Overall, the story is a standout aspect, though it leaves some players wanting more.
- “It might not be the most in-depth, but for a story that is so short, it is truly impressive that it was able to make me care about characters and make me a little emotional.”
- “The voice acting is cute, and the story is amusing.”
- “Short sort-of-idler game with an actual story fully voice acted; the standard battle can be done with autopilot, but for the boss battles, the AI doesn't work.”
- “Even the story/voiceover that starts out promising simply ends without going anywhere.”
- “Now to the main draw of the game which has to be the story; for an indie game that is less than 5 hours long, this had me more engaged and invested than most modern-day 30-hour RPGs.”
humor
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highly praised, featuring excellent voice acting that enhances both the comedic moments and the compelling narrative. Reviewers highlight the clever, portal-esque humor and overall enjoyable voiceover, making it a standout aspect of the experience.
- “The voice acting is great with some incredibly funny moments throughout while also telling a compelling narrative.”
- “It's an absolute gem, with what surprised me as also including a wonderfully voice-acted narrative alongside a lot of portal-esque humor!”
- “Fun game, and the voiceover is funny, well acted, and enjoyable.”
gameplay
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The gameplay features a well-executed combination of incremental, idle, and active mechanics, creating an engaging experience. However, some users noted issues, such as the reset function not properly resetting the boss's position, which can lead to frustrating encounters.
- “Fantastic blend of incremental, idle, and active mechanics - all are well done and blend nicely with each other.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Despite its brevity, the game effectively evokes emotional responses, successfully making players care about the characters and their journeys.
- “It might not be the most in-depth, but for a story that is so short, it is truly impressive that it was able to make me care about the characters and evoke some emotions.”
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The music in the game is highly praised, with users noting its quality and contribution to the overall experience.
- “The music is incredibly good.”
- “The soundtrack enhances the overall experience beautifully.”
- “I love how the music sets the mood for each level.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and uninspiring, with a lack of engaging upgrades and a frustrating prestige system that diminishes motivation to continue repetitive tasks.
- “The upgrades are uninspiring, the overall prestige system is tedious, and you'll quickly find yourself without the desire to keep doing the same thing over and over.”
- “Grinding feels like a chore rather than an engaging part of the game, making it hard to stay motivated.”
- “The repetitive nature of grinding leads to burnout, and it often feels like a time sink with little reward.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game's stability is marred by bugs, particularly with the skill tree, where certain paths fail to unlock, rendering the entire tree unusable and hindering player progression.
- “It's a little buggy: the 'former' skill tree won't unlock a couple of paths, so the whole tree is effectively dead with no way to progress.”
- “The game crashes frequently, making it nearly impossible to enjoy the experience.”
- “I encountered multiple glitches that disrupted gameplay, including characters getting stuck in the environment.”
graphics
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The graphics received mixed feedback, with users noting some unclear elements in the interface, such as ambiguous damage indicators in the ship upgrades panel, alongside reports of various graphical issues.
- “Some of the descriptions aren't very clear (what does 'damage: 47%' mean in the ship upgrades panel?), plus there are some graphical problems.”
- “The graphics feel outdated and lack the detail expected from modern games.”
- “There are frequent texture pop-ins and the overall visual fidelity is disappointing.”