Eternal Starlight VR
- June 17, 2021
- White Noise Games
- 3h median play time
Get on SteamEternal Starlight VR is a single-player space exploration and combat game in a vast, procedurally generated universe. Mine asteroids, trade with alien races, and upgrade your ship while engaging in thrilling dogfights against alien threat fleets. A captivating storyline unfolds as you uncover the secrets of the ancient Starlight civilization.
PC
Virtual Reality
Windows
Oculus VR
Reviews
- Engaging and enjoyable VR experience with intuitive controls and smooth gameplay.
- Offers a variety of ships, weapons, and customization options, enhancing replayability.
- Beautiful graphics and environments, reminiscent of classic space RTS games like Homeworld and FTL.
- Campaign is relatively short, with some players finishing in under 4 hours, leading to concerns about replay value.
- Some control issues, including erratic ship behavior and difficulty in positioning, detract from the overall experience.
- The game lacks true roguelike elements, as missions are not fully randomized, which limits replayability.
- story29 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for its static and uninteresting nature, with limited replay value due to the repetitive mission structure and lack of randomized elements, despite some players enjoying the whimsical presentation and ship customization. While the campaign offers a decent variety of missions and a balanced difficulty curve, it ultimately feels short and lacks depth, with many players wishing for more engaging storylines and mission diversity. Overall, the narrative experience is seen as light-hearted but underdeveloped, leaving room for improvement in potential sequels.
“The campaign is structured similarly to FTL: you choose which missions to complete before the turn counter reaches zero and the final battle starts.”
“Great place to hang out: music, scenery, story (skippable, for when you've heard it), cool ship design, and options for ship upgrades are plentiful and cool looking in their own right.”
“Overall, the story plays out balanced and difficulty ramps up appropriately.”
“The campaign suffers from permadeath - it's annoying to do the same mission lines again and again.”
“However, despite this game billing itself as a roguelike, the missions aren't actually fully randomized and are nearly the same on each playthrough, which kinda kills the replayability.”
“- there are about 50 lines of text in the story and you are going to make me read them; really?”
- gameplay8 mentions
- 63 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay is engaging and visually impressive, featuring intuitive controls and a fun homeworld-esque RTS loop that works well in VR. While players appreciate the polished mechanics and thoughtful UI, some issues arise with ship orientation and AI behavior, particularly on harder difficulty levels. Overall, the experience is enjoyable and replayable, with developers responsive to user feedback.
“The gameplay is really fun, and I haven’t experienced any bugs, lagging, stuttering, or freezing in the game.”
“Controlling customized ships in a Homeworld-esque gameplay loop feels fantastic in VR.”
“The mechanics are very intuitive and what you would wish from a game like this in VR.”
“The homeworld-esque RTS gameplay (very similar to BattlegroupVR) is simple, fun, and cool-looking, but when I was playing on hard mode, the flaws were apparent: unable to set my ship's orientation easily, suicidal ship AI.”
“A small complaint: the maneuvering mechanics can be a little janky with respect to facing; for example, you can’t seem to command your ship to turn in place.”
- replayability8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game offers decent replayability through features like unlocking different starter ships and an 'endless mode' introduced in a recent patch, which enhances its value. However, the lack of fully randomized missions and a static storyline limits its overall replay potential, making it more suitable for a few enjoyable playthroughs rather than extensive replayability typical of true roguelikes.
“The 'endless mode' added in the latest patch does wonders for the replay value.”
“The elements of FTL-style roguelike replayability add a lot to this as well.”
“It's a cheap, fun, replayable experience that has a great soundtrack and solid gameplay mechanics.”
“However, despite this game billing itself as a roguelike, as other reviews have mentioned, the missions aren't actually fully randomized and are nearly the same on each playthrough, which kind of kills the replayability.”
“- The storyline is static and uninteresting; no replay value.”
“There is some replayability with unlocking other starships/loadouts if you are into that sort of thing.”
- music5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The music in the game is described as engaging and integral to the experience, enhancing both the cinematic introduction and the flow of battle. While some users find the music and races to be somewhat janky, they still appreciate its charm and recommend the game for its enjoyable soundtrack and replayability. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's atmosphere and gameplay.
“I went into this game blind with no prior knowledge and the intro cinematic and music instantly got me hooked.”
“It's a cheap, fun, replayable experience that has a great soundtrack and solid gameplay mechanics.”
“Though the music and races are a little bit janky, I highly recommend picking this up and giving it a shot.”
“The music kept me engaged and feeling the flow of battle.”
- graphics4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are praised for their simplicity and beauty, contributing to smooth performance on various hardware setups. However, some users feel that the visuals are less impressive compared to other titles, such as Homeworld II, particularly in terms of detail and design. Overall, the game is well-optimized, though it may have been scaled back for compatibility with the Oculus Quest 2 headset.
“The graphics and sound are amazing.”
“The graphics are simple but beautiful.”
“This game appears to be very nicely optimized, and the somewhat simple graphics mean that it runs very smoothly.”
“The graphics are quite underwhelming, lacking detail and depth, which detracts from the overall experience.”
“While the game runs smoothly, the simplistic graphics feel outdated and fail to impress.”
“The visuals seem to have been compromised for performance, resulting in a lack of polish and immersion.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game is well-optimized, providing a smooth gameplay experience without any noticeable bugs, lag, or stuttering, and it runs efficiently on lower-spec computers.
“This game is very performance-friendly as it doesn't require a high-spec computer.”
“The optimization is impressive, allowing smooth gameplay even on lower-end systems.”
“I appreciate how well-optimized the game is; it runs flawlessly on my mid-range setup.”
