Hyperspace Dogfights

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Hyperspace Dogfights is a fast-paced, arcade-style space combat game. Take control of advanced starfighters and engage in intense multiplayer battles or challenging single-player missions. With its unique visual style and intuitive controls, it offers a thrilling experience for both casual and hardcore gamers.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 188 reviews

gameplay18 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

The game offers a unique blend of fast-paced dogfighting and roguelike elements, providing a satisfying and addictive gameplay experience.
There is a vast array of weapons and upgrades, allowing for diverse playstyles and strategies, which keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging.
The controls are responsive and fluid, especially with mouse aiming, making combat feel dynamic and enjoyable.

The visual clarity can be overwhelming, with bright colors and cluttered screens that may strain players' eyes and make it difficult to track action.
Some items and upgrades can feel actively detrimental, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences when the RNG does not favor the player.
The game lacks proper controller support and has some usability issues, such as unclear item descriptions and difficulty in tracking health.

gameplay
48 mentions
38 % positive mentions
56 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is highly praised for its tight mechanics, diverse weaponry, and engaging level objectives, offering a satisfying blend of challenge and variety. Players appreciate the long-term progression and the unique elements that enhance the experience, despite some initial confusion with the interface. The game features a high skill ceiling and a dynamic roguelike structure, ensuring that each run feels distinct and rewarding.
- “The long-term progression of unlocks is great, and the postgame extra difficulty modes all put a pretty fun spin on the gameplay.”
- “This game is an amazing blend of unique game mechanics, with hundreds of items and weapons to unlock, almost two dozen ship variants to utilize, new zone and boss variants to discover, secrets, multiple playable modes, as well as optional lore for those who want to further indulge themselves with the incredible world-building.”
- “The gameplay is fluid and the difficulty curve is steady but exponential.”
- “I will admit I was confused and frustrated for the first couple of games because the interface is somewhat obtuse and it takes a while to understand the mechanics.”
- “The dev made a lot of smart mechanical decisions about the game, but they are intensely overshadowed by visual choices: bright clashing colors, unstylish distortion, a mix of smooth higher resolution shapes and low-resolution pixel shapes, excessive screen shake, excessive descriptions, visual clutter, visual stutter, and more.”
- “Also, this is a pretty challenging game to learn, and when you encounter a new enemy or mechanic for the first time (or first several times), you're most likely going to say 'well, what the hell was I supposed to do there?'”
graphics
32 mentions
31 % positive mentions
59 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are described as beautiful and polished, with a dynamic environment and fluid combat that enhances the fast-paced gameplay. However, opinions on the art style are mixed; while some appreciate its stylish aesthetic, others find it overly detailed and difficult to navigate. Players also value the ability to customize visual settings to suit their preferences, though certain zones may have inconsistent visual quality.
- “The visuals are beautiful and the combat is fluid and satisfying.”
- “Fast paced, juicy graphics and tight controls!”
- “High speed action, lots of content and fantastic graphics.”
- “I hate the art style (if you make a sequel please hire an artist!).”
- “While I do like the stylish aesthetic, I don't think it works for the game.”
- “The artwork is almost too detailed where things are hard to see; I think Luftrausers' artwork was simple and used only a few colors for a reason.”
music
18 mentions
33 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
17 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as calm and good, with some players appreciating the menu track and the fade-in-out transitions during combat. However, many reviewers feel that the soundtrack lacks excitement and can become repetitive or boring over time, suggesting that a faster-paced or more dynamic score would better match the gameplay's intensity. Overall, while the music is not considered spectacular, it serves its purpose but leaves room for improvement.
- “Music is good, love the menu track start (same as trailer), some sort of gentle revelatory jacking-in.”
- “1: music is very calm.”
- “The music gets boringly annoying after a short while.”
- “For a game where you end up frantically spinning between bullets, music faster than vaporwave is generally better.”
- “The soundtrack feels strangely muted and a bit lackluster; perhaps it needs more dynamic feeling to match the game's pace.”
replayability
14 mentions
57 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The game boasts high replayability due to its diverse equipment options, varied gameplay experiences, and a wide range of customizable items and craft types. Players appreciate the intense and skill-based nature of the game, which encourages repeated playthroughs. Overall, it is recognized for its engaging systems and unique style that keep players coming back for more.
- “As a result, runs end up being highly varied in terms of equipment, greatly extending the replayability of the game.”
- “Huge variety of items and different types of craft make this game have a huge replayability value.”
- “All in all, a great game with heaps of replayability.”
- “Not here: you're always center-stage, and that helps an insurmountable amount in making the game more playable.”
- “Hyperspace dogfights is a very intense and inspired sci-fi shoot-em-up with amazing gameplay systems, detail, variety, replayability, very high skill ceiling, unique style, and thoughtful, humorous lore commenting on your invasion and annihilation of probably one of many technologically inferior planetary civilizations.”
story
10 mentions
40 % positive mentions
40 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
The game's story is intricately woven into its mission-based structure, with each upgrade and item offering a significant narrative element that players are encouraged to explore. The procedural generation and random events, such as missions to destroy a nuclear silo, add depth and unpredictability to the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience. However, the variety of items unlocked between missions can be confusing for players.
- “The passive pool further modifies a dozen or so unique stats, like shot lifetime, count, sway, homing force, explosion size, etc. Each upgrade feels significant and has a great piece of storytelling behind it, which I highly encourage players to read.”
- “I like the mission-based structure of the game.”
- “An engaging bullet hell roguelike with procedural generation and random events, where each mission offers unique challenges and opportunities for storytelling.”
- “Yet the items you get between these missions are really confusing.”
grinding
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be manageable, as the most significant grind involves completing a 20-wave endless run, which takes about 30 minutes and is only required once per jet for item unlocks. However, the overall challenge of the game and a cumbersome tutorial can make the experience feel tedious, detracting from the enjoyment of unlocking new content.
- “Unlocks can be tedious. I finished the game with the Eye MK 1 for the first time and still haven't gone back to clear [spoiler] Endless - 6 [/spoiler] with it.”
- “I can't tell what's happening in the game, and the tutorial is incredibly tedious and stops you over and over to explain things via text.”
- “This isn't due to any grindy mechanics; the most grindy unlocks are doing a 20-wave endless run, but that'll only take another 30 minutes or so on top of the successful run required to get to endless. You only have to do it once with any jet to get all the items from it, and instead, it's simply a challenging game.”
humor
4 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its clever and absurd scenarios, such as using whips to drag enemy fighters down and the whimsical effects of a laser lightshow. Additionally, the game's lore offers a satirical take on the player's actions, providing a humorous commentary on the invasion of technologically inferior civilizations. Overall, the blend of militaristic elements with comedic gameplay and storytelling enhances the experience.
- “The weapons still feel militaristic, but it's funny to drag down enemy fighters to make them crash into the ground using whips, or have a laser light show around your plane that inflicts 15 different debuffs.”
- “Hyperspace Dogfights is a very intense and inspired sci-fi shoot-em-up with amazing gameplay systems, detail, variety, replayability, a very high skill ceiling, unique style, and thoughtful, humorous lore commenting on your invasion and annihilation of probably one of many technologically inferior planetary civilizations.”
optimization
4 mentions
50 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is enhanced by a performance-based system that increases the luck stat with each perfect wave, positively influencing loot drop rates, healing opportunities, and monetary rewards. Additionally, a variety of passive and active items are available to customize jet performance and strategy, further enriching the gameplay experience.
- “There is a system in place that rewards good performance by raising the luck stat with every perfect wave, in turn affecting loot drop rates and quality, heal chances, and monetary gains.”
- “There are loads of passive items to alter the jet's performance, and a bunch of active items that serve variously for offense, defense, and just straight up getting more money to spend.”
stability
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is bolstered by an active developer who promptly addresses balancing issues and bugs, often releasing patches within a day or two. Players report that understanding game mechanics improves their performance, contributing to a generally stable gameplay experience. Overall, the combination of responsive updates and player skill development leads to a reliable and enjoyable gaming environment.