SENTRY
- March 25, 2024
- iNEEDsupport420
- 5h median play time
Get on Steam
Get on itch.io Store"Sentry" is a Science Fiction Shooter game that offers various play options, including single-player, co-op for 2 players, and multi-player. As a member of the SENTRY Defense Program, your mission is to protect your vessel while it flees across space, using an arsenal of weapons, traps, and environmental destruction to fend off alien boarders. If your SENTRY falls in battle, another crew member will be thawed to continue the fight, ensuring that defeat only changes the strategic landscape aboard the ship. The game boasts beautiful gameplay and outstanding visuals.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game combines FPS and tower defense mechanics in a unique and engaging way.
- The gunplay feels smooth and satisfying, with a variety of weapons and traps to experiment with.
- The developers are responsive to feedback and have a roadmap for future updates, including co-op support.
- The game currently lacks content, with only a few maps and limited enemy variety, making it feel repetitive.
- The difficulty spikes can be frustrating, especially for new players, and the progression system feels punishing.
- There are performance issues when many enemies are on screen, leading to frame drops.
- gameplay169 mentions
- 34 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a blend of fast-paced first-person shooting and tower defense mechanics, reminiscent of titles like "Orcs Must Die" and "FTL." While many players appreciate the solid core mechanics, engaging gameplay loop, and environmental interactions, there are concerns about balance, repetitiveness, and a lack of variety in maps and unlockable content. As an early access title, it shows promise but requires further refinement and additional features to enhance the overall experience.
“Looks like a promising game, good style, good mechanics, fast combat and very challenging.”
“An overall really satisfying game; great movement, strong shooting mechanics, intuitive sense of buildables and coordination, quite fast-paced if you want to get far.”
“The rougelike system keeps you playing and coming back for more, the FPS perspective keeps the game high-octane and involves keeping the player on their toes and excited at all times.”
“Unlocking new towers is such a chore that it makes me unmotivated; the stale gameplay and the lack of maps doesn't really help.”
“The equipment you start with is incredibly poorly balanced to the point of feeling nigh useless, especially due to there being so few places you can actually do the mechanic the whole game is designed around, that being placing traps.”
“Since there's only 7 ship sectors (one being your final stand at your ship's core), early gameplay can feel a bit repetitive as you fight in the same levels with the same loadout over and over until you manage to RNG unlock some fun new tools.”
- graphics56 mentions
- 55 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many players appreciating the coherent and stylish low-poly art style, vibrant colors, and polished textures. While performance is mostly smooth with few frame drops, some users noted limited graphical options and occasional performance issues. Overall, the visuals are considered appealing and well-suited to the game's aesthetic, contributing to an enjoyable gameplay experience.
“As a tower defense enthusiast, I must say this may be one of the best ones I've played ever. This game perfectly combines shooter elements with tower defense while also keeping its essence. The game has a beautiful art style all around; once I complete a mission, I stop and appreciate the environments and details it has, my favorite being the engineering sector for the moment.”
“Only just started, but this game is a blast so far, and there is clearly a lot of love and polish put into this game. The visuals and feel are so clean.”
“The visuals are good; most textures, as far as I can tell, are really polished pixel art, and the mixture of quite bold colors with simple shapes makes the visibility good and areas appealing.”
“You would have mistaken Sentry for a mobile game if it were not for its demanding, low-poly graphics and special effects.”
“Performance was all over the place, and unfortunately, the graphical options are really poor, only allowing you to disable VSync and real-time reflections.”
“Graphics options are pretty limited at the moment, with only options like resolution and shadows being adjustable.”
- story38 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 84 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimal and primarily serves as a backdrop for its tower defense and shooter mechanics, with players navigating through missions to defend their ship from enemy waves. While the gameplay offers strategic depth and challenges, the narrative lacks significant development and incentive for replayability, leaving players wanting more in terms of story content. Overall, the focus remains on gameplay rather than a compelling narrative, which may disappoint those seeking a rich story experience.
“I hope that this game continues to grow, game modes, story, etc. The price is fair as long as development continues.”
“The concept of the ship maintaining damage and having limited lives as you go through the missions makes the game both strategic and an action-based FPS shooter.”
“I especially enjoyed the curveball the game threw at me; I thought I was mazing enemies just right and then bam! Right into the third mission, I get hit with a massive wave of enemies that tore through everything. 'So that's why I could open/close that door in a seemingly weird spot!' I survived it and quickly reset my defense.”
“If they had gone more with the tower defense side of things and had you backing those defenses up, it might have been another story, but as it stands, there is nothing here to excite.”
“Right now it's way too short and doesn't really have any incentive to start a new mission.”
“The semi-random nature of where waves come can lead to impossible holds, where in early missions you don't have the resources to spread, coupled with the sporadic nature of the waves themselves.”
- music34 mentions
- 59 % positive mentions
- 32 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with many users praising its fantastic soundtrack that evokes a nostalgic vibe reminiscent of the 90s and early 2000s. Reviewers highlight the energetic and engaging nature of the music, particularly during gameplay, where it enhances the overall experience and tension. While some users wish for a larger variety of tracks, the consensus is that the music significantly contributes to the game's appeal and enjoyment.
“The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic too!”
“The music slaps (especially the mid-round prep music) and the pacing is perfect.”
“The sound, both music and FX, are fantastic.”
“I wish I had a soundtrack.”
“Soundtrack is fine, too few tracks.”
“Where's my soundtrack? I want to pay money for it!”
- replayability23 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
Overall, the game offers a satisfying and engaging replayability experience, with players appreciating the variety of weapons, unique map designs, and roguelike elements that encourage experimentation. However, some users express concerns about the limited number of levels and linear progression, suggesting that additional features like a map randomizer could enhance replay value further. Despite these criticisms, many find the game well-polished and enjoyable enough to warrant multiple playthroughs.
“The unlocking and earning of new persistent gear traps and weapons through gameplay adds a wonderful amount of replay value.”
“Unique breaching points during each conflict make even the same small group of maps extremely replayable, and their design encourages the player to always find new corridors to booby trap and angles to hold.”
“Finally, the roguelike elements (like random enemy loadouts, etc.) add so much replay value.”
“A bold price to pay for a product lacking promising content and replayability.”
“- very few levels and linear progress which to me would give little replay value.”
“Pls add a map and objective randomizer to the game; it would increase replay value a ton, thanks.”
- optimization16 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is a significant concern, with players reporting drastic FPS drops, particularly in crowded scenarios with multiple enemies on screen, leading to performance issues even on high-end hardware. The limited graphical options exacerbate these problems, and while the game is enjoyable, the optimization challenges detract from the overall experience. Developers have acknowledged these issues and are prioritizing improvements in future updates.
“2-player co-op, optimization, more content of all kinds (game modes, items, weapons, traps, enemies, maps--you name it), Steam Deck compatibility, and more are already in the roadmap with 2-player co-op being the #1 priority according to the devs. Co-op was available in the demo and worked very well, so it's only a matter of time before co-op is released to the EA game and really should open this game up quite a bit.”
“Fun game, but it's got some rough progression, balance, and performance when the screen gets crowded.”
“Performance massively drops when you start seeing 10+ active enemies at once, with a 2080 Ti + i9-10900X dropping from a 120 fps cap down to 30 fps in some of the mid to late fights.”
“Performance was all over the place, and unfortunately, the graphical options are really poor, only allowing you to disable VSync and real-time reflections.”
“There could be some obvious quality of life improvements, and there are some really bad optimization problems when a lot of enemies show up on screen.”
“Performance massively drops when you start seeing 10+ active enemies at once, with a 2080 Ti and i9-10900X dropping from a 120 fps cap down to 30 fps in some of the mid to late fights.”
- stability8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Overall, the game demonstrates excellent stability, with users reporting minimal to no bugs and a polished experience. It runs smoothly even on older hardware and is compatible with Linux, contributing to its solid gameplay and re-playability.
“It's only 2 hours now but the game is not buggy at all and everything is polished.”
“Lots of fun and runs great on older hardware.”
“Gameplay is solid, runs great on Linux.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be slow and tedious, particularly during early progression and solo map defenses, which can feel unfair. While cooperative play is anticipated in future updates, the current solo experience is seen as a significant drawback.
“Early progression feels slow and tedious.”
“Having to defend some of the maps alone is tedious and unfair at times.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The monetization model of the game is praised for avoiding microtransactions, allowing players to focus on gameplay rather than being bombarded with in-game purchases. This approach enhances the overall experience, making it more enjoyable for fans of sci-fi themed first-person shooters.
“Do you like sci-fi themed first-person shooters that aren't filled with microtransactions but instead filled with enemies that want to take over your ship and expose your browser history?”
