Star Command
- May 2, 2013
- Star Command LLC
- 2h median play time
"Star Command" is a single-player casual game with an intriguing story and ingenious game mechanics. Its marvelous visuals and compelling soundtrack, along with plenty of grinding, will keep you engaged. Despite some bugs, the game's humor will make you laugh, and it's currently celebrating the winter holidays on Google Play.
Reviews
- The game has a fun and engaging storyline with humorous dialogue.
- Great graphics and nostalgic pixel art style that appeals to fans of retro games.
- The gameplay mechanics are enjoyable, allowing for strategic management of crew and ship.
- The game suffers from significant lag, especially during combat, making it difficult to play.
- It has not been updated in years, leaving many promised features unfulfilled.
- The gameplay becomes repetitive quickly, with limited replay value after completing the main story.
- story431 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 70 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally described as enjoyable but notably short and linear, often leading to repetitive gameplay after completion. Many players express a desire for more depth, additional missions, and the ability to explore or customize their experience further. While some appreciate the humor and engaging elements of the narrative, the consensus is that the storyline lacks sufficient content to sustain long-term interest.
“The story is fantastic and I can't wait for more!”
“The story has nice twists, the mechanics are fresh and fun.”
“The design is really nice, and the story so far is great; it really feels like a classic space opera.”
“The story is extremely linear; whatever choice you make, the result will mostly be the same.”
“The biggest problem with the game is that the story is so short.”
“I want to like this game, but it gets dull faster than I'd hoped, especially since there's only one thing to do, which is the story mission.”
- gameplay160 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 41 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its linearity and repetitiveness, particularly in combat mechanics, which can become tedious over time. While some appreciate the strategic elements and humor, others criticize the lag and clunky controls that hinder the experience. Overall, the game shows potential but is often seen as unfinished, lacking depth and variety in gameplay.
“The gameplay requires a bit of tactics and you need to know your people once you're off the easiest levels.”
“Gameplay is incredibly simple yet amazingly addictive.”
“The gameplay is fantastic, the controls are easy to use, and I love its retro look.”
“The gameplay is boring and repetitive where you play the same mini game to fight opponents and boarding parties lack any combat strategy whatsoever.”
“Gameplay is linear and repetitive.”
“The gameplay is unbelievably slow.”
- graphics94 mentions
- 59 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the charming retro art style and polished visuals that enhance the overall experience. However, several users report performance issues, including lag and stuttering, particularly during combat, which detracts from the gameplay. While some appreciate the nostalgic pixel art, others criticize it as poorly executed or lacking depth, indicating a divide in player satisfaction regarding the graphical presentation.
“Awesome design, a space roguelike with well polished retro graphics.”
“The high resolution graphics are spectacular to look at.”
“The graphics and animations are beautifully done.”
“The graphics are strangely bad (and that's not counting their pixel art style).”
“Deliberately horrible pixelated (aka lazy) graphics are supposed to be cute?”
“Graphics are stuttering, impossible to use torpedoes and in ship battles are glitchy.”
- stability85 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- 4 % neutral mentions
- 91 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a significant concern among users, with frequent reports of freezing and crashing during gameplay, particularly during dialogues, battles, and mission transitions. Many players express frustration over the bugs and glitches that disrupt their experience, making the game feel unplayable at times. While some users note that the game runs well on certain devices, the overall consensus is that it requires urgent fixes to improve stability and reduce the frequency of these issues.
“First of all, this game runs great on a phone.”
“The gameplay is pretty good and the game is bug-free so far.”
“No bugs, no glitches, smooth gameplay; just need more content now.”
“I want to love this game but it freezes during the transmission after every successful mission the first time I do it.”
“I really like this game it's interesting and all but it freezes after I beat every mission. I've had to replay almost every level, some I replayed up to 3 times. It's very annoying, fix this!”
“This game constantly freezes when I finish a battle, making me lose my progress.”
- humor54 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely praised for its goofiness, clever references, and engaging dialogue, contributing to an entertaining experience. While many players find the humor to be a highlight, some criticize it for becoming repetitive or lacking depth over time. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with gameplay, making it enjoyable for fans of the genre, though it still has room for improvement.
“This game is hilarious, entertaining, awesome pixel art, and just absolutely fun.”
“Amazingly fun and addictive gameplay underpinned by sci-fi humor that is at once nostalgic, respectful, and often quite funny.”
“Great game, very entertaining, humorous choices and dialogue, and very fun battles.”
- replayability51 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 51 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The reviews indicate a mixed reception regarding replayability, with many players expressing disappointment due to limited content and lack of updates, resulting in low replay value for several titles. However, some users highlight enjoyable gameplay and strategic variations that can enhance replayability, suggesting that the potential exists for a more engaging experience with additional content. Overall, while a few games are praised for their replay value, many others are criticized for being too linear and short, leading to a consensus that improvements are needed to boost replayability.
“Great game that has replay value many times over.”
“Replayability is there since each ship layout requires a different strategy to defend.”
“Very enjoyable and highly recommended for its incredible replay value.”
“Very low replay value.”
“No replay value after you complete the game.”
“There is little to no replay value.”
- music40 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and retro sci-fi feel, enhancing the overall atmosphere and enjoyment. However, many players report significant lag issues when sound effects are enabled, leading them to disable both music and sound to achieve smoother gameplay. Despite these technical challenges, the soundtrack is often highlighted as one of the game's standout features, contributing positively to the experience when functioning properly.
“The music is one of the better aspects of the game, especially the theme that plays during battle.”
“The music is fantastic, the graphics are perfect, the gameplay is great; it's the most polished mobile game I think I've ever played.”
“Great throwback graphics, killer music, witty dialogue, and more.”
“The game lags whenever a sound effect is used; be it the sound used to display on-screen dialogue text, or the guns on the ship firing, it causes the game to stutter, which makes it impossible to play. My way around it at the moment is to play without sound effects and just have the music. Hope that helps other people who have the same problem. Hope the developer gets a fix out soon; it's just not quite the same without the sound.”
“Talked to their support line, and you have to turn music and sound off in order to play without experiencing lag.”
“I have to disable the sound effects and sometimes music in order for the game not to lag an unplayable amount.”
- optimization37 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 27 % neutral mentions
- 49 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players experiencing significant performance issues such as stuttering, lag, and unplayable combat sequences, even on newer devices. While some users report smooth initial gameplay, these experiences are often short-lived, leading to frustration and calls for urgent performance updates. The game's unique graphics and engaging story are overshadowed by the technical shortcomings, making it difficult for players to fully enjoy the experience.
“It runs smoothly with tidy graphics and has a nice adventurous story to follow.”
“Runs smoothly on much older Androids.”
“Runs smoothly on my device and can't stop playing it.”
“I won't be playing anymore due to the horrendous optimization on modern smartphones.”
“While I appreciate the unique look, a lack of proper optimization makes this game unplayable even on my newest device.”
“Can't even play the game without terrible stuttering and lag.”
- grinding23 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, with slow battles, cumbersome micromanagement, and repetitive mechanics detracting from the experience. Many reviewers noted that while the game has potential and initial enjoyment, it quickly becomes a chore due to the lack of depth in combat and the tedious nature of post-combat repairs and crew management. The slow pace and lack of strategic depth in battles contribute to a frustrating gameplay loop that diminishes long-term engagement.
“It's a shallow button-tapping minigame within a minigame that has very little depth to it, which is why it is propped up by an even worse crew combat system where you're constantly being invaded by hostiles and terrible controls and tedious micromanagement makes the entire experience a chore.”
“Tedious and boring battles combined with a canned corny storyline all combine to make this one of the worst paid apps I've ever bought.”
“Despite a cool old school look and good humor, combat is tedious and devoid of strategy, and the ship management and upgrade part of the game doesn't have much tension or very many interesting choices.”
- monetization21 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its monetization model, as it features no ads or in-app purchases, which many players appreciate as a refreshing change from the frequent microtransactions seen in other titles. Reviewers commend the developers for focusing on gameplay rather than monetization, enhancing the overall experience. Overall, the absence of monetization pitfalls is seen as a significant positive aspect of the game.
“Fun game, totally free to play; no ads.”
“Well done devs for not putting in in-app purchases, which can kill a game.”
“I love that the developers focus on gameplay rather than in-game purchase money grubbing.”
“You need to work on the weapon response time as there is lag when hitting one circle for laser which can make the other two shots not register even though they are hit. Same problem with plasma torpedo. I won't send this to support; you can do your own work. Otherwise, it's a pretty good mobile game, especially as there are now disgusting unwanted microtransactions.”
“This game is extremely shallow and linear, the humor is dry at best and non-existent for most. The AI refuses to shoot when boarded, and the aiming system is a mini-game that gets tiring after the first time. The only good thing this game has done is advertise what it wanted to be and not what it is.”
“It has many advertising things like this coming soon or that, but it's been more than 8 months now since the last update, and that was mostly bug fixes.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charm and engaging elements, enhanced by strong graphics and music. However, some players noted technical issues, such as lag during intense encounters, which can disrupt the immersive experience. Overall, the atmosphere contributes significantly to the enjoyment of the gameplay, despite minor frustrations.
“Charming, amusing, atmospheric.”
“The graphics, music, and gameplay really set the atmosphere for this game well.”
“Definitely gets laggy in the latter encounters on the Galaxy S3, but man, the hard mode is hard. The game had tons of atmosphere, and the gameplay is chock full of goodness.”
“Also, I don't understand why it took a few moments to attack the first ship. I get that weapons are loading, but it breaks the atmosphere. Just let me shoot.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players report a strong emotional connection to the game, with one user highlighting a particularly impactful scene that evoked unexpected feelings, while others felt a genuine sense of immersion as if they were actual starship commanders.
“There was one scene that made me feel emotions that I never thought I could for a mobile game.”
“It made me feel like an actual starship commander.”