Star Story: The Horizon Escape

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is an inoffensive time sink with some competent gameplay that's ‘fun’ for an hour or two. Once you’ve seen a couple of the endings, though, it quickly palls. If you’ve run out of things to play on your Switch – and given the current flood of software, that's highly unlikely – and you’re willing to forgive a lack of polish, you could do far worse, but look elsewhere if you’re after a meaty adventure game.

68%Game Brain Score

story, graphics

gameplay, replayability

71% User Score Based on 76 reviews

Critic Score 50%Based on 1 reviews

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About

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is a single player survival role playing game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by EvilCoGames and was released on April 12, 2017. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

The archeological research mission faced some unexpected difficulties. Your spaceship crashed. You are sure you have to escape this planet. But how? No one can help you. You are here all alone. Or not? At least you know what you should do next... “Star Story: The Horizon Escape” offers you a perfect way to relax in a sci-fi Wild West-esque world of the Horizon. Want to blow off some steam? Go kic…

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Play Modes

Single-Player

Star Story: The Horizon Escape screenshot

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71%

Audience ScoreBased on 76 reviews

story15 positive mentions

grinding4 negative mentions

The game features a unique blend of storytelling and gameplay, with choices that significantly impact the narrative and lead to multiple endings.
The graphics are vibrant and appealing, enhancing the overall experience of the game.
The crafting and turn-based combat systems are engaging, providing a satisfying balance between resource management and strategic gameplay.

The game suffers from poor translation and numerous spelling and grammatical errors, which detract from the narrative experience.
Repetitive gameplay and a lack of meaningful progression can lead to a tedious experience, especially with the need to restart after each playthrough.
Combat can feel unbalanced, with instances of random encounters leading to frustrating and unfair deaths, undermining the overall enjoyment.

story
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
76%
4%
The story of "Star Story: The Horizon Escape" is engaging and offers a choose-your-own-adventure style experience with significant player choices that lead to multiple endings, enhancing replayability. However, some players criticize the narrative for being overly simplistic or padded, with issues such as lack of depth in character backstories and grammatical errors in the writing. Overall, while the story has its strengths, including vibrant visuals and a compelling premise, it may not satisfy those seeking a more complex narrative.
- “This is a streamlined RPG and lite crafting game with an engaging story; you'll have fun with it.”
- “The game plays out almost like a choose your own adventure story, and the choices you make throughout can greatly reshape the direction the plot takes.”
- “There are a total of 24 endings, and it's very entertaining to replay the game with the knowledge of your previous runs to see how you can change events in the plot.”
- “The biggest reason this game is a thumbs-down from me (and a big thumbs-down at that!) is the story.”
- “This is just an insane level of padding masking a paper-thin story.”
- “So far, the storyline is a bit slow, and the characters lack any depth, which is pretty disappointing for a game that is set up as a story game.”
gameplay
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
76%
12%
Gameplay reviews highlight a mix of simplistic mechanics and a lack of clarity, with many players finding the mechanics lazy and poorly explained. While the game features a combination of text-based choices, turn-based combat, and crafting elements, it often feels repetitive and unengaging, particularly for more experienced gamers. Some players appreciate the humor and creativity of the development team, but overall, the gameplay is seen as more suited for casual players rather than those seeking depth or challenge.
- “I finished the game with 11 hours of pretty dedicated gameplay, but there was still more to explore.”
- “Simplified and straightforward RPG mechanics and turn-based combat mixed with an interesting enough story in text-based form, with choice-oriented progression - wrapped in lovely art design.”
- “The gameplay is pretty much a combination of a visual novel (without endless texts), turn-based fighting scenes (very short), and crafting and upgrading your inventory at your base.”
- “The mechanics feel lazy.”
- “It almost feels like they ran out of money/time and then just slapped the assets they had together in different orders until they'd stretched the 'gameplay' out long enough.”
- “Having an entire loop ended by a single random encounter is very bad game design and I frankly don't think I can advise this game to anyone unless this mechanic is fixed.”
graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
58%
13%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their vibrant colors and appealing art style, with many reviewers highlighting the quality of the 2D visuals. While the graphics are considered well-executed and enjoyable, some players note a lack of customization options and express disappointment over the overall quality relative to the game's price. The soundtrack, while decent, tends to become repetitive, but it complements the visuals effectively.
- “The graphics in this game are very good as well.”
- “Graphically, Star Story: The Horizon Escape is gorgeous, with vibrant colors and striking artwork.”
- “The unique blend of atmosphere, graphics, sound, and text-based elements with surprisingly enjoyable turn-based combat compels me to recommend the game.”
- “There's a number of flaws with this game... the writing is quite bad, there's no proper graphics customization settings.”
- “The $15 price tag is extremely high given the very mediocre quality of the game (2D graphics... it's 2018, come on...).”
- “If the art style is what brought you here, don’t be fooled because this pretty package has some depth to it.”
music
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
29%
14%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many players appreciating its quality and immersive qualities, particularly in combination with the game's graphics. However, some reviewers noted that the soundtrack can become repetitive and lackluster over time. Overall, while the music enhances the atmosphere, it may not stand out as particularly memorable.
- “The soundtrack lends another layer to the immersive experience.”
- “It’s truly enjoyable, a combination of ambient sounds, combat sound effects, and musical soundtrack.”
- “Everything about Star Story: The Horizon Escape was charming and engaging, including the soundtrack.”
- “The music is a little lackluster though.”
- “The modifications that we can do in the settings screen are minimal; they only include the volume of the sound and the music, the resolutions, and the fullscreen option.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The game offers significant replayability with 24 different endings and additional scenarios that encourage players to revisit it. However, some users feel that while the replay value is high, the overall experience may not be compelling enough to warrant completing all endings consecutively. Overall, it is considered a hidden gem with plenty of surprises for those seeking replayability.
- “This game has replayability in spades.”
- “This is certainly a hidden gem, family-friendly, with a massive amount of replayability and 24 different endings.”
- “So many fun surprises, and a lot of replayability with 24 endings.”
- “This is not a rogue-like where the replayability is important.”
- “With 24 endings, there is a lot of replayability here, but I don't think the game holds up well enough to finish an ending and then turn around and do it 23 more times.”
- “Additional scenarios give more reason to replay the game, adding to its replayability.”
humor
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is highlighted as a strong point, with players appreciating its witty dialogue and creative character interactions reminiscent of classic titles like Space Quest. While the humor adds to the overall enjoyment and relaxation of the gameplay, some users feel that the game could benefit from more diverse puzzles and longer content to maintain engagement. Overall, the small development team's sense of humor is well-received, contributing positively to the gaming experience.
- “Reminds me of old-time games such as Space Quest a bit (may not be as deep, but the humor is the same).”
- “This small Russian development team has a wonderful sense of humor and creativity, which was evident to me both during the live stream event and during gameplay.”
- “Nice game, with pretty funny dialogues and characters... but sadly it is pretty short. I hope it will get more lengthy over the course of early access. Overall, great work!”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding mechanics in the game to be tedious and poorly designed, often feeling like a deliberate attempt to extend gameplay by forcing them to repeatedly gather resources and replace items. While initial gameplay can be enjoyable, the repetitive nature of grinding and the occurrence of game-breaking bugs significantly detract from the overall experience, leading to frustration and a lack of motivation to explore all content.
- “The whole thing seems to be designed to just make you grind out stats and resources to lengthen the runtime, since using any of the items or weapons you can craft locks you into a never-ending cycle of grinding resources to replace or refill those items over and over.”
- “It's tedious to play, badly designed, and quite likely made that way on purpose.”
- “I was playing it for a couple of hours and it was fun, but after a few resets of the story, some parts get more and more tedious. The game sometimes even throws at you two exactly the same random encounters one after another. What really broke the game for me was a game-breaking bug. After another reset, you start in the desert, and after a while, your character takes out sand from his boot and teleports to base. The problem is that after going out from the base, I ended up just before checking the bot for sand and automatically teleporting to base. No matter what I tried, I was stuck in that loop. The only way out of this situation would be to start the game once more and hope that I do not get stuck somewhere again, and I'm not looking forward to testing my luck again.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been described as having significant stability issues, with users encountering various bugs that detract from the overall experience. Despite these problems, some players recognize its potential and enjoy the gameplay, though they remain hesitant to fully endorse it due to the ongoing bugs.
- “It's killing me, but I can't give a thumbs up for this one. It is a good game, but also a buggy one.”
- “It was a buggy game with great potential. I uninstalled it and forgot about it until I found out that it was released, so I reinstalled it, played it, and really enjoyed it again and again.”
- “It sort of reminds me of a well-made puzzle, although I'm having a bug where the top of the screen is glitchy.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
100%
The monetization strategy of the game relies heavily on microtransactions for upgrades and resources, which many users feel leads to a frustrating experience of repetitive gameplay unless they spend real money. This approach has been criticized for not translating well to the PC platform.
- “The monetization model is well-balanced, allowing players to enjoy the game without feeling pressured to spend money.”
- “I appreciate that the game offers cosmetic items for purchase, which don't affect gameplay but allow for personal expression.”
- “The option to earn in-game currency through gameplay makes the monetization feel fair and rewarding.”
- “If the aim was for a free-to-play game with the option to sell upgrades and resources via microtransactions, then this is the structure you want. However, it forces users to buy items with real money to avoid endless repetition, and on PC, it just doesn't work.”
- “The monetization strategy feels exploitative, as it seems designed to push players into spending money rather than enjoying the game.”
- “It's frustrating that the game is built around a paywall, making it difficult to progress without spending real money.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its unique combination of graphics, sound, and text-based elements, which enhance the overall experience. Players appreciate the enjoyable music and distinctive art style, contributing to a compelling and immersive environment.
- “The unique blend of atmosphere, graphics, sound, and text-based elements, combined with surprisingly enjoyable turn-based combat, compels me to recommend the game.”
- “The music is nice to listen to, and I absolutely love the art style, so the atmosphere is great.”

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50%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews

Star Story: The Horizon Escape
Star Story: The Horizon Escape is an inoffensive time sink with some competent gameplay that's ‘fun’ for an hour or two. Once you’ve seen a couple of the endings, though, it quickly palls. If you’ve run out of things to play on your Switch – and given the current flood of software, that's highly unlikely – and you’re willing to forgive a lack of polish, you could do far worse, but look elsewhere if you’re after a meaty adventure game.
Nintendolife.com
50%

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Frequently Asked Questions

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is a survival role playing game with science fiction theme.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac OS and Windows.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape was released on April 12, 2017.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape was developed by EvilCoGames.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its gameplay.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape is a single player game.

Similar games include Home Behind 2, Dead Age, Chernobylite, Tower of Time, Wandering Sword and others.

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