Stellar Initiative

About

Stellar Initiative is a single player strategy game. It was developed by Five Head Games and was released on May 27, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

"Stellar Initiative" is a roguelike tower defense game where you land on planets and use your orbit ship to deliver buildings and support attacks. Choose missions, order buildings, and manage resources while unlocking upgrades and discovering unique artifacts. With 138 artifacts, 25 buildings, 139 upgrades, 12 missions, and 5 difficulties, each game is a new experience.

Genres & Tags

Strategy

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

81%

Audience ScoreBased on 302 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

The game combines tower defense and roguelike elements in a unique and engaging way, offering immense content and replayability.
The art style is appealing, featuring a muted color palette and silhouette pixel art that enhances the overall experience.
The gameplay is fun and challenging, with a variety of strategies and synergies available through different artifacts and tower upgrades.

The difficulty curve is steep and often feels unbalanced, especially in the early stages where players can be overwhelmed before they can set up defenses.
The game can become repetitive, with limited tower options leading to similar strategies in each run, reducing the roguelike experience.
Sound design is lacking, with only one repetitive track that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.

story
88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
94%
3%
The game lacks a narrative, with players noting that it features no story whatsoever, which detracts from the overall experience. The gameplay revolves around a repetitive mission structure that involves building defenses and completing objectives, but many reviewers expressed a desire for at least a minimal storyline to enhance engagement. While the variety in mission types and upgrade paths offers some creative freedom, the absence of a compelling story leaves the game feeling hollow.
- “The upgrade paths are simple but good, artifacts are unique, replayability exists with trying to get all the artifacts and playing with the different factions. Different mission types mix things up, mission modifiers add some extra challenge in the mid-game, and the bosses are acceptable.”
- “Each mission can reward you with money, an artifact, or both, and the game will show you what you get before you choose one.”
- “Nice game with three factions which have three unique buildings each, and with a vast amount of mission reward upgrades, every single one can be a core of a strategy to be built around.”
- “No story is available, and I think that even a barebones one would have been nice.”
- “The campaign is literally play a few missions, defeat midboss, play a few missions, defeat endboss.”
- “Even though I had different mission goals, the strategy to play was exactly the same four times.”
gameplay
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
62%
6%
Gameplay in this title features a variety of mission types and roguelike mechanics, which add some creativity and freshness to the experience. However, many players feel that the gameplay is overly simplistic, often revolving around a single effective strategy, which can limit strategic depth. While some find the mechanics engaging and enjoyable, others criticize the reliance on randomization and the potential for frustrating dead ends in runs, leading to a mixed reception overall.
- “There are a variety of mission types, which I found quite creative for a game like this and adds some much-needed variety for how simple the main gameplay loop is.”
- “Extremely interesting mechanics that I kept exploring more and more, even finding out that relics and upgrades that seemed bad were actually good in different situations, creating entirely different builds.”
- “I find this game enjoyable, with its fast pace, unique runs, and challenging gameplay.”
- “Concept is a neat take, and the gameplay is okay in theory but seriously lacking in reality.”
- “Nice graphics and interface, but the time delay mechanic makes this very frustrating to play.”
- “The game is basically more of a puzzle game than a roguelike, with one maybe two 'correct' builds and the entire gameplay loop is just figuring out how to get there, using the same limited options every round.”
music
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
61%
17%
The music in the game has been widely criticized for being limited to a single, repetitive track that lacks energy and fails to enhance the gameplay experience. Many players express disappointment, noting that the absence of variety in the soundtrack detracts significantly from their enjoyment. While some appreciate the clean and polished art, the overall sentiment is that the music is a major flaw in the game's design.
- “The art and music are clean and polished.”
- “It's got a good idea, I like the music, but this is strictly a 'one and done' where you don't accrue anything for subsequent runs.”
- “Honestly, I cannot think of a single game that I have played with just one song besides this one.”
- “The song is not even that good either; it lacks any sort of energy that makes me want to keep playing, and not only is it the only song, but the song itself is repetitive.”
- “This just made the game so much harder to enjoy, and I cannot say I have ever been so disappointed in a soundtrack for a game before in my life.”
graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
27%
13%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their appealing art style, vibrant colors, and well-designed user interface, with many players appreciating the retro aesthetic and minimalistic approach. However, some users express frustration with gameplay mechanics that detract from the overall experience, despite the visuals being a strong point. Overall, the graphics contribute positively to the game's charm, though opinions on their impact on gameplay vary.
- “I think my favorite part of this game is the art style.”
- “Fun synergies and really cool art style.”
- “Visuals are nice, the color and art was what had drawn me into the game.”
- “This would have been well-regarded in 2014 due to a slick retro aesthetic and fewer better options.”
replayability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
Overall, the game offers decent replayability through unique artifacts, diverse factions, and various mission types, but players desire more depth and content to enhance this aspect. Suggestions for improvement include the addition of loadout customization, persistent artifacts, and new game modes like endless mode. While many find the game fun and replayable, some feel it lacks sufficient content for its price.
- “The upgrade paths are simple but good, artifacts are unique, replayability exists with trying to get all the artifacts and playing with the different factions. Different mission types mix things up, mission modifiers add some extra challenge in the mid-game, and the bosses are acceptable.”
- “It's hugely replayable, and has an incredibly diverse variety of builds and strategies to attempt.”
- “Easy to learn, fun, and replayable.”
- “The game is really good, it lacks a bit of depth to improve replayability but the general concept is nice.”
- “What I wished for were some more in-depth systems that increased replayability, like customization of loadouts, stuff I can take from a previous run to the next one to tackle higher difficulties, some more modes, like endless mode (if there is one, I haven't seen it, due to short playtime), maybe even finding persistent artifacts I can use to customize my run with (maybe with downsides too).”
- “Too little content for the price and not enough replay value.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game enjoyable overall, though it can feel grindy when aiming for 100% completion. However, with effective strategies, the grinding experience can be fun and rewarding.
- “The game is enjoyable, but the grinding required to achieve 100% completion feels excessive and can become tedious over time.”
- “While I had fun playing for 20 hours, the grind to reach 100% completion is a bit overwhelming and detracts from the overall experience.”
- “The gameplay is solid, but the amount of grinding needed to fully complete the game can be frustrating and feels like a chore.”