Dead Star Review

In April’s PlayStation Plus game bundle, Dead Star looks to be a promising space adventure!  With customisable ships and a set of classes to pick and choose from. So should you pick up your free copy? Or are you not subscribed to PS Plus and wondering if Dead Star is worth opening your wallet for? Here is out Dead star review on Playstation 4.

In this online only game, I found myself drawn in from the get go with the comic style animations which are so well drawn out and in such a beautiful style that I was excited to see what was ahead.

Dead Star gives you the option to delve straight into the blackness of space but I felt unprepared and in a cautious manner decided to take on the tutorial and heed the advice of the wise words of Mags Mu’zeta who promptly takes to calling you ‘New Meat’.  Within the tutorial she takes you through all of the dos and don’ts of piloting through the Wastes.  You are informed that there are no governing bodies anymore and everyone is a prisoner looking out for their own factions.  The ships you are about to fly can be manufactured at Outposts using Loadouts, which are designs of the ships.

You are able to deploy one of three ships from Outposts you control and you have the option to pick and choose which three ships you’d like to be deployed into the Wastes with, so get out in the Wastes and try out all of the ships available.  Trying out the ships will give you a feel to what each ship is capable of, as their weapon systems vary and you are able to customise them to your play style.

Jettisoned into space you have the option to choose different play styles, Dead Star allows you to mine ore from asteroids to gain Outpost upgrades and ship upgrades.  So depending on your way of thinking, you may want to stay back and mine ore to get upgrades before you engage in battle or you can delve straight into the carnage of an intergalactic dog fight.  The first upgrade you acquire is drone manufacturing, this gives you drones that will follow you and attack any bogies in sight.  I immediately made the mistake of assuming I had to have my ship face the direction of where I had to fire, thus was perplexed at the control system to begin with, I quickly found out that using your right thumbstick to aim where you wanted to fire made the control system immediately more accurate and fun to control.

“No friendly fire? Thank god! I’d have mutilated my own teammates.”

The last section of the tutorial is to complete a Conquest game mode, by this point I’m feeling pumped that I can pilot this tiny ship in the vast reaches of space!  Conquest is one of the main game types of Dead Star and you have several options to be able to win the rounds.  You have the option to capture every enemy Outpost adjacent to their home base (unfortunately you can’t just sneak around the back with a surprise assault) or you capture outposts and upgrade each outpost by mining ore, which will eventually give you control of the Guardian Defence Cannon, which destroys the opponent’s home base in one foul swoop.  I was advised to swap to a fully upgraded frigate, which is a lot slower but packs a lot more punch and I did it, I completed the Conquest game mode and the tutorial!  I finally felt ready to take on the real Wastes!

Sticking to the original ships that were picked I jumped online to take on real opponents.  I felt these ships matched my Guns Blazing style of gaming as they had machine guns and rockets that I could fire and hope to hit something without any real precision.

During Conquest you can have a 5v5 (crew) match or a 10v10 (fleet) match to have a small or large scale battle.   Attempting to take a tactical approach and simply fly around the quadrant looking for ore to upgrade our outposts vastly slowed down my ships upgrade process and as such we were completely overrun by what seemed to be a well organised opposing team who swiftly captured all of the outposts and annihilated our home base for an epic loss.  Several more rounds of dodging the floating debris and asteroids allows you to master your ship and dog fight skills in this wonderfully hypnotic space-scape.   Even with the ability to play amongst friends, when joining a match without knowing the other players, you are left open to wondering whether there will be any teamwork and strategy in place or if you’re going to be put with a whole heap of Top Gun aces who think they can take on the galaxy alone.

Dead Star has the feeling of League of Legends and Smite in a unique space setting and overall I really enjoyed the gameplay.  The additional extras of being able to customise your ships and at the end of each round you have rewards which gives you the ability to upgrade your ships weapons and defence systems. I would recommend you keep on going even if you encounter some defeats as you will still be able to upgrade your ships after a few rounds.

Dead star was reviewed on the final retail release of the game available from the Playstation store. Non PSPlus subscribers can pick up Dead Star for a limited time at a discounted rate. Offers are subject to Sony’s terms and conditions and are subject to change without notice.