I’ll be honest with you guys, I LOVE sci-fi games! Put me in space and give me laser guns and I’m almost always guaranteed to have a good time! However, there’s one exception to this rule: Starlink. This was a game I recently bought while it was on sale and while I loved the game, there’s a part of me that just can’t stand certain elements of it.
For those of you who don’t know, Starlink is a sci-fi action RPG focused around piloting space-ships in battle. You choose from one of several ships and pilots and then customize your ship using a ton of different weapons and parts. On the surface, this seems like a good system that works well. In practice, it’s mired with tons of issues! For one thing, the game had a LUDICROUS amount of DLC! There are a ton of weapons, pilots and ships that the game is trying to sell you.
Buying the digital edition of the game nets you 7 pilots, 5 ships and 12 guns. These are enough to both get you through the game and give you a ton of customization options! The problem is that if you want to get really creative and have even more combinations and pilots, then you have to cough up a ton of cash for them. These DLCs aren’t cheap and you’ll be paying an arm and a leg to get your hands on them!
Besides the DLC, the game is also lacking in meaningful content. A lot of the game’s content (and even its final few acts) are built upon repetitive content. Most of the missions are “Go to this planet, kill a Prime!” or “Go into space and fight a Dreadnought!”, stuff like that.
I’d be okay with this if the game had more variety to it. Instead, it’s just a bunch of fetch quests and completing random objectives on all the planets. It doesn’t help that beating the game unlocks even MORE pointless side objectives for you to do. The game does offer an interesting and expansive galaxy to explore, but this lack of unique content prevents me from wanting to check all of it out.
I’d be lying if I didn’t enjoy the combat though. It’s fast and furious while also requiring strategy and planning. That being said, I can see now why this game didn’t sell well at all. There’s just too much busywork and micro-transactions in this title. It’s a shame, because Starlink is what I’d call a “good game”.
It’s got solid combat and great graphics, plus a fantastic crossover with Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch. However, the game’s massive amount of DLC and lack of meaningful side content holds it back. On top of that, Starlink is one of those games with a rather bland and forgettable sci-fi story.
The way I see it, Starlink is just a game that just “exists”. It’s good, but not great. It’s interesting, but not special. Worst of all, it manages to be tedious with its final few acts. I don’t regret my purchase one bit, I just wish this game had more bite to it.