Stellar Overload Review

Stellar Overload is a 3D open-world, blocks-based, FPS, adventure game. Robots of the Imperium Machina invaded the peaceful planet Merx. Go on an adventure to free your world from them.

Stellar Overload Review

introduction

The first thing I noticed when I started up Stellar Overload is how good it looks. With very bright colors and nice graphics, I was anxious to see what the game was all about. I have read about it and watched the trailer before starting up the game, and I thought it would be just another Minecraft copy, but boy was I wrong.

After more than half an hour of talking and fetch quests though I was beginning to tire and really wanted to just dive into a survival game like Minecraft. So I jumped out of story mode, hoping to find a survival mode back in the main menu, but the only other option was "creative mode". I'm not a big fan of creative mode in games, I want to work for everything I build. So back into story mode I went.

The game is in Early Access Stage on Steam and can be bought for $19.99.

Your beautiful world in Stellar Overload

story

You start the game waking up in your bed, ready to do some exercises with someone you can only describe as that kid you knew back in high school who would end up in the army, when you notice that your brother is missing! You need to go find him! And apparently the best way to do that is talking to random people who want you to pick up berries in the garden, fetch a power glove like thing in the well and clone yourself. And in the process break everyone's houses trying to figure out how everything works. It costed me almost an entire house and a garden before I figured out your power glove has a mode to pick stuff up! Oops, sorry about your walls!

A few quests later you find out that your brother snuck out at night to join a rebel army, trying to get rid of the robots that came from outer space and are destroying your planet. A noble cause if you ask me! So we are going to follow him!

Your brother is not the only one wanting to join the rebels!

GAMEPLAY

It takes a while to get used to the controls of Stellar Overload, sure, the basics are easy, walk around with the W A S D keys and look around with your mouse, but using your power glove to break and place stuff takes some getting used to, but I have to say it works when you get the hang of it.

The blocks that the world is made of are a lot smaller that the blocks we are used to in other games of this genre, 25 cm instead of the 1 m blocks we know, and it makes it that the game looks more detailed than the other building games, but also makes it that building in the game feels a bit more fiddly.

Building structures is as simple as having a block type selected on your hotbar, then clicking and dragging to make walls, floors and so on until you have finished your house. And unlike in Minecraft, you can use other shapes besides cubes to build a cool looking house, hold down alt to cycle through different types of shapes and items in the game. There are also other tools that let you copy and paste larger structures and combine them into one super structure!

The combat isn't like the combat in most mainstream FPS games, and I wouldn't expect it to be in a game of this type. You have a basic gun, a couple of types of ammunition and some small cubicle robots to shoot at, who will get mad and jump at you. But it gets harder while you progress in the game. At one point, you will have to find and fight yourself out of a maze shaped stronghold in one piece. On the upside though, the game let's you keep your items when you die and respawn as a clone at the place you last cloned yourself.

Cool looking concept art of a tree in Stellar Overload

SOUND AND GRAPHICS

The game looks really good! The smaller sized cubes give Stellar Overload a more detailed overall look and it worked! The colors are vibrant and look amazing. It reminded me of one of those awesome looking colorful planets in No Man's Sky, the game no one is allowed to talk about anymore.

The sounds are good. Nothing that jumped out as amazing or horrible so I guess that's a good thing. Just the kind of sounds you'd expect to hear in a survival based game.

Amazing graphics in Stellar Overload

CONCLUSION

Keep in mind that this is an early access game and the developers are still working hard on creating more content for the story mode of the game. But all and all I have to say this is a pretty good game, it looks gorgeous, it plays well once you get the hang of it and it is fun. With a few friends I can see this being great fun, or even if you just feel like building something fancy on your own. The game has some bugs and glitches, it gets really laggy when you move to fast or when it's saving the world, but I'm sure the developers will work that out in the full release of the game.

PROS CONS
 + Beautiful and colorful design  – Lack of content in the story mode
 + Very fun to play  – Lagspikes
 + Tons of replay value
7
Good

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