Surface combat is a different too – while you can still pull off barrel rolls and zip around at speed, or try to target enemies from the air, it’s mostly designed around hovering and strafing around foes in agile, speedy shootouts.Īfter a few scripted missions introducing central concepts such as the Legion harvesters draining raw materials from worlds, research and mining outposts that need your protection, and ancient spires – left behind by a progenitor race known as the Wardens – that yield valuable items and materials if you solve the puzzles they present, you’re free to explore, which is where Starlink really comes alive. You can also fly for faster traversal, but lose finesse. On a planet’s surface, you’ll mostly use hover mode, allowing you to use weapons to extract minerals or defeat enemies such as the Legion’s eerie Cyclops-model sentry drones, or a tractor beam-like pulley to harvest organic materials.
Starlink isn’t just about space combat though – planetfall soon follows, introducing the exploration, foraging, and vaguely RPG aspects that make up the bulk of the game. The emphasis is immediately on smooth, 360° combat in the depths of space, pulling off loops and barrel rolls while blasting enemies to pieces. While this backstory is revealed as the game progresses, both narratively and through encyclopedia entries unlocked during play, the game wastes no time throwing players into the action, opening with the mission under attack by the forces of the Forgotten Legion. Best of all, the toys that are central to the concept are, bluntly, really cool, giving players far more to do than just slap a figure on an NFC reader.Īfter an amnesiac alien fell to Earth, a secretive benefactor named Victor St Grand forms the Starlink Initiative to search for its origins, leading them to the Atlas system. Mechanically, it’s genuinely a great space exploration cum shooter cum RPG, with shades of No Man’s Sky and Mass Effect. For another, it aims for a slightly older audience, meaning it can capture the attention of kids who grew up with the likes of Skylanders as well as older players who may be drawn into its deeper story and sci-fi trappings. For one, it launches with no real competition in that field, with all of its former potential competition dormant or discontinued.
There’s a lot working in Starlink’s favour though. Launching a new toys-to-life brand in 2018 is literally risky business after the likes of Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and Lego Dimensions have all fallen by the wayside – and they all had some level of mainstream character awareness (remember, Skylanders was originally a Spyro spinoff). Starlink: Battle for Atlas may be the boldest game released all year.
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