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Satellite Reign
PC (Steam)
A Hard Reigns Gonna Fall
3/5 stars
When it comes to co-op games, our group is open to anything that looks even remotely promising. Often this means playing trusted series (like Borderlands) or something that has an established fan base (like Stardew Valley) or something in a genre we have enjoyed in the past (like Victor Vran) and sometimes it means taking a chance on something like... Satellite Reign. In fact, I believe this game came about as a suggestion from the masses when we were just trying to track down a four-player co-op game that doesn't involve killing each other. And while the masses were right - this is totally a four-player co-op game, it's not exactly the most polished or fun experience we've ever had - but we have played worse.
Looks and Stuff: For a topdown game made in Unity it looks fine, I guess. Nothing spectacular, nothing horrendous, just okay. The futuristic storefronts are cheeky - both because the future is full of nudity and bad puns apparently. The sound is forgettable as is the limited voice acting. The game also suffers from some weird bugs which often forced restarts and caused strange bugs like walking in place or suddenly teleporting.
Story: Fight the man, fight the future - that's right, just like every other cyber-punky proto-future, here we go again. A group of disparate renegades find themselves fighting together against an unjust corporate overlord - but before they can tackle The Man, they must power up - and that means stealing, hacking and doing missions until you are suitably leveled up to take down... Steve Dengler, CEO and very bad man. While the game provides a cursory amount of lore, this is not a story-heavy game. Your characters are stock generic tropes and while there are different areas to explore, the districts mostly just blend together. All in all, there's nothing really to distinguish this from a typical generic cyberpunk type game.
Gameplay: While not quite given free reign (not a pun) - you can wander around a decently big cyber-punky city. Unfortunately, many of the areas are controlled by gangs or corporations or police or other such entities and once you trespass, you are in danger. Many of these areas are mission-related - either you have to steal something or rescue someone or shut something down - and all this requires stealth. This is not a run-and-gun type game - in fact, doing so in any way, shape or form is a good way to die. Sure, the game lets you respawn (with either a short cooldown or spend money to come back faster) but once you piss off a base area, it makes it infinitely harder to complete a mission. Early areas are rather short and sweet, but towards end game the areas get rather massive and it gets much harder to sneak and thus much harder to finish said mission.
There are four classes for each of the four players. The Soldier is the tank here - able to take the most damage while also able to brute force open certain doors and such. My class was The Infiltrator - good with a sniper rifle (taking out cameras and occasionally sniping enemies) and also having the ability to become invisible for a short time, but enough to evade cameras and enemies for strategic placement. The Hacker is invaluable - able to hack open most doors and get money via ATMS and even hack people late in the game (though this ability was severely overlooked for most of the game, sadly). Finally, the Support can provide some healing along with hopefully plotting a decent way to approach (or escape) each mission. We really did try to work together and as the game went by things did go smoother, and the upgrades help.
The game does give you plenty of options when it comes to how you want to build up your character. Missions often reward you with weapons and blueprints for cybernetics or money to by said upgrades. While you have to research for awhile, each unlock gives you potential for more health, better weapons, the ability to avoid hazards and more. Mixing and matching is encouraged - while I always stuck with a sniper rifle (as per my character class) you can thrown grenades, or shoot a freakin' rocket or start enemies on fire... of course none of this is advisable as starting a fight is a sure way to lose... but you have the OPTION to do so. Then the game just drops an insanely hard end battle at you that, no matter how prepared for, seems like the antithesis of everything before - no stealth, just all-out war and it's more annoying than anything else.
Replay: I mean there are four characters and a bunch of different loadouts to try, so it has that going for it along with some punishing achievements for those who like, well, punishment.
Final Verdict: If you can find four (competent) friends and don't mind a lot of stealth over a lot of action, this could scratch an itch but it's a very specific itch at that.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Replay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
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