A sequel to Pixel Starships but will it be any good? Time to dive in and see. The game is expected to hit early access in late August.

From what I’ve seen so far, this game has lots of potential. Sadly, there are also a lot of bugs. So, in what I got to see ended up being a far more limited experience than I was hoping for. There came a point where a mission was bugged, and therefore, I could not progress along the main storyline. Along with any other limitations that might be in place for this being before early access.

So, my entire experience was limited to a couple of planets and being in the Sol system. Thankfully it takes thirty seconds or less to move anywhere in this first solar system. There were a couple of missions to run. For the most part, they were easy.

Just one small issue of not having any gas storage. Along with the game not saving any gas rewards I could not store. So, my progress ended up being quite hobbled from the start. I feel like I simply had to spend Starbux, which is used to speed up timers and instantly fill resources to make any headway in a reasonable amount of time.

In a typical game like this, they like to keep you extremely engaged for the first couple of hours, spending all your resources and using any boosters to save time and progress along. Before leaving you out cold and having withdrawals from having to wait around.

The good news is that it was all done within about fifteen minutes of gameplay. I then had to wait around for timers, and kind of just got bored with not having enough to do with the current state of the game.

At least they gave you enough Starbux to unlock a second construction drone. So, you could have two things: upgrade or build out a new room on your ship. If I was a bit better and not in a rush I'm sure I could have saved for a third drone as well.

The game itself features quite a few different subsystems that you can fit into your ship. The ship starts with quite limited room and restrictions on what can be built. As you upgrade to bigger haul ships you get more space to build in and unlock better subsystems as well.

While there are a few different kinds of weapons to choose from. The game sadly either has most of them not ready or fails to properly display that I lacked the level to acquire. I built several weapon rooms only for the game to pop up an “error” and then those rooms not displaying after I relogged or went into combat.

Quite a shocker to find out that the new shiny weapon system you wanted was not installed, and you are now a sitting duck in combat. I quickly adopted the policy that if the game popped up any kind of error message that it’s just best to relog. While that did not fix all the issues it at least helped in many cases.

There is even a bit of strategy if you want to try and min max things as far as a ship loadout goes. As we can see from this weapon turret there is a combo section. It gives you hints about how you can boost its performance. For this subsystem, I either have the ship's engine or leave the right-side section of the ship empty next to it. The subsystem gets a 10% boost to damage output.

There are also things like armor plating you can place around different modules. Making them a little stronger. You could further have a crew member manning a subsystem granting boosts to it depending on their skills or at the very least allowing them to repair the subsystem if it starts to take damage.

You can even go into each subsystem and set up a bunch of rules for it to follow. This seems great since there is PvP and other players can attack you. At the very least I've not lost much when I've lost a battle that I started.

The conditions you can set up for each subsystem are quite complex. I found it quite nice just to set up which systems I wanted to be at full power. This also cut down a lot of micromanaging I had to do while in combat with the limited amount of PvE encounters I got from missions. Along with grinding out PvP for experience and resources.

I found the auto settings set up to try and help you along to be less than ideal. It was also quite easy to tell when other players did not go in and make some simple changes to their subsystem conditions setup. I was able to take down a far more powerful individual with loads of guns compared to what I had.

In PvE and PvP combat, you can switch between having a few of your ships and your opponent's. They also pop up a small window on the side to give you a general overview of what is going on.

Once you damage a subsystem enough that it goes offline. Any extra damage you apply to that same subsystem causes hull damage. That is, unless NPCs are repairing that subsystem or shields negating some of the damage being done.

I found every time so far that it was best to focus fire on a single subsystem. The quicker I can get a ship into hull damage the better. I’d target the shields, which, if my opponent is quite powerful, once tends to slow down my progress on dealing shield damage.

While many of the opponents I ran into had quite a few guns. They lacked enough reactors to fully power them. They also were not singularly targeting a single subsystem. They were dealing spread-out damage.

I also learned the hard way that if you have a subsystem that is currently being upgraded. That it’s not operational in battle. I ended up winning a few PvP battles over this fact as I'd face opponents who had zero weapons.

I’d even dare say some players were fully set up for max passive mineral and gas production. Having their ships with layouts that benefited those subsystems the most for better hourly gathering rates.

There is even a massive research tree. As your crew levels up, you are given the option to take research points or personal stats for that crew member. I could see replacing crew members every few levels to take advantage of trying to get as many research points as possible, so you can unlock better weapons, ammo, and other things within the game.

Final Thoughts

Thankfully this game is not out yet in early access. The bugs need to be cleaned up a bit, just to even be able to progress in the game further. There are also a few weeks before they plan on doing so, and I feel that should be more than enough time to fix a lot of the issues I and many others encountered within the first couple of hours of gameplay.

I feel games like these are going to be great for people who have a limited amount of time. You log in and collect your resources. Maybe you engage in a PvP or PvE encounter and then you log out. While waiting for your next batch of upgrades to be carried out.

This will be a game I'll keep an eye on. While there is PvP, I so far don’t feel like if I lose, it’s much of a loss, but I am quite early game. Once things get fixed up and more features are added. I could see this as something I log into a couple of times a week and progress along at a casual rate.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Pixel Starships 2.

Disclosure. This review was written before the release of the game into early access.

Disclosure. A review copy of the game was received for free.

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