Outer space is wild in Galak-Z

[Administrator]

Oh, this is new. When you die in Galak-Z - and you will, you will - the Game Over screen offers a rather chilling sight: your cheery 80's sci-fi space helmet tumbling through the cosmos bound for parts unknown, paint missing and screen cracked. Death is new, too, of course, at least this kind of death is. Since its unveiling at E3 in 2013, Galak-Z has changed in a very interesting manner, switching from a 2D dog-fighting open-world space game to a 2D dog-fghting roguelike space game. A juke to the left, and it alters pretty much everything.
It works, too. It really, really works. The shift in focus has allowed developer 17-Bit to retain the stuff that was already singing - the exploration, the upgrades, the seat-of-the-pants combat as you flip and twist and lock-on and blast - but it's also heightened everything. Each battle here could be your last, scrubbing not just the current mission, but a chassis-load of upgrades you've picked up over the last half hour, and so your laser fire feels tentative, as if you're shuffling into the cruel darkness, fingers outstretched and probing. Galak-Z already made space beautiful, with its neon greens and hot pink lasers bouncing off rocks, with its G-Force cast and its hand-painted explosions, but the roguelike element makes space cold and frightening, too. When the story tells you that you're the only survivor of the mother of all space battles - the last starfighter, in essence - you now believe it. You're piloting a nimble little craft decked out in racecar paint, but you're also managing weakness.
Having played the current build straight for a day or two, this is a game that offers bold strokes of brilliance along with tiny, glinting details that stick in the memory. On the bold side, the controls are wonderful, employing as Asteroids-styled point-and-thrust system that requires at least ten minutes to properly get to grips with. Tumbling through the ether, your craft can feel wilful, which means it also feels powerful. Master its strange momentum and you're able to duck in and out of battles with real precision.
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