Here's my experience/feedback of Star Dartle *just skip to the end if you don't want to read my rambling/ranting*
edit: Profanity. I can edit it out if you like.
"Lord Shiptaur and his loyal servant fly out to the enemy fleet."
I didn't realise that meant
'I' was going to do ALL the work.
Why are you just watching dude? If you want to see them all destroyed, lend a hand, toss a powerup my way or something.
No sense in blaming me when things go wrong. "YOU LIE" "Yeah? Well f*** you, do it yourself. You think I'm trying to count these c****? I'm trying to KILL these m************. Have you ever watched a man die, Shiptaur? Ever seen a man sucked into the vacuum of space? Pops like a goddamn balloon. Blood spurts out of every orifice... EVERY.... ORIFICE.... Not to mention they're mostly mangled pulps due to the explosion of their ships... but noooooo.... Kill them all Star Dartle.... Don't let any escape Star Dartle... Don't let the Star Dartle get destroyed... How many escaped Star Dartle?....
Well f***, if you were really there, why the f*** didn't YOU count them?
Shiptaur and Star Dartle fly out to the enemy fleet my a**. More like "Star Dartle does all the work and Shiptaur b****** at Star Dartle.
And who are these clowns in the intro? WHO THE F*** ARE THEY? ARE THEY GOING TO HELP? AT ALL? THERE'S LIKE FIVE OF US, LETS JUST GO AND KILL THEM ALL ALREADY, QUIT MOANING AT ME WITH MY TINY PEW PEW LASER GUN I CAN'T SHOOT FAST ENOUGH TO KILL THEM ALL, OKAY? MAYBE IF YOU GUYS LENT A HAND WE COULD STOP THEM FROM ESCAPING.
How many escaped? FORTY SIX. FORTY SIX ESCAPED. Do you know how I know? CUS I WAS COUNTING THEM GOING BY WHILE I WAS TRYING NOT TO GET MY A** BLOWN UP. OKAY?
Frankly, I'm finding it easier to count them than to shoot them.
You want me to do both? I'm not a goddamned math prodigy, I'm a space pilot, Shiptaur.
I press this button and some weird bullets come out. I'm not clear on the details. Sometimes I fly into these weird glowing orbs and the bullets change. I DON'T KNOW HOW. I just fly it up and down and sometimes back and forth. IT CAN'T EVEN TURN AROUND OR ANGLE ITSELF. It literally faces one direction, I am a goddamned MAESTRO at flying this thing, and that's where my usefulness to you ends.
I AM NOT GOOD AT MATHS OKAY? There are just too many enemies. Like, 50 or something in each stage. You want me to kill literally hundreds of enemies, and count the ones that I miss.
If you start asking me to do your taxes, we're going to have a problem. HOW MUCH DO I OWE IN TAXES STAR DARTLE? YOU LIE. GROW IN POWER.
Gee, I missed some enemies. Must be cus I was too busy TRYING TO KILL THEM ALL AND NOT DIE. Excuse me for not keeping a tally. Maybe I'll just whip out my abacus while I'm avoiding meteors and blowing the s*** out of your enemies.
Maybe get an onboard computer that can do stuff. Computers can count, you know. I really don't know why you're asking me to do this menial job. It's an insult to my abilities and role as a spaceship-pilot and s***-blower-upper. I'm really good at those jobs. Not so much at keeping track of hundreds of objects flying past me in space. How the heck do you know if I'm lying? ARE YOU ALSO COUNTING THEM? This is NOT cool.
I killed 100s of men today, Shiptaur, all the while piloting this piece of junk tin can that you call Star Dartle. Is it supposed to be speedy? Because I noticed about a hundred ships whizzing around WAY faster than me. Some of those ships can literally take more than 1 shot before being destroyed. Unlike this piece of crap you stuck me in.
How about you though, how are you, what you been up to? Up to much? Get much done?
What have you really done, except nag, though?
I notice you have plenty of time to look over my shoulder and berate me for doing YOUR job.
God help me, I killed children... I'm a monster... Okay, maybe the next time I won't- GODDAMNIT SHIPTAUR! Is this because I DIDN'T kill them?
God DAMN IT ALL TO HELL.
Hud - a little unclear. Especially the level/player bit. Could use horizontal space a bit better.
How many escaped - Is this cumulative, or for each stage? It saves the number you inputted last time, suggesting cumulative.
Planets are stripy.
Those spaceships have seemingly empty bubbles containing nothing.
P.S. At the end, I chose no, and then it was really anti-climactic, and now do I have to go through 40(?) levels again?
I hope not. That was very long, tiring and repetitive. Please just drop me back to the beginning of that level, because I don't want to have to go through that again. The "thingy" was good foreshadowing, but please it make it more obvious that something is horribly, terribly amiss. You don't have to hint at it. You have, like, 40 levels to gradually make it dawn on the player that something is not quite right.
I think the game would be improved immeasurably by the addition of more of those "thingies" but different and more diverse stuff, and maybe some text accompanying. For example. if the player is punished, text should pop up. You could sell the story more, it's very interesting, and even more interesting than the game itself in many regards. The story could carry the game, but not the other way around.
The beginning is quite slow.
I liked the different weapons, but towards the end, most enemies were destroyed before I could see them on screen.
I feel like it's a wasted effort in many regards, and I ended up just sitting behind my keyboard and pressing up/down.
It's a little weird in the beginning, you can't control your shots, and fire sporadically.
Later on, you're literally spewing wave after wave of bullets covering 1/3 of the screen. Waste bullets much, Shiptaur?
wave gun can be abused - enemies should come from behind every so often. Tougher enemies should also come, and in denser formations.
Please for the love of god, add a pause button.
"Imagination. Life is your creation."