2nd December 2018, 11:29 PM
Starlink (Switch) - Starlink is a surprisingly fun Ubisoft open-world game, with spaceships. You're always in a ship in this game, either hovering over a planet or flying through space, and hover/fly around killing things and picking stuff up, pretty much. The graphics are great for the Switch, and each planet is large. The planets are pretty much big open spaces though, not areas hard to navigate, so navigation is pretty much just 'follow the waypoint, killing anything along the way', but that's pretty much how Ubisoft open world games seem to work; Assassin's Creed Odyssey isn't too different, it has mountains and such but you can just climb over any of them (and can't die from falling) so it's not all that different... and I might like combat more in Starlink, the game is not too complex -- strafe around and shoot works great for a lot of land battles -- but space battles are pretty cool, and challenging until you get used to them in a way I haven't found ground combat to be. The weapons have some nice variety, too. The story is a simplistic tale, but the cutscenes and talking-head conversations are reasonably well done and it's enough to keep me going.
Of course, Starlink isn't just an open-world shooter, it's also a toys to life game. There are currently 9 pilots, like 7 or so ships, and 15 weapons available, and you start with only a few. Sure, the game is beatable with just the default stuff, but it won't be fun without more weapons, and without more ships it'll be a lot harder than it should be. The pilots feel like the least important of the three, but they do unlock things in your home base ship and each one has a unique special power, so having those is useful too. Now, you can just buy everything in this game digitally, or you can get it physically. Buying it digitally is both cheaper and saves you a lot of space, because Starlink's ships are sizable. I got physical ships and such though, and I don't regret it because the ships are actually pretty cool looking. The Arwing that comes with the Switch version is particularly good, but the other ships you can get look nice too. The Arwing definitely is best, though, and of the four ships I have now it's the only one with movable parts -- you can flip up and down those four maneuvering thruster things on the Arwing, while the other ships are just big lumps of plastic. Arwing wings have lasers in them too, while other wings do not. And the game has playable Star Fox of course, maybe the best character, and a Star Fox story arc as well, so why is this game even on PS4 and Xbox One, where it doesn't have any of that stuff? Anyway though, the physical toy addons for Starlink are nice, and right now there are just a small enough number of them that owning all of the toys to life pieces for this game is quite plausible. I already have like half, and will likely get the rest eventually, particularly if Starlink prices drop as I'm guessing it's likely they will (unless it somehow becomes a bigger hit than it looks like it is?).
So yeah, Starlink is cool and fun, but it does require DLC or toy addons to be good. The addons are integrated into the game WAY better than Skylanders are, though -- all of the pilots are characters in the story, and you see their ships in cutscenes and such as well. This makes you want the other characters in a way you don't see in other toys to life games, but it does make adding new ships or characters tougher, if the game did well enough to get them -- what do you do, like say 'here's a new character! They aren't in the cutscenes or stuff though, you can just fly around with them and we added voice lines for them'? That's less than impressive compared to the characters in the base game, so the toy-DLC model Lego Dimensions used might not work here. If the game does well enough for a sequel they could add to it that way, though, like Skylanders did. I like the amount of stuff in the game right now, though; more ships and toys would be a bit much to want to have all (or most) of, like how I'll never even attempt to get all of the Skylanders stuff.
Of course, Starlink isn't just an open-world shooter, it's also a toys to life game. There are currently 9 pilots, like 7 or so ships, and 15 weapons available, and you start with only a few. Sure, the game is beatable with just the default stuff, but it won't be fun without more weapons, and without more ships it'll be a lot harder than it should be. The pilots feel like the least important of the three, but they do unlock things in your home base ship and each one has a unique special power, so having those is useful too. Now, you can just buy everything in this game digitally, or you can get it physically. Buying it digitally is both cheaper and saves you a lot of space, because Starlink's ships are sizable. I got physical ships and such though, and I don't regret it because the ships are actually pretty cool looking. The Arwing that comes with the Switch version is particularly good, but the other ships you can get look nice too. The Arwing definitely is best, though, and of the four ships I have now it's the only one with movable parts -- you can flip up and down those four maneuvering thruster things on the Arwing, while the other ships are just big lumps of plastic. Arwing wings have lasers in them too, while other wings do not. And the game has playable Star Fox of course, maybe the best character, and a Star Fox story arc as well, so why is this game even on PS4 and Xbox One, where it doesn't have any of that stuff? Anyway though, the physical toy addons for Starlink are nice, and right now there are just a small enough number of them that owning all of the toys to life pieces for this game is quite plausible. I already have like half, and will likely get the rest eventually, particularly if Starlink prices drop as I'm guessing it's likely they will (unless it somehow becomes a bigger hit than it looks like it is?).
So yeah, Starlink is cool and fun, but it does require DLC or toy addons to be good. The addons are integrated into the game WAY better than Skylanders are, though -- all of the pilots are characters in the story, and you see their ships in cutscenes and such as well. This makes you want the other characters in a way you don't see in other toys to life games, but it does make adding new ships or characters tougher, if the game did well enough to get them -- what do you do, like say 'here's a new character! They aren't in the cutscenes or stuff though, you can just fly around with them and we added voice lines for them'? That's less than impressive compared to the characters in the base game, so the toy-DLC model Lego Dimensions used might not work here. If the game does well enough for a sequel they could add to it that way, though, like Skylanders did. I like the amount of stuff in the game right now, though; more ships and toys would be a bit much to want to have all (or most) of, like how I'll never even attempt to get all of the Skylanders stuff.
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