This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Steredenn: Binary Stars on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 436. For the original coverage of the game, please listen to Episode 435.
TRANSCRIPT: Next game on the agenda here is Steredenn: Binary Stars. I did receive a code for review, so just a heads up and thanks to PR for sending that over. This is a remake of a shooter that’s been out for a little while. I believe we covered it on Gamecritics a while back. Um, might be a video review of the original version. So this is an enhanced version. Just came out for PS5 and I believe Xbox as well.
This is a 2D pixel based shooter, like a shoot em up where you’re like in a spaceship, but there’s also a lot of, like, roguelike elements in it. Um, I think the. So okay, so I guess the, the main meat of it is like shooting, but the, the trick is like you get a bunch of different weapons. That’s where the the roguelike element comes in. Every time you start a run, you start off with your basic peashooter. You have a couple of different ships to choose from, and I think you have to progress a certain distance into the campaign to unlock each progressive ship. So like you only get the beginning one at beginning.
You have the starter ship at the beginning and then after you clear, like the second or third boss, you’ll get like the second ship. After you clear the fourth or fifth boss, you get like the third ship, so forth and so on. I believe there are 3 or 4, 3 or 4. There’s not a huge amount of ships, but each ship has its own ability, special ability that you can activate as you go to these levels. Uh, it reminds me a lot of, like, something like Gradius or, you know, something like that from back in the day, like one of the old school, like, you know, 16 bit kind of shooters, which is cool.
I dig those, um, you’ll get like, weapon choices after the end of each stage and it’ll be like, would you like a laser or would you like some missiles? Would you like, uh, little drones or would you like? You know, so forth and so on. So you choose whatever you like and whatever meshes with your playstyle. But of course it’s all randomized, so you can’t get the same thing every time. Sometimes you got to make do with something that you have not used before or that you might not like. I did not care for the shotguns, so I tried to stay away from shotgun as much as possible. I did like the drones and so I tried to get the drones as often as possible. I think the overall difficulty is pretty hard. There’s a lot going on on screen most of the time, and it can get a little bullet hell at times, especially at the bosses. Uh, so there is an easier mode which unlocks after you get a little bit of, uh, a little bit of progress under your belt. But it’s still kind of challenging. I mean, even the easy mode, I don’t think is a pushover. I mean, of course, a lot of this has to do with the fact that the stages are randomized. And like, you don’t always have the same loadout.
So it’s kind of hard to practice because you’re always trying to make do with what you’ve got. There is a lot on the screen. Like I said, uh, some of the weapons I think are pretty cool. I liked some of those a lot, like having little drones fly around a couple different flavors of drones. There’s like a bullet drone. There’s like a laser drone. You pop them out, you have a little bit of cooldown. They kind of just hang out and shoot, and if nobody takes them out, they can just like, shoot for quite a while. So I think that was pretty powerful. Flamethrower was like really good. Um, I think the only thing that I had a major well, a couple things. So my big problem with this game, I think, is that I do not like the controls and there’s no option to remap them, which is a little bit crazy because you’re not using all the buttons on the controller. So there was this thing where so number one, you just can’t remap them, right? But like when you you hold your fire button down. And in a game like this you’re always firing. So you hold the fire button down, you switch weapons. You can have up to two weapons at a time. You want to switch back and forth between your second weapon and your first weapon. You switch to the second weapon. Even though your thumb is still holding the button down.
It stops firing until you let go and then hold it back down again. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is absolutely a big deal in the middle of battle. And I fucking did not like it. Like at all. I hated that you had that little, that little speed bump when you’re firing. Also, why did you have to push a button to switch weapons? You’re not using all the buttons on the controller each. You know, each weapon could have been assigned its own button. Um, there is like, I have, like, 3 or 4 different ways. I would have wanted to configure the controls, and you can’t do anything. And I really just don’t like how the controls are laid out here. If the if the developers like them themselves, that’s cool. But you got to be prepared for people to like, want to play their own way. And button remapping is so fucking ass basic these days. Like, I really don’t have any sympathy at all for any developer that doesn’t put it in. It is just like part of the basic package. I expect when I go into, like any game, you got to let me change something around. You’ve got to give me some kind of like accessibility and just the I just, I just did not like the controls. That was actually a fairly major barrier to my enjoyment. I just it really kind of irritated me.
And I could never like, I could never, like, get into the flow. Um, there was always something about the controls that was kind of bugging me, which I didn’t care for. Steredenn puts you through a lot of unnecessary finger juggling instead of letting you just get in the shooter zone, and there also isn’t a lot of permanent progression. Every time you start a run, you’re going back to zero. Which I guess is fine. I mean, going through one run of the game takes like 45 minutes or something like that. So it’s not like a huge ask, but it would be great to be able to start the campaign with like different weapons or like have a specified loadout or something that you kind of just like customize as you go. That would have been a really nice option. It is not there. So again, just kind of wishful thinking. So overall, I think Steredenn is fine. It’s pretty good. I mean, I can see some places where it could be improved, but if you want like a 2D shoot em up, um, we’re not really getting a ton of these these days, so it’s not like we have, um, like a million choices. We’re not spoiled for choice right now, so I think it’s pretty good. I do appreciate that Steredenn attempts the roguelike formula to keep gameplay somewhat fresh, but at the same time, getting set back to square one when you die without the option for more of a starting boost starts to wear you down after a while. Like I kind of feel like, okay, I wish something different was happening. I wish there was some more change happening after a couple runs. I’m like, okay, like I’m good. Like I feel like I’ve got the measure of this game.
So I think it’s like, I think it’s all right, but I think it could have been better. Um, and I don’t have any experience with the previous version, so all I’ve got to base my opinion on is this version in front of me. And so I think, um, to give it a full SVG review, I think I’m probably going to give it like, I don’t know, like like six and a half. There’s a lot of potential here with fun weapons and a good concept, but the solid supporting elements needed for any good roguelike just aren’t here. There are a lot of obvious holes that could be filled — better meta progression, customizable controls — that would make the overall package so much better.
I mean, I had fun with it. I think it’s pretty solid. It just seems like it’s not quite living up to the full potential. Um, especially when you compare it to other games in the genre right now where you’re seeing a lot of developers, you know, really adding some cool features and really kind of encouraging people to lean into the roguelike aspect. I feel like this one doesn’t quite go far enough, so I feel like a pretty solid 6.5 is where I’m landing on Steredenn: Binary Stars. Although I did have a pretty good time with it. So there you go. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Pixelnest Studio and published by Red Art Games. It is currently available on (platforms). This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately five hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. There is no official description, but this is just spaceships shooting other spaceships in space, done in pixel art style. Nothing to be worried about here.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles cannot be resized or altered. The minimal dialogue in the game is delivered completely via text, and no audio cues are needed for gameplay. This game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. One of the L shoulder buttons is to swap weapons, X is to shoot, O is special ability, and the left stick controls the ship.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.
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