Heat Signature

 PC
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Game Informer
    Sep 27, 2017
    85
    Heat Signature’s strength lies in its ability to make you think fast when you have all the time in the world.
  2. PC Gamer
    Sep 21, 2017
    85
    By making excellent use of its procedurally generated world and wacky gadgets, Heat Signature is a mission worth taking.
  3. Vandal
    Oct 21, 2017
    80
    This is one of the best "space bounty hunter simulators" we've played in a while. A very interesting title we recommend particularly if you like 2D.
  5. IGN
    Sep 21, 2017
    80
    With a set of thieving and assassination tools that beg to be used creatively, Heat Signature’s puzzle-like missions are great for jumping into for a few goes at a time to try something just crazy enough to work. That’s when the fun stuff happens.
  6. Polygon
    Sep 22, 2017
    75
    Heat Signature is one of the tightest indie action games I've played, packing a maximum amount of excitement into a minimum amount of time and space. My first few hours with the game were genuinely wonderful, filled with rapid-fire moments of delight and triumph. But when I hit my personal skill ceiling, I could do no more than repeatedly bang my head against it. I respect Heat Signature. I admire its success in accomplishing with such skill what it set out to do, and if it had been more forgiving, it wouldn’t be as tense. Heat Signature’s laser focus on in-depth mechanical play with high consequence is at once what made it satisfying for me to play and what made it easy to put down and walk away from when I hit the limits of my tactical creativity.
  7. USgamer
    Sep 25, 2017
    70
    What you're left with is a game that many players will get around 10-15 hours out of before being shut out behind a vicious skill wall. Until that point, every player will run into some amazing moments that beg to be shared with friends. Heat Signature is a machine for watercooler talk. And if you're up to the challenge, there's a mountain waiting to be surpassed here. I just wish there were a few tweaks that would allow Heat Signature's fun to continue on for everyone, not just the highest skilled folks among us.
  8. PCGamesN
    Sep 22, 2017
    70
    Unfortunately, Heat Signature’s structure lets it down somewhat. It becomes a repetitive grind, broken up by the occasional amazing moment. The procedural generation makes it feel special, randomly creating an environment for these unique anecdotes, but it is a double-edged sword as there are a multitude of uneventful missions in-between. Still, it all feels worth it for those moments when there are a few seconds left on the clock and you are forced to take desperate action.
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  1. Eurogamer
    Sep 21, 2017
    Heat Signature is, in theory, another empire-building game like Far Cry or Assassin's Creed, in which you prise away nodes of geographical control, amassing plunder if not XP or character levels. It never feels like that, though. It cultivates an air of supreme disposability instead, its ships thrown together only to be picked apart as you'd pull the legs off a spider, its adventurers little more than loadouts with funky labels and an optional bespoke final mission. Inevitably, this framework rings a bit hollow after a few hours of continuous play (you could spend upwards of 20, I think, reeling in every last space station and beating every last Defector quest) - these systems remain charming to the finish, but there's a sense that Heat Signature is reliant on players being heartily sick of games that invest such acts of open-ended vandalism with broader significance. Forgive it that, however, and this is a piratical delight.
  2. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Sep 26, 2017
    Suspicious Developments have distilled that chaotic kinaesthesia into something much smaller, smarter and spacier, which is absolutely to be praised. Even if I found myself feeling like an aggravated villain as often as I felt like the fleet-footed hero. Even if I’m still sour about the man who killed my mum.

Awards & Rankings

91
#91 Best PC Game of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 33
  3. Negative: 6 out of 33
  1. Schmubbel
    Sep 2, 2020
    0
    No, somehow it's not that great.

    I was expecting more opportunities to interact in the spaceships ... sabotage something, hack something,    No, somehow it's not that great.

    I was expecting more opportunities to interact in the spaceships ... sabotage something, hack something, turn off shields, etc. None of them exist. Ok, drives can be destroyed. Well ... otherwise just kill or kidnap. You run around and kill everything. Short entertaining, but then quickly becomes dull.

    The thing around to be able to dock on a ship really just annoys me.

    Then this confusing and just stupid fiddling with the inventory ... nah.

    The idea of ​​always playing with other characters is ok, but always starting from scratch is not fun for me either. If you only play with one character it quickly gets boring, even in the game itself you will find this hint ... Oh yeah ... if it is only lame later you should start all over again so that you have fun again !? Really?? Serious???

    Everything is not bad. I like the graphic style. Infiltrating ships and then taking out the crew is also fun. For a short lap. Maybe two. Three .... NO. You can play this Game, but you don't have to.
    And that all makes it just too expensive.    … Full Review »
  2. KaiMerry
    Oct 13, 2017
    10
    Heat Signature is about controlling space mercenaries whose job it is to break into procedurally generated enemy spaceships and get themselvesHeat Signature is about controlling space mercenaries whose job it is to break into procedurally generated enemy spaceships and get themselves into terrible situations which require a clever way out.

    As a space mercenary, you have very little backstory or information available, just a random name and a personal mission, which involves breaking into a spaceship. You receive these missions from the only character who won't end up dead, because they're the tutorial character. These personal missions of breaking into spaceships require you to first, take on lots of other missions which involve breaking into spaceships.

    So, you grab a character and off you go, in your tiny pod of a spaceship which has no guns, just the ability to be so small that the enemy doesn't notice when you've docked onto them. The flying through space is controlled with the mouse, and is really fun to get good at, you'll start by crashing into the side of the enemy and hoping to dock, only to ping off the side, but the more you play, the quicker and easier you'll find it to dock. Of course, if you fly too close to the windows they're going to shoot you, and you will go spiralling through space to your death, or survival, depending on how you are with quick time events in which you can pause, so often you just need to make it back to base to repair your pod. Once you haven't been blown up by the enemy and have successfully docked, the space raiding begins.

    Before walking through the airlock just for the enemy to hit you with a wrench and throw you back out again, you can look over the whole ship, no fog of war, you can see where everyone and everything is, but that doesn't mean you won't be spotted by a patrolling enemy the second you step through the airlock because you weren't paying attention. Once you've snuck on it's time to head for the objective, either kill or collect, whether it's an item, a person, or the ship itself. Of course, you'll want weapons, and by taking out enemies and going through boxes you can gather yourself a hefty arsenal. There isn't just guns and wrenches, there is a manner of interesting and useful gadgets, such as swappers which swap you with an enemy, so they shoot themselves, and subverts which hijack enemy technology so it works for you. These shields and cloaking and so many more are there to help you out of the sticky situations, you may accidentally throw the enemy with the key to progress out of a window, but by using a swapper you can swap with someone on the other side of the door. You could use a visitor to teleport into a room of six people, take two out with a shotgun, shoot another with your other gun, throw your short sword at one whilst you dive at another with your longsword, and be teleported back to your original position before the last one shoots you.

    Pausing is the most powerful weapon you have, it allows you to perform these awesome stunts which are always the most rewarding part of any mission. Once you've completed the mission it's probably time to leave, you could run back to your pod, fly the enemy ship and blow others up with it on the way back or smash through a window and remote control your pod to pick you up before you run out of air. If shot or knocked out, the enemies will throw you out of the airlock, which means you have to frantically fly your pod to pick you up whilst the counter ticks down to your inevitable death, which may be today, maybe tomorrow.

    Once your back at a base, you can buy new items, train, do defector missions which you unlock with each space station you take controller of by levelling up through missions, or retire your character and select a new one. Although your character has little story, you still feel bad when they're retired or die, mainly because you lose all the gadgets they’ve collected over their past missions, and the progress on the personal mission, it can be devastating when you finally kick the bucket on the mission which would have unlocked their personal mission. But characters are replaceable, and the different difficulties of mission allow you to start gearing up before having to face the harder missions again. Through the game you unlock more ways of doing missions, like bloodless or no witnesses, these missions will still pay you if you don’t complete them within the perimeters, just they’ll pay you less. This means you don’t feel totally defeated when you wonder on a ship in a bloodless mission and forgot to bring anything non-lethal.

    This game encourages risking near impossible feats, encourages creative ways of completing your mission and is fun to play for a few minutes to a few hours, with great re playability. Although the missions are all a variation of the same thing, there is uniqueness in the procedural generation and defector missions, one of which starts you in space, making you use a gun to propel yourself through space.    … Full Review »
  3. Vectis99
    Oct 18, 2018
    7
    A fun, fast paced and casual stealth game which is unique in the wide variety of opportunities provided for the player to take a creativeA fun, fast paced and casual stealth game which is unique in the wide variety of opportunities provided for the player to take a creative approach to problem solving. The learning curve of the game can take some time, punishing players who remain in easier mission comfort zones and restricting their access to some of the more intricate parts of the game. After getting a feel for what the significance of each "assignment" means, the game starts to pick up and it becomes more engaging to search for more creative solutions to problems.
    The game was considerably improved by its October update, patching up a lot of the more menial parts of the game to increase the variety by a lot, dramatically improving the games possibilities and long term appeal.    … Full Review »
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