Strike Suit Zero

If you want to spend a night out with FreeSpace 2 in a slinky red dress, this is your game. Just don't expect thrilling dinner conversation. [March 2013, p.84]

Although first impressions are good, it soon becomes obvious that the ‘simulation’ is shallow, there’s too much chaos and the mech controls are not intuitive. [CD-Action 03/2013, p.60]

Strike Suit Zero is a good game that shows that Kickstarter can be used with profit. Unfortunately the game does not come close to the classic of the genre.

An audiovisually and musically impressive shoot 'em up with a space rocket that alters into the ultimate space transformer. However, the rest that would make the game better than your above average title is badly missing.

It looks and sounds the part with excellent visuals and a stirring soundtrack, and has competent gameplay mechanics, but it misses the mark with repetitive missions, a poorly developed story, and a fair bit of roughness around the edges.

Strike Suit Zero is a decent space combat sim but the strike suit angle feels forced and ungainly, and the game misses on a few too many important points to be a true contender for the crown.

Strike Suit Zero also fills the void of a genre that has long been forgotten on the PC, and maybe with the interest in this game, we will see the genre flourish once again in the near future.

A solid title, a Kickstarter success story. Unfortunately, owing to a forgettable story, uninspiring missions, some wonky combat mechanics and the infrequent crash, it will not win any GOTY awards.

Strike Suit Zero is a collection of excellent mechanics and ideas marred by unfriendly level design and bad pacing.

Strike Suit Zero is a well crafted and frenetic space shooter, but is spoiled by a certain repetitiveness of the missions and a predictable storyline.

Mechs, tons of missiles and a good level of difficulty, make Strike Suit Zero a game that should be played by space shooter fans. Unfortunately it have some technical issues and bad controls too.

Intuitive and accessible but also repetitive, SSZ is a flight combat game that trades on tradition rather than imagination.

The game's biggest problem, however, is the reliance on some of the very worst gaming tropes. Challenging is good, and I'm willing to argue it's not even a disaster when you can plainly feel the game cheating in the AI's favor (I'm looking your way, Civilization series). But missions that come down to either memorizing patterns or to simple luck are excruciating.

Even though the devs go overboard with the difficulty at times, what we have here is a well-playing space action game that will bring back fond memories for everyone who grew up on the classics of the genre. If you've got a soft spot for those and can deal with occasionally frustrating missions, this is well worth your time and money.

It won't blow your favorites in the genre out of the water, but it'll satisfy an itch you might not have realized existed.

For its budget and decidedly indie status, maybe that's a bit of a harsh criticism of Strike Suit Zero, but the feeling of repetition was overwhelmingly strong as I made my way through the latter half of the game.

The core game works surprisingly well, the dynamic space battles make for some great moments - and what a sublime feeling it is, if one has been bitten again.

The space in Strike Suit Zero is visually stunning, and its gameplay is nervous and terribly enjoyable... but when you finally take your marks with it, the game ends abruptly and leaves you with the impression of having played a long tutorial. The scoring system is a good way to have more, but we could have eaten twice without hesitation.

A superb spacial spectacle, with a great style and sense of scale. The combat is fast, fluid and enjoyable, but the structure of the game and its poor checkpoint placement can tire and frustrate the player. Great experience if you have the patience for it.

Like its titular star, the game tends to transform, flipping from triumphant to frustrating, and back again.

It may not be the all-consuming space sim we're all hungry for, but it's still a tasty space combat morsel that every armchair pilot should take a look at.

Strike Suit Zero is far too concentrated on bringing back the old feeling of 90s space sims to try anything fundamentally new. While still being a enjoyable trip down memory lane for any fan of those excellent games of old, it fails to trump its progenitors in almost every regard.

A fairly solid space shooter with a few niggles but worth it if you're a fan of the genre.

Freespace 2 this is not, but even with its frustrations, Strike Suit Zero is an anime inspired shooter with its balls against at least two walls. It's dumb, possibly dumber than it intends, but it's also the kind of action you're not going to feel bad for enjoying.