Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut

Sure, it has some flaws, namely its reliance on the same mechanics that never really change over the course of its 10 hour campaign. But even so, Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut still manages to pull off a fun experience that blends action-arcade and simulation just enough to please both crowds.

Strike Suit Zero is a wonderful reintroduction. Though its obviously-not-AAA budget is betrayed by the lo-fi storytelling device of dishing out exposition via radio chatter, and it has an obsession with making you take out turrets on things, it’s pretty fantastic, and one of the best titles on next-gen right now.

A solid space shooter that offers a well-crafted balance between arcade blasting and tactical challenge. Unless you’re a fan of dog-fights and sci-fi, you’re unlikely to give Born Ready’s console port a second glance, but if you’re after a user-friendly blaster with a decent lifespan and enough variety to stave off the tedium often inherent in the genre, then this comes heartily recommended.

Where did the space shooters go? Well, Strike Suit Zero brings them back. If you don't mind the story being boring, the lack of checkpoints a bit frustrating and the absence of decent voice acting annoying, you'll be fine.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a good space shooter and will appeal those who twenty years ago loved Wing Commander and X-Wing. It certainly does not reach the same quality levels, but the new missions are interesting and the graphics, despite some loss of tone, are not bad at all.

Strike Suit Zero love won't last long because gameplay and mission designs are mediocre at it best. [May 2014]

Fans of the genre won't be disappointed, since they will find a pretty solid experience, full of action. However, there are no relevant additions for those who played the original version.

Even if it's not a perfect game, Strike Suit Zero fulfills its purpose: entertain you, offering a good show in space. It also bring the additional content Heroes of the fleet, which offer more hours of fun. A good indie for those looking for destruction, big ships and saving the Earth.

The game straddles the line between fun and annoying at times. Playing for extended periods will surely end in burn out, but for the short spurts played it offers some fun and exciting gameplay among some rather boring backdrops and generic story.

The Director’s Cut of Strike Suit Zero is better than the previous version, but unfortunately some issues like the repetition of the main campaign has not changed and not even a new 5-chapters story can solve the problem. However, the game is fun and sci-fi lovers will probably love to take control of this interstellar war filled with tons of special effect and explosions.

At £15.39 it’d be unfair to criticise Strike Suit Zero too heavily. PS4 gamers might not have the same love for the genre as PC gamers, but if you remember the likes of Rogue Squadron or Descent, this is definitely one for you.

A good spacial spectacle, with a great 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. Good experience, but repetitive.

Complex controls, a couple of poor design choices, and some iffy mechanics can make it difficult to love, but conquering the final frontier will leave you with a sense of accomplishment that's currently unrivalled on the PS4.

The new contents of this Director's Cut version of Strike Suit Zero make the game more complete and a little 'more balanced in the difficulty level, but the structure remains the same as last year, with its own strengths and its many flaws.

The Director’s Cut definitely is better than the original. The difficulty is more balanced, the art design is more focused and on top you’ll get added content. There are still deficits in regards of atmosphere and dramatic composition.

Technically solid and fun to engage with. Its bland narrative and iffy UI will cause genre newbies to eject prematurely. [June 2014, p82]

The new features that the Director's Cut brings to Strike Suit Zero, make the game a bit more enjoyable. Unfortunately the game is still haunted by repetitive missions and a weak story.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut provides a great deal of fundamental successes with a great deal of equally fundamental flaws. Though the gameplay is solid and engaging, the weak narrative, delayed progression, and sparse gameplay variety leave this game only to those who love mechs.

Strike Suit Zero wasn't a great game, and this Director's Cut edition does not solve its problems.

If you have missed space-combat shooters, as they are a real rarity, then you could do a lot worse than SSZ: Director’s Cut. The truth is that the director’s cut hasn’t improved anything majorly from the first game, so if you have it on the PC then don’t expect some revelation here as you’ll be left wanting.

This specific genre will continue to be missed even though the Director's Cut of Strike Suit Zero is a nice little game that can offer some hours of intense space combat gameplay.

If you can bank on one thing, it’s that the essence of Strike Suit’s space-flight combat is solid enough to warrant multiple approaches, and addictive enough to ensure that you won’t be leaving the black vacuum of space anytime soon.

If you are looking for lots of action set against a deep space backdrop, Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut should scratch that itch effectively as long as it lasts.

If repetition isn’t a problem for you, however, and you just want to blast-off into space and shoot down enemies by the bucketload, then this game is definitely something you should look into.

Piling on enemies and tossing in the Transformers-inspired ship just clogs up what could have been a charming, if deeply predictable, space shooter.