Distant Star: Revenant Fleet Review

Distant Star: Revenant Fleet is a real-time strategy game that is set in space for the PC. It starts off with a space battle and then players get to pick their fleet of ships.  You must rebuild your fleet in order to battle against the orthani.  In this game, you have more of a say-so in how the story plays out. Every time you play you get a different experience.  Your choices in the game determine whether you get attacked or rewarded. Make sure to choose wisely.You are also the commander and it is your job to save your home world from total destruction.

You need credits in order to buy ships, upgrade their weapons, buy attachments, and other things you might need for your fleet. You can earn credits through various missions you undertake. You also start the game off with credits. The ship classes you can choose from are carrier, tech, lancer, rogue, and dreadnought. Each class has different weapons and abilities. The drawback is that you can only carry 5 ships in your fleet.  Some ships like the lancer have limited health and shield.

Distant Star: Revenant Fleet is definitely lacking  interesting combat. Once you pick your fleet and select your path on the sector map you start your journey. Depending on the route you picked on the map you may end up in battle. I had higher expectations for the combat in this game. Once my fleet was in battle I was underwhelmed. You don’t get a first person view of the battle. There aren’t any big explosions and the majority of the action is understated.  I found the battles very boring and couldn’t wait for them to end.

What I did like was that each point on the map represents a different scenario. You can select a different path on the map in between missions.  When you are in a non-combat situation you are presented with choices as to how to handle it. I liked that you got to choose what would happen in any scenario you came across. It really puts the player in control of the story.  I liked that each spot on the map is a different scenario.  What I didn’t like was that you didn’t hear any kind of character voice over in any scenario. I felt that would have added to the game.

The controls were easy and simple. Use the mouse to select your path on the map, use the arrows while in combat to change the camera view, and use the asd buttons while in combat.  I liked that you could go the menu and see what the controls are in case you need it. Distant Star: Revenant Fleet does have replayability because of the variety of choices and scenarios. Each point on the sector map represents a different situation and scenario. You could end up in combat or just help someone repair their ship. You don’t end up doing the same thing over and over. The player gets a variety of outcomes as a result. Once you die you do have to start the game over from scratch.

One of the few things I did like about the game was the graphics. I have played similar strategy games that had graphics that looked like something from the 90s even though the game came out recently. I was happy that the developers of Distant Star: Revenant Fleet did not do that to the players in this game. The backgrounds, ships, and weapons do make players feel that they are in space. This game isn’t exactly easy, but I wouldn’t say that it is the hardest game I have played.  It is all about strategy. Pick the right ships, the right upgrades, and make the right choices then you will make it far. I was able to make it through a sector map at least once without dying.

Distant Star: Revenant Fleet isn’t the type of game that just anybody would be drawn to. You would have to really love strategy based games in order to like Distant Star: Revenant Fleet. It is targeted more towards strategy game fans. I found this game to be lackluster. It fell flat for me because there wasn’t much going on as far as the story goes, the combat wasn’t exciting, and at times the game was kind of confusing. There wasn’t anything that interested me or jumped out at me in this game. I have played better strategy games than this one.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.