Steredenn Preview

From Pixelnest Studios we have ourselves a new bullet hell, rogue-like space fighting game. In Steredenn you are a spaceship isolated from your teammates after your mothership gets blown to pieces and you have but one goal, destroy everything in sight. You must use your blaster and a myriad of other weapons to defeat a variety of bosses and enemies that will stop at nothing to stop you from getting home. Pixelnest have created what looks to be a very promising flashback to a combination of Metal Slug and Asteroids.

As soon as you click that play button, you are thrown into the action immediately. You’ll have dozens of ships trying to blow yours out of space using a variety of different lasers and missiles. While these enemies are firing an enormous barrage of missiles you are also forced to dodge a multitude of asteroids that are floating about your play area. The game is a sidescroller bullet hell combined with Asteroids that creates a fast-paced shooter that will have you pulling at your hair as you are hopelessly slaughtered.

Destroying every enemy can actually play to your advantage as they all have a chance to drop a new weapon for you to try out. At this time, there are roughly 25 different weapons to try, 6 bosses, and a multitude of different ships to destroy. While there are your typical run-of-the-mill space weapons such as burst lasers and missiles, there are also some rather unique ones. For example there is a laser called the lightsaber that is very powerful, however its resemblance to an actual lightsaber means you have to get up close and personal with the enemy you are firing at.

You are given ten lives to start out and while this may sound like a lot, it is in fact just enough as you are literally dodging projectiles non-stop. I found myself dying quite a lot simply because there were too many things on my screen to follow.
The entire time you are dodging this multitude of enemies you will have a rapid paced metal soundtrack playing in the background. The speed and tone of the song make the game feel like it is even faster paced than it already is, which by the way, is pretty damn fast.

The controls are relatively simple, space bar allows you to pick up new weapons, x fires your laser, and c allows you to cycle between the two weapons you have chosen to keep. Unfortunately, there is little configuration allowed when it comes to these controls; you are limited to switching up what the x and c keys do.

Much like the controls, the graphics are simple, yet pleasant to the eye. There is a wide variety of ships, asteroids, and projectiles that all follow the classic look of a retro bullet hell game.

I foresee a lot of replay value in this game as the enemy waves are all randomly generated. You will come across a variety of laser beams that can cut your ship in two, suicidal ships that fly straight at your vehicle, and even shielded ships. Each run is going to be different, and have a new level of difficulty. There are even random events in which the game will throw burning meteors at you with immense speeds. The levels end with a fight against a boss who literally defines the word bullet hell, as projectiles are launched in insane patterns across your screen.

Overall this beta was actually a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was extremely challenging. If you enjoy bullet hell rogue-like games then I would definitely say this is one to look out for in the future.