Rogue Eclipse from HUSKCRAFTS is an action-packed roguelike arcade spaceflight shooter. At least on paper, that’s what it claims to be. Does the game actually deliver, though, and is it worth checking out? That’s another story altogether, so let’s take a closer look.
Rogue Eclipse
Players in Rogue Eclipse will take on the role of Malak, a spacefarer who pilots a starship packed with ordnance and cannons. Dr Noor, your companion, tasks you with fighting off the enemy forces in a star sector and off you go to do glorious space battle! Unfortunately, the story seems to be extremely basic.
Gameplay
First and foremost, let’s talk about the gameplay in Rogue Eclipse. Players will pilot their starship and fight off enemy fighters and larger ships in various different star sectors. Each sector unfortunately has very similar ships, and there’s very little variation on offer here even as you progress further into the game. Players will fire their forward-facing cannons on their ship towards enemy ships and use their more powerful weapons to deal massive damage.
You will start out with barebones missiles and cannons, but as you progress in the game, you’ll unlock a railgun, particle beam and fusion bombs. Being a roguelike, you will unlock upgrades as you complete sectors; however, these upgrades are rather lacklustre and honestly don’t feel like they are doing much to help with your progression either.
For example, adding a 5% capacity boost to your missiles doesn’t really feel like it’s doing much and by the time these percentage increments actually do start to add up, chances are you’re going to get blown up because of the sheer number of enemy forces you’re facing on normal difficulty.
Players will have to control their spacecraft and fly around in circles, brake, boost, and dodge enemy missiles and lasers and take them down before progressing further into other sectors. It all sounds great on paper but there are a few glaring problems with Rogue Eclipse that immediately show themselves within the first 30 minutes of playing the game.
Sound Problems
Problem number 1 is the fact that the game’s sound mixing seems to be completely off. The music track is louder than the rest of the game for some reason, and everything else just sounds washed out.
While the music tracks themselves are actually really not bad and suit the game perfectly, having everything else sound so distant or far away takes away from the impact of everything. For example, if I’m blowing up a larger ship, I’d expect the subsequent explosion to actually sound impactful, but it really doesn’t in this game.
Additionally, Dr Noor’s incessant, repetitive voice lines get extremely annoying very quickly since she doesn’t actually contribute to anything at all while you’re fighting off enemy forces and the lines she’s saying become extremely annoying very fast. Some casual banter between her and another character would have worked wonders but instead, we just have a character repeating voice lines over and over while you’re fighting enemy ships and it becomes very monotonous very quickly.
Roguelike Progression
Another problem that shows itself quickly is the fact that the game is supposed to be a roguelike but it barely feels as if you’re actually progressing and unlocking new things to improve your damage output or survivability. Even when you allegedly unlock something after completing a few sectors and then dying, the unlocks don’t show up on the main menu and you’ll be left wondering if you even made any progress at all.
I unlocked a few different ship variations and engine types for example and with subsequent runs, I thought I unlocked some more but nothing new showed up in the menus despite there being a prompt and a statement said about “new unlocks” on the total score screen. The fact that you also get blown up quite easily in later sectors also feels quite frustrating and like you’re just wasting your time with no real reward or story progression.
Story
The story in Rogue Eclipse could definitely have been fleshed out more with conversations during battles but there’s almost nothing going on here so there’s no real sense of purpose or plot unfortunately. You’re just basically mindlessly blasting away at enemies while your Dr companion is mouthing off the same lines over and over and this is a huge missed opportunity.
Similar arcade flying shooters games like Ace Combat have perfected the art of keeping you engaged while you’re fighting opponents so it’s quite baffling how this has been overlooked unless it’s still in development over at HUSKCRAFTS.
Visuals and Customization
Visually, the game does look appealing with flashy explosions and effects but again, there’s just not enough variation on offer here if you’re supposed to be sinking hours into the game as a roguelike. Customizing your spacecraft is also quite disappointing since there’s only limited options and you cannot change the colours of each part of your ship manually.
Early Access Feel
Rogue Eclipse is a game that feels like it’s still in Early Access. The barebones are there it just needs a few months more worth of development and then maybe it will be something that players can dive into and enjoy. Right now, I can hardly recommend playing this unless you are absolutely starved for a pick up and play game that you want to dive into for short runs of mindless arcade spaceflight shooting entertainment. Oh and you can’t even customize the controls yourself! You have to pick from some presets which will definitely annoy some gamers who are used to being able to map their own controls.
Final Verdict
Overall, the game needs more story, needs to fix its sound issues, needs a heck of a lot more enemy variation, needs a complete overhaul of its “Roguelike” elements and a lot more effort put into making it into something worthy of playing for hours like most other roguelikes in the genre. Unfortunately I cannot recommend picking up this game unless you are really desperate for something to sink a few minutes into in short bursts on a SteamDeck while commuting somewhere.
Rogue Eclipse Trailer
This review was based off a PS5 playthrough.
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
Review Summary
What is Rogue Eclipse?
Rogue Eclipse is a roguelike arcade spaceflight shooter from HUSKCRAFTS where players pilot a starship through enemy-filled sectors while unlocking weapons and upgrades.
What is wrong with Rogue Eclipse?
The game suffers from repetitive enemies, weak roguelike progression, poor sound mixing, repetitive voice lines, limited ship customization and a very basic story.
Is Rogue Eclipse worth playing?
Only if you are looking for short bursts of simple arcade space shooting. The review finds that the game currently feels more like an Early Access title and lacks the depth needed to make its roguelike systems engaging.
What score does Rogue Eclipse get?
Rogue Eclipse receives a 5/10.
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