by Sam Sant @SlamShotSam Developer: ROCKFISH Games Publisher: ROCKFISH Games ​Platforms: ​PS4, Xbox One, PC ​Players: 1

Falling closer to arcade than simulation, you’ll pilot a spacecraft as protagonist Adam Roslin, seeking to uncover his forgotten past. Accompanied by HIVE, the ship’s onboard AI, you’ll also learn about the intriguing EVERSPACE universe and its inhabitants, fleshing out a more developed narrative than we’ve experienced in any other roguelike. It’s still simple, and the meta twist is predictable, but the extra effort is very much appreciated. More in keeping with roguelike etiquette is the brutal learning curve, which you mustn’t let dissuade you. Firstly, we’d strongly recommend playing in third over first-person to get a better view of your surroundings; navigating the game's truly 3D, 360° environments is much harder when confined to a cockpit. This makes flight second nature, leaving you free to focus on the tactical combat encounters coming your way. With a range of primary and secondary weaponry at your disposal, as well as reusable devices and one-and-done consumables, there are multiple avenues of approach to consider whenever trouble comes your way. Loadouts are largely dependant on what you’ve scavenged during the current run, forcing you to mix things up on the fly and switch between weapons according to their inherent strengths and weaknesses - using a laser to deplete shields before switching to ballistics or explosives and dealing extra hull damage, for example. Landing hits isn’t too hard, thanks to a HUD element that indicates how to lead shots, but that doesn’t mean you can be brazen - not in the slightest. Simple actions like boosting and shooting consume energy, necessitating conservative play if you don’t want to leave yourself almost completely defenceless during a dogfight. Managing energy consumption during a head-to-head is easy enough, but when outnumbered, as you often are, it becomes a real juggling act.

EVERSPACE has a more developed narrative than we’ve experienced in any other roguelike.

Permadeath can be a scary concept, but EVERSPACE boasts extensive persistent progression that’ll help to make losing a time investment actually feel productive.

​by Liam ​Andrews ​@liam_andrews5 ​Developer: ​Seed Interactive Publisher: Illumination Games Platforms: Switch ​Players: ​1-4

Now sporting a price tag and a new name - Skies of Fury DX – the game is loosely based on the Battle of Arras, in which British and German aircraft duked it out in what became known as Bloody April. ​Despite the historical influence, the game’s action is very much arcade focused, with players able to dodge enemy attacks with the press of a button and upgrade their aircraft through perks (more on them in a bit). Skies of Fury features the same comic book-style as its mobile sibling, coupling chunky black outlines with a vibrant colour scheme. The bold visuals help give the game plenty of character as you dogfight over the patchwork fields below and fly through giant, marshmallow clouds so thick you could seemingly hop out and walk on them. The simplistic graphics look relatively sharp in both handheld and docked mode, though in terms of performance the latter option is perhaps where the game is best enjoyed thanks to the greater level of control afforded when using a more traditional gamepad setup. Acceleration and yaw are assigned to the left stick, while the right handles pitch/roll. The controls take some getting used to, particularly as the Joy-Cons’ relatively small sticks don’t lend themselves well to the tight turns that frequent dogfights. While a Pro Controller’s larger sticks help to alleviate this issue, the general lack of customisation options is disappointing. ​As a lefty, I found using the right stick for manoeuvring unnatural and difficult, but with no alternative control scheme available (the only customisation options are to invert Y axis and turn the rumble off) I was forced to make do. That said, due to the relatively easy nature of the campaign, adjusting wasn’t too much hassle.​

The bold visuals help give the game plenty of character as you dogfight over the patchwork fields below and fly through giant, marshmallow clouds so thick you could seemingly hop out and walk on them.