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Starlink: Battle for Atlas Review


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880327094_StarlinkBattleforAtlasboxart.jpg.433be0722a36a6c1355a10d0cbff6b5c.jpgReleased in 2018, arguably past the point where toys-to-life games were popular, Starlink: Battle for Atlas had an uphill battle from the start. Needing to separately purchase ships, weapons, and pilots is a big sell, even if manually swapping out your ship's weapons has a unique charm to it. But what Starlink did have on its side—for the Switch version—was a Star Fox tie-in that incorporated Nintendo's familiar space-faring heroes into the game's original story. Even if it's not technically a Star Fox game, Nintendo fans will likely appreciate seeing Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy explore planets and dogfight in space.
 
The story takes place in the Atlas system where your interstellar ship, the Equinox, is attacked by the Forgotten Legion. The Legion and their leader, Grax, are obsessed with the ancient technology left behind by the extinct species known as the Wardens, and are trying to use the long dormant technology for their own nefarious purposes. It's up to you to stop them by traveling to all seven planets in the Atlas system and rallying the residents to fight back. In the Switch version, the Star Fox team also gets involved when they're pursuit of Wolf leads them to the Atlas system. The main plot is a decent space-adventure story, though it feels a little derivative of other well known sci-fi games. Putting aside such comparisons though, the story is a cute if forgettable yarn about good and evil battling it out. The Star Fox side story will be more interesting to Nintendo fans, and although it really is only a small string of side quests in Starlink it's a lot of fun to see Fox square off against Wolf again.
 
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Let's address the elephant in the room right now: Starlink was created around the idea that players could buy a variety of toys in order to swap out different ships, pilots, and weapons at will. Although you can purchase these items digitally instead of physically, you do need to buy them to use in-game as there's no way to unlock them just by playing. Purchasing all of these add-ons (plus the main game) represents a significant investment. It's kind of a lame business model—for the player at least—but thankfully it is entirely possible to beat the game with just the basic starter kit. You won't have access to all of the different weapon types, but the game is still playable and enjoyable with only the basics (though having extra ships essentially serves as extra lives if you're ever shot down, so there's a definite benefit to having several). Personally I found myself occasionally wishing I could try different ships to benefit from different tactics or abilities, but I was never compelled to actually buy them.
 
Now on to the actual gameplay. Starlink is a third-person action-adventure game where you pick a pilot, a ship, and two weapons to battle Legion forces either in space or on the surface of planets. Flying into or out of a planet's atmosphere is pretty seamless and really nails the thrill of a space adventure like few other games. Between land-based battles and space dogfights, Starlink offers an intense but ultimately forgiving sense of combat difficulty. Your weapons have a cool down if they're fired too rapidly and there's no lock-on targeting, so you have to adeptly maneuver while keeping an eye on your weapons' energy gauges. The lack of lock-on targeting can make space dogfights a bit disorienting since enemy ships seem to move awfully fast, but these battles feel more natural the longer you play. On the other hand, your ship regenerates health outside of combat, so if you're ever too overwhelmed you can simply retreat, recharge, and try again. The game ends up feeling pretty well balanced and satisfying, making it nicely accessible to any level of player. Though if you do want more of a challenge there are different difficulty levels to try and, since there are light RPG elements in terms of pilot experience level, you can try to keep yourself underleveled to keep things challenging.
 
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Outside of combat, the real focus of Starlink is open-world game design. Each planet in the Atlas system is packed with locations and small objectives to conquer, all of which reward you with currency or ship modifications that can bolster your attack or defense. Ubisoft's trademark game design is on full display here: every time you enter a new area (or in this case, a new planet), your map will be filled with minor tasks you can tackle to tick your way to 100% completion. It's great that there's so much to do on each planet but Starlink rather despearately lacks variety. There are only four or five variations of side missions repeated hundreds of times throughout the game, and trying to complete them all seems more exhausting than entertaining. These are, of course, almost entirely optional objectives—you do need to complete a small percentage of them to progress the story—but still, it would have been nice to have side content that felt like more than padding.
 
Starlink also features local drop-in/drop-out co-op (while in docked mode). Not that the game's difficulty ever really requires it, but having a wingman while flying around a dreadnought's defensive cannons in space or clearing out robotic enemies from a satellite array is a nice perk. Despite the split-screen the second player can never get too far away from the main player, but there's enough wiggle room that you don't feel completely tethered to one another.
 
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Whether in the depths of space or on the colorful surfaces of Atlas's worlds, the visuals are charmingly colorful while still making these alien environments unique and interesting. Granted, Starlink's art style is distinctly cartoony—its pilot designs and the flora/fauna of the planets feels suited to a summer kids film—but it works for the game. The soundtrack also plays it safe, though in this case a bit too much. The music ends up feeling somewhat generic throughout—not necessarily bad, but not memorable either. The Star Fox music that pops up during their missions however is a real treat for fans of the series.
 
It's a shame that Starlink: Battle for Atlas was tied to the toys-to-life game banner, because even without all of the bells and whistles of multiple ships and weapons, there's an enjoyable space adventure here. Flying down to the surface of different planets and exploring is exciting, though the cookie-cutter approach to side quests and even the main story quests can make progress in the game feel more like a checklist than a journey of discovery. But for the Switch version at least, the presence of familiar Star Fox faces helps add value, and any excuse to jump back into the cockpit of an Arwing is a welcome one.
 
Rating: 8 out of 10 Toy Ships
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