Quick Look: Strike Suit Zero

The song in the game reminds me a bit of the Zone of the Enders 2 song. That song's much cooler though.

Can you do a Crazy Dave Corkscrew?

Strike Suit Zero transformation: Body parallel to wings = ship, body perpendicular to wings = robot, yeah, great transformation there.

@Vect said:

The song in the game reminds me a bit of the Zone of the Enders 2 song. That song's much cooler though.

I was thinking the same thing.

@jozzy said:

@umbaglo said:

Jeff is right that the mission they played could have done a better job of making the Strike Suit feel like a badass in it's first appearance. That said, it does show off it's strength in later missions.

Also, once you unlock the Strike Suit, you can do goofy things like go back to mission 1 and 2 and replay them while inside it.

It looks like you played this game more, do you think it's worth it? I am still interested in this, haven't played this style of game in a while and I like the look of it, but I hope they vary the scenario's from what we've seen here. Is there variation here?

I played in the beta, and while I think it has some issues, as a whole it was a very well done action space sim. From the missions that were in the beta, there is some variation, with missions ranging from dogfights to ambushes in a nebula that affects targeting, to an assault on a supply base, to defending your carriers from mines or torpedoes.

Each mission also has, as was mentioned in the video, both score targets and a "secret" target, both of which can be very hard and require some skill to accomplish. Though coming back later with more upgrades and weapons, and even using a different ship (there's... at least 4 different base ones in the game, with at least one more coming later as DLC; not all of which are Strike Suits). Though not all missions (at least in the beta) let you use all ships. Maybe that was for testing purposes, since I haven't played the final release yet.

All in all, I would say that if you like sim-lite space shooters, and think piloting a Valkyrie is pretty cool, then Strike Suit Zero is a game to check out. It's definitely one of the best Macross games ever made...!

@umbaglo said:

@jozzy said:

@umbaglo said:

Jeff is right that the mission they played could have done a better job of making the Strike Suit feel like a badass in it's first appearance. That said, it does show off it's strength in later missions.

Also, once you unlock the Strike Suit, you can do goofy things like go back to mission 1 and 2 and replay them while inside it.

It looks like you played this game more, do you think it's worth it? I am still interested in this, haven't played this style of game in a while and I like the look of it, but I hope they vary the scenario's from what we've seen here. Is there variation here?

I played in the beta, and while I think it has some issues, as a whole it was a very well done action space sim. From the missions that were in the beta, there is some variation, with missions ranging from dogfights to ambushes in a nebula that affects targeting, to an assault on a supply base, to defending your carriers from mines or torpedoes.

Each mission also has, as was mentioned in the video, both score targets and a "secret" target, both of which can be very hard and require some skill to accomplish. Though coming back later with more upgrades and weapons, and even using a different ship (there's... at least 4 different base ones in the game, with at least one more coming later as DLC; not all of which are Strike Suits). Though not all missions (at least in the beta) let you use all ships. Maybe that was for testing purposes, since I haven't played the final release yet.

All in all, I would say that if you like sim-lite space shooters, and think piloting a Valkyrie is pretty cool, then Strike Suit Zero is a game to check out. It's definitely one of the best Macross games ever made...!

Thanks for the detailed response. I just bought it, for $15 it is totally worth a shot! There are some really mixed reviews out there though, let's see which ones I agree with more.

What this all means is we need another Crimson Skies!

@AIKusanagi: Macross Fuck > Macross Plus

Seem's average. I don't dislike it. I'll get it on sale fosho.

There definitely is alot of life left in this gen. I wouldn't buy another console to get it though, waiting for something more spectacular.

KICKSTARTER FUNDED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

It was a promising idea, but it's kind of underwhelming overall.

this would've been great maybe 4 or 5 years ago. still looks like a nice game.

Playing Colony Wars as a kid was pretty great. Blew me away, while it was simultaneously fairly boring like this. Destroying the big freighters and the bouts down to a planet's surface were pretty memorable.

This really makes me miss Rogue Squadron

Ohhh. so it's Colony Wars and Omega Boost all in one game. Weird.

The terrible "robot" music makes me want to burn things.

This looks like Project Sylpheed for Xbox 360

That transformation was really underwhelming, but I see the potential for flying into a group of enemies, transforming, and spinning around destroying everything.

Not gonna lie either. This looks really, really boring.

I feel like these kind of games need to either go full sim, or full arcade crazy to be even remotely enjoyable. This simply does neither.

The last level is where one hundred Bentusi ships warp in and tell you you won, right?

Why can't someone just make a modern Robotech Action/RPG/Simulator? That's what the people want.

@jakob187 said:

It was a promising idea, but it's kind of underwhelming overall.

This could be a subtitle for Kickstarter.

Sad to say, but this game looks boring. I love the genre, but it needs to evolve. The HUD is also poorly designed: too cumbersome, too plain looking, and too intruding.

Is there a concept page for in-menu video tutorials? There should be. Far Cry 3 had'em too.

@OneKillWonder_ said:

Being in robot mode reminds me a lot of Omega Boost.

First thing I thought of as well.

Stylish as all hell, I will say that. Nice SFX, nice round deep bass.

@tristenkw5 said:

Is there a concept page for in-menu video tutorials? There should be. Far Cry 3 had'em too.

As well as many of the Devil May Crys, and I think Ninja Gaiden too?

This looks like a budget game where they took out all the other interesting parts to focus on the combat, except the combat sucks.

You'd think that nearly 15 years after Freespace 2 it would be fairly simple to nail the semi-arcady space combat genre. Apparently not.

Funny how recent space sims have fewer control features than the ones of yore. All to accommodate current controller design? I feel like the D pad would be good for shield distribution.

Looks like this could use more sim stuff. We're talking PC flight game, going kinda arcadey and simple on the controls is maybe missing the mark a bit, as far as the audience is concerned.

@bluecollaralaskan said:

Ryan kinda misses a lot of things people say. Jeff tells him he has two types of guns, and the machine guns are good for depleting shields, the other guns for taking the ships out after that. like 45 seconds later Ryan says "so, whats with these two gun types you are switching between?"

I've been noticing him doing this with more and more things lately.

I catch him doing that on the Bombcast all the time.

The music in this kinda reminds me of the Neir sound track.

Was eastern-sounding music in space sci-fi a thing before Battlestar Galactica?

@tristenkw5 said:

Is there a concept page for in-menu video tutorials? There should be. Far Cry 3 had'em too.

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory had them, too. Always awesome to see a looping video of a dude getting tased with the shocker round of your SC-20K.

Looks cool. Though space robots and that lady singing just makes me wanna play Zone of the Enders 2 again.

Recent space fighter games have been disappointing because they never go big enough. I want a game where you have hundreds and hundreds of ships on each side, dozens of capital ships and fighters and bombers too numerous to count supporting them. Seeing 5 to 10 capital ships and a few dozen fighters is a let down. What would be really neat is if there was a multiplayer game where players could build massive fleets to slam into each other, the top level would be an RTS style tactical view to issue fleet wide commands but you could hop into any ship from fighter to battleship on the fly and take control. Go bigger developers, we have the technology.

you had me at colony wars :)

This game is beautiful and the lack of enthusiasm for this quick look is telling of a bad day @ CBS. Grab lunch first and THEN do a quicklook.

I think the effort of coming up with witty snipes keeps them from thinking critically when doing quick looks. Watching this I was wondering why Jeff wasn't targeting the missiles in robot mode. It would build his meter and keep the ship he was protecting from getting hit. Once full up he could direct his attention in toward the ships. I might be wrong, but that seemed like a logical plan to me.

I just loaded the game and will put my money where my mouth is and see if that works.

I think the game itself could use a bit more enthusiasm to be honest. At first glance the universe looks very pretty. It's not awe-inspiring, but it's a fairly well-realized look what with the trippy optical effects and sheer graphical fidelity of the ships/space.

2 minutes later and already I feel the action is almost mind-numbingly dull, short-sighted, and a little rough around the edges. I haven't played it so I can't say for certain. Don't get me wrong, they nailed certain aspects. The way the missiles deflect off a well-timed EMP looks fun and different for instance. But Ryan's "unfinished" remark seemed spot-on to me. The explosions lacked something, I'm not sure what. There was a fireball and a structural failure, but a piddly one. Sound seems alright, and I enjoyed the soundtrack until that one repeating song. Something I'm surprised they didn't discuss (or maybe they did, I think I trimmed the video by 10 or so minutes...) is the HUD. Even more arcadey space combat games should feature an appealing and functional HUD. This game's HUD is by no means an assault on the eyes, but it does not seem to support or encourage long-term play. The static text hanging in obtrusive boxes on-screen is oversimplified and way too obstructive. The fact that the windows are at least colored, textured, and the font is moderately fitting seems to imply that thought has been put into this layout. Frankly I hope it's a placeholder.

Can't blame Ryan and Jeff for sounding bored/unimpressed. Janky robot wonders what love feels like but thinks he knows apathy all too well.

@Thiefsie said:

This looks...... boring, to put it mildly.

I feel like this Quick Look would have benefited from showing us the next mission instead.

Jeff would have already unlocked the Strike Suit. He'd have know what it was all about and how to use it, and half the Quick Look wouldn't have been spent wondering what the main mechanic of the game was.

@AssInAss said:

Was eastern-sounding music in space sci-fi a thing before Battlestar Galactica?

The composer of this game is Paul Ruskay, who did the music for the Homeworld games, which had similar eastern sounds.

Volition, why u no keep making Freespace!

Is there anything cooler than enemy frigates/flagships warping in and immediately letting loose barrages of fire?

@selbie said:

Volition, why u no keep making Freespace!

Because after Freespace 2 was a huge financial failure they had to sell themselves to THQ and no longer get to decide what games they get to make. Also, the zombie corpse of Interplay owns the rights to Freespace.

@NakAttack: Good call, Starlancer was one of my favorites back in the day.

@NuclearWinter said:

@AssInAss said:

Was eastern-sounding music in space sci-fi a thing before Battlestar Galactica?

The composer of this game is Paul Ruskay, who did the music for the Homeworld games, which had similar eastern sounds.

The soundtrack reminded me about Yoko Kanno a bit. She did most of the music for the Ghost in the Shell franchise.