The future of space shooters has finally arrived.
User Rating: 8.5 | Space Pirates and Zombies PC
This game was such a surprise for me. At release I immediately wrote the game off simply because it had "zombies" in the title. I am quite honestly just tired of the lazy way that zombies are getting pumped out in games these days. During one of the steam sales I decided to watch the trailer and it turned me around. I played it and fell in love. As a kid I grew up playing classic space shooters like Life Force, Gradius, Darius, R-Type and all the big 16 bit era games. While there have been lots of great games in the genre since then none of them seemed to take the next logical step, depth. S.P.A.Z. does just that. Adding a level of depth to the genre that I have never seen. Now there have been some games that added some of the management systems and rpg like elements. They just tend to be centered around those elements and ignore the flight and battle elements. Now of course there is room for improvement but it does so many things well. The battles are fun, intense and usually pretty challenging. The management elements have depth and require thought and skill but aren't as daunting as you would expect. Un-lockable hull types with the ability to customize those hulls, weapons, shields and more. A very pretty game graphically, especially for an indie game with a 2 man development team. I've spent time just watching the A.I. battles that play in the background on the main menu screen. Now the ship controls can feel a little odd at first but once you get used to them they make sense. In short, if you have any interest in space battles and fun sci fi stories you have to own this game. I love it and have even bought copies for my friends. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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