Starlink: Battle For Atlas - MojoPlays Review
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VOICE OVER: Dave Thibault
What is Starlink: Battle For Atlas? Ubisoft's toys-to-life space series is definitely a new type of game, but all that really matters is one question, is Starlink: Battle For Atlas good?
MojoPlays Review: Starlink: Battle For Atlas
Ubisoft’s got a brand new IP they want to show off, An open world … or in this case open Solar System: Designed around space ships that can instantly teleport different weaponry onto their wings and ... OH MY GOD IS THAT STAR FOX? Well ok Ubisoft I’ll bite. Let’s see if Starlink can make toys to life interesting again, but most importantly … how many Star Fox quotes can we Barrel Roll into this review? Welcome to MojoPlays and this is our review of “Starlink: Battle for Atlas”
So we’re taking a look at the Nintendo Switch version due to the fact that it has the exclusive Star Fox content, the game is available on PS4 and Xbox One without borrowing Nintendo’s IP, though for my 25 hour session I ended up using Fox for the majority of the game for reasons I’ll explain later. First though, we need to talk about the game’s main selling point: It’s toys to live ships.
The Starter pack comes with this really well built Arwing that would look great on anyone’s desk to boast about at work *nudge nudge hint hint*, It’s lightweight and is placed on a specially designed Joycon dock that’s also provided, it’s roughly the same size as a regular dock, though the handle grips are noticeably smaller than the Switch standard. You also get two pilots to put in your ship, and an ice missile launcher and flamethrower weapons to attach to the wings. Another ship: The Zenith as well as a gatling gun called a Shredder are also available in the game digitally. The PS4 and Xbox One versions only come with one pilot and has the Zenith ship instead, but also has the shredder as a physical item, nothing digital.
As for how well the ship feels on the controller … it’s pretty comfortable, it has a very balanced weight distribution to the point where it only feels slightly heavier than a regular controller, and you can take off the wings and put them on backwards, and that even shows up in the game. But ... I barely used the toys, it was fun to mess around with for about an hour or so before I just picked up a Pro-Controller and went into Digital Mode since configuring the ship take up just as much time as changing them in the pause menu, but if you want to mix digital weapons onto a physical ship: Can’t let you do that Star Fox. So as cool as this Arwing looks, it works better as a display piece than an actual game input.
Starlink is set in the Atlas system, where an expedition team is on the search to learn of the origins of Judge, a hivemind alien that crashed to Earth years ago and taught it’s leader: St.Grand how to create the superpowered element known as Nova. Only for their ship to get infiltrated, stripped of its Nova power core, and St. Grand is taken captive by the Forgotten Legion, lead by this guy named Grex and … I’m sorry. I cannot take this guy seriously, and yes it has everything to do with that mask. It’s not like it’s intimidating or creative like say Majora’s Mask, it’s just some gold mask with feather, those things probably itch. Also: He never takes the mask off, so why have a main villain wear a mask if there isn’t going to be a big reveal around it?
So anyways: St.Grand is captured and the rest of the crew band together to stop the Forgotten Legion and take back the Atlus System. If you’re wondering how Star Fox fits into the story, they’re in the Atlus system looking for Star Wolf’s leader Wolf O'Donnell. That’s pretty much it. While they do appear in most of the games major cutscenes, their interactions with the rest of the characters is very minimal, to the point that there’s even some scenes where they don’t have any lines at all.
The characters don’t develop much throughout the game either, most of them have 2 Dimensional personalities such as Levi, who’s an obnoxious Social Media addict at the start of the game and ... still is by the end of it, in fact you could literally say that about every other character and their personality. The only two characters that get anything close to development are the baby faced Mason, who is also the most boring character out of the whole cast, and Judge who’s mystery about is origins don’t really go anywhere. So while I admire the story for its presentation, it leaves a lot to be desired.
As far as the gameplay goes, Starlink is a space combat & exploration game based in the one Solar System, there’s 7 planets to travel between and while that does sound small, each of the planets have very distinct biomes and natural hazards scattered throughout. Not to mention some rather breathtaking scenery. The game also has two main modes of traversal, your standard air & space flight, or your ships can hover along the ground, with short boosters where you can Try Hovering to essentially complete platforming puzzles. Yes I know what you’re thinking; How do you have platforming sections with spaceships that can fly? Well that’s because throughout the game there’s certain quests that require the player to carry a heavy item up to the top of some structures, with said item being too heavy for ship to fly.
Space combat is also really challenging too and if you fly around too carelessly you will get shot down, but Never Give Up, Trust Your Instincts and you’ll eventually learn how to track your prey, avoid swarms of targets and after a while You’ll become quite a pilot. Although you’ll spend most of the game in ground based mode, where combat pretty much becomes a strafing and shooting match.
Each Ship and pilot also have their own progression system, that are also increased by the massive influx of modifications you collect throughout the game. Though because progression can be pretty slow you’re more than likely better off to stick to just one ship (maybe 2 for backup) rather than trying to grind up every ship, which is why most of the footage you’re seeing has Fox in his Arwing.
Weapons come in 5 different classes: Kinetic, Fire, Ice, Gravity and Stasis. Fire & Ice are pretty self explanatory, while Kinetic weapons are neutrual. Gravity weapons create mini black holes that can trap enemies for a short time, but Don’t Get too Close Fox because they can trap you too. Stasis weapons make enemies near-weightless and sends them flying with a strong blast. Even cooler is that because your ship has two active weapon slots, firing them simultaneously can create unique attacks like a Fire Vortex where you shoot fire into a Gravity weapon’s black hole to cause constant damage.
That said, extra weapons are only available if you purchase them separately. If you only get the Physical Starter Set, you won’t have access to any Stasis or Gravity weapons unless you pay extra. This is a problem because there are some side activities that require those weapons in order to obtain certain loot. Let me repeat that: There is loot in the game unobtainable to the player, if they don’t pay real world money for the right weapons. Bad Ubisoft, very very bad Ubisoft.
Yet that’s not even my biggest issue with the game, no the biggest issue is that it’s very repetitive. The main goal of the game is to build up a strong army in each sector of Atlus by taking down the Forgotten Legions major Dreadnaughts. To beat 1 Dreadnaut you have to weaken them first by taking out all their connected giant walkers known as Primes they’ve sent to the planets, but you have to weaken the Primes first by taking out the Extraction Towers they plant everywhere, and there’s A LOT of Extraction towers across all the planets to the point where you’ll wanna go: Man! There’s just no end to these guys. The fights with the towers come down to Destroy all the energy balls, in nodes surrounding the tower to drop the main tower’s shield, and then when The Shield is Gone: Shoot the Core. Rinse/Repeat throughout. While the Extractors have minor differences in their fights, practically every single Dreadnaut and Prime fight plays out exactly the same way. And considering an average campaign lasts about 20-25 hours, there really needed a bit more variety to justify that length.
What? Is that all they’ve got? Not quite, there are a few side stories with unique set pieces such as Fox’s eventual showdown with Wolf. But the unique moments are few and far between, which is a shame considering how well this game does it’s space combat, and while the Switch version does have a few framerate dips and draw distance issues, it’s a pretty visually stunning game thanks to each of the world unique landscapes.
There’s one final point I want to touch basis on: The different versions: Despite it’s $80 US retail price The physical starter pack also has the least amount of content, with only two ship, two pilots and 3 weapons. Compare this to the $60 digital version with has 5 ships, 7 pilots and 12 weapons. And the $80 digital deluxe version, which is the same price as the physical version and has 6 ships, 10 pilots and 15 weapons. Not only that, but any extra content for the physical content, (Because they’re toys) cost twice as much to purchase separately than it is to purchase them as DLC. As such If you do want to play this game I strongly recommending choosing Digital.
With all that said however, my feelings with Starlink was that I while I enjoyed the game for its combat and exploration, It needed a lot more quest variety to keep me invested after I beat the game, especially if it want to justify all its separately purchased ships and weapons, because right now it does not. It may be worth picking up in a digital store sale, but stay away from the physical version. The extra toys do not justify it’s small amount of base content and expensive add-ons.
Ubisoft’s got a brand new IP they want to show off, An open world … or in this case open Solar System: Designed around space ships that can instantly teleport different weaponry onto their wings and ... OH MY GOD IS THAT STAR FOX? Well ok Ubisoft I’ll bite. Let’s see if Starlink can make toys to life interesting again, but most importantly … how many Star Fox quotes can we Barrel Roll into this review? Welcome to MojoPlays and this is our review of “Starlink: Battle for Atlas”
So we’re taking a look at the Nintendo Switch version due to the fact that it has the exclusive Star Fox content, the game is available on PS4 and Xbox One without borrowing Nintendo’s IP, though for my 25 hour session I ended up using Fox for the majority of the game for reasons I’ll explain later. First though, we need to talk about the game’s main selling point: It’s toys to live ships.
The Starter pack comes with this really well built Arwing that would look great on anyone’s desk to boast about at work *nudge nudge hint hint*, It’s lightweight and is placed on a specially designed Joycon dock that’s also provided, it’s roughly the same size as a regular dock, though the handle grips are noticeably smaller than the Switch standard. You also get two pilots to put in your ship, and an ice missile launcher and flamethrower weapons to attach to the wings. Another ship: The Zenith as well as a gatling gun called a Shredder are also available in the game digitally. The PS4 and Xbox One versions only come with one pilot and has the Zenith ship instead, but also has the shredder as a physical item, nothing digital.
As for how well the ship feels on the controller … it’s pretty comfortable, it has a very balanced weight distribution to the point where it only feels slightly heavier than a regular controller, and you can take off the wings and put them on backwards, and that even shows up in the game. But ... I barely used the toys, it was fun to mess around with for about an hour or so before I just picked up a Pro-Controller and went into Digital Mode since configuring the ship take up just as much time as changing them in the pause menu, but if you want to mix digital weapons onto a physical ship: Can’t let you do that Star Fox. So as cool as this Arwing looks, it works better as a display piece than an actual game input.
Starlink is set in the Atlas system, where an expedition team is on the search to learn of the origins of Judge, a hivemind alien that crashed to Earth years ago and taught it’s leader: St.Grand how to create the superpowered element known as Nova. Only for their ship to get infiltrated, stripped of its Nova power core, and St. Grand is taken captive by the Forgotten Legion, lead by this guy named Grex and … I’m sorry. I cannot take this guy seriously, and yes it has everything to do with that mask. It’s not like it’s intimidating or creative like say Majora’s Mask, it’s just some gold mask with feather, those things probably itch. Also: He never takes the mask off, so why have a main villain wear a mask if there isn’t going to be a big reveal around it?
So anyways: St.Grand is captured and the rest of the crew band together to stop the Forgotten Legion and take back the Atlus System. If you’re wondering how Star Fox fits into the story, they’re in the Atlus system looking for Star Wolf’s leader Wolf O'Donnell. That’s pretty much it. While they do appear in most of the games major cutscenes, their interactions with the rest of the characters is very minimal, to the point that there’s even some scenes where they don’t have any lines at all.
The characters don’t develop much throughout the game either, most of them have 2 Dimensional personalities such as Levi, who’s an obnoxious Social Media addict at the start of the game and ... still is by the end of it, in fact you could literally say that about every other character and their personality. The only two characters that get anything close to development are the baby faced Mason, who is also the most boring character out of the whole cast, and Judge who’s mystery about is origins don’t really go anywhere. So while I admire the story for its presentation, it leaves a lot to be desired.
As far as the gameplay goes, Starlink is a space combat & exploration game based in the one Solar System, there’s 7 planets to travel between and while that does sound small, each of the planets have very distinct biomes and natural hazards scattered throughout. Not to mention some rather breathtaking scenery. The game also has two main modes of traversal, your standard air & space flight, or your ships can hover along the ground, with short boosters where you can Try Hovering to essentially complete platforming puzzles. Yes I know what you’re thinking; How do you have platforming sections with spaceships that can fly? Well that’s because throughout the game there’s certain quests that require the player to carry a heavy item up to the top of some structures, with said item being too heavy for ship to fly.
Space combat is also really challenging too and if you fly around too carelessly you will get shot down, but Never Give Up, Trust Your Instincts and you’ll eventually learn how to track your prey, avoid swarms of targets and after a while You’ll become quite a pilot. Although you’ll spend most of the game in ground based mode, where combat pretty much becomes a strafing and shooting match.
Each Ship and pilot also have their own progression system, that are also increased by the massive influx of modifications you collect throughout the game. Though because progression can be pretty slow you’re more than likely better off to stick to just one ship (maybe 2 for backup) rather than trying to grind up every ship, which is why most of the footage you’re seeing has Fox in his Arwing.
Weapons come in 5 different classes: Kinetic, Fire, Ice, Gravity and Stasis. Fire & Ice are pretty self explanatory, while Kinetic weapons are neutrual. Gravity weapons create mini black holes that can trap enemies for a short time, but Don’t Get too Close Fox because they can trap you too. Stasis weapons make enemies near-weightless and sends them flying with a strong blast. Even cooler is that because your ship has two active weapon slots, firing them simultaneously can create unique attacks like a Fire Vortex where you shoot fire into a Gravity weapon’s black hole to cause constant damage.
That said, extra weapons are only available if you purchase them separately. If you only get the Physical Starter Set, you won’t have access to any Stasis or Gravity weapons unless you pay extra. This is a problem because there are some side activities that require those weapons in order to obtain certain loot. Let me repeat that: There is loot in the game unobtainable to the player, if they don’t pay real world money for the right weapons. Bad Ubisoft, very very bad Ubisoft.
Yet that’s not even my biggest issue with the game, no the biggest issue is that it’s very repetitive. The main goal of the game is to build up a strong army in each sector of Atlus by taking down the Forgotten Legions major Dreadnaughts. To beat 1 Dreadnaut you have to weaken them first by taking out all their connected giant walkers known as Primes they’ve sent to the planets, but you have to weaken the Primes first by taking out the Extraction Towers they plant everywhere, and there’s A LOT of Extraction towers across all the planets to the point where you’ll wanna go: Man! There’s just no end to these guys. The fights with the towers come down to Destroy all the energy balls, in nodes surrounding the tower to drop the main tower’s shield, and then when The Shield is Gone: Shoot the Core. Rinse/Repeat throughout. While the Extractors have minor differences in their fights, practically every single Dreadnaut and Prime fight plays out exactly the same way. And considering an average campaign lasts about 20-25 hours, there really needed a bit more variety to justify that length.
What? Is that all they’ve got? Not quite, there are a few side stories with unique set pieces such as Fox’s eventual showdown with Wolf. But the unique moments are few and far between, which is a shame considering how well this game does it’s space combat, and while the Switch version does have a few framerate dips and draw distance issues, it’s a pretty visually stunning game thanks to each of the world unique landscapes.
There’s one final point I want to touch basis on: The different versions: Despite it’s $80 US retail price The physical starter pack also has the least amount of content, with only two ship, two pilots and 3 weapons. Compare this to the $60 digital version with has 5 ships, 7 pilots and 12 weapons. And the $80 digital deluxe version, which is the same price as the physical version and has 6 ships, 10 pilots and 15 weapons. Not only that, but any extra content for the physical content, (Because they’re toys) cost twice as much to purchase separately than it is to purchase them as DLC. As such If you do want to play this game I strongly recommending choosing Digital.
With all that said however, my feelings with Starlink was that I while I enjoyed the game for its combat and exploration, It needed a lot more quest variety to keep me invested after I beat the game, especially if it want to justify all its separately purchased ships and weapons, because right now it does not. It may be worth picking up in a digital store sale, but stay away from the physical version. The extra toys do not justify it’s small amount of base content and expensive add-ons.
