Putting out fires, fixing damaged areas, charging up your lasers — Catastronauts proves that a lot can happen while battling to defend a spaceship with friends.
Catastronauts is a local multiplayer game which takes you straight into the action of running a spaceship. You and your friends must defend your ship against alien attackers. You fight off the aliens by powering up and then firing various lasers. Some lasers power up on their own, while others need a battery that must be completely charged before they are ready. Charging up batteries require bringing them to a energy bank — which will take time.
While you are fighting back, you are also being attacked! Aliens fire at your ship, causing damage and starting fires. You will need to put out fires using the on-board fire extinguisher, and you need to do it as fast as possible, Then, you will need to repair the damage with your tools kit. If your ship takes too much damage, then you’ll lose the battle; the ship will power off, and you will fall victim to to the aliens.
Various other parts of your ship can also malfunction at times, requiring you to repair them as well. Keeping your ship in running condition is undoubtedly your most important goal — but you must not lose focus from the other side of combat, making sure the aliens are always being attacked.
Catastronauts is a really fun game to play with your friends. Taking inspiration from games like Overcooked and FTL, you really do need to keep an eye on multiple things and communicate with the other people you are playing with. Some levels divide up the ship, only allowing your character to be on set parts of the ship — so you may need to pass over tools, and amp up the communication just to stay alive. The challenge of recharging and hitting with lasers is also quite the task, as you need to focus on firing at the right time to ensure you stay in the fight.
As you move forward in the game, you are given more challenging levels. As the difficulty ramps, the need for teamwork and communication does so too — so make sure you play with people you trust, and you can survive with!
I had the chance to play Catastronauts at the recent Game Developer Showcase in Cambridge, as well as at EGX Rezzed — both experiences were tense, and super enjoyable. This is a great game for all ages — as long as you all work together and keep your ship alive.
If you’d like to follow the development of Catastronauts, you can check out their website, follow @Catastronauts on Twitter or take a look at their Facebook page.
Catastronauts is being developed for release on Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch & PC, it is expected to release in late 2018.
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