Aside from Half Life Alyx, this is a VR-must.

Overall: 7.5/10 (8)

Gameplay: 7/10
Story/Narrative: 7/10
Graphics/Visuals: 8/10
Audio/Soundtrack: 9/10

Only found out about House of the Dying Sun after reading interviews with some of the Project: Wingman developers citing it as an inspiration. Might explain why my problems ended up feeling so similar between the two, but it’s an easy game to casually recommend: a lean space-flight action title that offers a surprising amount of interlocking systems to mess around with- a strong flight model coupled with a transformative loadout system, squad commands and the ability to swap between your growing fleet fighters, all in service of dismantling the remains of a dying empire.

It's at once intensely impressive, especially given that so much of the game seems to be owed to a single developer, but also comes off feeling a little light- coming off more as a fantastic proof-of-concept by its conclusion than a complete experience in its own right.

Some of that is probably owed to how short and discrete each of the missions are; once you warp into a map, what you see is generally what you get. They can contain hyper-lethal challenges that’ll have you throwing a small armada in order to come across a winning strategy, but when you do, missions only take a few minutes at their max- further enforced by an enemy frigate that warps in if you stick around too long. Structurally it's a little deceptive too, the Star Map that frames each of the missions and apocalyptic backdrop of the setting seeming to gesture towards a game where you’ll need to really consider your choices long-term, but that isn’t the case. If a challenge is too much for you, you can opt to retry old missions on a higher difficulty to unlock some upgrades, and regardless of how poorly your strategy on mission, your fleet is back to normal when you return to the map screen.

The silver lining to providing a series of such intensely small-scale challenges is that it highlights the distinct strategies you can adopt- had an incredibly difficult time on one mission trying assassinate a fighter pilot on one side of the map and a heavily-armed carrier on the other, and slowly found myself refining a plan to send my squad to bombard the HVT and manually targeting the carrier’s bridge with a kamikaze fighter, before swapping over and taking control of one of the remaining fights. It was a moment that meaningfully utilized all the game’s systems, and one that felt wonderfully grim: an interstellar war where the loss of a body is a little more than a slight annoyance.

Also want to say that the hardest difficulty is well worth a try, limiting your fleet to a mere three fighters. While the end of the game originally felt a little easy, snowballing past objectives with frigates and destroyers of your own, having to complete objectives with such a small force really shows the systems in their best light- showcasing what a surprisingly blend of strategy and reflex is hidden just beneath the surface here.

Wish it landed with a bit more weight, but it's a striking game while it lasts.

(The fact that the Homeworld developers never reached out to work with Marauder Interactive to expand the concepts set forth here is a total shame- you can feel the inspiration of the series throughout House of the Dying Sun, and seems like a great template for a spin-off.)


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Works Cited:

Gearburn: What other videogame inspirations did you have when creating Project Wingman?

Abi Rahmani: Ah, there has been a lot of other inspirations when creating Project Wingman. So far we’ve taken inspirations from other games including Energy Airforce, Aero Elite, Airforce Delta strike, House of the Dying Sun and other games that aren’t even in the same genre such as Risk of Rain and Battlefield in various departments of the game.

- https://memeburn.com/gearburn/2018/01/interview-project-wingman-dev/

Sabe demais o que faz - tom e mecânicas estabelecidos a tempo recorde, questão de segundos para ir do Play à imersão absoluta. Cenários lindos dignos das clássicas capas de novelas sci-fi são a paisagem de uma guerra feia, sem cerimônias - eliminar civis e inocentes são um objetivo como qualquer outro - você escravo consciente de um massacre em nome de um tirano que busca depor outro: ir contra a maré de devoção é muito além do seu cacife, o jogo não abre brecha para o que questionar, apenas te instrui a cometer o que precisa ser feito e picar a mula do sistema solar o mais rápido o possível, as poucas palavras de prosa e instrução solidificando a ideologia dominante - este conflito está muito acima de você.