STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS
Ubisoft gets lost in space
Could it be courage, or is it foolishness, to see giants like Disney and Lego fail to crack the toys-to-life market and say “I bet we can do better”? With its half-baked new IP and questionable integration of lumps of plastic, Starlink enters an uphill battle to justify its own existence before you’ve even put the disc in. It does make a good first impression. The core action is sound, charging you with using your spaceship to defend the Atlas solar system in frequently thrilling battles – though, oddly, most of the game takes place at ground level rather than in space. These pew-pew-strafe-kapow fights feed into an intriguing meta-layer, in which invaders must be fended off by building outposts, sabotaging supply lines, and taking out key targets, with each world its own front line.
In theory, the toys tie in by allowing you to physically build your ship on your DualShock, which is then reflected instantaneously onscreen. In practice, there’s an option to use menus instead, and it’s far more convenient. And if you buy your content digitally, it’s cheaper (£90 to get all the day-one content as DLC, versus over £200 if you get the toys).
We can’t imagine its cast selling many toys, either – with little introduction, the characters feel like they’re from a cartoon you’re supposed to have already seen two seasons of, and range in likeability all the way from ‘forgettable’ to ‘intolerable’. A paper-thin plot ties the roster together for a kind of Saturday morning cartoon by way of Star Wars.
ATLAS SHRUG
Both the threadbare story and the solid action beats are hideously over-stretched to meet the demands of the business model. The majority of the game is filler, demanding that you repeat the same actions over and over to push up various meters. What could have been a tight, exciting adventure is instead given the flavour of a bland MMO.
Worse, the game isn’t shy about pushing you to pay up. Extra ships act as bonus lives, as you can swap over to them if you get destroyed – and you’re going to need them. Equally, without premium guns you’ll find certain fights a struggle.
Starlink’s issues would be tiresome in a free-to-play game, but as part of a product that’ll set you back more than, say, Red Dead Redemption 2, they’re galling. There’s hours of fun to be had, but many more hours of grinding, and no matter which of its high price points you buy in at, your experience is never going to feel worth the money.
VERDICT
“THERE’S HOURS OF FUN TO BE HAD, BUT MANY MORE HOURS OF GRINDING.”
A good core experience with novel ideas stifled by a disproportionately high price tag, embarrassing amounts of repetitive filler, and pay-to-win mechanics. Robin Valentine