If there are two things I love, they’re robots and jets. Well, I love more than those two things, but combining those two are like combining chocolate and peanut butter. In the case of Strike Suit Zero, the peanut butter’s sometimes unexpectedly chunky instead of creamy, but still tasty. I’m all out of food metaphors. Strike Suit Zero is good.
The basic story of Strike Suit Zero is simple: you’re a pilot for the united nations of earth, when a war breaks out with colonists in space, and you’re tasked with straightening things out. Unfortunately the story is just that: simple, told via small communication windows with your superior officers, with not much else to go by. You feel like a small part of a much bigger story, which is both good and bad, in my opinion. Good because it does away with the typical “it’s all up to you” cliche, but bad because you often find yourself moving forward without more info than the most basic of instructions (blow that thing up, protect this ship, etc).
Visually, Strike Suit Zero is amazing. Indie developers Born Ready Games do a great job of making the colors pop, and your ship’s ability to turn into a mech is fun to watch literally every time. You could take any level and turn it into a kickass PC wallpaper. Even on the lowest visual settings you’ll love what you see.
Gameplay wise, it’s fairly easy to switch from jet controls to mech controls, but using a controller feels a bit awkward. You have to hold the left trigger to move forward, but the right shoulder button activates thrusters, and when in dogfights with other jets you tend to struggle to keep up, making it feel like you’re being punished for using a controller. Here’s hoping they fix that for the eventual PS4 and Xbox One release later this year.
Overall, though, what minor missteps there are aren’t enough to detract from the whole. Strike Suit Zero is a fantastically fun romp, and at a price under $20, you could definitely do a lot worse. Strike Suit Zero is well worth your time.
