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HellStar Squadron Short Review

by Amr (@siegarettes)

• HellStar Squadron
  
• Developer- CosmicCrystal Games
  
• Publisher- CosmicCrystal Games
  
• PC (Steam)
  

Compared to other shooters, HellStar Squadron is almost…chill. Screenshots might give you the impression that of an aggressive, intense shooter, but HellStar Squadron rarely reaches that point. Bullets and enemies move at an almost languid pace. Shooting is straightforward–there’s a wide firing gun, a concentrated laser, and a screen clearing bomb, standard stuff. There’s definitely a few aesthetic touches from its bullet-hell cousins, but for the most part HellStar Squadron is about being patient and keeping a cool head. I died quite a few times but it rarely felt as if it tested me. It demanded just enough attention from me that I couldn’t zone out and play automatically.

That’s all legit. There’s a solid design here, and there was enough to keep me curious to play through its campaign. Its limited palette and single color sprites make good use of tone and shadow, though some stages worked better than others due to a lack of contrast between background colors and bullets. It never becomes unreadable, but when you have such a limited palette things like orange bullets against a red background flatten the space in a way more complementary color schemes don’t.

The act of shooting down enemy waves stays fun, and there’s decent visual feedback that gives it a certain punch. It does leave a little to be desired, though. Maybe its the because the themes and aesthetics sell a more aggressive image, but it felt as if there was a little too much downtime. Too much dead air, and not a lot of use of background destruction to keep up the rhythm. It felt a little more like a fixed shooter ala Galaga or Space Invaders than a scrolling one. The sound design also ends up being a weak link. Effects play over each other and blow out the levels in a way that doesn’t feel intentional, but more like poor mixing.

There’s a surprising amount of text as well. Each stage is home to a certain boss, and they’ll give a short speech at the start of the stage, before the boss fight, and after their defeat. The writing here is as straightforward as the rest of the game, though I will note that it endeared me a lot more towards the villains than the player characters. They’re all stock archetypes, but the villains each have a motivation and personality. They’ll reveal their plans and ambitions, then the player character will basically go “uh, no you won’t” and blow them up. Honestly made me wish I was playing the people trying to blow up the world than the ones saving it.

HellStar Squadron is a straightforward game. It’s almost obvious in its construction, though it ended up being a nice break from the deep intensity that saturates the genre. I’m not sure I’ll return for a second round though, as I feel like I’ve been hooked on the anxious, panicked adrenaline that I get elsewhere.