#66 - StarRupture

Happy 2026! It's been way too long since I posted a new game review. (Has it seriously been 4-1/2 months?!) Life has been interfering with my gaming lately, and my list of games I want to review is only getting longer and more daunting. Then, StarRupture released 3 days ago!

I've been anxiously awaiting this game for a while now. I participated in the playtest in July 2025 and I've been excited for this early access to drop on Steam. My friends and I have been counting the days.

Apologies for the blurred Discord chat in the top left of some screenshots; it loaded Discord in Legacy Mode until I switched the game display to borderless fullscreen. Even then, I still needed to blur my friends' names in the bottom left as it pulled their Steam names for the characters they played.

StarRupture is a first-person survival crafting/factory automation game, similar to Satisfactory. But its developers have been working very hard to separate it from Satisfactory through unique story and gameplay mechanics. For instance, you have four characters to choose from, all with names, numbers and backstories.

You can swap characters anytime during gameplay, so you're not tied to your decision. So far, despite all of them having unique backgrounds and specialties, they all seem to play identically, so I don't think it really matters which one you choose. Pick the background you like best. I went with the Scientist at first, but when my friends joined and none of them wanted to play as a girl, I gladly switched to the Engineer.

Remember I said they all had numbers? That's because they're all convicts! Their crimes are varied (the scientists' former job and criminal record just says "CLASSIFIED"), but they're all serving time on the remote planet of Arcadia-7. Their sentence requires them to harvest resources for five different corporations. Ideally, working this job will eventually pay off the debt they owe to "society" (read: major corporations).

You awaken from a Regeneration Chamber and find yourself in a small ship on the planet's surface. These Regeneration Chambers are how you come back every time you die in this game. A "sleeve" (clone) is generated in the chamber for you, which is fed constant video and audio of your activities to keep their brains stimulated until they need to be awoken. As you'll learn from lore scattered around this planet, death is no longer something to be feared in this sci-fi world, as long as your data disc isn't damaged.

An AI voice introduces herself as GAL - the Galactic Assistance Liason - of the Claywood Corporation, a sixth corporation who oversees your sentence. She's there to guide you through your job and ensure you complete all tasks to help benefit the corporations pay your debt!

You and your fellow convicts are part of the ARGOS Project, the first team in more than half a century to explore, harvest resources, and document this world as a potential New Earth.

But first, you must complete a training program before you're trusted to collaborate with the other corporations. You step off your spaceship and walk to a nearby clearing for your first view of the planet surface.

First, you need to harvest a Meteorite Heart. You do this by using the Harvester tool to extract minerals from the outside of meteorites. Once you've collected all the resources, it will crumble to pieces and you'll receive the Meteorite Heart.

Note: If you just shoot the Harvester blindly at the meteorite, it will eventually crumble and you'll lose out on valuable resources, so target those colored minerals!

Also, notice the three rows of six bars on the side of the Harvester? When all 18 of them light up, your Harvester will overheat. Make sure to reload it with [R] before that happens. It will automatically reload if it overheats, but it will take twice as long.

Once you have a Meteorite Heart, you can build a Base Core with your Building Tool, which will define the build area of your base. You can't build outside of the range of the Base Core, but it seems as though you can build as many Base Cores as you want in the game so far. So spread them around the map to build bases at all the various resources you need to collect. This umbrella-looking thing protects your base from the deadly rupture of the nearby star, Ruptura.

What's that? You thought the game just had a cool-sounding title? No, the sun literally ruptures in this game! It completely engulfs the planet in fire, incinerating all signs of life. Then the planet goes through a rapid regrowth and regeneration period over the next 10 minutes or so, eventually restoring all signs of flora and fauna to the surface. Ensure you've built a Habitat to retreat to; you won't survive out in the open during the wave blast.

Make sure you harvest all the flaming rocks after a star rupture. They're a rare resource called Ignitium that can only be found in the immediate aftermath. Once they cool, they're gone, so take advantage of the opportunity to collect them.

I haven't been timing the star ruptures so I don't know if they happen on a schedule or if they're random. Sometimes it seems like they happen about every hour or so, sometimes it feels like it's only been 20 minutes since the last one. But you have a decent amount of time to explore before the next one hits. Just ensure you keep a Meteorite Heart and some building materials in your inventory so you can quickly whip up a Habitat anywhere you're exploring when the star is about to rupture.

So what is this Habitat? It's the living quarters you build on the planet surface. You can stack them up to 3 containers high and connect them with ladders (Vertical Connectors) inside, or set them side-by-side and make a doorway (Horizontal Connectors) between them. You need to build an airlock to get in, and if you don't want to feel claustrophobic inside, install windows (Viewports) on the walls.

Once inside, you need to build a Corporate Terminal. This is the screen you'll use to track your progress with each corporation. They don't want to give you full access to their equipment - you're a risky investment to them - so you need to earn the right to use more advanced tools and machines. You will need to fulfill their requested items for each level, until you've earned enough data points to progress to the next level.

How do you fulfill their requested materials? By building an Orbital Cargo Launcher. You see, there's a space rift nearby that can transport resources light-years away in seconds! It's how you got to this distant galaxy in the first place. The Orbital Cargo Launcher will send them to the rift, transporting them back to Earth where the corporations can collect them.

An interesting thing to note: Unlike Satisfactory, which used power lines to power all your machines, StarRupture uses platforms and rails to conduct power. You initially build solar panels and then build connecting platforms to your machines to power them.

Whereas Satisfactory uses conveyor belts to transport resources, StarRupture uses bendy rails. And they don't fill up with resources; they only transport the amount of resources that the receiving end can process. If it fills up, no more resources will travel down the rail.

Here's me adding too many machines to my power grid and overloading it. I need to add some more solar panels to get everything up and running again. You can tell by the light color on the platforms, rails, and machines. Red is down, green is online, yellow (on the machines) is pending action.

Once you've completed the initial training, you unlock access to all five corporations. They will have different resource requirements for each level of advancement, with equipment rewards related to that corporation at each level. You will have to use more advanced machines to make more technical items as you progress, so prioritize whichever corporation you feel will benefit you as you go.

• Future Health Solutions is a pharmaceutical and medical corporation, providing you with food and health equipment.
• Selenian is a space mining corporation, providing you with more advanced machines for harvesting, mining, smelting, constructing, etc.
• Griffits Blue is a military corporation, providing you with weapons to defend yourself from the wildlife.
• Moon Energy is an energy corporation, providing advancements to power technology.
• Clever Robotics is a drone and logistics corporation, providing more advanced tech solutions for transportation of resources and equipment.

Like Satisfactory, resources come in one of three qualities: impure, normal, and pure. In this game though, you can actually tell the quality at a glance.

Below are three Titanium Ore nodes. The crumbly dark one in front is impure, the jagged silver one to the middle right is normal, and the perfectly-shaped rainbow one in back is pure. As far as I can tell, the only difference is how quickly you can mine them; the more pure, the more resources you can obtain in the same time period.

When you're between building factories, make sure to go out and explore the ruins of past settlers and explorers. There's plenty of lore to be found from old tablets and still-functioning computer screens in the wreckage of former Habitats and factories. You'll need to find blueprints for more advanced recipes, and those can only be acquired through exploration of ruins. Don't be afraid to loot dead bodies, which will show up everywhere on your map once you've explored an area.

Don't forget that this is a survival game. Grab some of the local plant life and make sure to keep your food and water bars charged. They drop slowly, so you have plenty of time to craft and explore between meal breaks, and your character complains if they're getting hungry or thirsty, so you'll get a reminder in advance. You will die if you don't eat and drink though.

Also, beware of the local wildlife. They're giant alien spider bugs and they only get tougher and more numerous, the farther away you explore. There are the Slashers and Young Slashers, which are the standard alien spiders you'll see everywhere:

Then there are these blue infected ones called Exploders. They live up to their namesake and explode near you, releasing a blue cloud of infection that will kill you if you don't get out of it soon.

There are also Spitters: green spider bugs who shoot a sort of acid at you from afar. Or their larger variants, the Flingers, who will fling a giant acid spray from their tail from a quarter mile away, coating an area in green. Not pictured because they always kept their distance and I couldn't get close enough to get a decent screenshot before they scurried away.

Finally, there are massive tan-colored spider bugs called Goliaths, covered with impenetrable armor across their arms and body that look kind of like moose horns. They can shield themselves almost completely while charging at you, and they'll easily take out your shield and half your health in a single blow. Give these a wide berth unless you have some beefy weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammo, and some friends helping out.

Below, he's covering his face with his armored front arms as he sneaks up on me. That pistol isn't gonna do shit; time to run!

The aliens will also attack your bases more often, the higher you level up your Base Core. If you're not there to defend, they'll infect the base, which will shut everything down. You need to clear out any lingering bugs and disinfect the base. You can tell which bases are infected because they'll show up as red on your map and the base itself will be covered in a blue cloud of infection.

Have you noticed that massive engine-like structure sticking out of the mountain in the background of all promotional media for this game? It's a building you can find and explore. Took me a while, but I was able to get over there, and it's absolutely enormous! That's literally an entire mountain it's sitting on!

See that small fan-shaped semi-circle in the dirt on the bottom left of it there? There's a hole at ground level I was able to use to get inside. Unfortunately, the door into the actual structure wasn't powered and I need a Power Cell to open it; an advanced technology that I haven't unlocked yet. I'm excited to see what's inside!

This game just opened early access, so it will probably have tons of updates over the next few years before fully releasing. So if you're playing this game and come across bugs (not the kind you shoot), let the developers know! Hopefully it'll only get better over time. They already have a roadmap posted with more features and content planned, so there will be updates to come.

There's so much more I want to discuss about this game, but I don't want to ramble forever about small details, so just go check it out for yourself on Steam! Its normal price will be $20 but it's currently on sale for $16 until January 20th.

#65 - Vampire Hunters

Surprise early review! I usually spend all night writing these (because I'm a night owl) and then post it first thing in the morning before I go to bed. But I wound up with a free day and nothing to do, so I decided to write a review this afternoon.

Vampire Hunters is essentially Vampire Survivors, except instead of an 8-bit top-down survival game, you're now in the middle of the action with a 32-bit FPS view! The developers even admitted this game was designed to be a mix between old-school FPS games and the innovative gameplay from Vampire Survivors.

No, they did not make that previous game. Gamecraft Studios made Vampire Hunters; whereas poncle made Vampire Survivors.

Like its predecessor, Vampire Hunters is a survival game, where you fight an infinitely growing number of monsters who are all slowly shambling toward you. Unlike its predecessor though, there is a time limit to pass each level. You need to survive for 30 minutes before you can escape the level.

Technically, you can stay as long as you want and continue fighting enemies indefinitely, but enemies will get significantly harder until you're overwhelmed. So having an escape is a nice change.

You start by picking your character. There are six characters to play, but only three are unlocked right away. You need to meet certain criteria to unlock the rest. Each character has different stats, so pick something that aligns with your play style. I chose the Paladin because I felt her weakness was easier for me to manage than the other two.

There is only one stage to play starting out - Brotherhood Chateau - so you can jump right in at this point. The game has eight main stages and three bonus stages. As you make progress, you'll unlock more stages to play.

The gameplay starts out real simple. You have one weapon that your character starts with, and you take out cultists as they spawn from portals within iron maidens scattered around the castle. There is no firing required; like Vampire Survivors, your weapons auto-fire as you point at enemies. When they die, most of them will drop a soul (that blue hovering dot) that you can pick up.

Collect a few of these and you'll get a full-screen menu pop up with four random options to pick from. Mostly weapons to acquire (or upgrade a current weapon), but sometimes you'll get a relic that will boost your stats in a specific way.

You can carry up to ten primary weapons, two passive items that will either damage enemies or buff you, and two secondary weapons for close-up combat. Which are a real life-saver when you get into a tight corner with enemies in your face.

And yes, you use all weapons simultaneously. So the bottom of your screen will slowly fill up with weapons as you acquire more. How many hands do you have?!

I don't know if it's strictly a Paladin ability (I haven't played any other characters yet), but I can do a stomp on the ground if I hit Shift while in the air. This blows back enemies and damages them, which is excellent for clearing a space when I'm getting overwhelmed.

There's also a Blood Skill you can use by pressing F when the red orb in the bottom center of the screen fills up. There's not much information about it in the game, except that it does some sort of attack or ability for a few seconds, so I keep forgetting it's there.

Every once in a while, a boss will spawn with a life bar across the top of the screen. They can be a nuisance, but generally aren't that bad to deal with as long as you keep moving and don't neglect waves of monsters for them.

They get really annoying when you're overwhelmed with hundreds of monsters and four bosses spawn all at the same time.

Fortunately, you can see all enemies through walls, so you're never surprised going around a corner. Bosses show up red when looking at them through walls, so you can quickly identify them from across the map.

When you inevitably die (or finish the stage), you can go back to the main menu and upgrade your character. There's a Skill Tree, where you can upgrade specific attributes or unlock/upgrade artifacts by spending the Reputation Level points or Boss Tokens that you earned from each stage.

If you've unlocked any artifacts, you can equip up to three of them on the main menu.

There are also Permanent Upgrades, which boost your character's stats in specific categories. You spend Upgrade Coins to boost each of these stats, which you also earn by playing each level.

When you meet certain criteria, you might unlock a constellation, which you can then equip for added benefits. You can only have one constellation equipped at a time, and they give you a positive and a negative effect, so choose them wisely.

Finally, you can select your main weapon to start with. The three main characters' weapons are unlocked right away, but you can unlock any others you've come across in your gameplay by spending Boss Tokens.

Running all over the levels can get you swarmed on all sides if you're not careful, so I like to plant myself on a ramp or platform with only one entrance, then pick off enemies as they come up to me. I stay until I'm completely overwhelmed, run to the other side of the map to clear the area, then go back to start again. That strategy seems to work pretty well for me when I'm just trying to run out the clock.

There are treasure chests that randomly spawn throughout the level. They'll appear as a gold chest icon in the world (See lower left corner of last screenshot). They bring up the full-screen menu with four optional weapons/relics/etc. to add or upgrade.

When you take down a boss, they'll drop a red chest, which will give you a buff to a particular stat for that round. All chests only last for a limited time, so fight your way to them as soon as you see their icon in the world! Or miss out on easy upgrades.

Each stage has different requirements for ending the stage after the 30-minute mark. I've beaten three stages so far: the Brotherhood Chateau requires that you approach each iron maiden portal and manually close it. The Corrupted Necropolis (Egyptian tomb-themed stage) requires that you slowly summon two ankh's on either end of the stage, then place them over the hands of the giant statue in the center of the stage.

In the Village Yard, you just need to get to a hot-air balloon and escape to the skies.

So if you enjoy fighting endless waves of enemies and surviving as long as possible, check out this game! It was a lot of fun. There are leaderboards for each stage, showing global rankings and points earned. My highest rank in any stage was 1,691st place, as seen below:

If I'm brave enough to stick around past the 30-minute mark and keep mowing down monsters, maybe I can get my ranking below the 4-digit mark. I've easily spent several entire evenings playing this game; it's pretty addicting. Now I need to go check out the fourth stage (Yuki Vale) and see what that's all about. Looks like it's Japanese-themed.

#62 - PEAK

Hey, it's been a minute! I took a break from gaming for a bit; partly voluntary, partly because some jerk destroyed the Internet cable in my yard and it took forever to get someone to come fix it. But I'm back! And just in time to play a really fun co-op game that just dropped last month.

PEAK is a climbing game where you can either solo the various mountain regions, or climb with up to four players. I highly recommend playing with others, as you can help each other out on your journey. As you can see from the first screenshot above, my good friend Victor McKnight is offering a hand to help lift me up a ledge.

The game starts in an airport, where your team of scouts is preparing for a flight. You can pull out a passport and customize your character's appearance at this point. More outfits and facial features will unlock as you gain achievements in the game.

Notice that your achievements in the game will appear as badges on the scout sash you wear across your chest. They'll fill out both the front and back of the sash.

When your team is ready to depart, someone will select the game mode from the terminal gate. You can play "Peak," which is the game's standard difficulty, or "Tenderfoot," which makes climbing a little easier, requires less food to stave off hunger, and grants unlimited time to explore each area.

After departure, you find yourself waking up on a beach near the ruins of a plane. Your flight has crashed and you and your scout team need to climb to the highest peak to signal for help.

There is one backpack nearby and a couple luggage cases on the ground. You can hold 3 items in your inventory, one in your hands, and up to four items in the backpack. One of your team members can equip the backpack and everyone else just packs as many supplies as they can in their inventory. You will find more luggage scattered all over each region, so there are plenty more supplies to pick up along the way. Keep your hands free for climbing!

You have five regions to climb before you get to the highest peak (and thus, the end of the game):

1.) SHORE: Rocky, sandy bluffs

2.) TROPICS: Lush vine-covered jungle cliffs with slippery rainfall

3.) ALPINE: Frozen snowy alps with piercing cold wind storms

4.) CALDERA: A lava pit with hot rocks and fire tornadoes

5.) KILN: The inside of the volcano.

The regions are always the same, but their layout is procedurally generated daily, so you never have the same climb from day to day. That forces you to be creative and learn good skills instead of just memorizing a certain path up the mountains.

You can rest at a campfire at the top of each region, which will recover all your ailments. You'll also find marshmallows to roast over the fire. I recommend cooking them twice for the best stats boost. Perfectly golden brown. You'll also get a new backpack at each campfire, which lets another scout carry additional supplies.

You'll notice that your green stamina bar is quickly filled up by weight. So don't carry too many heavy items or else you won't have enough stamina to climb!

Also, as your hunger grows, it will fill part of your stamina bar. Remember to eat to give yourself more stamina. Everything takes up space in your stamina bar. Poison, cold, heat, injuries... if you run out of space for stamina, you will pass out.

If you pass out, you have a very limited time where a fellow scout can revive you. Or if they don't have anything to revive you with, they can carry you on their back in place of a backpack. So don't leave your scouts behind!

If you're passed out too long without aid or being carried, you will die and turn into a ghost. Ghosts are tied to another teammate and can switch between living teammates to watch and call out assistance. As you can see below, I was the last hope for my team and I passed out. Oops.

At the end of each climb, you can revive your fallen scouts at a statue. If everyone is still alive, the statue will instead give a random beneficial item. Like this Bugle of Friendship, which will give unlimited stamina to nearby teammates while it's being played. If everyone dies, the game is over and you have to start over at the very beginning.

If you're playing with "Peak" difficulty, you will have fog that slowly encroaches on you from behind. If the fog envelopes you, you will quickly freeze to death. Make sure you out-climb that fog! Here's my buddy Victor confidently giving himself to the fog as the rest of our dead team watches on.

Just a heads up, this game is about teamwork so don't leave your teammates behind. I found out the hard way that if you climb on your own and get too far ahead of your teammates, the Scoutmaster will come for you. If he catches you, he'll attempt to throw you off the mountain. And he's absolutely terrifying to encounter, running at you on all fours like a nightmare skeleton creature or something. (Although you get an achievement and a costume item if you summon him)

Little tip: If you carry the bugle from the airplane, you can serenade some capybaras in a hot spring in the Alpine region. This is also an achievement. Don't forget to eat the apples on their head. They'll fill you up and give you a stat boost.

Victor and I got real close to beating the game. We were so close to making it out of the volcano!

Then his game froze and his character fell to his death. I tried to finish solo, but without his help, I ran out of stamina and fell too. It's practically impossible to finish that final climb without some climbing gear to help you! Oh well, we'll clear the summit one day.