Strike Suit Won

One of my fondest memories of childhood gaming was from X-Wing, taking down a Star Destroyer with my scrappy little fighter. (For whatever reason, my memory of the same in Rogue Squadron is not as clear. Maybe because of how infrequent it was in those games? Hard to say.) If the archetypal video game is about empowerment, and hence about overcoming an imbalance of power, then this kind of small-craft-vs-capital-ship combat is the epitome of spaceflight games.

I bring this up because Strike Suit Zero, separate from its great dogfighting mechanics and enthralling mission scenarios, completely nails this concept. In the beginning, my allies and I trembled in fear at the sight of enemy Frigates; by the end, with polished tactics and upgraded space-torpedoes, I was eating them for breakfast -- and salivating at the Cruisers and Carriers behind them. Late campaign missions gradually ramp up the challenge with more and bigger and crazier capital ships, bristling with offensive batteries, swarming with protective fighters, and I was all too happy to blow all of them up with my plucky little (highly-upgraded) flying space robot.

This meta-narrative, of reversing the balance of power, is probably just as significant a part of the campaign as the written story. And it's a good thing, because the written story by itself is not exceptionally strong. It's premised in some really good hard sci-fi, and in general, the performances of the game's characters are convincing and interesting; but there are enough situations where the story falters - by going off on an unnecessary tangent, or awkwardly pausing the pacing a bit too long - that the story overall falls just short of "captivating." To its credit, though, SSZ rarely makes the mistake of thinking that its static storytelling is more important than the gameplay; it excels at mid-mission narration, and at nudging the plot along with mid-mission chatter and events.

That's the "original" campaign, from Strike Suit Zero proper. It needs to be distinguished from the Heroes of the Fleet "campaign" added in the Director's Cut, because the two are very different beasts. In fact, I would hesitate to call Heroes a campaign at all -- it's more of a collection of bonus missions. The missions themselves are exciting and exhilirating, continuing to ramp up the difficulty past the main campaign's end. But they don't add anything of value to the established narrative, and the collection only tells the barest story of its own, practically unrelated to the main space-opera setting.

I've brought up the game's difficulty a couple times, and while I would overall call it a well-tuned balance of encouraging mastery and allowing mistakes, there are a few caveats that bear mentioning. For one, on a few occasions I did essentially "cheat" mission objectives by failing and restarting at a checkpoint, with refilled health and weapons. A number of the game's missions are relatively-lengthy multi-phase affairs, and it's not uncommon to narrowly squeak out a victory only to be confronted by an even greater challenge immediately afterward. It's also pretty evident that, without offensive and defensive upgrades - which are earned by completing extra objectives in each mission - some of the late game's challenges would be much, much more difficult. I went out of my way to collect all the upgrades, so as a result I'm not sure that I experienced the game's "intended" level of challenge.

But it's a moot point, because I felt challenged enough to get really into the game, and I was also having enough fun that I never got too burned-out to keep playing. I even had a blast replaying missions to unlock upgrades, and to try different approaches to the same combat scenarios. Each ship has its own unique combat style, and each equippable weapon adds yet another dimension to the fight, switching up advantages and disadvantages like range, speed, and pure firepower. There is a wealth of possibility in playing and replaying Strike Suit Zero's diverse, well-designed mission encounters with these different permutations.

SSZ is a triumph of an indie production, and - while not perfect - a standout genre entry as well. This is a franchise I'd love to see more from. (Excepting the likes of Strike Suit Infinity, which as a pure dogfight simulator, without any campaign whatsoever, comes across more like an Oculus Rift tech demo.)

Better than: any other similar title I'm able to remember
Not as good as: it would be with a more serious campaign storyline (but it's pretty damn close)
And the soundtrack: is basically perfect. Oh, this guy composed the Homeworld soundtrack, too? Badass.

Progress: Finished the original campaign and the Heroes of the Fleet missions on Normal.