LONESTAR

I see a lot of comparisons with Cobalt Core, which is a fine, cute, little and cozy game. Lonestar is much, much more than that, Its replayability is on par with the biggest exponents of the genre, as StS, Monster Train, etc. The amount of content and possible strategies is crazy: - 3 very distinguishible spaceships with their own gimmicks - A vast amount of units for each spaceship, all with different themes and possible synergies. There are no "must have" units, which is the beauty of this game. You can find any unit useful if you build around it. - Dozens of pilots, each with their unique talent that you can use to build around it. - Dozens of treasures (relics). - Plenty of different enemies and bosses. As in any roguelike, it's possible that some of them counter a bit your current build, but it never seems impossible or unfair. - Lots of different events out and in battle. It doesn't quite play like a deckbuilder, think it more like a dice roguelike like Astrea, Spellrogue or Dicey Dungeons, where any unit is available for use at any turn and you decide which is the optimum way to charge them with the energy (dices) you get. My only slight complaint is that it d…

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Wow, that's boring.

Confusing and just feels unfinished. You can't sell things in the shop and I could load weapons with loads of points and yet it would only fire with one power, it wasn't clear why.

As others have said, it's not really a deckbuilder. You outfit your ship with units that are activated by randomized power your generate every turn. So the only RNG you face in your draws is the color and value of the power. You can slightly adjust the distribution of those power draws by adding/removing them from the pool, but that's pretty much it. So it's quite a bit more limited than something like Balatro for example where you not only have suits and values on cards, but also stickers and other modifiers. And it's really nothing like the deckbuilding you'd expect from something like Slay the Spire. The complexity in this game comes from how you construct your ship and the sequence you use to load power into it. You can also maneuver your ship to optimize lane damage. The game offers a large variety of pilots, abilities, and unit interactions to choose from so there is a lot to explore here. Also, the boss fights have interesting mechanics to learn that I feel are more interesting than you'll find in many other games of this style. It's worth checking out, especially when on sale for only $5.

While not necessarily out of this world, LONESTAR is engaging enough to be a respectable addition to one's library.