Simple Sky

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [i]Simple Sky[/i] is top-down twin-stick space-shooter/score-chaser with some unique ideas. The simple and bright artwork gives the game a friendly appearance, but after I headed into the main game, I quickly realized that it gives the player no quarter. There are 10 difficulty settings, and only two are unlocked in the very beginning. Well, so far, I have yet to unlock another. Please keep in mind that this game is in Early Access currently, and some of my discussion may be outdated by the time you are looking at the game. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The idea is simple, you start off as a ship with a main and secondary weapon, all of your movements use your energy reserves that spontaneously regenerate, and every action has a cooldown. Enemies start coming after you in what almost seems like a survival arena and you need to fend them off until the boss encounter for that particular stage, after which you can complete the stage and move on or stay behind to gather some more resources, though with a finite abso…

I hate to have to give this a negative review, but the controls are not proper in my opinion. Instead of thrust, WASD allows you to "dodge". Oddly, you have to hold down shift in order to thrust. This was unwieldy, so I changed thrust to W and just let that evasion direction go. But without reverse thrust, it's still too difficult to properly maneuver. I'm far from bad at video games, but with this kind of control scheme, I found it fairly impossible to beat even the second stage boss. Maybe the controls are such that you're meant to use the dodge buttons exclusively in combat, but the game doesn't make this clear and I'm not sure if that would work better. And also, that's not really how "dodge" is supposed to be used. That being said, I do like the other aspects. I like how the mining probes work, and the mechanics to force you to leave a sector after a certain time. I like the upgrade system too. That being said, without a revamp of the control scheme, I can't recommend this game.