Starstruck Vagabond
A space captain accidentally freezes themselves for two thousand years, finding themselves in an unfamiliar galaxy. Fortunately, there's always someone who needs cargo delivered.
Starstruck Vagabond is a adventure, story rich and life sim game
developed by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw
and published by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw and Second Wind.
Released on May 24th 2024 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 492 reviews of which 434 were positive and 58 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.2 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Starstruck Vagabond into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
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Windows
- OS *: Windows Vista or greater
- Processor: 2 Ghz
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Admittedly I mostly bought the game because I like his books and figured he'd have a fresh take on games seeing his usual points of critique in the reviews. However, I must say this is a tough sell. I'd give it a neutral thumb if I could. There are some great nuggets of writing there but the gameplay is not particularly compelling. You'll be moving crates and fixing your ship the majority of the time, since this is required to unlock new sectors you need to go to. I can understand wanting to convey this feeling of mundane to contrast it with the general premise, to show that even in the distant future with great things looming on the horizon you cannot escape responsibility and tedium, but it does not necessarily make for a fun game experience. If you completely ignore the side quests and just try to beeline for the story there is unfortunately not that much. Prelude, setting up the game in the future and then some unveiling of the main story as you pick up companions in small chapters and then the finale. I'd wager you could complete the game in maybe 4-5 hours then. Which is in itself fine but for that the story is not tight enough for me. If you want to complete the sidequests then you can add around 30-40 hours of crossing off items on a checklist. I read in another review that Yahtzee has a soft spot for 'podcast games' where you can play and do something on the side - though I would expect more from someone who is often so outspoken about how games leave potential behind. I think ultimately I just expected more from an accomplished writer and critic. More than just a nice little story with some well written passages steeped in a mire of tedious gameplay that feels like it's wasting your time a lot. It comes down to what you expect. If you expect a decent story you can power through in a few hours, then this can be picked up and enjoyed. If you expect a game that keeps you mindlessly busy for countless hours while you watch YouTube videos or listen to podcasts in the side, then this can be picked up and enjoyed. If you're somewhere in the middle and would like a tight story with gameplay that adds to it, it's a hard sell.
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After having finished Starstruck Vagabond's main campaign over a couple days, my thoughts are mostly positive with a few caveats. The game's strong suit is easily it's writing. The dialogue is very funny and jokes would often catch me off guard. But it's not just humour this game's writing works with, it also has a surprising amount of depth and emotion. Over the course of the game, I genuinely got attached to my crew and was actively invested in the on-going narrative. However, I do have one criticism with the game's writing. While a lot of detail has been put in the full scenes and your captain's response based on personality (which is a marvellous system), I found that crewmates would repeat the same individual lines over and over and they quickly got repetitive. Yes Hole, the biscuits are similar to packaging material, you don't need to tell me 100 times. I also found the game incredibly fun, just going from sector to sector, completing delivery missions and other odd jobs. The core gameplay loop tickled the right part in my brain, especially as I began figuring out how to optimise systems. The game also regularly introduced new mechanics so I never felt bored. This game won't be for everyone, but it worked for me, so it may work for you as well. I do have some problems with the gameplay though. The distress calls, while quick and painless with a nice cash injection, there's only really 2 varieties, fix ship and crush zoobs. It feels there maybe should've been one or two more types of distress calls, maybe a type where they've run out of fuel and ask you to tow them to another planet which would tie into the overall gameplay loop. Additionally, I should mention that this game is not in the most polished state. Movement around is sometimes a little janky and there were quite a few bugs that I experienced in my playthrough. I never got anything game-breaking, just minor inconviences or funny visual bugs. However, I have heard a few stories of people getting softlocked. However, the lead dev is continuing to polish the game through updates and while writing this review, an update went out which fixed most of the bugs I experienced. While it's not in a perfect state, the game is continuing to be updated. I also want to briefly touch on the visuals and music. The music is stellar, the soundtrack has many bops but also quite a few emotional tracks that added to events throughout the game. The visuals are serviceable. They do their job. They're not quite high level pixel art like you'd see in Stardew Valley, but not quite the super expressive art you'd see in something like Undertale. It's not bad art by any means, but nothing outside of some of the character portraits particularly struck me as fantastic. It does it's job. Starstruck Vagabond is a fantastic game that I want to jump back into right away. Especially with all the content there still is to do even after the credits roll. It's a game I would recommend, but make sure to temper your expectations from a huge big polished game to a great game, but with a couple issues.
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First impressions after an hour: Writing is witty and engaging. Works great on the Steam Deck. Interacting with the ship is fun. Psychoanalysis is on point. The music fits the mood. I'm definitely drawn-in and I know I've only scratched the surface.
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So far, I am enjoying this game immensely, this feels like a mix between Heat Signature and Stardew Valley, while not exactly being like either. I like space, I think it's cool and awesome to be able to fly around planets whenever the fancy takes you, being able to run across debris and meteors and whatever, I also like taking care of my own little area, the ship, making sure it's up to shape and so on This is just one of those games that hit such a perfect spot in my brain, I'm only a short way in but I'm already enthralled and can see this being a big timesink moving forward. I just really love space, man, this is dope
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I wonder if Yahtzee ever imagined that his tendency to bastardize the names of the games he reviews would come back to haunt him now that he's finally released Starscream Vagisil
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 10:12 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 17 January 2025 07:41 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:16 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 12:04 |
Online players
5
Developer
Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw
Publisher
Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw,
Second Wind
Release
24 May 2024
Platforms