Astervoid 2000 (PC) Review

Upon booting up, Astervoid 2000 directly informs the player that "this game is best served with friends, on a couch, in front of a big f'n TV, with a decent stereo, and played with dual-stick controllers." While it's unusual for a video game to direct anyone in such terms, it's a nice encapsulation of the driving force behind the experience, which is its simplistic multiplayer core. Causing mayhem and kicking up space dust amongst friends is the energy source behind this, and admittedly, when following the request by the book, it seems like a thoroughly self-sufficient one.

There's a satisfying feel to this twin-stick shooter, with a strong sense of force feedback adding to the intensity, especially when charging a shot or weaving through debris. In addition to the charming retro graphics, pulsating nostalgic music and sound, and an interesting opponent vs. opponent take on top-down space shooters, there's also just something intuitive about this sci-fi shooter's arcade soul. Does the fuel last, though?

Well, that probably depends on how much mileage you hope to get out of the experience. Unfortunately, the single-player component, which is a survivalist-based experience, is not quite up to the standards of the four-player competitive multiplayer. In the latter, one can forgive the lack of special power-ups, or other mechanics to mix things up, since dodging fields of asteroids whilst trying to hunt down foes seems like enough. However, in a single-player context, things are a little more predictable. Dealing with the varying waves of enemies, while initially interesting, will quickly become a little bland, despite efforts to keep applying modular changes. While those looking for a nostalgic arcade experience will certainly want to play through the single-player, it seems ultimately like an afterthought, since the multiplayer is so much more concentrated.

This brings us to the other major issue with this title, which is its lack of online multiplayer features. Only featuring local multiplayer is very restrictive, and it's hard to see why online functionality couldn't have been incorporated, since that would have added more depth and longevity to the experience overall. While there is plenty of fun to be had in the right environment, as they seem to admit themselves with their advisory message, there's also a lot more that could have been worked on to make this a far better, more complex experience. For example, while it's nice to feel so much force feedback, which was quite a novelty in arcade times, the actual implementation here is rather overzealous, leading to somewhat odd and floaty controls. Charging a shot affects the trajectory of your ship quite a bit, which could have been cool if moderated properly, but instead it all too often seems to throw a player into the path of an asteroid.