The galaxy has a serious problem, and unfortunately for everyone living in it, that problem is you. Its World Guardians have united to protect their planets from a powerful enemy determined to wipe out everything in its path. They’re putting up one final fight, but you’ve got more than enough firepower to take them on.
Launching on Steam today, Astrolite is a fast-paced bullet heaven roguelite from solo developer M. B. Games that puts you in the rather unusual position of being the galaxy’s greatest threat. You’ll battle through swarms of enemies, upgrade increasingly ridiculous weapons, and destroy the Guardians protecting each planet.
Why save the universe when you can conquer it instead?
The Entire Solar System Wants You Dead
Each run in Astrolite sends you across the solar system, taking on different planets and the enemies determined to keep you away from their Guardians. Combat combines automatically firing weapons with manual aiming, leaving you responsible for positioning yourself, dodging incoming attacks, and making sure your considerable arsenal is pointed in the right direction.
Every planet has its own enemies, with more than 25 different types waiting across the game. You’ll need to survive an increasingly dangerous onslaught before eventually going on the offensive against that world’s Guardian. And those Guardians aren’t simply oversized versions of regular enemies. They’re powerful bosses standing between you and your next conquest, with their own attacks to survive.
Runs are designed to last around 30 minutes, although that depends on whether you can keep your ship intact long enough to finish the job.
There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Firepower
Destroying enemies earns experience, allowing you to level up and improve your weapons and abilities throughout a run.
There are more than 15 weapons to experiment with, including explosive projectiles, orbiting attacks, and deployable turrets. Different combinations can turn your ship into a rather unpleasant collection of things that shoot, explode, or generally make life miserable for anything nearby.
Weapons and passive abilities can also be upgraded without a fixed limit, meaning your build can continue growing increasingly powerful as long as you survive.
Recent additions include the Cluster weapon, which splits into smaller explosives, and the Spiker, which surrounds your ship with orbiting spikes that grow whenever they damage enemies. There are also multiple unlockable characters with different playstyles, including a Vampire capable of transforming into bats and a Mage who can temporarily stop time.
Think the Galaxy Is Too Easy?
For players who find themselves comfortably destroying everything in sight, Astrolite has several ways to make the experience considerably more difficult.
Eight optional challenges can be activated to introduce additional problems, including stronger Guardians, reduced tower effectiveness, faster enemy scaling, and elite enemies arriving in pairs. Each challenge increases your potential score, with an additional bonus for activating all eight simultaneously.
That combination unlocks A.C.E. Mode, short for All Challenges Enabled, which sounds like an excellent way to discover just how quickly your carefully constructed build can fall apart.
There’s also a separate Survival Mode that removes the World Guardians entirely and lets you concentrate on surviving increasingly difficult waves for as long as possible. The enemies will eventually become overwhelming, but at least you won’t have to worry about conquering another planet.
Astrolite Launches Today
M. B. Games has spent the past year and a half working with playtesters, introducing new weapons, abilities, bosses, and improvements ahead of release. The developer has also confirmed a 15% launch discount for the first 14 days.
With multiple characters, unlimited weapon upgrades, challenging boss fights, and plenty of opportunities to create absurdly powerful builds, Astrolite has quite a bit to offer anyone who enjoys watching entire screens disappear beneath a storm of projectiles.