SPL is a genre mix of fast paced looter shooter, souls-like and 3D space sim, with realistic physics dogfights.
All Reviews:
Positive (11) - 90% of the 11 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Dec 1, 2020
Developer:
Publisher:

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“SPL is my solo project - as indie as it gets. The core design is complete, and will be filled with more content, to deliver on the promise of high replayability. The game has thrived on feedback and will grow even more with yours.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Before reaching Steam, I've been designing this game for almost 4 years.
I predict to develop the game in Early Access for at least a year, till around Q4 2021.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“See 'About this game' section for details about currently implemented features.

Core design is complete and more content will be added, namely:

World
  • Worldbuilding: unlockable journal entries of other characters, involved in the fight against Mind Eater.
  • More varied biomes: new encounter arena variants, new mega structures, nebulas, asteroid formations.
  • Enriching the scenery with an active skybox, that indicates the game progress, as well as the Mind Eaters influence and attention.

Encounters and challenges
  • Non-combat encounters, where you can test your piloting skill, and wits, in a less violent manner.
  • Major and minor twists to the existing combat encounters, ambushes, and enemy waves. Smoothing the path for previously challenging fights by accomplishing specific objectives.
  • More variants of standard enemies equipped with new mechanics and weapon modifiers.
  • Custom AI roles of enemy ship when fighting in a group — healer, defender, berserker.
  • A selection of nine main bosses — three of them will be randomly selected during each run.
  • Ascension levels unlockable after each win, for players who seek even more challenging gameplay and higher fame (score).

Ship upgrades
  • Even more weapon types, variants, keywords, and reasonable game balance.
  • Three torpedo types, that can be crafted based on three enemy technology branches, providing an edge in a fight but in a limited quantity.
  • Perks that significantly mutate core mechanics of the ship.


Gameplay
  • Most of the upcoming mechanics developed for new bosses and enemies, will most likely be available to the player, in form of equipment or perks.
  • Controller support improvements.
  • Steam achievements.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“See 'About this game' section for details about currently implemented features.

The game is currently fully playable and the playthrough will be expanded further upon the full release.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“SPL is now 25% cheaper compared with the planned release price.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Every piece of feedback made this game better so far – feel free to share your suggestions within the game core fantasy and design.

Join SPL on Discord: https://discord.gg/7Wb5XPS
Join SPL Community Hub: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1373830
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About This Game

Hi, Paweł here - Me Vs. Game - the one man studio!

SPL: "Skilled Pilots Live" can be described best as space+doom+looter+souls. Sounds interesting ?
Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/7Wb5XPS

SPL is in active development and frequently updated with new content.

The game is constantly improving, but it's identity and gameplay are firmly established.

SPL delivers and will continue deliver

  • Unique experience but fun and accessible.
  • Difficulty is in the eye of the beholder. You can choose between easier or tougher fights or playstyles.
  • Highly re-playable.
  • Respects your time. Each playthrough is short enough for one evening and long enough to be satisfying.
  • Action packed, but has non-combat content to chill between fights.
  • Tough but fair. You can feel the impact of your mistakes, but the game gives you means to recover.
  • Loot, loot and more loot.
  • The updates are frequent, the game keeps growing and improving.

Short, intensive, replayable game loop


  • Rogue-lite with plenty of tools to help you stay alive. Death can be punishing but is not final, you can quickly get back on your feet.
  • Three chapters - each ending with a challenging boss fight, each takes approximately 30 minutes.
  • You can quicken the arrival of the boss by picking tougher fights.
  • Your ship is fast, agile, can dash, use warp drive in combat to jump or perform glory-kills.
  • Your weapons are super deadly and so are the are enemies.

Staying Alive


Death in SPL is quick and easy, but there are plenty of ways to stay alive, many of them very souls-like:

  • Ships have a passive, indestructible front shield lowered when a ship takes action.
  • If the shield deflects, the reactor heat goes up, what, in longer perspective, can lead to the overheat and a few seconds of shutdown.
  • Bullets can be dodged, by dashing and barrel rolling in any direction.
  • Any incoming projectiles can be countered (parried) by a shield overload. Be careful — inaccurate counter timing can lead to the overheat!
  • Ships can hunker down — rise the full, 360 degree shield — making them impervious to all damage, but slowly heating up the reactor.
  • Get back your lost health (structure) by blasting your way through the enemy defenses and wrecking their ship hulls.
  • You can raise the full shield and become imprevious to all damage and releases a kinetic blast that knocks back enemies.

Winning a Fight


So you can defend well, how about winning a fight ?
  • Ship main guns never run out of ammo. Instead, the reactor heat goes up bringing you closer to the overheat shutdown.
  • Shooting is about positioning and good timing, not placing the reticle at the perfect spot. You have the same aim assist system as the AI enemies. However, there is still plenty of space for agency and human error.
  • The AI also knows how to defend, but can be beaten in a dogfight, by flanking, right timing, or sometimes with a good, old bullet storm.
  • Very high DPS means a lot of healing, even over your limit. All ships yours including have very effective life stealing abilities.
  • Defeated enemies get staggered and be glory killed for more over-healing and more momentum.

Loot

  • Random items drop with random tier, weak enemies will likely drop Damaged equipment, bosses can drop Legendaries.
  • The higher the tier of the equipment the more bonuses it gets.
  • You can equip up to 4 weapons and 3 ship upgrades at the given time.
  • 7 weapon variants, 9 weapon types giving 63 unique weapon combinations, each drops with random modifiers.
  • Proper looter-shooter experience of infinite variations of items.
  • Your equipment is destroyed on death but you can expand your subspace stash to save loot if you get shot down.
  • More powerful enemies drop higher level loot. Weapons with higher level deal more damage, ship upgrades with higher level provide damage resistance.
  • You are equipped with fabricator to dismantle or combine excess items.

Wingman

  • You can use your loot to spawn wingman, the better items the more powerful they get.

Story

The Mind Eater draws all the sentient life towards itself. It devoured the ancient Natives, and now it knows of us, too. Your resistance to Its call, however brief, is our glimmer of hope.

Tutorials

  • A well tested, polished set of four tutorial missions that will introduce you to the details of the game unique mechanics.

Three ship status bars are displayed:

  • Heat – most of the actions generate heat. If you overheat the ship, it will take a few seconds to reboot the reactor!
  • Armour — regenerates if you reactor is cool (at 0% heat).
  • Structure — living metal that runs inside your ship, as well as inside the hulls of enemies. If you hit enemy directly, the liquid structure ejects from their ship and can be collected to repair your vessel. Enemies can heal in the same way!

Flight

  • Remember, there is no speed limit in the space — after the acceleration you will maintain your current speed until deceleration or hitting an object.
  • Ships warp reactor allows you to accelerate freely in six directions, without changing the ship orientation, and with full freedom of motion. Feel free to strafe sideways or fly backwards, regardless of your camera orientation.
  • The jump drive provide a quick acceleration to thousands of kilometers per second with the freedom of flight path within the space. The ship will automatically abort the jump after you reach an obstacle. You can also use jump drive to outrun your own bullets!
  • Enjoy the open space and fly anywhere you want — the game will always come with surprises and give you challenges on the way.
  • And last small tip – when the situation gets though, don’t feel dishonored by escaping any encounter or combat. Just jump away, heal up and get back into the fight!

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS *: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
    • Processor: Quad-core CPU 2 GHz
    • Memory: 6 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 480 / AMD Radeon HD 5870
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS *: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or better / AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
    • DirectX: Version 11
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

What Curators Say

1 Curator has reviewed this product. Click here to see them.

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