Astral Traveler – Review
Follow Genre: Arcade racer
Developer: Dragon Slumber, Brainoid
Publisher: Dragon Slumber
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC

Astral Traveler – Review

Site Score
5.0
Good: It’s arcade, easy to pick up and play
Bad: Graphics and sound need an update
User Score
1.5
(2 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 1.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Back in the days simple arcade racers with fast spaceships were a must for popular racing games. This spawned some famous series such as F-Zero and Wipeout. With these titles coming out once again it is understandable that someone wants to pick up on the hype and create a little Indie game around it, this is where Astral Traveler comes in. With the same thought behind the core of fast driving and dodging objectives the game serves as a unique combination of both racing and shooting.

Astral_traveler_Logo

Story

Mostly even the smallest of arcade games carry some kind of a story, but in Astral Traveler there is simply none. You are some kind of space racer that wants to joyride on the surface of five different planets and set the best time in order to compete with other astronauts all over the galaxy. Now for a game that is just as fast as the speeds you will hit, it does not hinder the gameplay, it actually just makes it more fluid.

Graphics

The visuals are not the best. Overall the game boasts simple graphics by the mediocre background and scarce variation in scenery and objects. Each planet does come with its unique settings and this gives the player some much-needed variation, from dense nature to deep canyons and dry deserts. You only have one ship that is a bit nicer designed but nothing special there. As if the bland models are not enough there is no upscaling to slightly bigger screens that almost every gamer uses, unless you still play on those old CRT screens from the late 90s.

astral traveler 1

Sound

Creating a game could be compared with cooking in a philosophical way, as creating a flavor rich experience with many colorful tastes would make an interesting game. If Astral Traveler would be a dish, it would be as tasteless as a week old cup of instant-noodles soup. The music sounds great at first, but after twenty seconds you will notice that every song is closely looped and becomes irritating quite fast. As each planet has their own style to give a little variety, it does kind of slip right through the bland-hammer. The sound effects feel really old and it is hard to decide when either this was done intentional for a retro vibe or is just a simple asset from a free site.

Gameplay

Astral Traveler is an arcade racing game where your opponents are the clock and the dangerous environments you race on. As you traverse five ecosystems with each more hectic tracks you will notice that your skills must be honed in order to be able to finish at a good time. Because of the small amount of content the game is easy to pick up and play with only needing to move left or right, shooting enemies and jumping over obstacles. There is a free flight mode that gives a little more challenge but can prove a little annoying because of the special control scheme used for these parts.

astral traveler 2

While most games are strictly straightforward with their gameplay, this one makes it all feel a bit more special thanks to the special open flight parts of a race. The difficulty of the tracks also increase gradually, with the first ones being easy to clear to becoming harder and more challenging. Each planet has its own scenery, but everything remains the same gameplay wise, no extra power-ups or status boosts. To become the fastest you must dodge obstacles scattered on the road and shoot pesky bug drones that attack you. Furthermore, there are these strange glowing orbs that get explained in the loading menu, you can either shoot them to regain some health or get your timing correct like a well-timed parry in Cuphead and get a speed boost.

The real treasure lies within the many playable tracks, with 47 challenging races split over the five unique zones. To get a better time you are able to replay and try to keep on putting down faster laps so the game does has its longevity if you can get over the lesser graphics and sound.

Conclusion

Astral Traveler might be a cheap Indie game but this may not be the reason to completely tear it down. The graphics need some work and with the right scaling everything might just look much better, getting some longer songs might also be pleasing since it is essential to bring the real vibes. As with its current minor points it can have some difficulty keeping your attention. In a world where there are many sweet games for a fiver this title could become one with just a little more love and care.

astral traveler 3

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 1.5/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)
Astral Traveler – Review, 1.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings
MC_JP


Never give up on a dream. It might be a long nightmare, but one day it will change into a beautiful reality - MC_JP 2014

No Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.