Strike Suit Zero review

Strike Suit Zero is a beautiful, compelling space shooter -- as long as you have the dedication to overcome its steep challenge.

Developer Born Ready
Publisher Born Ready
Released Out now

Strike Suit Zero isn't a game for the faint-hearted. Strike Suit Zero is tough. Really tough. And while it's this challenge that makes it such a compelling space shooter, it's the very same thing that will drive away players in hordes.

If you don't have the patience to try, try, and try again with your games, chances are Strike Suit Zero just isn't going to be for you. The game prides itself on its challenge, and for all those that love chaos in flight ramped up to the most punishing difficulty, Strike Suit Zero is definitely rewarding.

You take control of the Strike Suit, a deep-space fighter jet-cum-mechanised robot of doom. While your first encounters with space warfare occur in a twee little interceptor jet, the Strike Suit adds an extra dynamic to the game. The suit's Pursuit Mode is a fast-moving jet capable of targeting enemies one at a time. Equipped with high-powered missiles, a comparatively low-powered energy cannon and a close-combat, shield-wrecking machine gun, the jet's main talents are in chasing down long range targets, taking out smaller foes and dogfighting. Every enemy you kill in pursuit mode generates 'Flux' for the suit's best party trick and the game's main focal point...

Strike Mode, where the jet becomes a Gundam-esque mechanised tank, is a war machine that rapidly doles out damage to huge numbers of enemies at a time. Capable of locking-on to dozens of targets and firing multiple high-powered projectiles, Strike Mode is for taking down any serious threats to you or the flagship you are assigned to protect. As you're the only pilot with a Strike Suit, ultimately saving Earth falls entirely to you. So it makes sense that the game's pretty tough. While your teammates can make bombing runs and distract enemy fighters while you tackle the bigger issues, they're never going to stand a chance on their own. If you're counting on your teammates to bomb an enemy cruiser quickly, your best bet is to protect them like they're your own flying children -- take out all the pesky enemy fighters and destroy turrets in order of threat to them, not to you. Essentially, it's this kind of prioritising and target management that Strike Suit Zero demands if you're looking to complete your first run through of the game.

Since it lacks any kind of hand-holding, when you hit one of Strike Suit Zero's numerous difficulty spikes you're forced to adjust and re-evaluate your entire combat method. As such, you learn new skills and tactics by being flexible and adapting to the change in circumstances. While a lot of the game remains true to the same structure and design, changes in enemy fleet formations and their objectives dramatically alter what the game expects the Strike Suit to deliver. Only the most determined players are likely to succeed on levels as fierce as 10 and 12, where the game will fail you time and time again for simply not being more patient or smart with your Strike missiles. It'll keep on failing you until you figure out - and master - the tactic needed to down the THREE MASSIVE CARRIERS OF DESTRUCTION more-or-less single-handedly. And, of course, it doesn't tell you any of this. It just waits patiently for your next attempt while you stare, wide-eyed, at the fail screen, wondering where you were going wrong and if this is even actually possible.
But this is what makes the game so rewarding. It's like a parent you're forever trying to please, and when you finally succeed you feel like telling everyone you know. The game doesn't feel unfair or cruel or needlessly hard because when you finally 'get' it, the level becomes so much negotiable. You grow as a player – and there's nothing quite like redoing the first few levels in mere seconds to prove it. You go from awkwardly floating the Strike Suit into the path of torpedoes by accident to flipping backwards and forwards in Pursuit Mode, dropping torpedoes like flies and seamlessly transforming back and forth between Strike and Pursuit modes, dogfighting, bombing and looking after your fleet. There's something incredibly alluring about being a one-of-a-kind, plucky prototype spaceship that can defend this great, hulking leviathan and all of its leviathan friends.
Chances are you might need to go back and redo missions to unlock ship upgrades to make things easier, but there's plenty of replay value in the levels. Certainly, once you've completed the game a first time, unlocked all of the weapons and ships, there's a lot of fun to be had in pushing to get to the top of the online leaderboards, laughing at your previous incompetence. Going through levels with different jets and new gun setups allows you master various combat styles you otherwise wouldn't have, and it's in playing around and exploring these new variations that you learn how to beat some of the highest scoring players.
Strike Suit Zero is a beautiful game too, with you entering a new area of the galaxy and seeing planets torn in two, and moons glowing against the deepest shades of cold, purple space. And the narrative --while completely disposable-- is well delivered. It frames the combat and the galaxy nicely, with the kind of dorky space sci-fi just about everyone loves.
But Strike Suit Zero just isn't the game for those unable to pour time and energy into particularly harsh single levels. The game demands patience and perseverance. It rewards exploration of the combat mechanics, but it punishes those that forget what they've learned before or whose concentration wavers - which can certainly happen after a long period of failing, failing, and failing again. But for those that love a challenge, Strike Suit Zero is a great experience.