Last time on, on My Indieventures, we took a look at a trio of very small games made by Playstige Interactive. In it, I signed off noting that a bevy of Playstige games would be getting future reviews. Today’s piece takes a look at Fluxteria.

Right away, it should be noted that Fluxteria was originally going to be part of another small set of reviews, similarly to Crimebound Chronicles, Dragon’s Dungeon and Daylight Dread. I did not expect Fluxteria would be as big and relatively deep as it would end up being. Perhaps go ahead and consider this a psuedo-pro to the game, as it has a bit more to it than one (like myself) may initially expect. Because of this, Fluxteria is getting its own review here.

Fluxteria is an arcade space shooter game. It features four different modes to enjoy the game- Assault Mode, Obstacle Mode, Survival Mode and Time Attack Mode. Of the four, Assault Mode is the only one with any semblance of a story. But it’s pretty easy to see that story was an afterthought, Playstige’s Boris Tarimcioglu clearly preferred to prioritize second to second gameplay. As you’ll see, this was a relatively successful gambit.

Because of the way this game is structured, and because this is its own standalone review, I want to tackle this review a bit differently, since it has four different, distinct modes. So, instead of give the game general pros and cons, let’s delve into each of the four different modes to the game, first having a look at how the game handles itself on a very basic level.

Ship Handling: An Acquired Taste

The controls in this game have a tendency to be somewhat inconsistent without any real warning as players are constantly shifting between an auto scrolling mission which is traveled through in a very linear way, and a more open world where players are meant to actually go up, down, left to right at will. There is also no tutorial and the game does not allow for players to customize their controls, with there being a simple pictogram displaying the game’s controls

Enemy Variety: Slightly Misleading But Surprisingly Existent

The game does promise fourteen different enemies, and this claim is definitely questionable. But what does exist are at least a smaller amount of unique assailants. Robots are definitely the highlight as by far the most fun enemy to fight, but strategizing around beating stealth bombers, huge naval ships and swarms of small drones was fun too. There is enough enemy variety to demand a different approach for each enemy, keeping the game relatively and surprisingly fresh between missions and modes.

Fluctuating Length of Missions

Not necessarily a pro, not necessarily a con, but definitely one of the more surprising things about this game was its general flow. It was quite odd to go from two really lengthy, beefy missions in Assaults 3 and 4, only for the very final Assault Mission to suddenly be a mega fast paced scroller that ended in less than two minutes. This is a recurring thing throughout the game.

Difficulty

This game does display five different difficulty settings. However, the only seemingly tangible difference between them all was the quantity of lives the player receives. Even on the Insane difficulty setting, the player simply has less changes to mess up against enemies which, while varied in quantity just enough, are not necessarily the hardest to put down. On Normal, the amount of lives players can receive for doing fairly mundane tasks is pretty hilarious. It’s to a point where, if desired, players can sometimes pass entire ‘survival’ missions by simply kamikaze-ing right into the entire level’s enemies. Sure, you’ll probably lose a dozen or so lives doing that but…

…with more lives available than there are enemies, I’m sure you’ll be okay.

Unique, different settings

This was probably the most surprising part of the game, and maybe one of the most memorable parts. Though they are reused, there are a handful of different maps on this game that, while not massively different mechanically to one another, look so different and feel so different that they feel fresh. By far, the highlight here would be the Mushroom Caves, but the Planet Axteria Surface and Mech Factory looked pretty cool too.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this game was surprisingly catchy. As well, each mission has its own soundtrack which helps the experience feel immersive. In general, Boris Tarimcioglu of Playstige Interactive has proven proficient in establishing a strong atmosphere using music. Mech Factory’s theme music was probably my favorite, but there were a number of other strong entries to supplement it.

Assault Mode

In this mode, the goal is to make it through a level and destroy some structure or device in the end. This was pretty solidly the best, most enjoyable mode in the game without any serious flaws. The Mech Factory mission is absolutely the standout, a genuinely fun and even thrilling mission that was perfectly paced, made out to actually be somewhat challenging and boasted a huge enemy variety for a deep mission. The others weren’t bad, but Mech Factory was actually surprisingly incredible.

Obstacle Mode

In this mode, the goal is to navigate the spaceship through various obstacle courses with it ideally still in one piece at the end. If looking for a challenge, this is probably the only mode in the game that can consistently offer it. The highlight here was the Giant Wrecks mission, in both a good and bad way. Good in that it definitely cranked the difficulty dial up a few pegs. Bad in that this is the only mission in the game where the spaceship suddenly has no intangibility whatsoever; in every other mode and mission, if the spaceship takes damage, it receives brief intangibility and loses its collision, so it can pass through things. Giant Wrecks suddenly ditches this mechanic without any warning, so if the player crashes into an obstacle one single time without instantly correcting course, their spaceship will immediately burst into flames and explode as its health bar will get instantly demolished. Funny enough, this isn’t even the final Obstacle mission, and the two which follow it up and precede it do not randomly take away the spaceship’s intangibility after taking damage.

Survival Mode

In this oddly named mode, the player is told to find a certain number of enemies and destroy them. It plays out as more of a variation on the Assault Mode than its own, standalone part of the game. This mode sadly somewhat missed the mark, as it presents a similar problem to the recently reviewed Dragon’s Dungeon– there is a ton of space, tiny objectives which can be difficult to spot from a distance, and the player moves very slowly through this enormous, open space. It would’ve been far, far better and more appropriate of a “Survival” mode if all of these enemies worked to converge on the player, rather than have the player go to them. It plays out as more of a ‘Hide and Seek’ mode in this sense.

Time Attack Mode

In this mode, players are told to go and find a series of a certain item within a particular time frame. This is by far the least engaging mode of the game, with small quantities of enemies who pose no real threat that aren’t even the goal. The Dragon’s Dungeon issue of aerial traversal is at its most prevalent here. When this game gets away from structured levels is when its qualities begin to diminish, seen on full display in this mode.

Final Conclusion

This game was truly a pleasant surprise for an Indieventure. It is priced normally at $6.99 and, at the time of writing, is available for $1.74 on the PlayStation store. Either of these price tags are more than fair for a game like this. Some of Playstige’s entries are very, very short and can be experienced in less than an hour. But, unless you’re speedrunning, this is not one of them. This is a game that’s slightly deeper than the sum of its parts and, for an Indie game, checks off simple boxes for what makes a video game fun.

I’m going to give this game a B. I’d recommend it for players of all playstyles, experience and skill levels. It’s short, sweet, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and is very mechanically sound without any serious shortcomings. Throw this one in your library, you won’t regret it.

If you’d like to see yours truly navigate, shoot, destroy and locate my way through this game, my (mostly) full playthrough of it can be found here