Review: Star Horizon (Nintendo Switch)
Experience fast action, thrilling levels, spectacular explosions, and lots of pew-pew-pew. Star Horizon is a reboot for the on-rails space shooter genre.
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 1gb download size.
- Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
- On rails space shooter gameplay.
- Tutorial-optional.
- 3 difficulties-easy/normal/hard.
- Multiple choice branching story encounters.
- Fully voiced characters.
- 10 chapters.
- 3 gun style choices like a machinegun, rockets, etc.
- Hangar-in between missions go here and buy/equip new ship parts-guns/torpedoes/swarm/ship plating.
- Constant checkpoints.
- Lock-on system that also shows enemy health and shields.
- Some fantastic set pieces/Locations.
- Clear easy to read Hud.
- A lot of Star Wars references and vibes.
- Earn credits by playing and replaying levels.
- Accessible.
- A lot of fun to play.
Cons:
- No touchscreen.
- Slow-paced.
- Can be shot from offscreen enemies.
- Unlocks are slow.
- Difficult to get 3 stars especially as they don’t detail how to achieve 3 stars.
- No online leaderboards.
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Graphics - 8/108/10
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Sound - 7/107/10
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Accessibility - 6/106/10
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Length - 7/107/10
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Fun Factor - 6/106/10
Summary
Star Horizon is an on-rail shooter set in space that is a lot of fun to play for the most parts, it makes no bones about its appreciation to Star Wars with constant nods to the franchise, straight from the off it opens up very akin to the opening battle in Star Wars episode 3 and that had me instantly wanting to play. The game is on rails means you can just focus on some shooting action using the many guns at your disposal, buying and equipping new gear is a slow drawn out process as it feels like they purposefully made the coin rewards slim so you play the same level and level over and thus increase playtime. Enemies have pinpoint accuracy and love shooting you from unhittable locations like behind debris or offscreen. The story is fine as it uses full voice work which helps bring it to life but I mostly dismissed it as I just kept craving action, the difficulty employed simple enemy do more damage and you are weaker mechanics, I liked the game for the first few levels but the slow pace of upgrading and limiting combat started to push through and it affected my enjoyment a lot. In short, it’s an average shooter with some good ideas but the pacing stops it from going higher than average.
