Game Review--Starlink: Battle For Atlas (Switch)

"The Wardens lifted me from darkness . . . They chose me.
--Grax, Starlink: Battle for Atlas


Starlink is one of the few games on the Switch that simulates social cooperation and the potential back-and-forth nature of strategic occupation with the same excellence that the God of War series handles its combat, meriting praise for the diverse number of elements it handles without having any of them displace or overpower the others.  The development of the characters (yes, Starfox is a playable one!) might not be the primary focus of the story, but the secondary characters seamlessly fit into the world of the game.  Not only do the characters make the most of their few scenes, but the creators seem to have a sincere appreciation of science, and the in-game world realistically depicts how tactical victory over an area can be a fleeting thing.

Production Values

Intense blue, red, green, and purple objects or environments await players across the variety of planets in Starlink.  The graphics stand out for their potency and consistency--yes, there is some pop in scenery, but I never had difficulties with the frame rate or colors.  When I fought my first Prime, a giant robotic enemy, the landscape was bathed in a vibrant red color, the Prime itself blocking the sunlight as it moved in front of me.  The quality of the visuals is accompanied by excellent voice acting, a welcome thing in a game filled with side characters of various extraterrestrial species.  Different characters clearly convey emotional fluctuations in cutscenes and during gameplay, even if a given character doesn't speak particularly often.

Gameplay

The player never exist his/her ship, but Starlink makes the most of this "restriction."  Not only can the ship traverse a planet's surface fairly quickly, but it can switch between hovering slightly above the ground or directly flying above at whim, the latter allowing one to leave the atmosphere and seamlessly transition to outer space.  Each planet is full of tasks and objectives.  The completion of these missions and objectives brings more of that world under the control of the player's faction, but Legion's forces and random pirates might try to push back and reclaim territory.

Upon first visiting some planets, you may need to defeat a Prime, a powerful, quadrupedal machine that can plant Extractors, which can themselves send out smaller machines called Imps and Cyclopes.  Defeating Primes subsequently weakens the Dreadnaught, a Legion spacecraft.  Planets cannot initially be expected to remain relatively safe unless you make allies that can guard areas and withstand subsequent assaults.  These allies can exchange electrum (the Atlas system's primary currency) for collected objects, dispatch friendly patrolling units, and gather resources.

In order to defeat Legion and the space outlaws, of course, you need to utilize the ship's weaponry of choice well.  The two weapons (one is situated on each wing) can be switched out at any time from the pause menu, and sometimes switching is a necessity.  Frost missiles, a flamethrower, and even a gravity well weapon are just some of the devices in the player's potential arsenal.  Not only are these weapons especially effective against particular enemy types, but they can be modified extensively as the story unfolds.

Story

Spoilers!

An alien being named Judge is discovered by St. Grand, an astrophysicist, who then seeks to discover where the being came from.  During a starship battle, however, he is abducted by a figure named Grax, a figure who thinks he has been chosen by an ancient race called the Wardens.  Star Fox and his cohorts are in pursuit of Star Wolf, but form an alliance with St. Grand's companions.


Intellectual Content

Moreso than many other games, ironically, Starlink establishes a genuinely science-oriented atmosphere, with everything from the patrols of autonomous or friendly explorers to the rewards for collecting previously unidentified resources or scanning unfamiliar life forms.  In fact, information about a new species can only be obtained by scanning three individual members of that species.  Starlink is not wholly based around the notions of scientific exploration and analysis, but these themes are woven into the game in a very natural manner.


Conclusion

One of the Switch's most expansive and well-constructed games, Starlink stands out for its scope, colorful graphics, and realistic way that a planet can fall in and out of the player's control, depending on how planetary alliances are handled.  Switch owners even get to let Starfox pilot his signature Arwing, and other pilots can even be paired with the Arwing, giving the Switch version of Starlink additional content inaccessible to those who play on other consoles.  If nothing else, Starfox fans will likely enjoy the many similarities the seemingly ignored franchise shares with Starlink.  It isn't another Starfox game, but Starlink certainly shares some of its DNA.


Content:
 1.  Violence:  Enemy ships or machines can be destroyed, but there is no gore of any kind.