Pengonauts’ debut title, StarVaders, is one that I’ve had my eye on for some time now as a fan of everything it merges under a single umbrella — roguelike progression, turn-based tactical gameplay, and deckbuilding combat. Now that I’ve spent considerable time with the game (including more than a few marathon sessions that saw me take my Steam Deck from full battery to depletion on more than one occasion), I can confidently say that StarVaders more than lived up to my expectations of it, given my affinity for its unique genre mix. While StarVaders is far from the only indie roguelike to blend turn-based tactical gameplay with the moment-to-moment mechanics of a deckbuilder, its ability to skillfully nail that mix in a way that feels swift, punchy, and immediately satisfying helps it stand out as a game that fans of any or all of the above absolutely need to check out.
The secret to StarVaders’ success comes from its impressive variety on offer that only continues to provide a satisfying power curve and depth to the game’s strategic and tactical options, the further along you progress. There are multiple playable characters to choose from (dubbed “Pilots”), three different mechs they take into battle that each have different strengths and weaknesses, and so many cards that I feel like I’m still discovering new and novel abilities and synergies between existing cards more than 15 hours into the game. That its excellent grasp of quick-fix gameplay is backed up by some very well-done visuals and presentation, as well as a serviceable narrative and some likeable characters, only serves to underscore the fact that StarVaders is a game worthy of players’ attention.
StarVaders Offers Up a Simple and Satisfying Gameplay Loop
©CheatCC
Picking up and playing StarVaders will feel like riding a bike to anyone who’s ever played a turn-based tactics game or roguelike deckbuilder before. You begin by selecting a pilot and a mech, which you’ll gradually unlock more of as you progress to expand your available options in combat. After, you choose one of three available scenarios, which, again, gradually unlock after meeting certain progression targets like clearing a certain Act’s boss or completing an entire scenario with a specific pilot. Each run consists of a series of top-down battles on a vertical grid where the player’s pilot controls their mech against waves of encroaching enemies.
Using cards to battle enemies builds up Heat, which players have to dispel by ending turns or using special cards, lest they run the risk of overheating and “Burning” cards, rendering them unplayable. Balancing Heat is critical to maximizing the efficiency of each turn, which also sees enemies progressively march toward the player and approach the “Danger Zone” — an area that takes up the bottom three rows of the grid and generates “Doom” when enemies get to spend a turn there without being taken out. Generate 5 Doom, and it’s game over, which results in StarVaders emphasizing quick, offensive tactical gameplay where understanding how each card works, how it affects the mech’s Heat meter, and how it synergizes with other, more powerful cards becomes the key to victory.
StarVaders Gets Its Progression Loop Right
Of course, none of this would be possible were it not for the cards themselves, which slightly differ among both pilots and mechs and can be upgraded and adapted with a surprising number of permutations and modifiers. Winning an individual battle in StarVaders provides instant gratification through within-run progression in the form of new cards, upgrades to existing cards, artifacts that have powerful effects applied to an entire deck, and more. The power curve in StarVaders is swift without ever feeling like it skews the game’s balance in favor of the player. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the more powerful you become, the game seems to respond in kind with more dense enemy waves and tougher bosses with some surprisingly unique mechanics required to take them down.
Gameplay Variety in StarVaders Comes From the Pilots and Their Decks
©CheatCC
The more permanent meta-progression in StarVaders is mostly relegated to the individual pilots and the different mechs players will unlock, and each of these has transformative potential in how players approach the game. You’ll start with one pilot, Roxy, and the Gunner mech, and gradually unlock new mechs and the pilots exclusive to them as you successfully progress through runs. Each pilot has a different Complexity level, indicating how challenging they are to play with (which, in my experience, mostly equates to a sort of “low skill floor/high skill ceiling” dichotomy), and the different mechs each have their own requisite battle decks they’ll bring into battle.
When you combine the various permanent upgrades that StarVaders provides along with its moment-to-moment progression during a run, you’re left with a tactical deckbuilder with an almost staggering amount of depth. As someone who is a veteran of both TRPGs and deckbuilding roguelites, I was honestly consistently impressed with how much variety was on offer in StarVaders‘ combat sandbox, and the only real limits on how you approach encounters are the ones that both you and the RNG set. Speaking of RNG, it’s worth noting that, as is the case in many roguelikes, you are at its behest. But aside from a small handful of runs where I was unceremoniously crushed by a boss thanks to a lackluster draw of the deck, StarVaders‘ RNG never really felt “unfair” or limiting in a way that hampered my enjoyment of it.
Satisfying Turn-Based Tactical Gameplay is Backed Up by Solid Presentation
©CheatCC
Ultimately, even the best roguelikes need to have strong visuals and presentation as a way to entice players in a space that’s already so crowded, and StarVaders happens to deliver an equally compelling visual style and atmosphere as its rock-solid hybrid gameplay. Everything in StarVaders has a hand-drawn, cartoon art style that is evocative of the golden era of original Cartoon Network programming, complete with an impressive variety of enemy designs and card artwork that never stops being interesting, regardless of how far in the game you’ve progressed. For a top-down, grid-based tactics game where all the in-game assets are fairly small, everything in StarVaders is easy to see and differentiate between, owing to the game’s bold lines and bright colors that make everything “pop” off the screen.
The same can be said about StarVaders‘ music, which mixes all the right motifs you might expect from a game with a cartoonish, sci-fi setting. Together, the visuals and music provide the backbone not just to StarVaders‘ gameplay, but its narrative as well. Don’t go into StarVaders expecting the same kind of narrative focus as a game like Hades, as you’ll be disappointed. That said, there’s a surprising amount of character development and fleshing out of the main story beyond just “stop aliens and turn back time when you fail”. You can absolutely tell that, in terms of both its story and gameplay, StarVaders pulls a lot of inspiration from Into the Breach, but it’s embracing of a more lighthearted tone helps it stand out as something more refreshing, and frankly, more appealing for those times when you need a quick fix of fun.
StarVaders Presents a Near-Perfect Palate Cleanser
©CheatCC
A quick glance through the “Roguelike” or “Roguelite” tags on Steam shows that the genre is constantly inundated with new games, making newer standouts that much harder to identify. Similarly, 2025 has already been a jam-packed year for longer, more immersive games that soak up anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours of playtime before you’re ready to roll credits and move on to something else. StarVaders is the antithesis of these experiences; a deckbuilding tactical roguelike that is practically geared toward being played in short bursts, providing instant gratification and a satisfying power curve. It stands as what I’d argue is the perfect “palate cleanser” between longer sessions in titles like Oblivion Remastered or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, providing just enough engagement to stimulate your senses while simultaneously allowing you to shut your brain off.
Those familiar with the genres StarVaders mixes together will immediately be able to wrap their heads around what it offers, but it’s also a strong contender for a great first entry point into the genre thanks to its more playful atmosphere, eye-catching art, accessible difficulty, and instant gratification from its within-run progression. StarVaders does a good job of starting slow and gradually ramping up its complexity, introducing new cards, enemy types, and mechanics at a regular pace without ever overwhelming the player, and failure often feels like its the result of the player’s inability to meet the demands of a new enemy or boss rather than the game being unfair or dealing you a bum hand courtesy of a sadistic RNG.
Bottom Line
I went into StarVaders thinking, “Hey, this looks like a game I’ll end up liking”, and after about 30 minutes, I already knew that it would be a roguelike I poured dozens of hours into. Nearly 20 hours into the game, I’m still finding new modifiers and upgrades for cards, new synergies to try out, and new outcomes to battles thanks to some rock-solid game design that truly understands the fundamentals of what makes the different genres at play in StarVaders click. That this is the debut title from developer Pengonauts is all the more impressive and positions them as an indie developer to watch. If its first game is as good as StarVaders, expect great things from this team in the future.
StarVaders is a great time, whether it ends up being your first roguelike or your hundredth, and I found myself coming back to it time and time again in between playing longer, more drawn-out games that required a more serious time commitment. Even then, I was just as pleased sitting down and playing StarVaders for 15 minutes as I was for 2 hours, and that the game runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck makes it practically a no-brainer for anyone with Valve’s handheld to pick it up. StarVaders is immediately fresh, fun, and impressive in its tactical and mechanical depth, and it easily belongs in the library of anyone who’s a fan of roguelikes, deckbuilders, or turn-based tactics games.
Rating: 9 out of 10
The image featured at the top of this post is ©CheatCC/Pengonauts.