Space shooter Nova Drift starts of with a sly wink at genre grandaddy Asteroids by having you shoot a bunch of space rocks. However, things quickly escalate from there…
Nova Drift pits you against waves of diverse enemies on a single screen. When you leave the screen at one end, you re-appear at the other side. Sometimes, there are asteroids. So far, so good. And then you level up and get to pick from a vast array of skills. And again, and again. In the meantime, your foes get stronger, bullets fill the screen, the pace picks up. Bosses make an appearance and you keep leveling up that tiny spaceship of yours.
And that’s the main draw of the game, really. There is a wealth of unlockable skills that change the way your weapon fires, your shield behaves, and how much punishment you can stand. Depending on your build, you can cause a ton of damage by ramming into your enemies, or you just pound your foes into oblivion by spamming endlessly splintering grenades.
Rail gun? Tiny missiles? Nova Drift has got you covered. The possibilities are rather generous, and tinkering around with different builds, making use of skill synergies and the like, is most of the fun. Though visually pleasing, the general gameplay loop is little more than perfectly fine, standard space shooter fare. Nothing you haven’t seen before. However, the sheer amount of customization options helps to set Nova Drift apart from its peers, and it’s a ton of fun to try all the different ways of clearing the screen from space baddies.
Nova Drift is available now on Steam Early Access.
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