Space shooters nowadays are hard to come by and for good reason: many of the games released tend to underperform. Indie titles seem to be able to dodge these problems by taking different approaches and Flotilla is one such game.
In Flotilla, the story is left behind from the beginning. You’re terminally ill and have turned to space flight in your final months. When I was running into pirate space penguins and pigs committing blue collar crimes, why I was in space didn’t seem to matter much. The game progressed through the continued choice of the next planet to travel to. A galaxy-like overview map is available before each move. Planets shown with a red glow dictate a planet that is a definite battle, but most are shown in a faint yellow. Traveling to a planet will trigger a random encounter, which range from finding stowaway toucans to racketeering reindeer. Each encounter will be unique during the first playthrough, but they get repetitive as you visit the campaign again.
Just calling it a space shooter isn’t giving enough detail, though. Flotilla is a three-dimensional turn-based shooter through and through. You have control of vertical and horizontal movement and your ability to properly move through the game space is critical to the game. Likewise, you must correctly choose the correct plan of attack to counter your opponent’s ship set up. Each turn you have three options for movement: move and attack, flank, and focus fire. Move and attack is your middle ground, allowing you to move a moderate distance while firing. Flanking foregoes firing in lieu of increased move distance and speed. Focus fire, well that focus fires. Choosing when to use which movement, along with proper positioning, is key. Also important is the directional positioning of your ship. Pressing X during the last phase of your turn allows you to rotate your ship in all three directions, allowing you to avoid damage to the weaker parts of your ship.
Though the core gameplay was strong, but it was backed by a disjointed single player experienced. Even though flying through space, shooting up ships, and battling pirate penguins doesn’t require much reason, I felt that each of my campaigns was short lived. There are a number of ships in the game, but in most of my adventures I only managed to add an extra two to my flotilla. This lends the game to be played a singular way in which you sit down, play an adventure or two, and leave it alone for a while. Too many in a row and it will start to get stale.
It’s a shame that the full set of features didn’t make it from the PC version, leaving a smaller single player experience here, but what makes the game truly great – the 3D movement and ship positioning – made the transition flawlessly. For 400 MS points, you won’t get many experiences like this.
Visit the Xbox Live Marketplace to add a free demo of Flotilla to your Xbox 360 download queue.
Flotilla was provided for review by Blendo Games. It is available for 400 MS points.
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