Many successful indie games overcome limited scope and marketing resources by offering a unique premise or take on gameplay. It’s tough otherwise to stand out in the mass of games that are released on Steam and the XBox Live Indie Games service. The first Solar stood out when it was first released due to its interesting take on open-world sandbox gameplay in which you weren’t a thug, a cowboy, or student, but instead you played as an asteroid, a planet, a star, and even a black hole. The sandbox provided wasn’t extremely elaborate, but a series of provided challenges gave players goals to achieve and sandbox options to unlock. Not only did it provide a unique premise and great atmosphere, but also several hours of entertaining gameplay for a measely $1. Many still consider it one of the best games on the XBLIG service and it was a great deal. With the release of Solar 2, we see the game not only available as an Xbox Live Indie Game but now on Steam as well. Additionally, the price point has increased to $5 on XBLIG and a whopping $10 on Steam. So the question is, does Solar 2 provide enough new and unique content over its predecessor to be worth five to ten times the price of the original?
