Starry Station - Demo Review - Fantime Horror Games Website

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« A unique art direction for an oppressive, confined space... a good surprise! »

We had the chance to dive into the demo for Starry Station, an indie horror game developed by a small team, LunarTech Studios, and it is safe to say that the experience leaves a lasting impression. With its distinct visual identity and anxiety-inducing atmosphere, the title already promises plenty of spine-chilling moments. Here is our full breakdown of this playthrough.

What we loved

The Starry Station demo immediately stands out for its generous amount of content and unique vibe.

A striking art direction and an immersive visual filter

Without a doubt, the game's biggest strength is its highly specific and bold art direction. The game features a really interesting on-screen effect and filter that gives the visuals a unique style. Far from being a mere aesthetic choice, this visual rendering fits the game's universe perfectly: it heightens the feelings of unease, distortion, and isolation.

A star in audio and music design

For a horror game to work, sound design is crucial. Here, the music is excellent and accompanies your exploration. The overall atmosphere created by combining the visuals and audio makes the game oppressive.

Rich gameplay with diverse phases

As we progress, the game takes us through several distinct phases, introducing a variety of interesting gameplay mechanics that regularly keep the experience fresh. For a demo, the game takes us through numerous gameplay phases.

A remarkably long demo

This is rare enough in the indie scene to deserve praise: the demo is long (~1h)! That is a major plus. It gives the game enough time to build tension, develop its ideas, and give players a genuine preview of what the full version will bring to the table.

The downsides

Since this is a demo developed by a small team, it is completely natural to run into a few snags. It is nothing major, but here is what we noticed on the technical side:

Optimization issues: this was the main drawback of our playthrough. The game is quite demanding and suffers from frame drops. In fact, we had to lower the graphical settings multiple times during our session to keep the experience smooth.
Rudimentary menus: for now, the user interface and menus feel a bit unpolished and basic. We assume they will get an overhaul for the final release to match the game's art direction.
Environmental glitches: we noticed minor rendering issues in the environments. These visual glitches are mostly noticeable during map transition zones, causing slight breaks in immersion.

IN Summary

Despite a few optimization issues and menus that are still a work in progress, which are entirely forgivable and understandable flaws for a small indie team, Starry Station delivers a highly convincing demo overall. The developers more than make up for these minor technical issues with a very generous demo, varied mechanics, and above all, an art direction (both visual and audio) that builds a suffocating atmosphere. This is a promising project that we will be keeping a very close eye on!

If you want to PLAY THE DEMO for free, go to the game's Steam page!
& Check out the game page on our website!