Starstruck Vagabond Review: A Perfect Crossover

, developed by Yahtzee Croshaw and published by Second Wind, is one of the most addictive job simulators I've played in years. The job itself — a space trucker tasked with delivering cargo from one star system to another — is only the background element of a much larger story, but the entertainment it provides and opportunities it unlocks work both to move the story along and to let players fully immerse themselves in the world on display. It's a life simulator inspired by games like as much as it is an adventure on par with Croshaw's literary "" trilogy, and I've stayed up until 2AM by accident more than once while playing it.

The core gameplay loop of consists of taking on delivery missions, a multi-step process which involves loading the cargo onto your ship, traveling to at least one (or possibly multiple) starports, and unloading the cargo at the designated areas. This might sound simple, but complications like low storage space and specialty crates (like irradiated cargo that ruins the contents of any adjacent package) turns the act of organization into an efficiency test, where the player must find the most optimal place to set their goods while still alotting room for the routine ship maintenance which must be performed en route.

This maintenance is other main gameplay component, and how you feel about constantly having to clean, align, and repair your spaceship is going to determine how much you like the game as a whole. Filters and air cyclers get dirty over time and must be cleaned, bumping into asteroids will knock your warp rings and engine pipes out of alignment, and small pests called Zoobs can sneak onto your ship and wreak havoc unless they are quickly eradicated.

An improperly maintained ship will make your task of delivering cargo extremely difficult (power failures during travel aren't ideal for refrigerated goods, after all) while carrying too much cargo at once can impede proper ship maintenance. It's the act of keeping these two systems