When Ubisoft first unveiled Starlink: Battle for Atlas,
the thing that probably stood out the most was its implementation of toy-like spaceships
while the toys-to-life genre was fading away.
That all changed at E3 this year, when Ubisoft revealed
they were teaming up with Nintendo for the Switch version to bring the Star Fox franchise into the game.
This might seem like as cheap of a gimmick as the toys themselves,
which are thankfully optional and not required, but
it’s safe to say the collaboration pays off.
The Star Fox material absolutely helps to elevate the game above mediocrity,
while also providing a potential avenue for Fox McCloud to go in the future
after failing to find a foothold with recent installments.
To some small extent, there is a lingering sense that the Star Fox content is a quick cash grab,
but for the most part, Ubisoft has done a great job of integrating
one of Nintendo’s beloved franchises with with one of their own once again.
However, if you decide to stick with Fox and the Arwing from start to finish,
Starlink easily passes as a unique Star Fox experience.
Starlink’s story is a very by the numbers sci-fi adventure;
you won’t find any surprises or shocking twists here.
Even the Star Fox narrative involving the team’s hunt for Wolf is barebones,
leaving you yearning for more.
Though you’ll warm up to the crew eventually (aside from one annoying member named Levi)
they feel more distant when playing from the perspective of Fox.
If you want to get more immersion into the non-Star Fox elements,
you might want to consider playing as one of the Starlink crew through the entire game.
The story missions take you across the Atlas system
as you try to liberate planets from the grasp of the Legion.
You control a small space fighter as you travel to each planet
and then seamlessly descend through their atmospheres to arrive on the surface.
It’s one vast open solar system to explore, and it’s not without several headaches.
For one, getting around in space takes forever,
even when you engage the so-called hyperdrive that supposedly makes you travel faster.
While it may be more realistic for scale,
it’s hard not to laugh as you pass by celestial bodies at a snail’s pace when the hyperdrive is engaged.
Thankfully, after you do eventually arrive at a planet or landmark,
you can then fast travel to it to avoid this problem.
During space travel, there are only a handful of things to do along the way.
So like its real-life counterpart, Starlink’s space is vast, empty,
and rather dull, though occasionally, it can be very pretty to look at.
You’re limited to exploring wreckage for the same type of rewards
or dealing with space bandits every so-often,
although these conflicts are not very appealing and quickly get repetitive.
The exceptions to the rule are the more thrilling battle sequences where you take on massive spacecraft.
Many of these are optional, but a few are required to complete the story.
In trying to take down these behemoths,
you have to deal with numerous enemy fighters,
dodge laser fire from turrets, and occasionally go head-to-head against an ace pilot.
It all leads to an incursion sequence eerily similar to ones found in older Star Fox games.
It might just be a nod, but it’s one of the more satisfying elements of the space portions,
even if they also get a bit repetitive after a few encounters.
There’s more to see and do on the planets,
and the story missions that string you along from one destination to another
feature just enough variety to hold your interest.
The main goal you’re constantly working towards is to build up your forces
and to amass the resources to make this happen.
You do this by liberating existing strongholds and bases on that planet,
while also forging new ones.
Each mission serves to increase either your surveillance, natural resources, or defensive capabilities.
This is important because the Atlas system is constantly under assault from the Legion.
Even after securing a planet, reinforcements can and will appear in attempt to take back the ground you’ve gained.
In a weird way, this core system that governs your progress through most of the game
is reminiscent of Star Fox 2’s design, so Starlink does feel a bit like a spiritual successor in that regard.
It’s a well-executed system that provides constant tension
and plays a big role in your decision making.
While you’re free to travel around the Atlas system as you see fit,
things are still happening on other worlds that affect your progress,
and this is perhaps the best part of Starlink.
You can easily lose yourself for hours on a single planet
trying to build up resources by tackling various side missions.
However, these do get repetitive, and it can feel like a grind at times.
So while the concept is great, it definitely lacks a bit of pizzazz.
When it comes to taking on enemies,
Starlink does a good job of getting you introduced to the ins and outs of handling your ship
and using its capabilities.
In space, it can be hard to keep track of everything in large scale battles, which
sort of goes hand-in-hand with their chaotic nature.
Yet when your foes come in smaller numbers,
it’s usually smooth sailing and you feel in control.
On planets, there’s virtually no aerial combat.
Instead, fights are mostly ground-based,
involving strafing around opponents while shooting, dodging, and blocking shots with your shield.
Though there are the usual hiccups that accompany vehicular combat,
ground-based combat feels good and similar in style to a third-person shooter.
What elevates the combat are the weapons systems, which feature the ability to mix and match
unique elemental guns mounted to each of your two wings.
Starlink doesn’t do itself any favors by dumping a lot of info on you at once,
detailing its weapon system, upgrades, enhancements...
and well, just lots of systems back to back.
It’s downright intimidating at first, and these introductions could have used a bit more finesse
to ease you into learning the ropes.
At least at first, you can overcome enemies with simple brute force,
so you really don’t need to parse through everything right away in order to advance.
Eventually though, the game nudges you to learn these systems in order to handle tougher opponents.
On normal difficulty, it even goes so far as to recommend weapon combinations in the early hours
to help you grasp the concept of having to swap out weapons and upgrades every so often
in an effort to better prepare for what’s to come.
While it may seem like too much to take in,
our playthrough eventually settled on three to four weapon combos and setups
that were able to get us through the remainder of the game without too much trouble,
even with boss encounters.
At first, bosses are some of the most challenging fights in the game, but as you level up
and improve your abilities, they eventually pose almost no threat.
Many of the so-called bosses look the same and often feature the same mechanics and attack patterns,
so much so that after enough fights against them,
they don’t feel all that different from standard enemies anymore.
At the end of the day, Starlink really could use a lot more variety when it comes to bosses.
Starlink has its difficulty spikes here and there, but for the most part, it’s not an overly difficult game.
One major aspect that lessens the difficulty is the fact
that if a ship goes down in combat,
you can instantly swap it out for another if you have extras in reserve.
This game prides itself on allowing you to mix-and-match weapons and parts
and swap them out in real-time, and changing out your ship entirely is part of that system.
So as long as you have enough ships, you likely won’t lose a fight on the standard difficulty.
There are parts of Starlink with great visuals
that really capture the sense of seeing the unknown and being left in awe.
Then there are times when the game looks rough around the edges.
The voice work for the main cast is an admirable effort, including the Star Fox team,
but the repetitive dialogue from many of the game’s NPCs is incredibly annoying
and hurts the sense of immersion.
At least the remix of the classic Corneria theme doesn’t get old after the umpteenth time.
There’s a lot to do in Starlink.
Simply getting through the story will take around 15-20 hours,
and you can tack on many more if you’re looking to complete everything.
It never feels like its drawn out or overstays its welcome, either.
It’s clear there’s some friction between the vision for Starlink and what we’ve come to expect for Star Fox
as the two don’t mesh together perfectly, but what Ubisoft manages to accomplish is pretty remarkable.
It’s a good game with a lot of small flaws,
and this imperfect union shows amazing potential.
It’s repetitive and certainly could use some more polish,
yet it’s still strangely addictive and fun.
If Nintendo is smart, they’ll continue this collaboration with Ubisoft,
so hopefully next time it will be a dedicated Star Fox project
instead of a tacked-on console exclusive.
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