I'm not usually posting reviews. When I do it's usually because I feel very strongly for a game. Leafy Games You guys came out of left field and absolutely stole my heart with Pulsar.


When I was younger I was absolutely fascinated with the idea of space exploration. I watched every single show I could get my hands on that had anything to do with that subject. Star Trek, every season and release of Stargate. Hell I even watched Dark Matter. and time after time after time it blew me away, ending up in a new world each time I hit play. Fast forward to being an adult. All that magic is gone, the only way I get the same feeling is by loading up a new game with a new idea.


When I booted this up with no backstory, no reading reviews, no nothing and within 5 minutes I am on a grandiose space station thinking "Ah you got me hooked!" Just when I think "I should go to bed I have work tomorrow" I find myself saying "Eh one more jump, one more fight, one more planet" Then I am locked in for another 2 hours.


For a small studio I love the graphic design. There is very clear inspiration taken from another all time favorite KOTOR.
Sound design is very well done between jump noises, ship damage and even ambiance its a home run. There are times I find myself actually a little spooked because I am so drawn into the drama this game can make.

One more big positive with this game. It does not try to be something it's not... This is the problem I had with No Man's Sky (Even though I want to blame Microsoft for that) When I jump around a galaxy in No Mans you know what I find? Nothing not a single thing worth jumping into the system for. A couple building some random life and maybe if you're really lucky a cool looking structure. Now Pulsar I jump to a system and BAM there it is here is the thing for this area. No walking around for 20 minutes to find it. No tedious "Platforming" Just content right there in your face. Warp to a world and look around, You see what I see? A very clear path for you to take so you can progress to what you want to do.

Ship to Ship boarding is exactly what I am after in a game like this. So what you're saying is I can sit on board as a science officer, or I can beam aboard the enemy ship and critically damage the life support. I can shut down the displays to all of their systems. I CAN LITERALLY EJECT THE WARP CORE and leave them with no power. That brings up the question "How is the gun play?" It's simple. But I assure not only does it work, it serves the game play very well. If I had to worry about complicated shooting it would take me away from why I boarded in the first place. To carry my weapons officer who can't shoot to save their life. I just turn the engines off and beam back so we can shoot a sitting duck.

This wouldn't be a real review if I didn't have an issue with the game. Unfortunately I have a really big issue with it... If you don't have friends don't bother playing the game at all. Do you know how hard that is to type? This is almost a 10/10 for me it's so close to that impossible rating. But unfortunately the game is listed as a single player. The AI is expansive and it's clear they worked very hard on it. Problem is when you over complicate something you write off the system entirely. This is not an easy game, you can't bounce between 5 different systems in combat. So when you give me a ton of AI that not only don't help but end up making the fight harder. That's when I start sending invites to players on my friends list I haven't spoken to since CSS. The fix is simple, Lower the price (Or make a lower price 5 game party pack) and take off single player from the tags. You do that and this problem goes away.

I don't want to end this on a negative note but I don't want to ruin the games adventure. So I am going to add one little tid bit that made me very happy to see. The boss fights in this game are outstanding, and they teach a very simple rule. Work together or die. It doesn't get more straight forward than that. Every Boss has a gimmick a new thing to learn as a group and overcome. I will tell you from experience when you figure out what that thing is and win you feel like you're on top of the galaxy baby.

Why are you still here go find 5 nerds and get to conquering the galaxy! 4/5

PS: Keep up the great work Leafy Games