OUT NOW: Solar Flux Hits Steam

Solar Flux, the new game from Glasgow’s Firebrand is a thing of beauty.  Seriously.  This is a game which looks GOOD.  And plays like a dream…

Unlike many of the more recent games set in the wide reaches of interstellar space and alien solar systems, Solar Flux makes space look the jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring infinity it actually is.  Think classic Sci Fi films like 2001, Sunshine, Moon or Gravity.

The burning heart of a dying star throws a bitter blaze of radiance across planets, moons, comets, meteors and the occasional black hole.  The shadows of these planetary bodies do more than simply make the game look beautiful, they’re safe havens in which your ship can lurk, avoiding the full impact of the solar furnace which threatens to strip away the shields, sear away the bulkheads and desiccate the fragile human occupants into a tiny cloud of carbonised dust, sucked into the merciless star’s gravitational field, before the sun itself collapses and either goes nova, or settles into a sullen glow of obsolescence.

Unless you can stop it.

Solar Flux demands players carefully navigate their way through increasingly complex and crowded solar systems, retrieving balls of plasma and the fire the payload into the heart of the sun, reinvigorating it and saving the whole system.

This is complicated by the fact that the sun can fry your ship, destroying it utterly, if you get too close, lose concentration, or forget that it’s really quite hot.  Hiding in the shadows of planets and moons keeps you cool, but the sun only gets more unstable as you lounge about at lagrange points.

Solar Flux brings back one of the classic game control systems – inertia.  Thrusters (with a limited amount of fuel) are used to give your ship momentum, control direction and slow down.  Combined with the gravity of the massive dying star as well as the planets and moons in the system, it creates a truly satisfying feel.  Think Asteroids meets Lander.  Yes, classic times classic.

Combined with a beguiling and increasingly fiendish level design, it’s game for retro gamers, puzzle fans and PC players looking for something new and different alike.

Solar Flux hit iOS several weeks ago, where it’s picking up a very healthy 4 star rating, but has now come home.  Firebrand originally created the game on PC and has now released it for Steam and the 54M users on the world’s largest PC digital distribution platform.

The game is OUT NOW.  Normally priced at $9.99, Solar Flux is ON SALE for the rest of this week, with 20% off (£5.59 bargain fans).

It’s highly recommended.