Grab some friends and pump up the bass, MAD Capacity’s Astervoid 2000 is now on Steam! This shooter takes players back to the old-school days of (you guessed it!) Asteroid, with some modern bells and whistles mixed in for fun. The biggest perk has to be the game’s dubstep soundtrack, created by LVRG; even if you’re not a fan of the genre, it’s hard not to enjoy blasting spaceships to chest-shaking beats.
The game has two modes to play: local multiplayer versus, and single-player survival. Astervoid 2000 was clearly made for friends to play together (a funny “Please Enjoy Responsibly” disclaimer says so before you even see the opening menu), but the single-player mode can be fun too; just try not to get too frustrated about having only one life.
You can choose a variety of models and colors for your ships, but the controls are the same for every player: you get a laser that can be charged or shot rapid-fire, a shield that regenerates over time, and a thruster burst to get out of a tight squeeze. There’s no perks or power-ups to lean on””just your skill against your opponent’s.
The gameplay itself can be both fun and disorienting. Just like in Asteroid, there are plenty of rocks flying across the screen at any given moment. Depending on the color/texture of the asteroid, you can use your laser on them to your advantage: chrome rocks reflect your attacks in a different direction, while molten rocks explode when fired upon. There’s also a massive third-party ship that randomly appears during skirmishes, so be sure to take it down quickly before its giant blasters tear you apart. The biggest challenge to playing this game is keeping track of everything that’s going on, including your own rate of fire: the developers included a subtle kickback to every shot, so if you’re not careful you’ll accidentally push yourself off the screen!
Astervoid 2000 is a great Death Match Shooter to play from the couch with your friends, but aside from that scenario, there’s just not enough content to encourage gamers to play it individually. The survival mode serves more as a tutorial for multiplayer, and without any unlockable skins or features, most gamers will probably turn to something else within the first ten playthroughs. The game’s price on Steam may be a little steep for some, so read the reviews to make sure that you’re really interested in playing. Of course, MAD Capacity tells you flat-out what you’re getting into with that pre-title disclaimer, so there shouldn’t be any surprises.
If you’re a fan of the old space shooters and want to battle your friends using nothing but skill, then you should definitely check out Astervoid 2000!