Seven Suns of Orion, a new entry in the spaceship bullet heaven genre, distinguishes itself from similar titles by incorporating semi-Newtonian physics and unique weaponry like railguns.
Unlike Vampire Survivors, which often focuses on surviving for a set time before facing a boss, Seven Suns of Orion presents seven-minute survival challenges culminating in a boss encounter. The core gameplay loop involves managing your ship's movement to evade hundreds of incoming robot drones while your automatically firing weapons engage them. As players collect experience points, they can unlock a variety of armaments including railguns, homing missiles, short-range lasers, flak cannons, and point defense cannons.
The game's unique selling proposition lies in its space-based combat, which utilizes semi-Newtonian physics. This means that a ship's momentum is maintained when accelerating or turning, creating an arc-like trajectory when changing direction, similar to the mechanics found in Star Control. This system also extends to celestial bodies within the game's environments, such as moons and asteroids, which possess their own gravity wells. These gravitational forces affect both the player's ship and enemy drones, allowing for strategic use of the environment to ensnare or destroy pursuing enemies.
Progression in Seven Suns of Orion involves earning coins through gameplay to purchase new ships and upgrades. The game features distinct ship classes, each with unique handling and control schemes. The starter Cruiser is a more balanced option, while the Galleon is a slower, heavily armored vessel with side-facing cannons that necessitate a circling approach to combat. Conversely, the Fighter class is lightly armored and fast, with front-facing cannons requiring players to maintain distance and utilize their ship's momentum to fire upon pursuers.
While the game offers a substantial experience, the developers acknowledge a desire for more enemy variety and richer environmental detail, though this may be influenced by hardware limitations. The varied ship designs and the promise of further unlockable vessels, each with potentially distinct combat styles, are expected to provide long-term engagement. The later levels are also slated to introduce more environmental hazards and features, such as suns and space stations that fire lasers.
Mastering the game's physics, particularly the planetary flybys for evading enemies, is presented as a key challenge. Misjudging these maneuvers can lead to ships clipping the planet and becoming overwhelmed by pursuing drones. Seven Suns of Orion is available at a modest price point, with early impressions suggesting a depth beyond initial expectations thanks to its physics-driven combat and diverse ship mechanics.