Space Cowboys: Hands-on with Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut

It’s been an interesting few years for “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” developer Born Ready Games. Comprised of veteran developers from all over the game industry, the Born Ready team first made a splash when its Kickstarter campaign funded the game in less than a month, allowing them to fill a niche that clearly needed filling (at least if the game’s sales are any indication). The release of “Strike Suit Zero” was met by acclaim from both critics and consumers alike, so it quickly became clear to the team that not only was there a market for open space flight combat games, it was a genre worth investing both time and money in.

With that in mind, Born Ready made a bold choice: to take the money they earned from the PC-only “Strike Suit Zero” and re-invest it into the development of the definitive version of the game. With that decision, “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” was born. Since that fateful day, the team has been hard at work improving the core game in a number of ways, not least of which is bringing it to Xbox One as one of the first titles to be released as part of the ID@Xbox program.

For the uninitiated, here’s a breakdown of the story: the year is 2299 and humanity has expanded out to colonize multiple planets. Naturally, it isn’t long before all hell breaks loose and the governments on Earth lose control of the colonies. As a member of the United Nations of Earth, it’s up to you to take the fight to space using the Strike Suit, a new type of spacecraft that allows the pilot to transform into a lethal armored suit.

We had a chance to go hands-on with “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” for Xbox One at the recent ID@Xbox event at GDC and it’s clear that the team at Born Ready has been hard at work making this the definitive “Strike Suit Zero” experience. Right off the bat, it was easy to notice that the game looks absolutely beautiful, as the combination of updated textures and lighting make these ships leap off the screen like never before. In addition to a nicer-looking version of the original game, the “Director’s Cut” will also include the “Heroes of the Fleet” mission pack, as well as both the Marauder and Raptor Strike Suits.

While there have been a lot of nice bells and whistles added for the Xbox One game, the most important thing to note about “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” is the fact that it’s just plain
fun. It’s been a long time since we’ve played a free space combat game that was inviting to casual fans while offering a ton of depth for the more hardcore folks, but that’s precisely what this game offers. When we first began playing, it took a while to figure out where to go and what to do, but it wasn’t long before we were taking down enemy ships while making strafing runs on massive foes.

For us, the coolest part of “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” is the way it helps convey a proper sense of scale to the player. Rather than feeling like the entire battle was being waged with the player at the center, the massive space fracas went on around us while we were busy taking care of our very specific objectives. In many cases, trying to do stuff you’re not supposed to will result in death, something we found out the hard way on more than one occasion.

As we mentioned above, “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut” will be one of the first ID@Xbox games to land, so you can be sure we’ll be bringing you much more as we get closer to the game’s release.