But it really is like Hotline Miami…

The real game begins

I love it when a plan comes together

It’s really easy to look at Heat Signature and say “that looks like Hotline Miami in space,” and saying that is applicable to a point, but as you dig deeper in the game you find a much more challenging and puzzle-like system that rewards you for proper planning, use of a diverse set of tools, and great timing.Heat Signature starts you out flying a tiny pod at super speeds across a portion of a galaxy to find a marked ship to latch yourself on to its hull in order to infiltrate and fulfill the objective of your mission. This could be something as simple as killing a certain person on board, but also could be something a bit different like having you steal an item or take over the entire ship. Yet in the beginning, this is where it’s really like Hotline Miami. You won’t have many weapons or items, and the enemies will be pretty easy to dispatch. In all likelihood, you will be able to take them all out with your wrench and some swift blows to the head to fully take over the ship regardless of your objective. Even if the crew has guns, holding a mouse button (or controller button) to ready your selected weapon will put you in a slow motion mode, which, with a little anticipation, will have you dodging their shots easily. Then on top of that, getting knocked out or shot doesn’t immediately kill you. You’re rendered unconscious and carried to an airlock to be jettisoned, but the only thing you’ll need to do then is remote control your space pod to come pick you up and either drive you back to the ship, or take you home to start a new mission. However, all of this starts to change as you move in to missions that are more difficult.Taking out a half-dozen guards wielding wrenches or pistols one or two at a time will seem like a joke as you get into the tougher missions of the game. Every completed mission nets you some of the game’s currency, with it's mysterious droplet icon, and increases the amount of “liberation” that you have. Once you reach a certain amount of liberation, you can unlock a new station, which will give you various small bonuses like additional items available in the station's stores. The end goal of the game is liberating these stations and defeating each faction in the galaxy along the way. In this process, you’ll also unlock increasingly more difficult missions that involve more rules and requirements on top of guards equipped with all sorts of life-ending tools. Luckily, as you move along, you accumulate a nice collection of useful gadgets and weapons that make it possible to successfully complete these encounters. Whether it’s armor piercing weapons, items that disable shields (or hilariously turn them against their wielder), or provide you with various types of teleportation, you’ll be much more capable as you progress. But you are going to have only eight slots in your inventory, and most items will have limited ammo and charges, so what results is a scenario where you need to plan ahead, plan while you’re on the mission, and come up with a completely new plan when everything falls apart.The most rewarding aspect of Heat Signature is when you’re going in to an extremely difficult mission where you’re dodging around patrolling guards, making use of an inventory full of crazy gadgets and weapons, trying to do it all under a time limit, and somehow pulling it all off even when half of what designed doesn't actually follow the plan. The huge ships you’ll be running around later in the game and the complex scenarios you’re put in will give the game a great shelf life for a something that has such a relatively low base price of $15. It’s fascinating how the game transitions from something so familiar to a game that requires ample pausing, planning, and essentially solving randomly generated puzzles. Then on top of that, the game limits progression with a single character (assuming they don’t die or get captured) by giving diminishing returns on the “liberation” resource after you’ve done a certain number of missions. This forces you to retire the character and start over fresh with minimal items, keeping the game interesting even after several hours of play. It encourages the player to take risks and try more dangerous missions since no matter what the result, you'll have to retire that character to keep progressing.Heat Signature is and indie game that delivers way over its price point and has an appeal that grows on you as you play, standing out from other indie games that tend to lose appeal as you dig in deeper due to a lack of depth. As soon as you discover some cool gadget, weapon, or technique you can do, it adds another option in the already diverse gameplay. I didn't know until hours in that you can pickpocket keys off of guards and that opened up an entirely new level of stealth options that I had never before considered. If it had just one more layer of gameplay, maybe making the stations have more interactivity or something relating to the galaxy map, and a more refined artistic and graphical appearance, it could easily pass for a AAA game on par with something like XCOM with gameplay that keeps building on itself in an engaging way. I fully recommend this title and I look forward to exploring it further to see what other fun bits it contains.If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/EndyoGaming#curation