”Tough but fair”

”The best laid plans…”

”But wait, there's more!”

Do we have a winner?

Cryptark may look like just another twin stick shooter on the surface, and if you take a random slice of the gameplay, that’s most likely what you’re going to see. However, underneath the blasting away of alien defenses is a game that actually requires some tactical pacing and strategic planning for an engaging and fulfilling roguelite experience.The phrase “tough but fair” gets thrown around in a lot of scenarios and in just about any game that has a base difficulty level can be perceived by many as 'hard', yet I think for Cryptark it is more applicable than in a lot of titles. The difficulty doesn’t necessarily come from the challenge of you managing the ‘twin stickness’ of the controls with precision aiming and movement, it comes more from the core tenets of the game, resource and money management. This differs a bit between the main two game modes, so I’ll try to outline that first. The main campaign has you and your ship contract cronies loading up your flying/floating armored suit with weapons and heading into a large partially derelict ship full of automated defenses and mechanical enemies that want to tear you to pieces. This is done with the main goal of destroying the ship’s core and salvaging the rest of the ship for a large payout. There are some secondary goals such as destroying (or sparing) specific systems within the ship (these are what control the various defenses) or not using specific types of weapons on that level. The secondary goals can provide a much-needed bonus of cash in the process.So why do you need all of this money? Well, it costs money to load out your armored suit, and to add armor to it, along with each weapon and its ammo, and of course any extra items you take along like health kits and keys. In essence, you have to pay up front for your entire loadout in hopes of making a profit in completing the level. If you die in the process, unlike other roguelite games, you aren’t immediately finished with the run. You move on to the next set of levels minus much of your profits and plenty of penalties for the loss. Officially losing is only the result of going broke. This adds a meaty layer to the process where you have to determine not only the best way to get to the core effectively, but how you can do that efficiently and make the most money without dying.Something that seems to be a bit overlooked in the marketing of Cryptark is just how important it is to plan your moves well ahead of time. Even when the ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and you’re running for your life with the hope of having the chance to survive and come up with a new course of action. Each level gives you a choice of four ship hulks to assault and upon highlighting them, you get to see the secondary missions, types of systems and enemies inside, the amount you receive for being successful, and a number representing difficulty – though this can barely be considered all that accurate. This means you get to decide based on your current available resources, what sort of mission you will take. Once in the mission you have to pick your loadout from your available weapons, along with things like ammo, armor, and other devices, and then look at a map with the ship’s hull and interior and the locations of each system (assuming it doesn’t have a signal jammer). Then it’s up to you to plan what route you’ll take, what systems you’ll attack, and what you can do without blowing all of your cash. Selecting a location or system will give you the shortest route to it, so it’s definitely a good idea to plan accordingly and revisit the map often once inside to make sure you aren’t lost in the dangers of the labyrinthian hulks. Taking a minute or two can really mean the difference between you being successful in Cryptark or failing miserably.The campaign isn't the only game mode available. I can't say much for the co-op mode, but the Rogue mode is a more 'roguelite-like' design that has you making use of many of the same core mechanics I mentioned above. You start out with your basic loadout for your selected armored suit and battle through several randomly generated levels scavenging for new weapons, ammo, health kits, and other equipment as the difficulty gets higher each time. You carry over your ammo and health amounts between each level meaning it can be very important to load up in the earlier levels, as toward the end you'll really be desperate for those resources. While it's functionally very similar to the campaign, it ends up playing significantly differently. You don't have any alternative objectives and whether or not you explore the bulk of the ship in the level is up to you. Sometimes the best choice is to simply go straight for the core and knock it out ASAP rather than risk taking unnecessary damage, but then it may be much more advantageous for you travel around looking for the best weapons and upgrades even if it costs you ammo and health. It makes for a more tactical rather than strategic experience, which can be even more fun in some cases.Cryptark is relentlessly challenging. It takes a pretty simple concept and gives you a false sense of security in thinking you can just will your way forward in the game, but then smacks you down if you dare to rush forward without knowing what to do and where to go. For myself, I did eventually seem to establish some 'best practices' for what I needed to do in any given situation, but after several hours I'm still thrown many curveballs that send me back to the drawing board. You may do well playing Cryptark if you're good at twin stick shooters, and you may even have fun, but to really enjoy it – you also have to have a taste for games that require some strategic planning and critical thinking. It's easy to recommend this Cryptark, but I'm completely sure there will be a group of people turned off by the game with the assumption that it was just a cool alien blasting game.If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28346672-Endyo-Gaming/