CONTROL Resonant
CONTROL Resonant
Game
Game2015
Distant Star: Revenant Fleet
Developer Blazing Griffin
BAFTA award winning fleet-based RTS meets rogue-lite. In Distant Star: Revenant Fleet, build your fleet of up to 5 ships from a choice of 8 classes and traverse a randomly generated galaxy to defeat the Erebus Platform. NOW AVAILABLE ON MAC AND LINUX From the Steam store page
197 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Apr 27, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
64
Fresh
125 positive · 71 negative
95% range 57–70%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 125 | 71 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
1 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
196 of 298 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mixed reception: praised as FTL-like but criticised for difficulty and repetition.
Many players enjoy the game's blend of FTL and RTS elements, with some calling it a great mix of FTL and Homeworld. Positive reactions highlight interesting stories, ship progression, and nice graphics. [3][7][12][21]
However, many critics find the game too difficult, repetitive, and lacking depth. Some say it feels unfinished or boring, with complaints about balance and lack of meta-progression. [14][25][28][29][31][32][34]
Praised FTL-like gameplay · interesting story and choices · nice graphics and art style
Criticised high difficulty · repetitive gameplay · lack of depth and meta-progression
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 197 · most liked firstJust played this game and feel a need to post a review, partially to reflect my thoughts to other players and partially to tell the devs. Yes, this is a pretty cool game. Yes, I liked it, and it scratches a very particular itch that I haven't really found anything else for (small-fleet-command strategy game). But I don't feel like it was quite what I'd thought it would be when I purchased it, and, while I'm recommending it, it's with some pretty major qualifications. tl;dr, it's a good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →hm, most of those negative reviews seem to be outdated because the game really feels different to what they claim. Overall the game is very similar to FTL, you pass through several sectors to reach the final boss fight, every sector has multiple systems, where you can fight, repair, do quests, buy stuff,.... and each jump consumes fuel. Instead of managing your crew during a fight you control your fleet (up to 5 ships) from a top down perspective. -Squad-based RTS style. But be warned, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The A'kari of Aos, shattered and few, on a desperate mission to stop the final Orthani victory... Distant Star : Revenant Fleet (from here on out I'll call it DSRF, because I like my fingers and typing that over and over will murder my keyboard) is one of the "Second Generation" of Early Access games, having now seen and made it through the initial wave of Early Access highs and lows, we're now seeing a more matured approach to the Early Access platform, with more specialised projects and more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't sure what to expect, but this game is great! Pros: +Interesting stories, with choices that grant different bonuses. +Ships that level up and gain perks. +Plenty of ship classes, each with their own abilities, new weapons and equipment to buy. +No crashes or bugs so far. +Really nice graphics. Backgrounds are very artistic and i love how energy shields look. +Pretty easy to learn, but hard to master. I had to start a new game after a few levels. Cons: -Shops are randomly generated,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't very happy with it at first, but then I turned the difficulty down a little, figured out what I was doing, and finished a run. It's pretty good once you get in to it. It's basically like FTL but with up to 5 ships. I found it easier to pick up, honestly. The story's a bit cliche, but well done nonetheless. If you're feeling the itch to play FTL, but don't want to play more FTL, this is the game for you. A couple of tips: 1. This game is hard. If you're only a casual Roguelike…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm pretty sure that a lot of people who look at this game think "ah, it's like FTL - but you have several tiny ships that you fly around with instead". For the most part that turns out to be true, but desptite the many similarities to the great FTL, there are few things in this game that seem to click and come together for me. It's the kind of game that I really want to work and succeed, but no matter how many times I've replayed it, things just never end up being fun. The battles, which I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay is between S.P.A.Z and FTL but a lot less fun then those to games. The game became annoying and frustrating farely fast for me. The game is full of little annoying things like, your ship not doing what you want them to do or when you capture and enemy automated repair factory and I still have to pay for the repair or only getting useless modules to buy when you finally get the chance to buy upgrades or having a mission to defend a station where you star far away from the station…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Mix of FTL and Homeworld, this game grabs much from both parent games, but can't really make the most out of it. - The Combat is repetitive and the AI is pretty dumb. - The graphic style is good, but seems to be blurry and unsharp. - The Maps are very small and the missions on them are repetitive also. Fly there, cap that, destroy these, etc. - Ships can shoot in any direction, fly in any direction etc. There is no maneuver, or allining the weapons toward the enemy, in other words, no…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DISCLAIMER: Look, I'm not a professional review maker. So please, with this 'review' don't expect something that will change your perspective on reality. I'm just going to give you my personal opinon of the game. That's it. If you're looking for someone to tell you all the pros and cons of the game etc, you're looking in the wrong place. REVIEW: I, personally, love this game. And I only just started playing it. I hate how I see people review the game as an "FTL Ripoff". It's not. Seriously.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun RTS Rogue like combo. Check out my full review here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqbVuwNzvH8
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review Summary and Overall Impressions This has been described as a roguelike in the vein of FTL, but with RTS elements thrown in. Objectively speaking, that's true, but it's not as 'roguelike' as people looking for that specific genre might be looking for. As a rogue fanatic myself, I'll be honest with you; It's a roguelike in the sense that it has random world generation and random encounters down pat, along with permadeath and proper consequences for actions that are more often than not…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game opened to pretty bad reviews and had some terrible issues. SO why bother giving it a try now? Well, with steam being a bastion of junk and scams, a seeming feeding ground for dubious developers taking advantage of PC gamers, from hit and runs, abandoned EA games, abandoned released games that aren't removed as they should be, and terrible mobile and app ports. Add that to Valve's horrible quality control and well, finding Devs who actually OWN their games (Mistakes and all) and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buy it if you like FTL and are fond of Homeworld's artstyle and worldbuilding. The game has a neat aesthetic, the music is especially atmospheric. The difficulty is quite high, but I was able to almost destroy the last boss on my first playthrough back in Beta - the game has become more fair and somewhat less challenging since then. The only major con worth mentioning is that to do well in combat you absolutely have to use the active pause and employ quite a lot of kiting. Big props for the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →EDITTED BELOW TO REFLECT RECENT PATCH! This is for me about nine-tenths a masterpiece, with only some minor balance changes needed to be great, and any additional content would be icing on the cake. The game plays just like how you would expect seeing comparisons to RTS and FTL. Build your fleet, try to scrape together enough resources to keep them repaired and up to date, and engage in real-time space battles.The upgrades and ship options are dynamic enough that they can drastically alter…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In short: SPAZ(battle system)+FTL(story). But it lacks more different ship and weapons. For story - it quate narrow. 2 missions types - capture or defend. 3 different auto-weapons - gun and missiles and lasers. 6 different active skills - attack speed+, damage+, heal, focus, unfocus, emp cloud(makes no sence in most battles). Good to kill hour or two. I was strugling to find replay value - so it good as is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game has so much potential. whats holding it back? its too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ difficult. not in the fun Dark Souls kind of way either. They overwhelm you with so many enemies it almost impossible. i havent given up on the game yet but i do regret buying it and cannot recommend it until they balance out the game. There is no reason i should be facing almost 10 ships vs my 3 in the first 5 minutes. pros -great graphics -great mix of rougelike and strategy cons -too difficult, seriously. -has no basic…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Warning: This game has no meta-progression in any way. There is not a lot of ships or weapons and random events are pretty binary, so replayability may be very restricted for some players. Otherwise the game is pretty decent. Nice 2d graphics, good audio and nice gameplay, even if a little hectic. Mechanics force you to use tactical pause a lot, maneuver each ship manually to dodge fire (there is no order queuing) and do a piss-poor job explaining it to you, so do yourself a favor and skim…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →-Start game -Commander/best friend betrays me, as usual -went on my way, killing orthani and pirate scum -enemy factory run by women and children slave labour -she begs "please, think of the children" -they die for the cause -get massage from ex-bestfriend -several rounds of space cat and mouse later -find out best friend is hot grill -she tells me ridiculous plan to blow up home planet to save it -♥♥♥♥ the planet -I just want some of that space booty -meet with her -only option is fight…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3 hours of gameplay to fail the final mission. With no replay function or backup they expect you to grind for hours just to try a new way to die. I like rogue-lite gameplay, but not when the grind leading up to a battle is just so bland and repetetive. Music transitions are awful. Get FTL, much more fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This review is 2.5.2015. This game is great! You like FTL, rogue like? This is for you. The game pace is awesome and definately there are parts "stolen" from FTL but It's a whole new game and original about it. Think about if FTL and homeworlf had a child, this would be it. Not many hours in it yet but I can say most definately that I like it and the balance seems ok to me. Not too difficult but not too easy either. Awesome work from the developers and I hope we get to see a lot more from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game is heavily undercooked , what is the difference between cruise missile 1 and cruise missile 3 ? how spider rockets differ from normal ones , no tooltips , not enough tutorials , looks more like beta then release .
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →similiar to battlevoid: harbinger, not FTL. the game is pretty fun, but does get boring quick. Secondly the space battles are pretty cool, Now I dont know how or where this game started getting compared to ftl, but its not ftl, its completely different than ftl, this game is very similiar however to battlevoid harbinger, which is how I discovered this game from the start. however I will say this again, this game is not to be compared to FTL, because its nothing like FTL
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really a pretty boring game; the comparisons to FTL of other reviews are accurate but fail to capture how much more polished and streamlined FTL is. Expect to spend a lot of time waiting as you jump between worlds and wade through battles as you sit and watch as fights slowly pan out. Overall a disappointing experience from a promising concept.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting mix between Faster Than LIght and SPAZ. If you like the battles of SPAZ and the difficulty and starmap of FTL, check it out.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Youll read some of the other reviews saying "this game is too hard" or "they dont explain enough" and blah blah blah. This is a fun game but is very challenging. You will have to learn on the fly and more than likely, you will have to die a few times to really get the gameplay (I definitely died about five times in two hours and you will be sent back to the beginning). With each death, you learn more about the units, their abilities and the type of strategy you must employ to win this game.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great taste, but awful execution. Artwork, music and theme are amazing but that's it, there is no substance to gameplay. It reminds me of a DPS based P2W mobile game turned single player.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun rogue-like-like with RTS-like-like top-down tactical combat with up to 5 ships in the player fleet vs a possibly obscene numbers of enemies. Having stupidly-high APM isn't a prerequisite, because you can easily pause the action in Tactical Mode to issue commands as needed. Game isn't 100% perfect but devs are actively working on quashing bugs and updating features. Graphics 7/10: Ship/station and environment models are nice. Game has a very dark feel to it. As for backgrounds, I can say…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is awesome, it was really hard before the devs updated and tweaked stuff. It's still hard to finish but it's way better now. People should really retake a look at it. 9/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Im feeling good, even a little cocky now. I luckily found a station that offered repairs and I was able to get all my ships back into top shape though costing most of my scrap. Instead of heading for the exit i think ill take a few more chances since the danger level is still minimal and i need to gain some more scrap for upgrades. Ok, warp here and the mission is destroy all threats. This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Oh NO theres a battle carrier, torpedoes, shields failing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played alot of FTL, I really enjoyed this game. The story is a bit more rich, and the gameplay is a bit more placed. This creates more opportunity for strategy making, and overall the end result is very satisfying. Highly recommended if you enjoyed FTL.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another early-access "lets release it quick" game. Huge potential buried alive. As some reviewer posted the game is a mixture of FTL (random sectors and galaxy) with SPAZ (real time fight with self-equipped fleet). But it feels unfinished. Starting from tutorial and ending with helpless UI. Tactical-wise it's very limited (and thus quickly becoming boring) game. You always start with same fleet and only Mr.Rng will define how you end up. Tbh I didn't event bother to finish game.. as I see news…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has really scratched an itch for me. Fun, punchy, action-packed battles with nice progression has made this my go-to game when I have a spare 30 mins or an hour. Good sense of achievement when you kick some ass - really love hiding my lancers away before coming in and wrecking havoc. Not that it has much to do with the gameplay but I'm a huge fan of the visuals. Very smooth and looks great. Visuals have put me off a lot of highly rated indy games (I'm superficial I know), so I was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to enjoy this game but I can't stay alive long enough to get into it. I'm no stranger to gaming, or games like this, and still I find it too difficult. The 'levels' are in the same sort of style as FTL in that you have to quickly move through a sector and each system holds a different surpirse. However, the gameplay itself is different. Graphically it is great and there are some cool weapon and ability types to play with. I can't recommend the game because even though I would like to,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They made a whole game, all the frame work and everything, and stopped right before finishing it. All it needs is a few more upgrade choices and tweaking the stats of the ships to actually mean something. If this game had a workshop for mods it would have a HUGE following I bet.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →painfully hard and yet somewhat addicting. im on the fence on recomending it to other though. get it at a bargain price only.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game tries to be FTL with more fighting gameplay, but actually it's more like Clicker Heroes with an FTL cover. Sure it gives a 3D fighting map but in that map the units fight purely on DPS, the skills are also purely DPS based. There is no rock-paper-scissors. No intelligence. No way to influence the fight except to click on the skills button a lot. Where FPS has actual tactics, this game just has grinding. You grind DPS and then just focus it at enemies and you win. Woop. Even the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice try on a successful FTL formula. Awesome fluff, pretty space and vast selection of ships and modules to buy and try. Sadly, it gets boring too soon, but still fun to play from time to time. 3,5/5
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are looking at the reviews because you are hesitating on buying this game, before i make a review i should say this: 1-If you don't have it already, go and buy ''FTL: Faster than Light'' (People say this game is similar to FTL but i really don't think so, just ideas on core game mechanics are similar, gameplay is different) 2-If you have FTL and you are looking something VERY similar, then go and buy ''Space Rogue'' (It is not a masterpiece like FTL, it is just an average game but it is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely do not recommend purchasing this game with the intent to play it. "Well then why give it a thumbs up?" Two reasons. 1. The devs are listening to players. This is so amazingly rare nowadays and they deserve support just for that reason. 2. I want to see more games that are similar to this. This was an attempt at a unique game that unfortunately failed, but I respect their attempt, and Iwant to see these devs and other devs continue to be supported and keep trying. They may get it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't really get all the negative reviews on this one. I've played it for a bit, and it is really hard. Why play something that you're guaranteed to win every time? I'm having quite a bit of fun. Sure, I've lost a bunch, but that just made me rethink my strategies and try again. I guess if you can't take the frustration of not always winning, this isn't the game for you. Sorry, I grew up playing games that went on until you lost, no happy ending. I guess I enjoy a game that challenges…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty disappointing overall. I was pretty excited about a game that looked like FTL with an RTS engine for the battles; and that’s exactly what this game is, unfortunately it was just executed very poorly. I'm going to refer to FTL repeatedly in my review, and if you haven't already played that, stop reading, point your search to there and go buy it. It's a great game and this is but a poor shadow. The good: The RTS engine is actually quite well done. Graphics are smooth, tactics…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been playing this game since it's early release, and I have to say it just keeps getting better and better. The visuals are stunning and the latest patch has really helped with the diffiiculty level (which is great!). I can't recommend highly enough!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved the original FTL, played it for hours and hours until I unlocked almost every ship and then played some more on the harder difficulty and with the expansion. This game.. not so much. Don't get me wrong, I love RTS like COH/Starcraft/etc but this game is just kite kite kite , then kite some more because the game just throws a ridiculous amount of enemies at you without giving you any tactical options to deal with it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DU-DU-DUUU-DU-DU-DU-D-DUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a top down fleet command game with persistent fleet comp between missions. It has you advance from node to node where most nodes are randomly chosen from a far too small list. Escort missions, defend against wave missions, and kill or capture nodes missions. Once you get to the end of the map, you go to ANOTHER sequential map where you make a seemingly meaningless choice of 3 types of nodes to pick from, but this one is a binary progressing path. The combat is fine, but very repetitive,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To quote Trump: "Sounds good, doesn't work." It looks cool, got some snazzy music and all, but in the end it's a bad take on FTL. It could be something, but the combat takes waaaay to long and just isn't fun. It feels like a chore. Look at it, delight in the shiny graphics and go play FTL instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know if it's just me but this is kinda like a mobile/cell game. The graphics are meh, the gameplay is meh, it's rinse and repeat gameplay. Really nothing to see. It might be that I just got it wrong when it came to the genre. I would recommend Beyond Sol if you're looking for a game like this with more depth.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, I am so far on the fence about this game. What they got right: * If you have any idea what FTL is about, you won't have any problem figuring the general strategy. Get there from here, risk-reward balancing, final confrontation, random encounters. * Ship modding looks reasonably simple, but still provides certain amount of customization. * Combat mechanics per se are okay, if somewhat demanding. Expect needing to check the battlefield constantly for statuses, changes in enemy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great space and sci-fi fleet game. Plenty of vatying missions, ships and story arks \ quests to take and every game is different from the last. A worth addition to any space gamers library. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Priority-One
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a fun, tactical rogue space fleet combat game with light RPG elements. For $10 it was well worth the 8 hours of enjoyment I got out of it. I like that it is procedural, every "map" isn't the same. You also get to make choices how you progress through a region. The save game feature is limited, but really isn't a deal breaker (and I am normally a save-freak). The most important advice: always buy supplies! This will make everything else easier. I ended up bulding to a 3…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Took me 8.5 hours to go throught all sectors by doing every single thing I could along the way on first try on hardest difficulty Simple game , no depth but still enjoyable , become way too easy when you start to understand how the IA spawn. -Erebus platform need way more hp since it can't handle torpedo at all . and maybe also more firepower . -Stations and bases need some serious firepower , I mean taking a building is easier than stealing candy from a baby . For me taking a base should…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm writing this after the 1.1 patch, so it seems a lot of the existing reviews that comment on issues like difficulty and combat always being the best option in an encounter have been resolved. This is a great game in terms of the novel approach to small tactical combat and I love the fleet upgrade system and the varying roles the different ships play. Definitely worth a play through, I've completed it once and am on my second.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a very, very tentative thumbs up for Distant Star: Revenant Fleet. A 6 or 6.5 out of 10, interesting and enjoyable with serious flaws, worth checking out but not necessarily a genre classic. It's better than FTL, although I have wrapped around to hating FTL so this may be damning DS:RF with faint praise. I don't particularly like roguelikes but heard about DS:RF through the fine people at Extra Credits and was intrigued. Eventually getting an entire fleet and being able to kit out…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Space Real Time Strategy Rogue-lite https://youtu.be/d3tbB2C-8s0 In this game you control a fleet of ships and travel across the galaxy to your homeworld to stop the enemy from blowing it up with a superweapon. Along the way you experience a bunch of random encounters, choices, battles, and earn credits to upgrade your ships or buy new ones. + The gameplay is quite a bit of fun as you dodge enemy fire, and strategize with a host of various abilities and tactics. (I personally liked using the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! ))) - micromanagement is COOL! - you can snipe down any enemy with lancer, you can tank it with dreadnought etc - game is hard, so need to read tips first - BUT when you realize how to play! ))) game become GREAT )) TIPS: - always move - hit and run - retreat if need - buy dreadnought - sell weapons - buy lancer - AND now you have 3 start ships - visit ALL sectors You will have the deadlest fleet ever )))
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Always like Sci-Fi background games. And this game has nice graphic, decent effects, and the control is responsive. Most of all, the developers are listening!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What is there to say about Distant Star: Revenant Fleet? Well when it was released I never gave it any thought and marked it as not interested. Then it appeared on sale and I read reviews and did research on YouTube and decided that, since it was on sale I will give it ‘n chance and purchased it. I started playing and man was I surprised. The gameplay is simple to grasp and the battles are tough. You move through space travelling to different sector in which you have to complete missions. If…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A decent lite-strategy with some rudimentary fleet tactics. Great music and art direction. Worth 10 bucks for a nice diversion.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an awesome game that soars waaaay above most of the other 2D space shooter games. The production quality is high. Art in this game is simply beautiful. Space backgrounds with giant hulks and derelicts that could hold entire star systems bring Homeworld to mind. The music also reminds me of Homeworld soundtrack, sort of tribal, very fitting for the "war of the two peoples" narrative. I wish the soundtrack would be available as DLC to buy. Spaceship upgrades are diverse and fun, no…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice game, good looking and fun! Though it could be better balanced: i had no troubles for the first 80% of the game. Never got a ship disabled, nor did I struggle with any of the combats. Then it got increasingly difficult. First I liked the change, but soon it became rather frustrating. There werent enough repair station to repair all the criticals anymore, I had a strong fleet, though the enemies was always a lot stronger, which culminated in the very last mission on Aon. Up until then I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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