Space Beast Terror Fright is a tough-as-nails roguelike first-person shooter that puts you in the combat boots of a space marine a la Aliens, where you’re tasked with extracting data and then blowing up an infested space station. Though simple in its execution, it is the perfect mix of thrilling and frustrating to keep you coming back for more.
Space Beast Terror Fright (SBTF) is one of the truest expressions of the roguelike genre in modern gaming. While that can lead to a good time, it also means that the game gives you almost no information to work with when starting it up. Chances are, you’re going to learn everything the hard way, after being torn apart by aliens a lot.
8 Play With Friends
There’s no way around it, this game is best played with some buddies. There’s just something about getting a squad of friends together to work on a task and keep each other alive that elevates this game from good to great. In general, the more friends you have to play with you (up to four-player co-op), the more fun the game is.
It’s also much more practical, given all the things that can go wrong, all the tasks you have to do and all the directions enemies can come from to have some buddies to watch your six and divvy up the tasks.
7 There Is No Tutorial
This game gives you nothing to start with but some guns, a general goal, and some tips about sentry turrets and power. Everything you learn, you’ll learn the hard way, unless you look for outside guides. That being said, you can do yourself a huge favor and at least look up what the controls are in the menu since they give away a lot of info.
For instance, a lack of a reload button lets you know that your ammo comes from a set pool and that you don’t need to worry about reloading every 26 shots like in most modern shooters. You'll also see there's button to activate a Predators-like Infravision. Though that functionality won't work until you unlock it.
6 Turn Down Your Muzzle Flare
By default, the muzzle flash coming off your weapons whenever you fire them is blindingly, obnoxiously bright. So bright that if you don’t fire in bursts, you’ll likely be blind to the action until you kill all the threats or get killed yourself. While it might be realistic, it’s not very fun.
Luckily, the intensity of the muzzle flash can be controlled in the settings menu. You’ll want to bring that setting down, possibly a lot. Even if you want to keep it high for a more authentic-feeling game, consider turning it down a little anyway, since not being able to see your targets is a gigantic disadvantage.
5 Find The Breakers First
The first thing you should do when you load into a level is to look for the nearest Breaker on the map. Heck, before you load in, look at the map preview (if there is one) in the setup screen and identify the quickest route to a Breaker.
This is mandatory, given that nothing on the station will work without power. Doors have to be manually pushed open and can't be closed. Laser Fences won't work and Sentry Guns won't fire if you don't find and reset the Breaker, not to mention that you can't extract Data Cores with no power. Also, try to keep the locations of Breakers on the ship in mind even after you turn the power on, since they have a tendency to turn off the power after a while.
4 Doors Are Temporary
Doors can seem like safe havens, a short reprieve from the ravenous Space Beasts, until you inevitably have to open them because you have to backtrack for whatever reason. However, that reprieve might be shorter than you think.
Doors in this game are less a safe haven and more like a temporary resource. When you shut a door, and there are aliens behind it, they’ll beat on the door until it breaks. You can see how much more of a beating the door can take by checking on the meter above it. When it depletes, get ready to start blasting.
3 You Can Interact And Shoot At The Same Time
Though it seems counterintuitive, you’re not actually a sitting duck when you need to activate a turret, download a DataCore, deplete the coolant on the ship’s Reactor, or whatever else you need to do.
Sure, you need to be looking at the monitor to activate whatever function it is you’re trying to do, but once it’s started, you’re free to look away and perforate any Xenos coming your way. A caveat is that though you don’t have to keep looking at the screen, you still have to stay right next to it, so you’re a sitting duck at least in that sense.
2 Upgrades Are Applied Automatically
Unlike in most modern games, any upgrades you get are random and applied automatically, with no input from you on the matter. You acquire them whenever you collect a DataCore, and they stick with you until that character dies.
Upgrades you can get are a better motion tracker, Infravision for thermal sight, stronger ammo, and more. You can see these upgrades in the setup screen as icons, in-run at the bottom right of your screen in text, and again as icons at the top of your HUD.
1 Permadeath Brings You Back To Zero
This game is a roguelike and not a roguelite, an important distinction in that unlike games like Hades or Vampire Survivors; there is no meta-progression. SBTF is closer to games like Caves of Qud or even the namesake of all roguelikes and roguelite, Rogue. You keep whatever you can escape with; should you die in your work, that’s it. You have to start over from zero. If you have reinforcements, those are depleted first, but once those are out it's Game Over.
If that’s too intense for you, then GRIND mode might be up your alley. You can keep going after you die, and you even retain your upgrades as you beat levels. However, this is part of a campaign that changes every week and will reset everything, including all your upgrades, when the campaign ends.