HighFleet Critic Reviews

Equally unique and fascinating military fantasy with varied content. But you have to have the patience to get to grips with all that HighFleet has to offer.

Back in the 90’s, a lot of games were made by small teams or even a single person who did what felt right, creating entirely new genres in the process. It’s hard to imagine something like that happening today. But with Highfleet,it did happen: it’s a truly unique blend of arcade, strategy and fleet management.

HighFleet is a good game. It can be challenging, brutally so, and it has some issues with the way it handles things. But you can see the logic behind most of the concerns (that aren’t bugs), so it makes it easier to accept.

Even though a lack of polish and poor accessibility keeps it from greatness, HighFleet is still a gem of an indie strategy game.

Brilliant visuals, great music and unusual user interface will score points with people who like games that have a soul despite being very complex. However, to reach a broader audience, the developers would have to significantly improve the transparency of gameplay mechanics and iron out rough edges.

HighFleet has appealing vision, but breaks down due to opaque systems and lack of difficulty options.

I think this is precisely why I'm so frustrated with HighFleet. There's a brilliant game in here somewhere, but in its present state it's buried under endless frustrations and restrictions that do little but irritate me and cut me off from engaging with it the way I want to. I hate that I don't love it except in infrequent moments of greatness, and that the frustrations keep piling on at the same rate as I find more impressive details about it. It's kitted out for the stars, but just needs another tune-up or two to escape the atmosphere.