Travel back to the year 2000!
Say what you will about the hugely divisive STRAFE, but I thought the game was a total blast. It certainly can be obtuse and definitely isn’t an old-school shooter, but developer Pixel Titan’s take on on first-person Spelunky was a challenging and rewarding experience for players willing to put up with its flaws. Not wishing to rest on their laurels, Pixel Titans have dedicated their time to ironing out all of the kinks and are releasing a free update for STRAFE to address people’s concerns.
Titled STRAFE: Millennium Edition, the update will be bringing a host of changes to the core experience that should bring the game more in line with something like Rogue Legacy instead of Spelunky. Yes, the biggest change will be persistent unlocks for your multiple runs, giving players a tangible goal and hopefully the ability to decrease the difficulty of subsequent runs.
You’ll also have the ability to save your runs if you need to take a break. You’ll only be able to load this save once, but beating a campaign of STRAFE only takes around two hours, so one save isn’t so bad (and doesn’t diminish the roguelike atmosphere that Pixel Titans crafted).
We’re psyched to announce STRAFE®: Millennium Edition! A huge free content update to STRAFE®. Details here: https://t.co/CXipV7QgpC pic.twitter.com/UAIii9GVcI
— STRAFE® (@STRAFEgame) September 20, 2017
Along with those quality of life changes comes improved AI, a few new enemy types, better sound effects (the one indisputable weakness of the main game) and two new game modes. The extra modes mostly sound like modifiers to daily runs, but it still sounds like a total blast. The unlockable mutators are also completely reminiscent of Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, so I’m totally on board for that.
As for when this update will be landing, there isn’t a specific time frame. Pixel Titans mentions on their Kickstarter page that they’re focusing on Steam and GOG before tackling the PS4 version of the game. I’m not sure if that is for the best (I’ve heard some horror stories of the console port), but at least they aren’t forgetting about console players.
STRAFE®: MILLENNIUM EDITION [Kickstarter]