Game review: Full of Stars – fun to play with interactive fiction, but full of annoying pop-up ads

AT Games

3.5/5 stars

“My god, it’s full of stars!” is a classic cinematic line, and one often wrongly attributed to 2001: A Space Odyssey (it was, in fact, in its lesser and unnecessary sequel, 2010). Any sci-fi geek worth their salt knows it, which makes its use in the title of this mobile game all the more compelling.

On the surface, Full of Stars (available for Android and iOS devices) resembles your standard spaceship shooter – Asteroids remade for the modern era. The gameplay is both responsive and challenging – you can blast your way through danger, pull out the hyperdrive to escape or just dodge everything by tapping left and right.

If that was all it had, Full of Stars would still get a decent review, but it’s the flipside that gives the game its edge. An interactive fiction element, where narrative choices are to be made at every turn, gives every decision a real sense of consequence. It could be something as simple as choosing your route, or it could be the life-and-death choice of which crew will survive the journey, but it gives the game a depth rarely seen in mobile releases.