Indie Games Title
Price: 80MSP
Singleplayer: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Co-op: No.

In my eyes there are never enough space strategy games, and so it was with interest that I played Cepinas, a game that challenges you with conquering planets – by using the CONQ weapon – while stopping the enemy doing the same.

At its heart Cepinas is a simply, yet interesting concept; you pilot a star-ship in a top-down 2d view against enemy ships and must capture planets to win the game, all the while shooting an enemies and avoiding asteroids and anything else determined to turn you into floating debris.

To capture a planet you must hold down LT to use the CONQ weapon and they fly a single orbit around the planet while staying inside the white line. As simple as this sounds it actually isn’t, mostly due to twitch controls which will see you hurtling into the planet at the slightest movement. It’s pretty frustrating and takes a while to get the hang of, and even then it will sometimes jerk toward the planet for little reason.

If conquering the planet isn’t your thing you could just grab enough and them harass your unsuspecting foe by blowing them up. A lot. Once again this is hampered  by the twitchy controls.  It doesn’t help that actually spotting enemy fire is pretty tricky as it often looks like stars in the background.

In between rounds you can spend hard-earned cash – gained by capturing those poor planets – to get some ship upgrades or add orbiting satellites to your planets to help defend against the enemy. Sadly your precious satellites can get wiped out by asteroids and often have a habit of firing at you as well. Errr.

For your money you do get a fair chunk of game though; there’s a solid singleplayer to get you along and mutliplayer to enjoy with friends which is where the game does shine a little more as lag was almost non-existent and crashing into planets became incredibly funny when your mate is doing it to.

Cepinas is a decent first attempt, and quite an interesting concept, but the controls need worked on and combat needs some tweaking. However, for 80 points you’ll get some fun online with a friend.

2.5/5