What Star Vortex is
Star Vortex is a top-down space shooter in the shape of a classic loot-driven Action-RPG. You pilot a fighter ship through hostile alien sectors, taking on small skirmishes, escorting stranded pilots, hitting enemy convoys, walking into warzones, and facing elites and large bosses. Sectors are procedurally generated, so the layout and the run of enemies change each time, though your navigation system plots the course for you. Along the way you pick up experience, level up, and swap in equipment that fits your build. The story hook is straightforward: a new threat appears out of nowhere and starts hitting human forces, and you need to find the gateway keys that let the mothership reach Earth to warn them.
Playing it with friends
You can run the whole thing solo or in online or LAN co-op, and you can enable PvP to fight your friends instead of the aliens. Difficulty settings let the group pick something that suits everyone, and there is a Hardcore Mode for when you want the run to actually sting. Part of the fun as a group is comparing builds: three large upgrade trees, a deep item system with lots of synergies, and a huge weapon pool — lasers, homing missiles, energy pulses, time dilation, drones, cloaking fields, grapple guns, tesla coils and more. How you split attention matters too, since each run lets you decide whether to head straight for the boss, take your time leveling, or detour hunting rare and legendary upgrades.
Designing your ship before you start
The shipyard on the mothership is where you build. You start with a small frigate and grow through fighter, destroyer, cruiser, up to a battleship, which also unlocks more weapon and equipment slots. Every part of the design is yours: colors, appearance, and where slots sit on the hull. Saved designs can be exported and imported, so your group can share hulls back and forth. Bring heat resistance and non-heat weapons against the fiery Junkers, and corrosion resistance against the Outcasts — some systems also carry environmental hazards like heat and corrosion, and the invaders can jump you without warning. Controls are fully customizable across keyboard, keyboard and mouse, controller, and Steam Deck, so sort that out before the first sortie. Note that this is Early Access, so expect it to still be in progress.