Chris InglisI’ve been playing several survivors-like games lately though most of them feature fantasy castles or gothic dungeons. Second Shift Games has just launched a Starforged Legacy onto Steam early access on June 1, 2026, and the game successfully warps the addictive, wave-clearing loop, straight into deep space.
Instead of a lone warrior running around a flat field, Starforged Legacy puts you in the cockpit of varying starships navigating an overhead 2D space sector. The progression structure utilising a node-based starmap where you chart your course through sectors, engage in dynamic narrative choices, and take on risky secondary objectives.
Once you drop into a combat sector, the classic bullet heaven loop takes over. You handle the piloting and thrusters while your ship’s arsenal automatically unloads on oncoming alien fleets. There are six ships to fly across three classes ranging from nimble frigates to absolute tank-class titanic battleships, each with distinct starter layouts. As you level up, augments are presented where you can increase damage, shields, XP, luck, and weapon synergies. Finding synergies like smart rounds (which ricochet between hulls) combined with nuclear warheads (leaving lingering radioactive clouds) can turn your ship into a screen-melting fleet wiper.
While Starforged Legacy is in early access, the developers have been incredibly active since launch. Initial complaints regarding in-game stuttering and frame drops during massive fleet spawns have already been addressed in recent patches. Moving the shader compilation right to the first launch and optimising late-game enemy spawning has been a fantastic improvement for the early game experience.
After each run you will spend currency and other items to unlock segments of the skill tree, ready for your next battle where you may change ships or locations you have unlocked. The mechanics are solid, the pricing is highly accessible at AUD11.79, and the developer’s public roadmap hints at an expansion of environmental hazards, sector modifiers, and pool curation features to filter out upgrades that don’t fit your build style.
Overall, Starforged Legacy brilliantly adds a change a scenery to the bullet heaven genre that will suit space combat enthusiasts. If you love deep synergy building, massive explosions, and roguelite meta-progression, it’s easily worth the asking price even in its current early access state. There is quite an exciting roadmap ahead on the game’s Steam page so I will definitely be checking back in on this one.
This review utilised a key provided by Second Shift Games and Starforged Legacy is out now on Steam early access.
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