Stellar Docks Blasts Off on Xbox
If you haven’t had your fill of Sokoban-inspired puzzlers yet, then it’s potentially your lucky day because Afil Games have released another in the form of Stellar Docks. It follows their recent trend of launching such games, including SokoRobot, SokoCrab, and Sokomonster. The puzzle concept isn’t the only thing they have in common though, with easy Gamerscore and cheap price tags being a constant theme. Unfortunately, the aforementioned titles are also somewhat lacking in quality and so the bar has been set pretty low for the newest offering.
So let’s find out whether Stellar Docks is an out of this world experience, or just another mediocre launch that’s been churned out.
Space is the Place
Stellar Docks is an interstellar adventure, in the style of a Sokoban game, that’s aiming to satisfy casual gamers as well as seasoned veterans of the puzzle genre. The concept is focused on a little pixelated astronaut tasked with repositioning drones into their charging docks, while venturing through space. Prepare to solve the problems at hand within cosmic environments like the Moon, Mars, and Neptune.
There are forty levels available to test your logic on, with the earlier ones easing you in gently. You’ll have to manoeuvre the unnamed space pilot, via a top-down perspective, around a tile-based grid in order to push the box-shaped drones towards their final destinations. Expect a single drone for you to shift around in the opening gambit, before it adds another for the follow-up level, with the solutions being incredibly straightforward. Soon enough, the tiled grid grows in size and the number of drones increases periodically until you’re faced with reorganising ten at once.
Stellar Docks’ Lack of Innovation and Challenge
Now imagine having to do that while new puzzle elements are also brought into play. And keep imagining it, because despite the game description advertising such additions alongside ‘escalating difficulty’, neither are present. Simply chucking more drone boxes into the mix isn’t innovative, nor does it necessarily ensure a trickier puzzle. Aside from that, nothing new enters the fray and that means the entire adventure relies on the same mechanic throughout.
You might think scaling up to ten drones, and trying plot paths for them all simultaneously, sounds rather daunting though, right? Well, fear not, as from the beginning to the end, I don’t remember any moment where I had to ponder the solution. It’s so simple that even the casual folk are likely to grow bored of what it has to offer and are unlikely to require the use of helpful tools like ‘undo’ and ‘restart’.
Easy Achievements, Bland Visuals
What you can get out of the Stellar Docks experience on Xbox however, is a big chunk of Gamerscore in a short space of time. Delivering drones to their docks and completing the majority of levels will accumulate achievements aplenty. Mindlessly undoing moves and restarting the levels will ensure the rest are mopped up, which ultimately sees you accrue a 2000 Gamerscore boost. Not bad for the minimal effort needed and it’s probably only going to take around half an hour in total.
On the visual front, it’s difficult to praise such simplistic pixel art environments that are trying to resemble the likes of Mars and Neptune to create the sci-fi atmosphere. They’re basic at best, with only the astronaut character having an ounce of charm, but it is what it is. At the end of the day, the presentation matters little when the core concept falters.
A Simple Puzzler with Little to Offer
As you can tell by everything outlined already, Stellar Docks fails to deliver anything close to challenging with its Sokoban setup. Having forty levels is more of a hindrance than a positive when the same mechanic is heavily relied upon for the duration. There are no new ideas, nor anything fresh, introduced along the way and increasing the quantity of drones doesn’t even raise the stakes like it should. Therefore, you’re left with a mind-numbing puzzler that provides zero mental stimulation.
The only real motivation to pick up Stellar Docks is for the Gamerscore, because it is cheap enough to give you a nice boost in return. Otherwise, it’s a waste of your time.
Your Links
Stellar Docks: A Cosmic Sokoban Adventure for Puzzle Enthusiasts – https://www.thexboxhub.com/stellar-docks-a-cosmic-sokoban-adventure-for-puzzle-enthusiasts/
Buy Stellar Docks on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/stellar-docks/9NWQF0J4ZB73
