A Quiet Contender In A Wild Month For Games
November has been packed with big game releases. Major titles keep grabbing headlines and live service hits continue to dominate conversation. But tucked away behind all that noise is a smaller game that has completely taken over one player’s month.
The game is called Sektori. It is a twin stick shooter made by former Housemarque developer Kimmo Lahtinen, and the easiest way to describe it is this: imagine Geometry Wars mixed with roguelike upgrades and a hint of Vampire Survivors style build crafting. On paper it sounds familiar. In practice it is ridiculously hard to put down.
The writer of the original article planned to dabble in Sektori on holiday alongside a bunch of other games. Instead they spent about 40 hours playing just this one and still have not beaten it. That should give you an idea of how sticky this little neon nightmare can be.
How Sektori Plays And Why It Feels So Good
Sektori puts you in control of an arrow shaped ship trapped in a constantly changing arena. You move with one stick, aim with the other and try not to get shredded by angry geometric shapes. Think top down arcade chaos with a modern twist.
Different enemy shapes have their own behaviour patterns:
- Pink hollow cubes roll around in seemingly random paths
- Blue plus signs hunt you relentlessly and lock onto your position
- Yellow razor blades creep in only when you are not looking at them
You have two main ways to fight back. You can shoot them with your blaster, or you can perform a strike with your ship. The strike sends out a shockwave that destroys nearby enemies and becomes a key part of higher level play, especially once you start chaining it.
Visually Sektori goes way beyond simple shapes on a dark grid. The screen quickly turns into a fireworks show of bright colours and clean effects, all synced with a pounding electronic soundtrack. Even the menu music feels like a club track, pushing you into that arcade tunnel vision before the first enemy even spawns.
This is not just a chill light show though. Sektori is merciless. You start with a shield that can only absorb three hits. After that any mistake is instant death. Enemy counts ramp up fast and the arena itself keeps morphing. Get caught outside the safe area when the stage shifts form and your run ends on the spot.
Surviving for more than a minute is a real achievement early on. The turning point comes when you finally understand the game’s layered upgrade systems.
Upgrades, Evolves And That One Brutal Boss Wall
Every enemy you destroy drops small triangles. Collect enough of these and they transform into blue upgrade tokens that appear somewhere in the arena. Grabbing one lets you spend it right away or bank it for better rewards later.
You can use these tokens to buy core stat upgrades such as:
- Movement speed for zipping through tight gaps
- Increased strike damage so your shockwave hits harder
- Missiles that auto target enemies and clear breathing room
- More shots in your blaster for better sustained fire
The twist is that upgrades unlock in a cycle. You can only grab a specific upgrade when you have exactly the right number of tokens. If you go one over, you have to wait for the cycle to come back around. That means you are not just dodging bullets and grabbing loot, you are constantly tracking how many tokens you have and what you want next.
Then there are the yellow Evolve tokens that spawn at random. Picking one lets you choose from three upgrade cards drawn from different decks. These are bigger game changing perks, including:
- Drone satellites circling your ship that add constant damage
- A Megablast screen nuke that wipes out every enemy at once
- Other deck based bonuses that layer on top of your core build
You can access up to eight card decks during a run, and more unlock over time. Once you learn how these systems mesh together, the whole game opens up. Early terror turns into power fantasy as you chew through stages and melt entire waves before they even reach you.
Players quickly develop their own upgrade habits. The tutorial suggests grabbing speed first, but the article’s author prefers saving for missile upgrades early. That choice makes it easier to carve safe paths through enemies and vacuum up more triangles to fuel the next set of upgrades. Little tricks also emerge, like using your strike in combination with tokens or bounce pads to instantly reload your strike and chain multiple shockwaves in a row. It feels very slick when you pull it off.
Sektori keeps things spectacular as you progress. Collecting letters that spell MIRAGE triggers Rainbow Mode, a short window where the entire screen erupts in wild colour and you are almost invincible. Bosses add another layer of spectacle too. Expect huge screen filling threats such as:
- A massive snake that slithers around dropping exploding mines
- A towering enemy that spits projectiles and tilts the whole arena when it appears
These boss fights are where Sektori’s one real flaw shows up. The first boss in a run often feels a bit too hard compared to everything that comes before and even some of what comes after. Because the boss you get is random, you can sometimes run into something that is simply too much for your current power level. Once the writer made it past that first wall they usually reached the final encounter, so a slight balance tweak here would make the progression feel smoother.
Outside of that spike though the praise is almost universal. Sektori is not just a time waster, it is what the author calls a time expander. So much happens so quickly that ten minutes can feel like an hour long session in the best way. Runs are short but intense, perfect for quick sessions on something like a Steam Deck. It has already become a permanent part of their portable gaming rotation.
If you enjoy arcade score chasing, twin stick shooters, or the upgrade craziness of modern roguelikes, Sektori is absolutely worth watching. It might not be the loudest release of the month, but it is quietly becoming one of the standout indie experiences of the year.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-roguelike-take-on-geometry-wars-is-the-best-game-ive-played-this-month-and-the-latest-to-become-a-permanent-fixture-on-my-steam-deck/
