Halcyon Reach

A mining colony clings to the outer ring of Halcyon, a storm-banded gas giant that fills half the sky. Raiders are hitting its rigs, its ore ships and the station itself, and you fly its fighters.

Launch from the station's bay with no loading screen, swing out through the ring's boulders and fight in short, cinematic sorties you can finish on a bus. Everything you see and hear is made in code as the game loads: the planet and its rings, the stars and the nebula, the asteroid field, every ship and the station, the explosions, the sound, the radio voices and the music. There are no image or sound files at all, and the game never goes online once it has loaded.

THE CAMPAIGN

Seven sorties in three acts: a first flight out of the bay, a patrol through the ring, escorting an ore dredger through a bombing run, a raider gunship, a last stand at the station, the assault on the Maul (a 900 m carrier: drop its shields, silence its hangar, break its core) and a duel with the raiders' best pilot. Medals for every sortie on your score: kills, objectives, speed, hull left and accuracy.

MORE TO FLY

- Ring run: a time trial through sixteen gates threaded between the boulders.

- Last stand: endless waves on Halcyon Station, with bombers going for the hull.

- Free flight: no objective, just the ring and some practice drones.

- Hangar: three fighters (the balanced Kite, the fast Wren and the heavy Bulwark) and eight liveries.

HOW IT FLIES

- Flight assist: the ship flies where its nose points, at the throttle's speed. Steer with the mouse: the nose follows the cursor.

- Boost for a burst of speed. Hold drift and the engines cut: you keep sliding while the nose swings free, the way to spin round on the raider behind you.

- Shoot at the diamond ahead of the target (the lead marker), not at the target. Hold a target in the ring until it locks, then send a missile.

- Shields soak up hits and recharge after a quiet moment; the hull does not. Torpedoes can be shot down before they reach what you are guarding.

- Wingmates fly with you, the station talks you through every sortie, and the raiders talk back.

CONTROLS

Mouse and keyboard: the mouse or the arrow keys steer, left click or Space fires, right click or F fires a missile, W / S throttle, Q / E roll, A / D slide sideways, Shift boost, X drift, Tab next target, C camera, Esc pause, M mute. Keyboard only works too: arrows to steer, Space to fire.

Gamepad: left stick steers, right stick slides and sets the throttle, LB / RB roll, RT fires, LT fires a missile, A boost, B drift, Y next target, View camera.

Phone and tablet: drag on the left half to steer; FIRE (or auto-fire), MISSILE, BOOST and DRIFT on the right; swipe sideways on the right half to roll out of the way. Play in landscape.

COMFORT AND ACCESS

Auto-levelling so "up" always means something, aim assist and auto-fire (on by default on touch screens), invert Y, mouse sensitivity, separate music, effects and voice volumes, radio subtitles, three text sizes, a high-contrast display, Reduce motion, and full keyboard and gamepad menus.