Sector Six is a side-scrolling, sci-fi shooter with a silhouette aesthetic, procedural loot, extensive customization, and story missions.
Players can freely construct their spaceship by adding and arranging a wide variety of modular parts, including weapons, engines, power cores, and specialized modules. The ship's design directly affects its capabilities, as a "tall" configuration with fewer but more powerful parts can perform differently than a "wide" ship with numerous but weaker components. This flexibility allows players to experiment with diverse builds and playstyles to suit their preferences.
As players complete missions and level up, they can unlock new ship parts, upgrade existing components, and acquire powerful special abilities. The game offers a deep skill tree system, giving players many options to customize their ship's capabilities. For example, players can focus on boosting their weapons' damage output, enhancing their ship's defensive capabilities, or optimizing their energy management.
Sector Six features procedurally generated missions, ensuring each playthrough offers a fresh experience with varying enemy placements, environmental hazards, and objectives. Additionally, the game allows players to apply numerous difficulty modifiers, increasing the challenge and rewards. For instance, players can choose to face tougher enemies in exchange for better loot drops, encouraging replayability and catering to players seeking different levels of challenge.
The core gameplay loop is a fast-paced, side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, where players must navigate dense enemy patterns and dodge a barrage of projectiles. The combat feels satisfying, with a variety of weapon types and special abilities to master. Learning enemy attack patterns and finding the right combination of skills and ship parts is essential to success, creating a rewarding cycle of improvement and progression.
Defeating enemies and completing missions rewards players with a variety of randomized loot, including new ship parts, weapons, and other upgrades. This loot system encourages players to experiment with different builds, as they search for the perfect combination of components to create their ultimate spaceship.