If you’re after big-budget, Triple-A eye-candy, VAST is not the game you’re looking for. What you will find however, is a certain indefinable quality, a playability that can only come from being made by a small, passionate, independent team. That feeling you get from home-made bread or handcrafted furniture? That’s VAST.

The small, passionate, independent team in question is Astrogun, led by Xander Davis. We interviewed Davis just before Christmas 2017 following VAST’s release, getting not only an inside look at the making of VAST, but a fascinating state-of-play snapshot of Apple TV gaming in general.

“…there’s actually little difference with what you can do on an Apple TV versus a PS4, except for horsepower (and the gap is closing), at this point,” Davis told us. Watch the gameplay video embedded below and you’ll get a good idea of what he’s talking about.

VAST is not recommended for the fourth-generation Apple TV, it’s very choppy and you just won’t get your money’s worth. But fire it up on the fifth-generation Apple TV 4K, and the words can’t believe it’s not butter spring to mind. Again, check out the footage below for the evidence.

With the video clocking in at just over 20 minutes, you’ll notice that episode one – The Star On No Map – is very, very short. The purchase of episode one however will also net you the remaining episodes of The Frozen Star campaign for free as they release, with the team currently beavering away on episode two.

While work continues on the next instalment, Astrogun still found time to squeeze out a big update to episode one recently, with a bunch of visual and gameplay enhancements, and you can read the full patch notes right here.

Again, VAST is not a technical marvel from a purely aesthetic point of view, but its  playability and indefinable groove is what earned this Apple TV exclusive the top spot in our Best Apple TV Games Of 2017 – FPS category.

The video below was produced by Siniscope Gaming (SG), and if you head on over there, you’ll find an excellent, comprehensive review of VAST’s episode one if you prefer words to videos. Also, over on SG’s YouTube channel, you’ll find some other excellent gameplay videos from across the Apple TV platform. (Fans of The Afterpulse rejoice, SG is obsessed with that game. Obsessed.)

At ATVG, we’re convinced that the Apple TV platform is the place to go if you’re looking for a gaming underground packed full of hidden, big-screen console gems, and with recent releases like Dandara, Peregrin, and of course VAST, we’re enjoying shedding a little light down here.

Roll the video: