Dwarf Star: 16 bit inspired game where mercenary go shoot shoot on evil alien guys who were accidentally fabricated by the government. Top down space shooter with a mission based structure. However, you can do these missions in plenty of different orders with different amounts of upgrades.
Dwarf Star is a 2d top-down space shooter game in the style of games published in the early 90s.
You play as a mercenary in the midst of the war between the Galactic Union and the genetically engineered Proximas. Your job in the game is to complete missions, which allows you to gain mission points, which lets you unlock more mission tiers, which contain more missions to complete. You can also skip mission tiers. Most missions involve shooting down enemy ships from the Proximas, but it can often range from racing outlaws to exploring pristine lake planets for missing ships.