Redshirt

I purchased via steam before I found out GOG has it. Unlike some of the reviewers - who I don't think purchased/or played the game - I can tell you my first impressions: It doesn't have to be a "BIG" game - for it to be fun. That is proven time and again by the old games that are still fun on this site. Secondly - a lot of work clearly went into it. Its worth the cost. At first - I focused on getting as far as I could in my job - but I found myself becoming increasingly unhappy as the game is about balancing your work with your friends. I think you could play it "Your way" and try to advance quickly or stay in the same old job and just build meaningful relationships with people. There are a lot of choices in this game - and I highly suggest it. Very addictive.

This is the first and -up to now- only game I regret having bought on GOG. Poor game mechanics, messy interface, unclear goals and repetitive events make the experience less than fun. The parody quotes and the star trek references last for a while, but become boring as soon as repetition kicks in. Graphics are pretty decent, but limited to characters and icons.

First impression of the game is a bit confusing with lots of text and buttons. UI could be better. The most annoying UI clunkyness is my attempts at buttering up my boss for a career promotion, but not actually remembering said bosses name. And the menuclickfest this causes. After a while, 3 hours play, I can safely say the game has a lot of complexity which is not immediately obvious. There seems to be a relatively complex social simulation running in the background. And random events to mess things up. (ie make things interesting) I'll play through the game at least once, even if I find it a bit tedious. I'll get to that point in the summary. Reason is i get the feeling there is something more to the simulation and gameplay I'm not seeing yet. Which keeps me coming back to this one for a while atleast. Summary: The game is abit like the oldie "Jones in the fastlane" with a the addition of a ingame facebook called spacebook. Even it this is satire both of social media in general, Startrek and whatnot, as the player you probably won't like this game if you find facebook or other social sites tedious.

For some unknown reason this game is presented as being wacky zany hilarious madcap off-the-wall satirical commentary on both sci-fi and social networking. It is neither. It must be assumed the makers of this game had their sense of humour bred out of them many generations ago. They must also be very lazy and very cheap. There is NO ANIMATION and the graphics appear to have been generated from stock images on a free 'toon app. Likewise the endlessly looped theme music sounds like it came from the pre-set samples on a cheap synth and/or sequencer - but nevermind, at least you can mute that. We must imagine the "developers" of this game sitting around a big desk in their luxuriously appointed airconditioned offices somewhere in Los Angeles snorting Mexican marching powder up their noses, "brain-storming" all day and night and coming up with this "brilliant concept", passing it on to the "concept development" people, followed by a similar "snort and brain-storm" session until finally this mind-fart of a game is squeezed out and they all sit around in a substance induced delusion congratulating one another. So what is this product actually about? Become a space cadet - a Redshirt. Climb the career ladder, friend, flirt and party with other crew members on delapadated spacestation Megladon 9 - oh, the spacestation is in need of maintenance, that must be the humour part. All activities, personal interactions and other chores are carried out via a simulated social network. Eat, sleep, work. Go on away missions - beware, there is no actual adventure element here, you merely "beam down" Star Trek style and casualties are tallied up, if you're not killed you return to Megladon 9 and continue the cycle - eat, sleep, work. And that's about it in this graphically static adventure set in deep space. RATING: A very generous 22%