The Long Journey Home

great concept, visuals and soundtrack. resource gathering system difficult to balance, (you lose more resources in clumsy attempts to gather resources. Both space and on planet flight is horrible, The premise of the story is piloting a "warp capable" ship but flight options and controls seduced to thrust. and steer left or right. A challenging or difficult game is great to have, but this isnt challenging due to game depth or complexity, its just challenging because controls are clumsy

** Closed Beta Review (I won a beta-key) ** Those bastards put her in a cage and left. They asked and we delivered. I wanted, but could not decide otherwise. Helpless and alone with only a glimpse of hope my crew had landed in a hostile galaxy full of strange aliens. The Meorcl, who literally get in your head forcing your decisions, are only one of many aliens in The Long Journey Home. The game is awesome. I had the opportunity to play it in the closed beta and here is what I think: This game does not focus on a single super awesome mechanic slowly expanding it as you play. It is all about stories. The story of your crew members, of the aliens and yours. It is quite a challenge to keep your shit together and focus on the one long term goal: Getting home. Content At the beginning you choose four crew members out of 10 and every one of them has unique interactions with their colleagues and the artifacts that you can find. The galaxy is generated with a seed you can define at the start and always contains four out of eight major alien races and some smaller alien races. You will find many many quests ranging from small errands to galaxy changing revelations. There is an incredible amount of content. After 50+ hours I had not yet seen all major alien races! Let alone the many quests, alien characters and crew member relations I still have not experienced. It looks beautiful, has its own style, exceptional writing and an amazing soundtrack. Oh and there are tons of cool pop-culture/game references to enjoy! Gameplay I don't want to describe too much of the gameplay here, because watching a let's play or stream for that is far better. Basically there are five layers: The galaxy map (chose your way through the galaxy), the star system navigation (get to and orbit planets with as little fuel as possible), the encounters (fight alien ships in space - kinda sid meiers pirates style), the planets (lunar lander style) and the conversations/visits (dialog system, which is not based on multiple choice) All of them work very well with the theme of the game. Space is a dangerous place. The navigation and landing may seem clunky at first, but they are really not. Once you get the hang of the physics you will soon orbit planets in no time and master most landing missions with minimal damage. Difficulty If you expect an easy play-through, because I said it is about stories, you're very wrong. It is really hard to get home to Earth. Your ship is slowly falling apart (nearly every jump damages a ship module) and your crew will suffer injuries. The developers did a great job to prevent instant death. Instead you will slowly get to the point where you can't continue your journey, and it is always because you made too many mistakes along the way. This may be the core of the game: Fight versus the inevitable. Try again and again to just get one sector, one star system closer to earth with hope to find valuables that bring you even further. The last sector - without spoiling anything – is special. It is a challenge of its own and personally I don't like it. Even though I understand why it is designed that way, it feels somehow disconnected to the rest of the game. At least if you made it to the last sector and then even make it home, that feeling is far more rewarding than just reaching the last gate. Conclusion / tl;dr If you don't enjoy a difficult challenge, can't stand science fiction or only like shooters, then this game is not for you. Otherwise a nail-biting (and funny) experience awaits you in The Long Journey Home. When you finally manage to get home, you will probably want to try again with a different crew, ship or seed to explore even more and unravel all the hidden mysteries. Good luck!

Never have I played a game which so perfectly captures my understanding of the reality of a human crew space mission. Most games want to give you a tough avatar, so your ship can take a pounding, fly anywhere, refuel for nothing and protect you. TLJH spins that on its head by making your spacecraft a precious and fragile resource. The early part of the game is punishing. The game forces you to consider your first few forays as the training the Daedalus' crew would have undoubtedly undertaken. Even down to simple tasks such as lining up the drill head or staying stable on a planet with high winds have to be learned on the hoof. There is a point during TLJH when you feel like an EXPERT. You become adept at judging places worth visiting, which crew member to send, on which issues to spend your precious resources. The Long Journey Home is, in keeping with its name, a marathon rather than a sprint. Brimming beneath this is a universe of surprising personality and content. NPCs offer detailed quests. Ancient and recent ruins litter nearby planets. Brothels, tournaments and obscure games colour your journey. 15 hours in I have seen very little content twice. Despite being a grown-up Thrust clone, The Long Journey Home is beautiful. TLJH surprised me with its light-mottled wreckage drifts, vast planetary horizons and forests of tall crystal. The sound is minimalist, but perfectly captures the bleak loneliness of the journey, interspersed with life-threatening drama. The only sticking point is the price. The simple play style and interface does not seem at first like the sort of game to command $40. The vast alien cultures and depth are hidden away, perhaps unfortunately, behind a text-comms interface. Having played it, I would pay that price. It certainly has the depth to warrant it, but perhaps it will put players off by looking too indie for a full price tag? My advice would be: don't hold back. Don't miss out on one of the years most unique and beautiful titles.

I love SF, so I jumped at the occasion. But in the end, this game lacks meat. The gameplay is basic and, honestly, far too frustrating : fighting the controls is not really the best basis for a game. It'd be a nice game for 10 bucks, but for 40 it's definitely vastly overpriced.