This game tries to be a successor to BARIS, almost making the grade but not quite. Works reasonably well for unmanned programs but fails badly on crewed missions. The good: introduces the character of the flight controller. Great addition, which highlights the efforts of the ground crew to get things right when the kit goes wrong. The bad: crews are actually a hindrance due to how odds are calculated. Crew stats are included in the computation of the odds of failure (as a multiplication) therefore, an uncrewed capsule is more reliable because the odds of a step failure are the odds of hardware failure. If you introduce the crew, the odds of a step failure appear to be the odds of equipment failure multiplied by the odds of crew failure. One could guess the crew are monkeys that touch things at random... The ugly: step failures usually imply mission failure, and possibly insta-death for everyone. The developers should have taken a hint from BARIS and understand that not every situation is the same. Examples that have happened to me are: 1. Sub orbital test, retro failure means immediate mission failure. No matter that the craft would still perform a reentry on its own. 2. Pad step failure, explosion, everybody dies. Can understand that, but a similar case IRL ended up with the launch escape system pulling the capsule out of danger. 3. Crew EVA transfer, failure during EVA. Catastrophic failure and two full crews die. Can't find a way of explaining that one. Maybe they got depressed when their comrade died during the EVA and committed suicide? So, basically, great for unmanned probes, bad for a moonshot.
I know we're supposed to critique the game itself, and the guideline say to "avoid noise" about pricing, etc, but in this case I think it is warranted. This purchase contains the two Orwell games, which I have already rated. My complaint with the different versions is that there are so many to choose that it actually causes confusion. The case is that while looking for highly rated games this showed up, with a 5 star rating. However, this pack actually contains two games that are rated as 3.9 stars. When I started seeing what was all about, I ended up finding so many versions that is was a problem to choose, and the ratings would be misleading. I dislike the sales strategy for this game, as they are rebundling and reselling the same things over and over: two games, and their soundtracks. Instead of making so many combinations, it would be better if they just had some discount when purchasing multiple games or soundtrack bits, like I've seen done with other games. The games are rather unremarkable, see my reviews in Orwell and Orwell: Ignorance is strength for details.
I found this game when looking for highly rated political style games. I saw some comparisons to Floor 13 and I decided to give it a try and I was very disappointed. The game is flawed on many levels, which I'll try to describe below. First, the game asks for your email address, apparently with the intention of registering you to a mailing list. This step is optional, but considering this game is called Orwell for a reason, I find it a bit disturbing. I consider this "game" to have been developed in the wrong medium. This could have worked as a class B book, but as a game it lacks choice. You're just on rails, no choice and no chance of losing (that I know of). The game puts you in the role of some sort of Internet snoop who gets into sites and devices and has to collect snippets of data and make profiles. However, this ends up being a chore, as there is little you can do but to add snippets, and whenever there is choice the game shows that clearly bu marking a "conflict". This conflict mechanism seems artificial: most conflicts are resolved by a judicious selection of information and are really not conflicts at all (just one snippet is not up to date, or it's a minor issue). Worse, the game will sometimes have a conflict with "unknown" data, which makes me wonder how the system knows and why it doesn't just tell me what the unknown data is, The investigation is also bizarre. The system is all-seeing, provided the "all" is just electronic devices and web pages. In real life there would be more reasonable mechanisms, but in this game you cannot even do a public records search. Moreover, the story is kickstarted by an all-seeing camera system, which if you could use, the case would be solve in no time. Worse, the initial suspect is actually someone with a police record but actually unrelated to the case. The feeling it leaves is that the case was solved by luck and grinding. Overall 1 1/2 stars.
I knew I was taking a risk when buying this game, considering that there was no guarantee that it would run on Linux, but the results were far worse than expected. It appears that the game would be great, if it could run. It includes a manual and modding guide in the game directories, which is commendable. The manual describes the game mechanics and what I've read seemed to indicate that it could be very enjoyable, but the damn thing just won't run. I had checked the winehq database, and it seems that earlier version would have probably worked, until they apparently changed something in the graphics engine. Then again, it wasn't supposed to run on my system, so I considered to be my responsibility to put an effort to get it to run. However, the effort ended up in disappointment when I eventually decided to take a virtual machine with a pristine windows 7 in order to run it natively. After successfully installing it, it would still not run. The game launcher works correctly, but when you order it to run the game, it will load for a while and then simply shut down, without displaying anything. At that point I would consider it a fault in the game (error messages and logs exist for a reason). Failing to run in its own native (if virtual) environment is certainly a problem, and failing to report whatever error condition is preventing it from running is worse. So far, I have not found a way of launching the game. I gave my best and failed, but the game did not help either. I'm still holding to it in hopes of eventually getting it to run. Maybe then I'll give it a more deserving rate.
The game is fun and I've enjoyed playing it, but you should not take it seriously. Death is a non-issue, as you can start anew and even inherit something from the dead captain. In a sense, the most entertaining plays have been when I've done something outlandish and ran with it. The premise is to take a ship, fight some monsters or enemies, arrive to other ports and then follow some actions in a choose-your-own-adventure type of interactive novel (with random outcomes, influenced by stats). Although the game is fun, it is not without flaws. The game feels as if someone has taken a ship navigation game engine and bolted the story on top, straight without bothering to integrate it properly. All variables are transparent and visible to the user. They form the basis for what you can do and hold the game state. These conditions are not always clear, because they just show a bunch of variables that mean nothing without some sort of context or documentation. The game does not come with a manual, and although there are free wikis with documentation, they consist of tables of the same variables and how other variables change with each choice. A much better product would have included textual explanations on what is needed to do, instead of just throwing the game variables to you. Overall, it's a fun game. Definitely not worth paying USD 19 for it. I got mine as a freebie, so I can't complain. Get it while on sale, don't pay more than 5 bucks for it.
This game has the same problems as part 1, namely it is a non-interactive story (or barely-interactive). You are on rails and eventually you end up following every update and just putting datachunks at random to advance the plot. One change is that you now have a clock, and actions take time. This does not mean that it is relevant. The advisor (which is really annoying) makes you think that this is the case, but I've missed some deadlines and nothing serious happened. Another change is that you have some input boxes as well. That makes you think a little bit, in the sense that you have to choose a datachunk from a profile to upload. Needed to advance the plot, but you won't lose sleep trying to figure out what to input. As for the rest, just read my review of Orwell while you find something else to play (like Floor 13).
This is a programming game in which you are given a problem and input data and are expected to construct a program using instructions that will solve the problem. The programming is cleverly disguised as instructions that a human instruction follower does. The game starts simply enough and the difficulty ramps up, eventually having to solve known computer science problems. The game can be played with the aim to simply solve the problems and advance the story or trying to reach (or sometimes exceed) certain efficiency criteria set by the game designers. Moreover, the interface is simple enough and well explained so that can be used by anyone and some of the problems are used to explain some of the capabilities that are added as the game progresses. The idea of a "human instruction follower" almost eliminates most of the shock usually associated with computers and mathematics. This makes the game (at least in the initial levels) a great educational tool for explaining how computers and programming work. Definitely one of the best games available in GOG, from the guys that made world of goo.
A very hard game intended only for programmer and engineering minded players. Think before buying, as the game is incredibly hard. On the other hand, it is incredibly satisfying to master as well. Shenzhen IO nominally provides 30 puzzles to be solved (plus an extra campaign of about 10 puzzles). However there is more than meets the eye. Solving the puzzles is hard, and solving the puzzles efficiently is even harder (and there are histograms comparing every submitted solution). Creating the best solutions (and if you like the game, you'll want to) can increase the play time by an order of magnitude. I have been at it for about a year (occasionally firing it up to solve a problem) and I've yet managed to do about 70% of the puzzles with optimal solutions. The game is good both for "casual" play (casual still being incredibly hard, but focusing on advancing the story) and for obsessive "gotta-catch-them-all" style, going for optimal solutions. Besides there is a sandbox mode in which you can simulate any device you want. There have been many wonderful projects done in the sandbox, with videos in Youtube. It's wonder that gives and keeps giving. 4 1/2 stars.
TIS-100 would be one of those games that would merit 4 stars, if it weren't for Shenzhen IO. Both TIS-100 and Shenzhen IO (also by Zach Barth) are assembly language programming games, where you have to solve a given problem with the available resources. These games are not for everyone, but are highly regarded by their intended audience. Don't try them if you're not engineering minded. The only blemish TIS-100 has is that none of the metrics seem to be oriented to parallel programming. This is unusual for a game which simulates a grid architecture, and solutions that would be considered elegant are penalized. The deal breaker is Shenzhen IO. Being a later game it is much more polished, with some improvements in gameplay and story as well. If you're considering choosing between both, or want to try a game in this genre, go get a copy of Shenzhen IO. Get TIS-100 only if you're specifically interested in this game.
