The graphics are cool. The music is decent On these strengths, the game itself is a missed opportunity. It plays like the gazillion platformer collect em ups. The problem is that it's too basic. The enjoyment of old school platformers/collect em ups rested with the items/puzzles system they employed and the desire to unlock more of the world through solving these things. Dizzy - any version spanning from the zx spectrum to the nice take of it on the megadrive would be a good example. This game appears to cater to that when you watch the promo vid, but in reality it's not much more than a lot of very basic push button x to open door y on the same screen stuff, some rudimentary combat that has little purpose other than to become annoying, and five or six items that once collected unlock all boarded doors, all key card readers etc to parts of the world you've already passed through, but couldn't unlock the door to on the first pass. This results in it being not much more than the chore of revisiting earlier levels to find the one or two doors you had to pass on previously. Like the gameplay, the story is quite forgettable. A weird mix of a nod to something like the statement of the movie, they live, and a lot of talk about the fact you were going to settle down and have a baby. Maybe worth poicking up on sale for something to do the motions and complete for the sake of it, Short, too easy, not much variety and ultimately not much to do.
Koronis Rift..... As a grizzled old dog and techno scavenger who played through the 80s, this reminds me a lot of Koronis Rift, just with the aspects of that game shifted around a bit. The space combat reminds me of the surface combat of the rift. The ship interior, ship UI and stuff like the nav and planet fall cycle all reminiscent of Rift and Rescue on Fractalus in some way, without it actually being a spin off of either game.. I like it. It's not pushing any boundaries and it's not trying to. The graphics do the job and fit the retro vibe perfectly. As redundant as they might seem now, these are the sort of graphics and interfaces you'd have only dreamed of back when you crawled the surface of some barren 3 fps fractal generated planet surface. They're cool in their way, but probably not for anyone after 120 fps and meta realism. Gameplay is basic but good, with an adequate mix of planning and action. The interface is simple. It does the job and works. As a whole the game can be quite challenging and unforgiving if you mess up. It's a good one to play when you just want to fire up something and chill for a while. Like a quick game of past finder, or the rift - before the world moved on, before you knew what was going to happen before it ever happened, before social media and selfies and in a time when the idea of escaping the planet in a cobra mk3 by the year 2000 was a believable and exciting idea, you'd generally master the art of having a vivid imagination and filling in the blanks to immerse yourself in a game. This reminds me so much of those times and i can fully appreciate it for what it is because of that. Coming from the perspective of said grizzly old dog techno scavenger, i think if you've arrived here from a similar place, you'll likely enjoy this. Given that i just picked it up for less than a mastertronic / mad games cassette would have cost in 198x, i'd say it's well worth the price for a quite enjoyable retro trip to add to your collection.
Chill, addictive and very playable game. I've put in a fair few hours on and off and haven't tried the latest update yet. Based on the first version available here though, and the fact the whole thing is still in dev, i'm really liking it. Good tactical/arcade space combat with awesome CRT monitor era vectror graphics for a cool 'war games - WOPR' kind of vibe. Superb graphic style all round. Everything that there is to like about pixel art and vector graphics. On the flip side to the action - resource management is nicely done. Well balanced and it looks after itself for the most part once set up. it doesn't become tiresome or detract from the quite fast pace of the game. The urgency works. You're not under the lash to the point you're ever panicking, but you don't have much time to squander and eventually you have to try to make everything count. it starts to get quite tricky to keep things rolling once you expand the fleet to a few ships, which as the difficulty gradually rises, becomes a necessity. Awesome ship design and editing aspect. A real treat if you're an old goat like me who remembers things like racing destruction set and bouldersash construction kit. This game totally nails the construction kit part. Loads of lasting appeal because of that. Looking forward to seeing how this game develops and have no doubt it'll be great when it's finsished. The previous (review) that's basically a question and one star?? Well, yeah, it's in space and it involves managing ships and resources. Both games are good, and both games are completely different. This isn't just a low res version of Space haven and it's defiitely not deserving of one star based on a passive and inaccurate observation.
I played this ages ago on an old panasonic toughbook CF19, before expedition was released. I loved it and got quite along way into it. It was about as close as i could hope to get to the likes of fallout 1/2, but with a lot of improvements. Fast forward to more recent times and i've re-installed it on a 51M with the expedition expansion added. I haven't got that far, but in the short time i've been back i've noticed various changes and improvements to the whole thing. The UI has been improved, a fair number of new things have been added that enhance the game, and the whole thing feels somehow more balanced and fluid than those earlier days of playing it. The devs clearly cared about what they were doing with this one, and i look forward to reaching the point where expedition opens up. The graphics and sound are decent for the genre. Once you move past the opening phase of the game and the first few missions that let you get a feel for the whole thing, the world branches out into a massive network of locatons and secrets. It rewards the strategic use of items and weapons in combat, where a seemingly impossible encounter will reveal itself to be quite easily beaten with a bit of thought beyond just trying to pile on the rounds with the biggest gun. Bring on underrail infusion. On the strength of this and the expedition pack i'm about to get to know, i can't wait for infusion to arrive. I'll definitely be be picking it up on release when it does. Props to the devs for puttign in the work on these games. From an old dog like me, it's very much appreciated :) If you love old school isometric in the style of FA1/2, then you'll pretty much guaranteed to enjoy this. Both the main game and the expansion at full price are a steal for the amount of game you get. On sale it's a no brainer to snap them up.
Bought this on cuteness factor without knowing much about it beyond the launch vid on here. I liked the look of it, and having previously enjoyed playing stray, thought i'd probably enjoy another four legged friend adventure. I loved it. Played it through and collected all the bulbs over the space of a few evenings. It's a chill game to work through and a good one for when you're in the mood to relax. With me being an old goat from the 8 bit days, the gameplay mechanics reminded me of the old 2d platformer 'collect em ups' from back in my C64 youth. It's simple in concept, but engaging due to the story being told and wanting to see what happens next, and if you can find all the hidden items along the way. It's clearly aimed at a young audience, and I've no doubt children will love playing it, Like a well written and illustrated story book, it gets everything right in regards to telling a sweet animal friend tale. It's never particularly difficult to solve the quests and progress, but at the same time it never gets dull. Props to the devs and all involved in making this one. A charming game and one i'd hope to see more of in the future. Great stuff :)
A great story with brilliant execution. I didn't know what to expect when i picked this up, but being a fan of most things rpg/story driven i thought i'd give it a try. I'm definitely not disappointed. The art style reminds me in many way of the Amiga demoscene. Lots of slick graphic design that's quite reminiscent of the stuff the black lotus put out. It reminds me in many ways of the old Steve Jackson (citadel of chaos, house of hell) and Jamie Thompson (falcon 1, 2 ,3 & 4) RPG books from the 80s, where you had to make decisions as the story unfolded, turn to the relevant page and either reach the end or die trying - with a bit of dice play and some simple stats thrown in here and there. You let your imagination run wild and lose yourself in the stories of those books, and this game is no different. You want to see what happens and end up doing one more cycle - then another - just to see where it leads and what happens next. It's definitely bleak to begin with. The odds are stacked against you big time, and things so far as i've got haven't got better, although a few glimmers of hope are there to cling to. I'm only a couple of hours in and probably nowhere near the end, but so far i've loved it, both for the game itself and the nostalgia trip of the format. I also click with the numerous references in the game to the nihilistic aspects of big corp dead ender profit at any cost of current times. If you enjoy a good story and a chill game that's well executed and keeps you wanting to see where it's all going then give it a try. It's a simple game to play. It has a deep setting and story. Happy to have picked this up fuill price and supported the devs. They clearly had a passion for what they were doing with this and it shows.
