First, this game is great. I liked the story and how atypical it was from the usual adventure genre fare. That said, I must say I was really disappointed in the ending. Without revealing any spoilers, I can simply say it left me feeling like all that was for not, and that the plot misled me only to let me down. I didn't feel like I got what I wanted from the plot. In retrospect, it did make sense for April, but I tend to connect with main characters. These are not the happiest or lightest of games in the genre. If you are looking for a happy ending or sense of great accomplishment, I would not recommend this or Dreamfall. If, however, you are prepared to be blown away by a great story that leaves you asking, "What? Why?" then these two games are well worth playing. The puzzles are not extremely challenging, but imo, many modern adventure games have puzzles that are far too challenging -- so it was nice. (I usually have to follow along with walkthroughs during the second half of adventure games [I play them for the plot]). For me, I just finished both TLJ and Dreamfall back to back and I now wait to see if Dreamfall Chapters makes these worlds less bleak -- and maybe end in a better place... but I won't count on it. The author seems pretty masterful at making everything seem utterly pointless. And that's probably the feeling he wanted to convey. In that way, these games and their stories are genius.
I give Space Colony 3.5 stars out of 5. As you will discover, it's got some big problems, but not until near the completion of the game. Space Colony is set up in two paths: One path for easier, tourist-based facilities; and one path for the more challenging defense- and production-based facilities. I mostly enjoyed both paths, but the tourist path was a little too easy, and the alien path was a little too hard. The game-play was mostly good, and I did not feel like I was just trying to choke it down so that I could complete it and put it away... At least, not until the end. It was normal to get wrapped up in this game for hours. I enjoyed the micro-managing and I thought it was interesting that there were parts of the game where you needed to think and plan far ahead. Aside from losing time to failing such missions, I enjoyed starting over and tweaking my strategy. Sometimes changing a strategy in a very small way was the tipping point between success and failure -- And that made this game memorable. The crew could have used a little work. Their AI was lacking, and their conversations and comments were repetitive and eventually annoying. But I've seen much worse. The graphics for the ORIGINAL game weren't anything special. Run-of-the-mill type stuff. Space Colony has a rather heavy list of game-play demands. In every mission, you have to build the colony, train your crew, keep them entertained and fed, make sure they sleep and work, make sure they are socializing and getting along; keep them and the station sanitary, cure them of infections, the list goes on. Sometimes they required in-game therapy. Each crew member is different in what skills they have, what their needs are and what they like or dislike. They also had specific crew that they would get along with or not. It usually felt like a big waste of funds to get an entertainment item that only one of the crew would use and like -- but this game is so ENTIRELY dependent on the crew working at their full potential, it was sometimes necessary to waste funds on a single crew member. You also have alien attacks, defense, repairs, mining, harvesting, exploring, tourists and whatever level goals Blackwater Industries gives you. You will need to find food and harvest it, find ore and mine it, process ore into goods, keep the station's utilities running, perform trade, build build build, etc. In Space Colony, there are only a few crew members that you control, which is good - considering how much maintenance they require. The biggest problem I had with this game was the AI-dead crew that couldn't take care of themselves if their little AI lives depended on it. Real simple stuff too, like talking to other crew members during their off-hours, or picking up their paycheck. Near the end of the game, maintaining the crew was nearly impossible. To make matters worse, if your crew isn't doing well, they work less to none at all -- working less and less based on how bad they were doing - Which adds a lot of challenge, since getting them what they need often requires funds, time, and additional space. If they aren't working, there's not enough funds coming in and it just spirals downward from there. All of this was a fine-tuned juggling act. BUT, none of this will be a serious problem until later on in the game. These challenges mostly add to the game, up until closer to the end. Another few quirks to be aware of: 1. If you fail a mission, you start over from the beginning of that mission. You can lose a great deal of time this way, since setting up can take a while. 2. When you start a mission, you usually start with a basic structure, so you will be having to build up a new colony every mission. 3. As if the last parts of Space Colony weren't hard enough, they add diseases to the mix. Diseases are a real menace in this game. Highly infectious, nearly impossible to stamp out, and it is just as difficult (and expensive) to continually cure your crew. Overall, I rate this game at 3 1/2 out of 5. +5 stars for 3/4 of the game-play, -1 star for 1/4 of the game-play, -1/2 star for lack of replay value (see the -1 star ;P )
