Starcom Nexus reminds me of the games I used to play when I was a kid like Space Ranger and Privateer. The writing is very good and the premise is interesting. On the surface it is a space shooter with some mining and trading thrown in, but at it's heart it's a good old adventure and exploration game. You fly around space, scanning planets and anomalies, befriending or fighting alien races all while trying to piece together why you and your crew find yourselves in an alien, unknown part of space. When you scan planets you often get the chance to investigate further and you are sometimes faced with decisions that will decide your journey forward. These segments are presented as small text adventures and are varied and well written. If you are interested in these kinds of games, similar newer games I've played are Deathwar Redux 3030 and Starpoint Gemini 2. All of these games have several things in common. Among which is the ability to explore a vast slice of space and putting story above all else. They install a sense of adventure that I find compelling and that often are lost in newer AAA titles. Games like these are what GOG is all about.
I wanted to leave a review on this one because it's a bit of a strange and unique game. I intended to give it three stars, but because of the graphics and atmosphere I think it deserves four. To start with the bad; this game can maybe come across as a little bit boring, but I think it adds to the atmosphere of the game. Your main character, Tannenhaus, is not an action hero and so the style of the game fits the character. The puzzles: The game does not give you a lot of information about how to solve puzzles. In most of these kind of games, when you click on an item you get some sort of information or maybe even a hint about what you need to do with it. This is almost completely lacking in this game. In one of the puzzles you have to figure out how to fix a thing without even knowing what's wrong with it. I guess this could have gone in the OK category as otherwise they are fine. The OK: Voice acting and music is pretty good. Some of the dialogues come across as a little bland, but again it fits with the mood of the game. The story could have been really good I feel, but it is almost as though they had to cut a lot of it out. Some of the voiced lines seem to hint that some things have happened or should have happened that we have not experienced. I think maybe the studio ran out of time or money and had to cut some of the intended content, but thats just me speculating. The Good: The scenery and the graphics is georgeous. The only thing I could put my finger on is the cutscenes that seem to be rendered at lower resolution. (I played at 4K) The handmade modeled scenery fits really well with these types of games and are a lot of the reason I went from 3 stars to 4. I hope the studio makes more of these types of games. The controls are also good. Responsive and easy to use. You can not interact with your inventory, which could have been a minus, but all in all i think it works well. Overall worth the 6'ish hours I spent playing it although maybe get it at a sale.
