Thursday, September 25, 2014

Cosmonautica: Thoughts

Cosmonautica is an interesting little game. It's in Early Access, starting just last week - but there's some potential here. Basically, you captain a ship with up to 8 crew members, cruising around the solar system (around 15 planets) trading, fighting pirates, completing missions and whatnot. There's some story to it, but the main campaign isn't available yet, just the prologue.

The ships are modular, with a certain layout and specs, and you have to decide what you want to prioritize. Do you want a smaller, faster ship with more weapon capacity, to fight off pirates, or become a pirate yourself? A fast passenger liner? Or a huge freighter with space for a ton of cargo - and all the amenities to support a huge crew? (There's 4 ships in the game so far, one starter and three others, each fulfilling one of the archetypes I mentioned above. I went with the passenger liner, although I was more focused on cargo than passengers, who are dependent on missions instead of the procedurally-generated prices)

Each crew member has certain skills, and you manage their time spent performing those tasks and free time, to take care of their needs - food, hygiene, exercise, etc. As they level up, they become much better at their tasks, but they also have more needs, requiring more room on your ship to satisfy those needs. It starts out simple - with a pilot, mechanic, and janitor - but relatively quickly ramps up as you add a scientist, maybe a weapons tech or a hacker, and have to balance their needs and tasks.

The trading system seems to work quite well for such a small game. I'm not 100% sure if prices fluctuate, but you can't buy and sell infinite numbers of goods (actually, the good routes are fairly harshly limited, if incredibly lucrative), which is good. The customs/smuggling system also seems pretty neat, although I think it could bear with a bit more fleshing out. I wish it told you the success chance for bribes, and there's only one type of non-mission-specific contraband so far.

One thing that makes Cosmonautica particularly interesting in my opinion, particularly when more content is added, is the research system. You have to unlock the outer areas of the system, where the trade routes are much more lucrative and the pirates much more dangerous (although I don't think the pirates are actually IN the game right now? It's very early access.) The interface promises more things to research later on, as well - new ships, new weapons, new rooms, etc etc. It makes for surprisingly effective progression and pacing, allowing you to putter around in the small starter area before pushing you out to the far reaches of the system.

The basics of the game are pretty simple, but I'm a sucker for trading in games like this so I found it reasonably fun for a couple hours - although very quickly I totally ran out of things to spend money on, and that 2 hours was enough to do basically everything as far as I could tell (well, I didn't mess with combat so I don't know how that works) Again, early access. If you want to take a look, here's the steam store page, where you can get Cosmonautica for just $10, ramping up to $15 when it hits full release in 4 months, according to the steam page. I'm looking forward to seeing them add features over the next weeks and months.

Disclaimer: I got this game for free from a giveaway IndieGamerChick has been doing on twitter, so thanks to her and Chasing Carrots, the developer, for letting me take a look!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Remember Me: Thoughts

Remember Me is the first game I've ever played where my end conclusion was 'this would be better as a movie.'

It's not a bad game, it just doesn't seem ... excited about being a game. It has boss fights, and combos, and chase scenes, and puzzles... and almost all of it feels totally superfluous and unnecessary. The only interesting thing mechanically is the memory remixes, where you dive into someone's mind to change a memory, but they're used more for narrative impact than as a regular gameplay mechanic, mostly consisting of choosing out of a set of variables to get the event you want.

The phrase 'more than the sum of its parts' often applies to games, but in this case I think it's the reverse - Remember Me is less than the sum of its parts. Everything is competent, but very little is unique and in the process it becomes a game without its own identity. The most positive thing I have to say about it is that it is paced rather well. Combat is broken up with exploration, boss fights are few and far between, and the memory remixes never stop being a big deal.

The concept of the game's narrative is stellar, but the only times it comes even close to following through are the opening and the oft-mentioned memory remix sequences. It never feels content to really dive into the ethical dilemmas it presents with the technology of memory manipulation, but instead presents them almost without comment, letting the player draw their own conclusions.

For better or for worse, I think I will remember Remember Me for quite a while. A shame it didn't live up to its premise.

P.S. What are leapers, again? I feel like the only reason they exist is to give you something to fight. Another decision made in service of video game conventions?