ASA: A Space Adventure - Remastered Edition

I first played ASA: A Space Adventure a while ago - it wasn't remastered back then, nor was it sold on Steam (if memory serves, I bought it from the developer's website). Despite having played it already, I was greatly looking forward to the Steam release - hopefully it can help this wonderful game get some more exposure. ASA is a broadly "Myst-like" (i.e. first person puzzle-heavy) sci-fi adventure game. If you're a fan of exploration and puzzle solving (studying notes to decipher passwords, exploring the world's nooks and crannies, discovering mysterious contraptions and figuring out their purpose, etc.), then you're bound to love ASA. The puzzles are particularly great, being both challenging [i]and[/i] logical - a rare feat for any adventure game. I'm a big fan of Myst-likes, and having played a whole lot of them, from the Myst series itself to Zork: Grand Inquisitor or the more obscure ones like Schizm or Obsidian, I can safely say that ASA's puzzles and atmosphere are among the best in this subgenre.

ASA: A Space Adventure - Remastered Edition captured me from the very beginning. I launched the game for the very first time and was treated to perhaps the [i]only[/i] menu screen to leave an impression on me. I've included a link at the end of this review of a video of the menu screen. Now I'm sure everyone is wondering what is so significant about a simple menu screen, and I will confess that the menu screen alone doesn't amount to much in any game. However it was what the menu screen represented that was important. Here you have a space adventure game, essentially Myst meets 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the first thing I see upon launching it up is a cinematic reel with short scenes that feel like they could be from a movie like 2001: A Space Odyssey and a chilling song to enhance the effect. Before I have even hit the play button I'm already asking questions about what's going on and the air of mystery and wonder has already been created. So the question remains, does everything after hitting Play stand up to this menu screen I'm raving about? In short, in my humble opinion, yes, it absolutely does. ASA: A Space Adventure is in fact very similar to Myst, a slightly modernized version but still very true to the Myst style. A mysterious black cube appears nearby your spacecraft and lures you out, the next thing you know you're on-board a mysterious ship named 'The Ark'. From then on out, you are left to sift through diary entries left by one Philippe Forte and other clues to try and piece together what has happened on the Ark. What ensues is a well paced science fiction adventure that hits all the right notes and maintains a good balance of feeding you parts of the story while maintaining an air of mystique. I was particularly impressed with the puzzles in this game. If you played many modern point and click style puzzle games you've no doubt come across a few puzzles whose solutions just seem inane. While some of ASA's puzzles tripped me up for awhile, at no point did I find any of the solutions dissatisfying, and in fact I enjoyed the problem solving process very much in this game. For many puzzles, figuring out the solution requires walking around and finding clues and taking notes. I have about seven or eight pages of notes, diagrams, and solutions that I had to write out, I even used a piece of graphing paper for one puzzle. The fact that I had to take notes alone was very satisfying. The story in the game is just as impressive as the puzzling is. I found that throughout the game there is always a feeling of mystery and wonder, there are always questions, even at the conclusion of the game (there is a sequel in the works as of this writing called Catyph). Alien worlds, alien races, a gigantic mysterious ship...it is most definitely a full fledged science fiction setting. I have mentioned 2001: A Space Odyssey before, drawing similarities to the mystery and oddity of it all, but I also got Interstellar and Stargate vibes as well from the story. Regardless of influences or similarities though, I definitely found the story was well told and was fused together with the puzzles very nicely. There is, unfortunately, very few games like Myst in today's market, which I find a shame as it's the perfect medium for telling mysterious science fiction stories via a puzzle game. This game is superbly executed and remarkably imaginative, and it's a shame that it's such a hidden gem since it deserves so much more attention and consideration than it currently receives. Anyone at all interested in Myst-esque games [i]or[/i] science fiction adventures should not hesitate to give ASA: A Space Adventure a shot, it's a pleasant and interesting experience that is well worth your time. Main menu: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=617980322

I previously played ASA when it originally launched on Desura. The game features a slideshow style presentation similar to games such as Myst in which you move forward image-by-image rather than free movement as in a shooter. Although this might seem like a turnoff to many players this method of presentation is really one of ASA’s strengths. It allowed the developer to create very photo-realistic surroundings for you to explore and ensure you see all the sites from the best angles. The result is a game that makes the world feel more real as though you could walk into it and well realized enough that you would want to. Like games such as Myst, ASA aims to challenge you with difficult but logical puzzles that you may need to write out to help figure out the solutions. The puzzles feel very natural to the environment and although you may struggle to figure them out are very rewarding. The story for ASA is one that I found very engaging. During the game, you will find journals left behind by a previous explorer. You will explore the adventures of the previous individual through these journals while also making your own and learning a little of the history of a rather fantastic place that you will get to explore.

J'y suis allée à reculons car même si j'ai aimé la série des "myst", c'est pas non plus ce que je préfère. Et finalement, j'ai bien fait de persévérer avec mon papier et mon stylo et j'ai hâte de découvrir la suite avec "Catyph". J'en reviens pas qu'un type tout seul a été capable de pondre un tel jeu. BRAVO Pour ceux qui auraient des retours bureaux, mon conseil est de mettre le jeu en comptabilité W8. Ca règle le problème.

[h1]TL;DR: Problems with interface and puzzles keep this from being recommended[/h1] Maybe spend a buck or two on it if you really like the genre (but there are other short game that you can get for the same cost that are less annoying). I got this cause I saw Catyph released, and was curious about this earlier game (ASA) before I tried Catyph. Pros and Cons: + Science Fiction point-and-click with a somewhat interesting story + Some of the puzzles in the later parts of the game are nice (but getting there is a problem, see below) +/- Myst/Rhem-like movement, where you click on an arrow at the edge of the screen to turn or move. Suffers from the "Railroading" problems of similar games (i.e. "Why can't I move *there*?") and the panning is non-intuitive. +/- One music puzzle about halfway in (I had already turned off the sound by then because of the dismal voice acting) - Game window showed up as tiny area at top of screen regardless of my resolution, I had to use the Windows magnifier to play the game. - Voice acting sounded bored [EDIT: I've assumed the voice-over is the protagonist's voice, but could it be the AI in your space suit? It's not clear at all. If so, then I might excuse this as an artistic choice, but it should be made clear] - Inventory tab that mysteriously disappears (click the right mouse button to recover, had to search online for this) - Trouble implementing puzzle solutions with the interface (mild spoilers ahead) [spoiler]There's a puzzle with wires that you have to arrange correctly. I figured out the solution, but I couldn't figure out how to move the wires so they were in the right location. Frustrated, I re-checked my solution, and tried again several times. Finally got past the puzzle probably due to random chance. Checked an on-line walkthrough and I had the right solution in the first place. There's a puzzle with decimal coordinates on a grid. The grid is divided by several major lines, and 4 minor divisions between each of them. One would think that the divisions would go, for example, 0.0 then 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0. But they actually go from 0.0 to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and then 1.0. There's nothing in the puzzle that implies this, the number system isn't base-5 or anything unusual. Again, the puzzle was easy, but inputting the correct solution was annoying. Some of the other puzzles are sufficiently obtuse that even with the walkthrough, I had no idea what the objective was (i.e. the 2 rows of 6 buttons). Too bad, since there are a few good puzzles towards the end.[/spoiler]

You're alone, outside of a space station. You should probably do some maintenance operation but in the beauty of the space, a black cube draws your attention. It's not so far. And it's fascinating. You could probably reach it. Forgetting the sens of reason, you launch yourself in its direction. You cut your security cable. You're slowly approaching it. Your space suit alerts you that you're going out of oxygen but it doesn't matter. You don't even hear it. You hold the cube in your hands. Is it the end? You open your eyes in a white corridor. An aperture lets you see the space, more beautiful than ever. But the architecture of this place doesn't look like anything you know. Where are you, and why? That's what you have to discover.

This is my 3rd Black Cube game and I love spending time in Simon Mesnard's world. His attention to detail in terms of the alien language, numbering system, technology, etc. pulled me in from the very beginning. He is also a master at creating (very) challenging puzzles which will make you stretch intellectually. Thus, you feel a sense of real accomplishment when you solve them. ASA is an early game with an interface that makes navigation puzzling at times. However, once you get used to it, you will be zipping around the ARK and the planets without thinking twice. The art and music are beautifully done and I enjoyed the voice acting. Using a dairy and various artifacts, the game tells a full story of the astronaut who preceded you. This is not a game for everyone. You need to be a problem solver who is patient and willing to use a pen and paper extensively. It is likely that you will need to peek at the walk-through at least a couple of times while playing this game. Not for full solutions, but to get additional details on how to solve some of the puzzles. I did not see this as a failure on my part... just part of the playing the game. If you enjoy immersing yourself in another world and taking time to savor the process of discovery and working through the various challenges, then I highly recommend this game (as well as others in the Black Cube series: Myha Return to the Lost Island and Boinihi: The K'i Codex)

I just finished playing this game, unfortunately the story line didn't hold my attention (about 2/3 of the way through I just wanted it to end). The navigation was really bad, which very much hurt the enjoyment of the game, and the puzzles ranged from clear and reasonably difficult to totaly obtuse and not at all clear to understand or figure out. I really would not recommend this to others.

[h1]tl;dr[/h1] Don't bother. 4/10 [h1]Ps & Cs[/h1] + Decent Myst-like + A few interesting puzzles - Literally the worst computer simulation I've ever used - Some clues really lay it on thick while others are completely incomprehensible - Disinterested voice acting [h1]Nitty Gritty[/h1] Game starts out strong and does a decent job being a Myst-like. Then about an hour in you come across a computer you need to log into. Once logged in, you're forced to deal with the worst computer simulation I've ever seen. It was like Satan himself had to design a frustration device. You look up what to do because you don't hate yourself enough to deal with that only to find yourself figuring out a music note puzzle (with one portion hidden just to screw you more) and it's time to just call it a loss. [h1]Scores[/h1] Before the computer: 7/10 The computer: 0/10 The music puzzle: 2/10 Quitting: 10/10 Average Score: 4/10

A Myst-like game in an omnipresent 2001 a space odyssey atmosphere. This review is about the RE version. I am surprised that this game has so few reviews with many negative ones. Except for the voice acting, I found that it was quite an impressive and enjoyable puzzle game. The story was pretty interesting and directly inspired from 2001. You are an astronaut. While working outside your space station, you see an enigmatic black cube floating close by. Intrigued, you leave the safety of your station, trying desperately to catch it. Finally reaching it, you find yourself low on oxygen, unable to go back to your station. You lose consciousness, and wake up on a mysterious alien spaceship, named the ark by a previously rescued astronaut. Having no idea where you are, you start following the notes he left everywhere, trying to uncover the secrets of this spaceship, and maybe find a way to go back home. To advance in the game, you have to solve a wide variety of puzzles (not one puzzle is the same). For this, you will need to read everything you find, and pay careful attention to your whole surrounding. Like Myst, Rhem games and the like, you will have to take notes. I never took so many screenshots in a game. Clues are just everywhere and can be anything. I had a lot of fun solving the puzzles. Puzzles complexity is diverse and ranges from easy to impossible (for one puzzle). Be ready to do a lot of trials and errors to solve some of the puzzles. Persistence is a requirement. There is just one puzzle at the end that is way too hard to figure out by yourself. In addition to the alien spaceship, you also have the possibility to explore two planets (and a satellite). Because of the wide diversity of the environment, every rooms, places are different, you never get bored, and are just curious to see where you are going to explore next. There are also two possible endings to choose from. The background music also fits nicely with the surroundings. The only thing I did not like was the voice acting, which I found pretty useless. An option to disactivate it would have been most welcome, or was there? There are two voices in the game, the previously rescued astronaut diary voice, and an AI voice (from your space suit?). First, I did not see the point of having to hear the astronaut voice everytime one clicks on a section of his diary. It's more distracting than anything else, since one reads faster than the guy talks. Also, if you make the mistake of clicking twice on the section you want to read, the reading voice will start twice simultaneously... So, I ended up turning off the sound while reading the diary. And just so you know, you cannot skip the reading part because the diary contains many clues to solve the puzzles. I would recommend reading the story of the other astronaut anyway since it is necessary to understand the plot. Also, I did not really understand the true purpose of the AI voice. Was it intended to give us hints, or simply to keep us company while being all alone on an unknown spaceship? It could have been seriously improved, since most of what she said was pretty obvious or just made me feel like a small kid: I find a scalpel, and the AI tells me "leave it here, you could cut yourself!"; I look over some handrail, and she tells me: "be careful not to fall!". Oh well... It would have been great if it could have been funny... In all, while looking past the voice acting part, I most definitely recommend this game. Puzzles were fun, the exploration and story quite interesting. I am looking forward to the next games of this developper. ------------------------------- The game ran flawlessly on a windows 7 laptop. But here are a few glitches I encountered: - Simultaneous reading voices can be heard if you click several times on the same diary section (you are not supposed to do that, but well I did it...). - on Planet Kepler, in one of the houses, I first found a locked door with a keypad on the side asking to solve some mysterious equation. When I came back later to try to solve it, the locked door and keypad had disappeared. At their place was a shelf. I first thought it was a different house looking the same, but I looked everywhere and never found the first house again. If anyone has any hint about this first mysterious house, I would be interested to know. - outside the spaceship, after coming back from the satellite Cobalt, if you decide to turn around, the satellite is gone. You have to go back inside the spaceship, then exit again for the satellite to be there again. - after advancing in the game, some objects previously found, reappeared (copper wire, dark rock, bird fruit) and could be then needlessly used again. ---------------- Note: All negative aspects cited above about the voice acting have been resolved in the next opus of the serie: Catyph.