Astronaut: The Best

Wonderful and well written game - think a Failbetter game set in Borat's Kazakhstan. Pros: great writing, art, and music. Easy to learn and get into. So far, there's enough new writing and new discoveries to keep me entertained. Cons: core gameplay loop could be more interesting than 'press your luck', and the visuals for the often repeated segments get dull eventually. I recommend this game, if you share the sense of humour. My astronaut nearly blew up the shuttle when he lit a cigarette near the oxygen tanks, then discovered gravitons by accident... but nobody cared, as it was too nerdy for the public... then dropped a rock on a purse thief from orbit. Does that make you laugh? If so, get this game.

For context - I played through the entirety of the beta. I love the procedural narrative elements mixed with the unpredictability of a roguelike. It creates some really inventive scenarios to play through, and the randomness of the various challenges and missions is presented with enough humor to make up for some of the initial frustrations with the learning curve of "how do I train my astronauts to bring Glory." My magical girl astronaut was an MVP who single handily saved my space program! 10/10 alone for having magical girl be a possible trait. This game leans much more into the management sim-adventure genre with some alt universe 60s scifi worldbuilding. It's great for unwinding at the end of the day and watching the wacky storylines write themselves without the trite predictability of an AI Dungeon.

EIn Spiel, in dem man kaum Entscheidungen treffen kann, und die die man treffen kann haben oft so random Konequenzen, dass man damit niemals rechnen konnte. "Training des Astronauten im Trainingsraum verlängern? Ja. Pech, wir haben den Raum mit Schlangen gefüllt, jetzt ist er tot." Ich verstehe random Humor, aber wenn es die wenigen Möglichkeiten nimmt aktiv Entscheidungen zu treffen, dann ist das nur eine schlechte Gameplay Entscheidung.

A very fun, if very janky little game~ It has such personality and I am sad I never backed it during its initial indiegogo! I would have loved to see how much further this game could have been taken

The Best or at least the Pretty Goodest

I enjoy the wacky antics the astronauts get up to while trying to tiptoe around doing what the high priests want or don't want. I wish the wheel spins didn't do the weird...it feels like where it stops sometimes doesn't mean what it'll say? But otherwise I like the artwork and the rogueliteness of the game! I also really want to see all the various horrible things that can happen in space!

Sometimes you feel like you're not the best astronaut. You're flawed. Your procedure stat is 2, you're trying to figure out how space travel works, with a demanding director forcing you into stressful training every day and stressful tv appearances and social forays until the witching hour every night. And in those times, you can take solace in knowing that there's always another astronaut, behind a bar pantsless and pissing in a burning dumpster, who looks worse than you.