[h1]Proudly serving 0.003% of the Global Gaming Market since 2015.[/h1]
I’ve read somewhere that the game’s sales were poor, and there will be no sequel. At least it paid for itself; development didn’t result in financial losses. I get it, you’re building games basically for yourselves and don’t give a damn about other players. Probably the devs have real jobs and this is just a side gig. But are you sure the game is what you envisioned? Because to me it feels half-baked.
Game development is a series of compromises, and here there were a lot of them. I didn’t encounter any bugs or crashes, but pathfinding was poor, and companions could block you entirely, like it’s the 90s again, “premier destination for all your hardcore RPG needs.” The UI is functional, but the UX is plain bad. Scarce journal entries, awful inventory, clunky party management. Looting new gear or weapons brought no satisfaction. Stats are split across two separate screens: party management and inventory. The medical machine interface looks great, like a proper terminal, but every other computer is just a bland dialog window. The contrast makes the medical UI feel out of place.
Graphics are beautiful and detailed. But you’re stuck in a repurposed cargo ship, not a passenger liner, so expect endless containers, maintenance tunnels, and ugly structures. Cool backgrounds don’t show up until maybe the last third of the game.
[h1]Scoobediah, where are ya![/h1]
Their debut, The Age of Decadence, was rough around the edges but had a setting and storytelling you could appreciate. Colony Ship also has a unique premise — a generational ship full of Christian fundamentalists searching for a promised land. You’ll see plenty of Maries and Moseses; in character creation you can pick names like Abraham or Zachariah. I went with Scoobediah. You start in a former cargo hall, now called The Pit. The writing is fine at first, but narration is weaker than in the previous game. The world feels static. You wander The Pit, talk to interactable NPCs, there are few random events or interesting encounters, if any. Quests are uninteresting: talk to one guy, fast travel to another, then another, and return. Sure, that’s RPG standard, but here there’s no nuance. Problem, solution, case closed. Quest and dialogs could end abruptly. Exploration is equally dull, with little reward.
In The Age of Decadence, narrative immersion was stronger. Walk into a tavern and you’d find a storyteller entertaining local yokels with myths and legends. You could listen, ask questions, and discuss. In Colony Ship, after the mutiny no one, except one person, cares what really happened. Everyone just picked their version of events and moved on, trying to survive. Companion dialogs pop up occasionally, but they’re boring and pointless. Factions aren’t fleshed out. Honestly, I take back what I said about the writing being fine. The script quality has declined compared to the last game.
Combat, though, is the worst part. I rarely hate something in a video game, but here I hate this crap with passion. I’m a fan of turn-based combat and dislike real-time-with-pause, but this is one of the worst turn-based systems I’ve ever seen. On par with slavjank like Paradise Cracked, just a different flavor. It’s so bad I wouldn’t be surprised if someone swore off turn-based forever after playing this. Arenas are tiny, tactics nonexistent, cover useless. Move to cover and you’re shot from every direction, no overwatch required. I built a sniper focused on critical hits and regretted it. In most RPGs, that build means squishy but deadly. Here, all weapons deal the same basic damage, no armor-piercing ammo. Miserable. I spec’d into streetwise and avoided combat as a plague.
About stats: I didn't tagged any science skills, went all in on speech and sniper. But even after training science with every trainer, skill training machines, and every XP opportunity, I couldn’t raise electronics high enough to unlock certain areas. True to the build, sure, but is it fun though? Not really.
There’s also a stealth minigame, which is useless. Occasionally you’re asked if you want to initiate a stealth run. It might help on a couple missions. But you can spec into stealth, avoid cameras and patrols, only to hit a computer skill check that's covered by your companion specialization. Great. Sometimes you’re offered the chance to avoid an encounter, but you can’t, at best you could reposition before battle.
[h1]The remaining 99.997% need not apply. [/h1]
Well, good luck with that approach. I don’t know why they refuse success and choose to remain at hobby-level development. I hoped to see their craft evolve after The Age of Decadence, but aside from pretty visuals, Colony Ship is regression on every other level.
