An incredibly underrated indie RPG with a charming cast of characters and tons of player agency. Pure creative chaos with a simple but engaging combat system that is filled to the brim with bright flavor text. While the story isn't exactly anything masterful, its otherwise simple plot is greatly boosted by the characters you encounter and the various ways their stories can unfold based on your choices. I've absolutely fallen in love with this world and while it's never going to get the sequel it baited at the end, it is still a satisfying and self-contained narrative that is worth experiencing for anyone who wants a game that actually values player choice.
One of the greatest accomplishments this game has is the fact that every single choice matters, up to and including what you do with the various loot you find along the way. Each piece of loot has a branching choice to become a weapon, item, or ally, each coming with a generally humorous hint as to what it would be by your shipmates who can craft them. Each room has at least one piece of loot, but some rooms have I believe up to three, and selecting one piece of loot to become a weapon locks the other items out from becoming a weapon, which adds a further level of chaos and replayability to this game as you won't have the same loadout twice.
Because this is just a slightly more involved "choose your own adventure," pretty much every dialogue choice and action you take has consequences in both the short and long term. You can choose to be a classic Murderhobo with very little consequence, but there are plenty of smaller side stories that grow and evolve naturally through your interaction in the world, in various interesting and often funny scenarios that often interlink with each other that can then blossom into even more interesting interactions down the line. Even though I felt I was pretty thorough on my first playthrough and made efforts not to miss anything, I still never figured out what was up with the shell fruits I had been collecting and missed a few characters' resolutions along the way. Even then I saw through a wealth of smaller arcs and helped resolved grudges and disputes, for despite its otherwise goofy tone the story has some wonderful worldbuilding within its various inhabitants and cultures that greatly enriched the loads of minor characters you interact with.
While combat is fun, most situations are avoidable through smart dialogue choices, and its in that dialogue that you can help glean the larger plot unfolding well before you have the options for any sort of exposition dumping. The main cast of weirdos you align with aren't as often directly interactable, but because they also serve as minute to minute crafters, the game goes through great lengths to give them each distinct characteristics that make them memorable, if a bit two dimensional. The rotting skeleton warrior and his band of misfits are the titular Dark Scavengers, and each have their own utilities outside of crafting that you can utilize in dialogue and combat, but the really important thing to understand is just how good they all are at Ping Pong. The xenomorph lookin fella may be intimidating at first but in the end is probably my favorite of the three, where as the zoot-suit wearing mustachioed weirdo never really evolves past the description I just gave. The xenomorph, I believe his name is Gazer, is a nonverbal creature that can conjure you new allies, and he demonstrates who these allies might be through pantomime, making his crafting the most interesting and surprising as you always end up playing a game of charades to comprehend what you could get, and his interactions between chapters are often the most endearing.
The true star of the show here however is the writing, plain and simple. Bolstered by the often clashing yet effective art style, the game truly embodies a sense of order through chaos in its narrative that strengthens through each interaction. While the worldbuilding and characters are all things I've already praised, none of this would be able to come together so well if it wasn't for such a strong, never ending amount of quality writing that informs the dialogue and provides ample foreshadowing for things to come beat by beat. While the game is rife with humor, its within the humor that the heart of this scrappy indie game shines, as unfortunately the "big reveal" that you get during one of the optional endings falls rather flat to the narrative that came before, but even so while everything is treated with humor, nothing is purely a joke, and that's why I love this game. You can absolutely choose to be a jerk but every scenario allows you to treat even the lamest creatures with respect, and you will be treated with respect in turn. While there are some characters I went out of my way to kill, the best interactions were the ones I least expected to happen, and no interaction is the same.
The boss fights are often just boss fights, but each has an initial phase that allows you to sway the encounter in your favor, or make it far worse for yourself. If you befriend certain characters they may help you out or go out of their way to ruin you, and as always your choices have consequences for later on. The only time I was let down was after helping a rather nice kid out he fought with me against a terrifying beast, and I did everything I could to keep the little bro alive, only to find him killed off screen a little later on and not being able to do anything to show my appreciation. There are a handful of other interactions that can end up dissapointingly, but I can't confidently say if these were because of my choices or not.
Finally, be aware that while this is an older game, it does some rather tasteless humor in regards to a specific race of creatures who have a penchant for self-deleting. Not all of the humor lands and when its bad, it's just bad, but nothing ever comes off as truly "edgy" aside from that and has its tongue planted firmly in each cheek.
Tl;Dr While scrappy in its presentation, this is a buried gem through and through and really makes you feel like you're exploring an alien world, oozing charm from every corner and polished to a grimy sheen. It had some sequel bait that we never got to see, but the studio made another game a few years later that somehow flew even further under the radar than this one. I find this an incredible shame as the team making this are clearly talented and deserve support. Please check this and their other game out as I will be, as the clear skill and passion deserve more fanfare that what they've gotten. While you can wait for a sale, this game is well worth the small full price it asks for, and while an ultimately shorter experience landing near a 4 hour playthrough, there is a ton of replayability here in its spiderweb of narrative choices. Cannot recommend enough.
