Destination Ares

Interesting concept but this game has a long way to go. There is potential here. There is this sort of white-wash high gamma haze to the pixel graphics that makes it a tough game to look at. Not sure what the goal here was. There is one terrible aspect in that you have to play a mini-game when you make a decision. For example you may get a prompt like this: "The ship is overheating do you: A) Turn everything off (easy) or B) Vent the heat into the airlock (hard)". Once you make your choice you have to win the mini-game which involves moving a cursor through a maze with invisible mines to get to the exit otherwise you fail in your choice. It's an extremely odd mechanic that doesn't make much sense and the mini-game itself frankly sucks. If it's going to be a big part of the game, this part needs to be done much better. Can't recommend at this point.

I really like the concept behind this game. I look forward to seeing where it goes. Positives: The game has interesting presentation, aside from a sort of view tilt that feels a bit off. Crew members appear to react to the actions of the player. Ship gameplay is interesting, and the decision-making aspect has promise. Negatives: Current variety of events and crew dialogue are limited and repeat fairly frequently, although hopefully that will expand with updates. The minigame that the player must play for each decision event is repetitive, bland, and seems arbitrary and unrelated to the higher-level gameplay. This minigame could make sense for sensors or piloting events, but doesn't make sense for character events, etc. Overall, the game gets old pretty fast in its current state, but has a lot of potential. It is a good idea, and one that I hope to see polished in the future. At present, I don't recommend buying the game unless you want to follow along with developer updates. I look forward to seeing where this goes from here.

A good concept but the irritating mini game for decision making lets it down, for me, it doesnt feel like it fits in with the game. The mini game you move your mouse though a invisible maze in a limit time, every time you hit the side you restart and you lose seconds out of your 10 second timer.

Imagine if you took FTL, but could only tell the crew what you wanted them to do. It oddly becomes even more engaging as you fret over what your crew is doing and sometimes want to scream in exasperation as they don't do what's in their own best interest. I haven't managed a win yet, but do see an unlock system that may give me some better systems to improve my chances. Part puzzle, part simulation, part psychological experiment, Destination Ares is a bunch of fun!

Tiny game but delivering what's on the box. The chore idea of the game is to build a ship so that it is the fittest to make a long journey (30 minutes). The build phase (unlocked after the first games) is pretty simple and will ask you to allocate points / space and weight for what matters the most to you. A balance to find between crew, modules, quality of modules, abilities to transform one resource to another or do you prefer to pack a lot of each at the beginning of the journey, up to you. Most of the times, if one resource comes to lack, you're dead : Oxygen, parts, material, food, waste, fuel, energy. The second part of the game is not really difficult, start the journey, set some priorities, activate or spare some modules, react to random events (often leading to a minigame that is a bit annoying though). And fail, fail, fail, fail, until you manage to unlock some improvements for the ship so that you can rethink your blueprint and finaly make that journey. Cute, interface sometimes a bit clunky because things are not obvious on the screen but overall a good experience. Might lead to some quite a few blueprint rework loops that I'm not super fond though. Keep in mind though that the lifespan of this game is probably rather short and you might get bored quickly but worth a shot !

From the hilarious character dialogue, to the ship crafting, to the great replayability - Destination Ares has it all. Incredibly difficult, but you learn from your mistakes and get better after each try.

If you liked FTL or space simulator type games then this one is pretty sweet. It's very hard not to compare it to FTL because it's identicle in presentation and in having a random encounter system. It's still a very early, simple version but I enjoyed it. Kudos to the devs for presenting the core of the game and making it playable right now as some Early Access games have some serious derp-level unplayability. Already has a ship-building system which is pretty sweet, many people will enjoy this; efficient ship design is rewarding. For what it is I think it's respectable and is one to keep an eye on as it develops. It's not as hardcore as FTL right now and it's still fairly simple. I played it for a few hours and completed it, replayability will be a thing, similar to FTL. A core feature being the random events system has very little variety and should be something which is expanded upon as there are only several different types of events and that's very repetitive. Early Access and indie games seem to be very expensive for what they are at the moment, £10 is in the middle of the Indie/EA range. For the game I am given I think it's a bit high, but after playing it and thinking about it, I have faith it will live up to that price should the current features be refined and expanded upon. My main disappointment is the art style. It could use more vibrant colours as everything is is grey, white, and just pale upon space's black backdrop. Maybe there will be more additions to spruce things up a bit but it's not visually impressive at all. It's getting increasingly difficult to pull off the pixel look as it becomes more popular in the Indie game culture. The description mentions "candy colours are for candy games", but quite frankly, you are significantly reducing your capabilities by choosing the pixel style and then choosing this colour scheme along with that is very risky. If you have nothing to contrast the greys then the greys are super grey and you are looking a grey game and that's not appealing, regardless of any reason. A fellow artist once told me that if you have to justify to someone why your style is the way it is, then it hasn't been pulled off. It's a very grey game in an era where colour and visuals is ball-bustingly good, and competitive. I feel this is a very risky move that must be pulled off perfectly, and I believe it hasn't and so it takes a big hit from the visual perspective. Space ships IRL are actually very colourful because of colour coding. Important things are vibrant blues, reds, greens etc and so they should be and so I think this style is unjustified and needs work if not reconsideration. It's also strange/annoying how the game kind of tilts like it's on a pane that can rotate slightly left and right; I'm pretty sure I wasn't high when I played this. There was no explanation in-game and it just looks weird and brings the visuals down more. Aesthetic - 2/10 it just doesn't work for me and as an aspiring CGI artist, it's painful. As a concept, imagining what it could be on release - 8/10 an expansion to the delight of the FTL experience, and perhaps a fresh take on a concept we love. As a game to play right now - 5/10 it will need a lot more content to be interesting enough to want to maintain playing beyond the first short playthrough. All in all it's a game for the fans of this genre, as they will be able to see what it's capable of becoming. If you are a fan of the genre but sceptical then I would advise not purchasing until it's further down the production line; it's still raw and only has its core right now. I hope the game can be conceptually appreciated and I wonder what others will think of the aesthetics.

Destination Ares is pretty unique in its kind, and even if it sometimes can be unfair and hard to understand, I can only encourage you to try it and see for yourself. Cause when it goes right, it feels so good. Plus, there is a free version on the creator's site.

Very fun game! semi-simple in it's graphics, and a great chill game to hang out and play but also extremely challenging at times. It takes strategy, and an ability to multi-task. didn't get through a single game in nearly 4 hours without murdering my whole crew! Still loved it, and will definitely be playing again!

The main game is a hard resource utilization game, and that part is solid and fun. Unfortunately there is a mini-game with the random events that is nearly impossible to play. These have resulted in frustration, and inevitable game failure when the negative consequences of those failures resolve in the main game. Until those mini-games are fixed or replaced with a better mechanic, I can't recommend this game.