UPDATE: 02 Jan 2021
After a year away from the game, I came back and decided to see if I could finish it. Observations are as follows:
- While the story is somewhat 'open', I have reached a point in the game to where I have no solid idea what to do (e.g., I'm supposedly in a race to get back to my ship, to prevent something bad from happening, but when I get there, the other crew member is saying 'I took care of it' (and I'm thinking to myself ????????). It feels like I have the option to finish the game there, but I still have open objectives, and the option to leave the station goes nowhere.
- This game was relatively decent over a year ago, but its core mechanics are behind what I would consider 'standard' in VR games these days (almost like going back to the original Resident Evil 2 after playing Resident Evil 4).
- This game has some good ideas and ambitions, and could be made better with a facelift on User Interface, basic controls, and of course, graphics.
After a year away from the game, I think I've come close to finishing it, but am confused on how to proceed, and I doubt I'll go back to the beginning to try to remember everything I forgot. A Game Guide would be very useful right now.
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It's Nice to Discover a Game I Didn't Know I Needed
Playing on Valve Index, i7-8700, GTX 1070Ti, 16GB RAM
I haven't played much of the Sci-Fi RPG known as Mass Effect, but what I have played so far of this game reminds me of it. Now, Mass Effect has a lot more resources behind it, but this game makes a valiant effort in taking you on a story where your choices impact the the outcome (I think....from what I have experienced so far).
Essentially, you're playing a Space Trucker (or Captain of a cargo ship, if you're feeling sensitive), and upon making a delivery at a space station, things go south real quick, due to the intentions of evil men (I'm okay if it's evil women, too). The game is part adventure (exploring), part action (gunfights), part RPG (talking with characters where you have multiple choices). Pros and Cons are as follows:
Pros:
- They allow you the choice of smooth locomotion based on hand or head orientation.
- A very good menu system, which allows you to save at almost any point in the game. I didn't notice where you could delete a saved game if you want.
- Your main enemies are flying drones. They largely act as bullet sponges at first, but they do have a weakness which takes away their spongeness. The problem is that is you need to create the situation which activates this weakness (this provides a little strategy).
- Your resources/ammo cost credits, but fortunately everybody at the space station loves to leave their credit cards out in the open.
- You have a utility belt to place most of your equipment on, and you have the ability to adjust its position on your body. I still run in scenarios where I've wound up reaching for the wrong thing (in the middle of a battle).
- Interactions with the NPCs is fun, and you do have some choices in what you say/respond. Since I'm playing through this for the first time, It is difficult to say how my choices are affecting the gameplay.
- The game's story develops slowly,and while not convoluted like a soap opera, requires some paying attention to (e.g., without paying attention to the story, it's just mindless wandering and random shooting). The story gives a wonderful sense of scope and purpose.
- No one of the game's components (action/adventure/RPG) is mind-shattering stellar, but the combination of these components works in a way to create a greater whole of a game.
- The difficulty of the game is decently balanced. Although some will certainly think it is easy, it enables a feeling of steady progression each time I play.
Cons:
- Snap turning only. Smooth turning would be very welcome. Physical turning works as well, but I'm lazy.
- Your arms in the game look like someone attached them to a torture rack, and forgot to ease up on the stretching (try 2-hand holding the space rifle). You easily get used to it after the initial shock of wondering when your arms took a hit of LSD without telling you.
- Use of your credit card to buy things is straight forward, but I often run into 'alignment issues' when 'swiping' my credit card. Not a deal breaker, but often annoying.
- There is one part in the game where I got stuck. and had no clue what to do. Fortunately, someone had the same problem as I,and a solution is posted in one of the Discussion threads. In getting through the problem, though, the game wound up crashing on me, and I had to restart (save often).
- After getting through the first level (A), I got into the elevator to go to the next level (B), the elevator does a 90 degree rotation that for a second, made me think I was falling off the earth. The first two times I used the elevator,the game wound up kicking me back to Steam Home.
- Fighting the robots reminded me of fighting a sun-burned C3PO. The robots were unremarkable, and boring to fight.
- Although it is in the 'Pros' above, all the elements come together to create an enjoyable game, but no one of the elements is particularly strong (e.g., exploring is fun, but pretty basic).
- You can store a lot of things on your belt, but health packs are not one of them. A bit of a bummer, given you can carry copious amount of ammunition on you.
Although the developer states 3 hours worth of play time, I'm at 4 hours, and I have no real idea of how long I have to go.
The $20 price tag seems steep at first, but what the developer was offering is different compared to most other VR games I've played, and so I took a gamble. Outside of some initial frustrations with the controls, and some bugs (before you leave your space ship to go on the space station, place your space gun in your holster. Do NOT carry it in your hand), I feel the proce is fair.
The only thing that would yank my crank about the price is if it goes on sale during Thanksgiving (I know I'm cheap!).
Overall, I am enjoying the game because it is offering something different for myself compared to other games I've recently bought. There are some bugs in the game tha thave the potential of sucking the fun out of it, but fortunately rhe developer has been responsive in answering questions.
I'm not sure where the game will end up taking me, but I'm enjoying the ride so far.
