Sun Dogs

SUMMARY: Regretfully, Sun Dogs is a brilliant idea that's well-written and beautifully minimalist, but doesn't hang together very well because of limited options and random events. It's hard for me to not reccomend Sun Dogs as the game is a fantastic idea that almost gets it right - a kind of nonlinear playable novel of a transhuman future, beautifully written, and obviously a labor of love. Had it been free or very cheap it may have been worth it, but as it stands it's not. The idea of Sun Dogs is that one wakes up in a "Sleeve" - an artificial body. This is a far future of mind copies, artificial bodies, cybernetics, and solar-system wide travel (and then some). You explore with simple point-and-click choices, finding items, unlocking information, and seeing sights. Over time you find missions or interesting objects. The world of Sun Dogs is extremely well fleshed out, from the Jovian war to a wasted but recovering earth, to an asteroid library. There's believable terminology and language, and little details in the story text that bring it to life. In fact, the minimalism of the game works in its favor - your brain is the graphics card and rendering engine. The problem with Sun Dogs is that it's largely a case of go somewhere, have events happen, hope you have the right tool/skill to survive or change things, and go on. Your character has very little initiative, you just wait until things happen, including events that one would think is intentional (why can't I go look for cybernetic mods I used to have). This lack of control and randomness ultimately make the game hard to enjoy as games often end up as a case of clicking-and-hoping. Thus the core flaw of Sun Dogs is not the idea, the story, the graphics, but the choice of mechanics. If the developer is reading this, I truly applaud their hard work and brilliant writing. I think the game would be best with more choice and less randomness, perhaps with a "dictionary" that helps the character make choices as they uncover them. Though I do not reccomend this game, I, strangely, do not regret purchasing it - I took a chance and supported a good idea. I felt the implementation ultimately didn't work. I also want to note the developer is supportive on the forums, so though I critique the game, I applaud his dedication to his art and his engagement with people on the game.

嗯，游戏名字是一大亮点，吐槽完毕（其实sun dogs在英语里的意思是幻日，不过我还是感觉和游戏主题有点差别） [h1]那么这是一个怎么样的游戏呢？[/h1] 你是一只可以快速在太阳系各处巡游的小生命（很可能是犬科）。移动快只是在游戏中快，不像一些模拟游戏那样费很大劲跑大半天，但是游戏会实际会告诉你这个过程花了多少天。 然后你可以在各个行星小行星卫星里探索其中的奥秘，探索的更多目的是让主角得到更多的认识，游戏有少量选择取向，能学习一些小技能，然后进行更深入探索这个太阳系的各个角落。你可以与别的星球居民交流，观察他们的生活，而且能在各种行星上漫步，或者说跟别人谈判等等。游戏任务不难，就是去他指定星球探索很快就能完成，你可以很好地去感受穿梭于每一颗行星之间的快感，任务完成后有时候没有后续任务，那么就要自己没事找事做了。。。 [h1]但是！[/h1] 前面所说的东西，游戏仅仅只是用文字来给你体现出来！嗯，而且是一大长串英文，看的心累啊……这就只是个靠脑洞来丰富游戏内容的探索类游戏，真的不骗你，英文文字一大长串，玩起来心累，不过对于狂热的天文爱好者我还是推荐的。 个人给分：6.5/10 +++名字好评 ++游戏细节到位 +丰富的探索内容（需要脑洞） --任务还要自己找 ---其实可以说是一本小说强行当作游戏来卖

Sun Dogs is a text-based science fiction adventure game. That is the extent of how well I can describe it for an opening sentence of a review. You, as an explorer, visit different places within our inner solar system (the terrestrial four and some moons) to collect different items, skills, and body augments to open up new events and new options for events and encounters. Gameplay is presented entirely as text in well-written and imaginative exposition, like in a roleplaying game. The UI exists to show your travel locations, where you can go and interesting orbit patterns of the planets, moons, and stations, plus all your 'stats' and items. Events range from simple exposition of your environment to dangerous encounters. Having collected the right skills and items from other events lets you resolve encounters in a positive manner, rather than simply dying; however, sometimes skills and items you've acquired will cause a negative outcome to an event. This is the extent of the 'game'; you travel around, exploring and finding new events and flavor text which are given mostly at random, then using those things you have obtained to find more events and flavor text which are also given mostly at random. It is, perhaps, the simplest and most base form of something I would just barely consider a roguelike, but even that title may be giving it too much credit on the gameplay front. The writing is solid, and the setting itself is fairly unique and interesting to learn about. As far as science fiction goes, it's nothing groundbreaking; but there's enough that, for someone who enjoys text-based games primarily based around exposition and also enjoys a solid science fiction piece, it may be worth the cost. [strike]The music is somber, if repetitive, since it never changes. It somewhat reminds me of STALKER's main menu theme and the general ambient mood of that game's music. After about five minutes you may feel the need to set up your own soundtrack.[/strike] There was a hotfix. Will reassess. edit: Music seems fine now that there's some variety, no complaints. Of note, and of interest to myself especially as a writer, are the expansive mod tools. Since the game itself is so simple, it can essentially be rewritten from the ground up, which is a great feature. Am I myself terribly interested in what is in the game now? No, not really- but I am extremely interested in trying my own hand at making something similar. Overall, I recommend it for those interested in this sort of non-game which is primarily based around exposition and setting building. Though I feel I have seen everything gameplay wise the game has to offer even with less than an hour ingame per writing this review, I am still interested to see the extent of the skill system and what I can trigger by discovering different things to learn more about the setting, which is the core of the game. By no means should one expect this game to be something like Elite.

Sun Dogs is a fun text based scifi adventure. https://youtu.be/788gZA4rkek You play as a transhuman explorer and you are free to explore all around the solar system. In this universe humanity has reached and breached the barrier of death, as you are no longer bound to your organic vessel. Your mind has been saved to computers and even if you were to die, you would wake up in one of these stations completely fine. Only the memories between the last upload and death have disapeared. The gameplay consist of exploring the planets and other things that orbit the sun which include asteroids, space ships and spce stations. Once you get in to one of these areas you can explore the area multiple times. Usually you'll just get some information about the area or just some text to help you to visualize the area. Sometimes you'll find items that you can pick up and possibly use elsewhere and sometimes events where you choose what you do. Even though it's mostly "Do this" or "Ignore". There is one mission at the start of the game which guides you a bit but after completing that you are completely on your own. No handholding whatsoever. Probably good for some, but I found it a little weird that I couldn't find any missions or hints on where to find them. Still exploring is still fun and the text in the game is fun to read and it opens up this universe little by little. Only other thing that bothers me is the lack of music. It feels like there is only one or two songs on infinete repeat. So in short, if you enjoy text based adventure games, then this a very good title to consider purchasing. If you are unsure you can have a look at my video where I go through the first 30 minutes of the game here: https://youtu.be/788gZA4rkek

Sun Dogs is, above all, an exploration game. Set in the future when humanity is able to copy your mind into different bodies upon your death, you explore the solar system, picking up skills and knick-knacks to help you explore further. The writing is great, incredibly descriptive and evocative of the setting, and with the ease at which new mods can be created is likely to only improve over time. However, it is worth saying that the actual gameplay elements of Sun Dogs are... limited. Most of the gameplay is choosing where to go, and then clicking around a bit for the flavour text and random encounters before moving on and hoping you don't get killed - die too often, and even the most rigourously updated backup will start to corrupt. Overall, I'd say that if you enjoy trans- or post-human settings like Eclipse Phase, this will probably be the closest you get to a game in that setting for a while, and for what it is, it is most certainly worth checking out.

dipping under the gas clouds of venus. disintergrating in an interstellar blast. skimming the debris field of earth. sitting in a cafe watching a parade. beyond the soul and beyond the body.

The premise of Sun Dogs sounds fantastic, but the game itself was disappointing. You are at the mercy of random events, and rely on the roll of dice for gains and losses.

太陽系の様々な星へ行って、不思議な世界感のテキストを楽しむゲームです。ゲームじゃないかもしれません。 グラフィックはほぼありません。太陽系の星系図？のようなものがあり、ちょっとズームされるぐらいで見た目は変わりません。 星に到達すると幾つかアクションがありますが、未来の人類という設定で、独特な話が繰り広げられます。太陽系に散らばったSF小説を集める、とでも言うとかっこいいのですが、基本的に意味不明です。英語の教材にするのも難しいですね。 あと、私のプレイ時間が長いのは間違ってつけっぱなしにしたからです。

The game is like a free roam, text-based adventure, where there is no storyline, few side quests and infinite combinations of collectibles. Excellent world building, but there isn't much to do in the world.

It’s not just incomplete; it’s barely been started. It’s a $10 smokescreen obscuring the cavities where its gameplay, narrative, and atmosphere should have been. Full review: http://www.darkstation.com/reviews/sun-dogs/