The Message from Deep Space

First contact with extant life from another world, & it's the aliens sending us their math homework. All jokes aside, I love this game. The characters seem simple on the surface, but their little conversations, in-jokes and quirks really make you connect with them. I can't believe that within the span of a couple hours they had me go from jeering at Dr. Akers to genuinely empathizing and rooting for him. I also wanna shout out the OST, the music is actually really nice to vibe to while puzzling over a new transmission. I'm definitely relying on walkthroughs to make progress, but the atmosphere and story are enough to make it still an enjoyable puzzle game

The math problem from Deep Space I get that the math/science is foundational leading into the language portion, but for me the the language portion is the fun. Unless you're into math/science, I would not get this game. I got up to about transmission 150 and they just introduced science.... Dude I was dragging myself to be over the math and after I saw science I was out

this rock making my brain do backflips

The game starts off a bit slow; the beginning felt to me as mostly refreshing math/physics/chemistry knowledge from high-school and establishing some basic communication primitives. If that was all there was to it, I would have probably thought it was a good game, but not enough to recommend it. However, at some point this game changes [spoiler]probably when they send their first self-portrait[/spoiler]: It becomes much less of a quiz, and more of a very rewarding search for common understanding and meaning. I believe life longs for life, and this game reminds me of it almost on every transmission past a certain point. In puzzle/deduction games I usually end up disabling all hints and stuff. But this game has such amazing dialogue that I didn't mind if it occasionally recommended solutions: I really just wanted to know what Dr. Bautista, Dr. Akers, Dr. Collins, and Dr. Doppler had to say! The developer crafted a unique voice for each character, to the point I find myself in internal arguments with these characters while reading their different suggestions. Sometimes I appreciate Dr. Bautista's programmer-style focused on reducing verbosity, but other terms require the added nuance Dr. Collins' captures with each of her suggestions. And Dr. Akers? He is a really good astronomer. Personally, I would like it if the game UI were a bit more feature rich: I miss the ability to pin certain pages so as to have multiple open simultaneously or having a central note pad with links between notes, words, and transmissions. But these are minor grievances that can be addressed by just pulling out a notebook IRL. I am not done with this game, I estimate I am roughly around the halfway point ([spoiler]transmission 514 [/spoiler]). But I already wanted to share my thoughts on this wonderful game. I will update this review once I finish with the game with my final impressions. In the meantime, I strongly recommend it.

Really impressive. If you're a math or linguistic nerd it's mandatory, buy immediately.

A really nice way to spend an evening or twenty. It's really exciting to figure out exactly what the aliens are trying to say, and the characters make sure it never becomes too exhausting. Some of the later transmissions (at 500+) could use some refining - figuring out exactly how to phrase your responses can be hard - but the Discord is happy to give you hints, and hopefully some of the more confusing transmissions will be fixed.

Oh my god. This is going to sound so nerdy but I mean it with 100% sincerity. This game fulfills one of my long-held sci-fi wishes, which is to see first contact built up from first principles. Arrival is fine. Project Hail Mary is a little better. But THIS game is exactly the story the little astronomy & linguistics nerd in me has been waiting for forever. I worry that I can't recommend this to any of my friends because it so perfectly fits a niche I'm interested in. I worry I can't recommend it because maybe I'm leaning on a CS and Astronomy background that my friends don't have. But you better be sure that I WILL be recommending this to everyone, because Bautista is bae and everyone needs to meet him.