The Message from Deep Space

it's a beautiful little nerdy game. as the game progressed, there were moments where i became a little lost on what the transmissions were asking of me. sometimes that meant i closed the game and gave it a rest for a bit. but eventually i'd stumble upon the right perspective for the right answer. never really minded it that much, i figure this translation's meant to be taking course over the span of weeks, after all. it was an absolute joy to slowly get to know our friends in deep space, as well as the friends in very local space! the translation team was nice to (not quite) bounce ideas off of, i'll miss them all.

This game, of all games, does not need a hardcore save system. I've lost almost 10 hours, and replaying isn't even fun because progress is mostly in your understanding of the signals and symbols, and not actually in the entering of the data. I do not understand why a simple save and load which has been around for decades wouldn't have worked, but instead all it takes is one power issue or steam cloud saves problem to ruin everything. This doubly sucks because the game is genuinely fun, but I wouldn't wish the frustration of having that taken all away on anyone

insane value for current price 9.5/10 the translating is fun and the story is amazing. best puzzle game I've played in a while <3

There are a few stretches of the game that get frustrating at times, but it's worth it entirely. Wonderful game with a beautiful message, imo. 100% recommend if you like puzzles, logic, language, and especially logic and language puzzles

Since reading Story Of Your Life (and watching Arrival) I've always been fascinated by communication starting from ground zero. While I love those and Project Hail Mary, I still felt like they gave a sense of starting from nothing, then did some hand waving, then the protagonist is fluent. But I always wanted the nitty gritty behind the hand waving. And this game gives me exactly what I want - you need to connect the dots from beginning to end, no hand waving (besides Bautista's computer wizardry). Every step of the way felt like a revelation that was earned, with very little filler in between. The gameplay wasn't perfect and I think it could have done with a few more QOL changes. But that's nothing compared to the immense satisfaction and joy that I got from the game. Highly recommend!

Oh my god. This game was simply incredible, a real Chants of Senaar x Project Hail Mary. Be prepared to do a lot of math but the pay off is really good. (-245) and (-243)

A really good and unique puzzle game.

非常好剧情，使我的大脑旋转。 从游戏机制上来说简单的线式一问一答到大后期的可玩性其实会有一点下降，但是量大管饱且越来越美丽深邃的剧情完美地弥补了这一点。 不过反过来说，剧情要么是外星语要么是英语，所以说非英语区玩家除了需要破译深空来信以外疑似还需要破译外国来信，双倍的「快乐」说是。

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.

This game is incredible. I have spent almost all of my waking time between buying it and now, playing it. And, like some of the best games in the genre - I would count [i]Return of the Obra Dinn[/i], [i]Type Help[/i] (now [i]The Incident at Galley Housse[/i], [i]The Roottrees are Dead[/i], and [i]The Outer Wilds[/i] among them - it is an experience that will be hard to forget for a very, very long time.