As you probably already know, I play a lot of games. I must start two or three new ones a week and generally I manage to rotate genres. You can certainly have too much of a good thing, I need the adrenaline rush of a lightning quick platformer to blow away the cobwebs of a turn based battler. After all that chin stroking I will need to crack my fingers hard to get back those superhuman reflexes I so obviously possess!
Thus, dear reader I have a confession, I have completely failed in this regard. Genres of games I have kept afresh but I have been stuck in the same damn setting. Space. Or more accurately Alien planets! I have been feeding on interstellar gruel for so long I have forgotten what gravity even is. Space is obviously a brilliant setting for a game, allowing writers and designers to come up with fantastical worlds and creatures.
The main space game that comes to mind from my childhood is easily StarCraft. The immense RTS (Real Time Strategy) series that doesn't fit into any one slot that I have come up with below. Sure it has the Human Terrans, alien Protoss and the bug like Zerg and they battle in space and on planets in huge battles. It could just be any other RTS but for the fact it's one of the best (and cheesiest) space operas ever written. The story spanning the original game, Brood War expansion and then culminating in a triple release last decade was so damn good.
As for other media I have been more drawn to fantasy than Sci-Fi. The pinnacle is undoubtedly Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the book obviously) and having read it many times since a young age it ultimately shapes my thinking of how space is. Sure you have Star Wars and Star Trek but neither of these grabbed me until later in life, I was far more interested in Red Dwarf. Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are watched far more often in my flat.
There are probably one of two reasons that I am playing nothing but intergalactic titles. Either that is all the industry is producing at the moment or I have not found one particular title that scratches my itch. And yes it's the latter. So as I am so unsated by any one game let’s break down each title to see what it brings to the genre and whether any one title can encapsulate all I need in a space game.
Space travel
Surely of all the areas that cover space this is the one that sits with us since childhood. The space shuttle program, Apollo 11 and the moon landing all seared deeply in my mind. When someone says space who doesn’t think of these? Huge rockets blasting through Earth's atmosphere. There are two ways of taking this, in our own solar system and beyond or in a completely made up part of the universe. With the sheer size (and not even mentioning the probably Multi verses) most made up systems are probably not beyond the realms of reality.
It’s time to blast out in the far fringes where we have the brilliant Outer Wilds, a ground hog day esque solar system explorer. You have 22 minutes until the Sun goes SuperNova and kills everything. In that time you need to hop into your spaceship and planet hop to investigate what is causing this. As will all my favourite games you die a lot and gradually piece together this perplexing mystery. Due to the time scale the vastness of space is lost but it’s great fun to plonk yourself down on a moon and pop out for a quick look round. Just don't get sucked up into the Sun’s gravitational pull….
The Mass Effect series (obviously the original trilogy) had several takes on space travel though it is more renowned for its storytelling set amongst the stars. The first actually let you land on a tiny patch of planet and drive around a pretty barren area. Usually ending up in some sci-fi shootout. This at least gave the planets some identity even if you couldn't land yourself. Walking around some of the planets and facilities was great fun, seeing what futurist humans could create. No actual flying but you could still plot out where you wanted to go. By the third game scanning planets for resources was boring as fuck… but you could see huge corporations doing this to exploit the resources. Definitely a series with the emphasis on Opera in Space Opera.
A bump up into ‘realism’ of travel you should go no further than Elite Dangerous, an incredibly complicated space flight sim. Having to chart your route across the Milky Way whether delivering goods, picking fights with pirates or just plundering some debris, this game is very much for the nerds. Micro controlling every aspect is not for everyone but does lend itself to realism that no other title really matches. The time needed to traverse the stars is long, basically an interstellar truck simulator. With phasors.
For the best NASA simulator I cannot recommend Kerbal Space Program enough. You are on planet ‘Kerbin’ and in charge of the Space program for the cute Kerbals. Your aim is to build rockets that can make it into space and explore the solar system. Heavily influenced by our own local planetary bodies this game is incredible. And hard.
I love the science mode whereby you have to earn science points to research and unlock new components. Your first rockets back make it a few kilometres up. Eventually you will be landing modules on the moon and building your space stations. You are basically Nasa in the early 1960’s. The tech tree has Civilisation vibes which is no bad thing. It’s hard as you need to not only build but control your ships as they zoom through space and that can lead to tonnes of mishaps. Rescuing Kerbal's is hilarious and rewarding in equal measure. Though when your ship blows up it is painful. The game is far more approachable now, particularly on console. And hell it's so realistic even NASA teamed up to create content with them!
Planet Exploration
Now that we have finally landed on our intended planet, let’s get exploring! I think early Star Trek episodes have a lot to answer for. Beam down. Meet the locals. Kill the monster. Bugger off. Mass Effect certainly plundered this idea but others have taken it much further. Ideally you want Ancient Alien artifacts and buildings. Mainly you want exotic colourful plants with crazy deadly wildlife that you need to try and survive.
Journey to the Savage Planet really nails these last two, having crash landed you need to explore and find out what useful resources are here. The main aim is to repair your ship so you can leave meaning you have to explore every nook and cranny to find resources and create upgrades. You don't even start with a gun which smacks of poor planning. There is a great emphasis on exploration with every area having something useful to find. It’s not that savage though, having only died once in 5 hours it’s a pretty gentle game with the odd scary boss fight!
There is something to be said for landing and wanting to stay on your new planet which Satisfactory absolutely nails. Sure I have banged on about this game a lot here but it brings a very different take on exploration. Landing on a planet you have to start building up a factory using the world's resources, gradually increasing in complexity. It’s not easy but it is intuitive and I have died far more times in this hostile world.
The exploration is way more organic, only forcing you out to look for resources when you really need it. My epic odyssey to look for water without a map or any hint of a location meant the lake I found over an hour later, battered and almost broken was one of the most satisfying moments in any video game. Having loaded up with enough items to explore and survive the next great quest to find Oil was more complicated still, over 4km away over rough and dangerous terrain. Just getting there was half the challenge, the other half was trying to find a route for a pipeline and power lines.
If Savage Planet is more a detective game, searching every nook and cranny then Satisfactory is more akin to those intrepid (and dangerous) explorers from the 16th century. Boldly stepping out with no idea what they will find, hoping you make it back home alive. This has quickly turned into one of my games of the year. Not bad when still in Early Access.
Enough of the barren lands devoid of beings. I want colonists. Robots. Shops! The Outer Worlds fulfills these wishes delightfully. As an easy recommendation, it's Fallout in Space. You play as a colonist, awoken from a deep slumber on a lost transport ship gets pulled into the weird mega corporation world spread across the planets. Usual RPG stuff, go speak to people, do quests, kill monsters/bandits/innocents, gather every item in the universe.
The loading screens are killer and it looks an absolute muddy mess on the Switch version. On a proper console it looks damn beautiful with great writing and lots of colonies and space ports to explore. No flying but that's not what you signed up for. Its pew pew pew all the way!
Spaceships
The biggest problem with space ship traversal are the corridors. The long boring grey windowless corridors. Sure you need them to get around and they do bring a nice juxtaposition of cramped conditions when you enter a large room with a huge window looking down over a planet. The insistence on grey is perplexing considering the International Space Station is all white.
The horror genre lends itself to this setting incredibly well. Cast your mind back to when Dead Space was both good and relevant. Playing as lowly engineer Isaac Clarke trapped on a ship where everything has gone to shit and aliens want to have a violent look at your internal organs. Sneaking around a basically empty half broken ship is creepy as fuck with aliens jumping out of vents scaring the crap out of you. I love the makeshift weapons from tools and the fact you have to dissect alien limbs to kill them rather than just go for the head-shot. Excellent Stuff, B+. Shame the series croaked it after the appalling third instalment.
Another step up from Dead Space is the sublime Alien Isolation. A great game based on a film? Shock horror! And horror is right, set after the original movie you play Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen looking for her lost mother. It takes you to a space station where a Xenomorph has decided to pay a visit. You must explore, hide and survive to find Ellen and get the hell out of there. There are weapons but are few and far between, meaning you must overcome hostile humans, deranged androids and of course the hardcore ET. In first person perspective this game is terrifying and the slow build up really sucks you in. I don't want to go to space anymore.
For the more cavalier corridor explorer you need go no further than Halo. Over the series you take in the spectacular Halos, cities of Earth and many a spaceship. It even kicks off there, with the Covenant attacking your ship and you need to get the fuck out of there. The combat is fast paced and brutal on Legendary difficulty, the only way to play! As per most FPS games the ships are very linear but they make the most of them in later titles, with big hangers that make impressively killing grounds. To be honest there isn't time for sightseeing and it is way more fun smashing a Warthog around the surface of one of the rings….
Fortunately all of these games had gravity, making sure up was up. Hardspace: Shipbreaker throws that out the window and makes for one of the most bewildering experiences I have had in a game for a long time. Set in the future when far too many ships and satellites litter the near Earth’s orbit you are contracted to break down these ships for resources. Floating in space with no real up is so disorienting but the controls are very well thought out.
You have a platform on a space port that lets you fly around the ship and use tools to control and cut up the weak points. You have a huge debt to pay off and each recovered resource chips away at that. It’s an amazing portrayal of space walking but does take a fair bit of learning. Meticulously cutting apart each part is very therapeutic.
Finally we are back to the Star Trek analogy, being the captain of a spaceship and ordering the crew around in FTL: Faster Than Light. FTL has the top down view of the ship with rooms for the engine, pilot, oxygen and weapon systems. Each must be manned and repaired as you go along. Jumping from system to system fighting bandits, saving explorers and buying necessary supplies to out run the evil force that looks to sweep the galaxy. It's a roguelike so death means starting again but the micromanaging is great fun, in particular opening the outer doors to suck an invading party into space. Brutal but what would you expect?
Colonisation
When we dream of the stars what we are wanting is an escape, whether the druderugen of our lives or to find another place to live when the Earth is finally fucked. So not long then right? Talk of colonising the Moon or Mars seems so far off in real life. I could yet again mention Satisfactory and its building up on a hostile planet. But I won't. Just go buy it Adam ok?
Instead we might as well go route one with this, Surviving Mars, the colony building sim management game. Surely the template for all these games? Kind of. Starting out with the basics, keeping people alive, cultivating food, unlocking new items, breeding a bigger population is fun. It looks great and the red of Mars really makes it stand out.
But it suffers from the SimCity problem of what else once you have built up everything. Beyond insane disasters striking it kind of just goes along. Frost punk is similar in this regard but you know you are going to die eventually, it’s how long you can survive for. Maybe it needs to go the Anno 1800 way, build up on one island (or planet) before moving out to another location and starting again. Still a damn decent sim game.
Speaking of an expected demise Oxygen Not Included brings that by the bucket load. You have three colonists in the middle of an asteroid and must ensure they survive and thrive by making items and expanding the colony. Unlike Surviving Mars every person counts and the title does the game justice. So many things can kill them, including lack of sleep when you don't bother to make beds. Or miss that the toilet is leaking into the food. Or a gas pocket that is ignited by a torchlight. A million clicks a second is not nearly enough. But each time they all die you learn a bit more to eek out a bit longer of survival on the next play through. It’s fun and cute.
Most titles focus on a blank environment for you to build into but Industries of Titan has you expand into a fallen world full of poisonous gas and littered with ancient alien buildings. The twist on this management game is that you can arrange items within the buildings to specialise or make them more efficient. It's in very early access but the basic bones look great. Huge technology trees and a multitude of resources should make this a very interesting game. It suffers a little with the limited building locations but not a deal breaker in my book. The cyber punk style is gorgeous and I look forward to seeing how this game develops.
Most of these games cover one or two genres, making it hard to pigeonhole them. There is one glaring title that I have left out that in theory should cover them all. No Man’s Sky. All the space travel of Elite without the complications, billions of planets more than Kerbal Space Program and a more varied building set than Satisfactory should make it a brilliant game and totally scratch my itch.
It kind of does. Like many others I got burned on release when it wasn't everything that was promised. A couple of years on with some major updates it's pretty much where you would want it. Farming, huge freight ships, far more detailed resource procurement. The original game was a race to the end which was fine but it has now grown into a more of a space living sim. Which I applaud. But the planets and quests are a little bit empty, there's no classic events or quests like anything in say the Witcher 3.
It’s more akin to Minevraft, go in and build what you want. To match the scale envisioned by the creators it needed to be procedurally generated but then this makes most of the planets unmemorable. It's a trade off that I can accept, though I am not sure how many people will go back to it though. Again it comes back to Hitchhikers Guide and the wonderful universe Douglas Adams created. Maybe no game can match that?
Even just writing all this has made me have my fill. I have just bought Yes Your Grace, a medieval Royalty sim game to really throw the rocket fuel out the window. Oh and finally installed Derail Valley to keep my feet firmly on the ground! Or should I say Rails?
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