Astrobase Command
Salvage the remnants of your civilization by starting anew in uncharted space, with a small crew and the beginnings of an Astrobase. Grow your base by constructing modules on all three axes, put out fires both literal and metaphorical, and send characters with real personalities and emotions on non-linear text-based adventures across a procedural galaxy.
The only mode is ironman and every section, module, deck and crew member added to your Astrobase comes with implicit risks and reward, so choices matter. How long can you keep from succumbing to the dangers of space?
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Grow - Expand your Astrobase in all three directions.
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Nurture - Build a home for your crew and their daily lives
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Design - Layout the Astrobase to counter crises such conduit leaks, compartment failures, explosions, fires, personnel issues, and more
The Astrobase can be constructed along three axes. Your crew can expand the base by building modules or contract it by salvaging them. They can add or remove functionality by building up or tearing down sections in the modules. They can even build ships that lets you explore the galaxy.
You choose what to build and when to build it. The crew needs to rest and they need to breathe, do you rush the construction of the Enlisted Quarters or the Air Pump first? What’s the optimal placement of the new module? Is it better to have the Plasma Reactor closer to storage or to the crew’s quarters? Keep the station well maintained and stocked with supplies or disastrous consequences may result.
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Characters - Your crew make their own decisions as they interact with each other and the world around them.
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Full AI lifecycle - They work, eat, sleep, use the bathroom, relax, and socialize all as part of their daily lives.
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Morale - Your crew can get exhausted, or suffer from low morale which affects the quality of their lives and how they perform tasks.
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Relationships - Your crew form personal, professional, and romantic relationships. The relationships can be either positive or negative based on how their personalities and actions align.
Your crew live their own lives on the Astrobase. They have things to do and people to meet. Exactly how well they perform depends on how good they fit into their job, what adventures they’ve had, and what horrors they have survived; even how well matched they are with their peers matters, some will become romantic partners while others become bitter work rivals.
You will run into stumbling blocks, maybe your crew is exhausted because you’ve pushed them too hard, or low morale makes slacking off more enticing, or maybe Jenkins and Rodriguez spend too much time arguing while the Fission Reactor goes critical. Figure out your problems and fix them!
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Explore - Build and dispatch ships across the galaxy to explore planets, fight killbots, extract resources, and interact with other civilizations.
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Delegate - The ranking officer of each ship will make decisions based on their personality, and take recommendations from their team.
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Overrule - Change the decisions in the logs they send back, or let them make their own mistakes.
The procedural adventures of the crew assigned to your ships can be read and interacted with in the logs they send back. Carefully handpick the crew for each ship you send out. Monitor their progress or leave them to their own fate. Whatever you choose to do, the outcomes of their adventures will be felt in what resources they get, what injuries they suffer, and in how it changes their emotional state.
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Assign - Choose the best person for each job based on their stats, personalities, and over 50 different skills.
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Manage - Prioritize tasks, clear task blockers, optimize the routes that the crew take during their day.
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Observe - Calculate resource depletion and stay on top of tasks to prevent the reactors from exploding, the conduits leaking, and compartments failing,
The desk is where you design the Astrobase into a functioning home for your crew, promote leaders, manage tasks, monitor resource consumption, read reports from your ships and give them your input.
Running the station means manning your desk. Be efficient, and use your time wisely or take a break and play some Asteroid Shooter.
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Individuality - Characters maintain emotional memory, and experience psychological growth over time depending on how results align with expectations.
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Expression - Each character’s personality is expressed in their conversations, thoughts, and ship log entries
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Story - Over 100 personality traits and 42 intertwined emotions combine to author narratives that reflect how the crew are actually thinking and feeling.
The Astrobase’s crew will have conversations with each other, or insights about their lives. Crew members join the Astrobase with revealed personality traits that drive the emotions that effect their job suitability, choices and actions. More traits become unlocked as they experience emotional growth.
Ensure that your crew’s psychological needs are met and they have the ability to grow as people. When you’re processing recruit applications you’ll want to keep an eye out for personalities that might clash with your existing crew, or will be compatible and create lasting friendships.
Read More: Best 1980s RPG Games.
Liquidators
Never in my whole life have I been more terrified within the realms of a video game.
I believe a large portion of that comes from my intense phobia of nuclear power plants, but there’s also a huge variety of aspects this game nails in terms of horror. As someone experienced with music composition and production, the first thing I want to point out is the absolutely stellar sound design. Low, abstract drones bounce off of each wall, and you know it’s coming from… somewhere. But you don’t know where.
– Real player with 18.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best 1980s First-Person Games.
It’s a short but tense 3D exploration and interaction game, it happens in several rooms inside a nuclear plant. The story is based on an important fragment of the actual event Chernobyl Disaster.
- Graphics
Old story in 1986, then not the modern HD style. If you don’t accept pixel things, go to Settings- Video- Filter Strength, turn it Low or None.
- Music
Radiation detector sound and background noise in plant. No intentional extra sfx.
- Gameplay
1. There might be some bugs under fixing, but it doesn’t influence the experience if you like this kind of game. The developers are active in the pinned discussion so just ask.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Thibalryn
loving this game it is tough but not impossible fun to exploere however i am missing though a minimap that would be a great QOL update(but not a must)
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best 1980s Retro Games.
A fantastic tribute to the classics, filled with as much flying bacon and evil red frogs as you can handle.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Unusual Findings
It’s the 80s and the Christmas is coming, Vinny, Nick and Tony are young and their new cable signal descrambler just arrived. That same night while trying to decrypt a pay per view adult channel, they pick up the distress signal of an alien spaceship crash-landing in the woods near their town… Things only get weirder as they realize that the towering alien is killing very specific members of their community!
Explore the world oozing with nostalgia, check the Video Buster Store for clues, challenge other kids at the Laser Llamas Arcades, go learn a new trick at The Emerald Sword comic store, try to get along with the punk looking Lost Boys at their hideout or even dare to ask THE BULL, the quintessential 80s Action hero, for some help!
Follow the story that pays tribute to 80s classics like The Goonies, The Explorers, Monster Squad, The Lost Boys, They Live, Terminator, and Aliens among others and a gameplay that combines mechanics of Point and Clicks masterpieces like Full Throttle with its own unique twist and more.
Your decisions do matter, and the way you make these three friends interact with each other increasingly affects their friendship and the whole story, changing the way they solve the game puzzles, the locations they visit, the answers they find, the story, everything.
Uncover the truth hidden behind the alien invasion… well sort of. Why here? Why is it killing locals? How can the boys stop it? Will they tune in the adult channel after all? The answers to these and other questions… in Unusual Findings.
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Follow the Sci-Fi coming-of-age story. Three friends fighting together against the unknown… things (maybe against some known things too).
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See, Grab and Talk action tokens, an inventory to use and combine items and your wits it’s all you need to play.
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Stylized Pixel Art. All the charm of pixel art of the past with more colors and the new effects of the future. Some pixels look so real they can almost jump out of the screen*
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Go back to a simpler time where mix tapes were a thing, Commodore 64 was a king, kids could play outside late at night and the only thing to worry about was THE GIANT KILLER ALIEN TRYING TO GET YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS.
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The decisions you make affect the relations between characters and thus the puzzles, the game progression and the story.
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The most radical music a synthesizer can play. Cool popular Synthwave Music alongside catchy tunes made exclusively for the game to power up the 80s vibes.
*The pixels do not actually jump out of the screen, In case you actually see a pixel jumping out the screen please visit an ophthalmologist… or/and look for psychological help.
Welcome Home
Welcome Home is a murder mystery set in two timelines in which you play both the murderer in the past and the investigator in the future.
Play as a murderer in 1922, infiltrating a family house, solving puzzles and discovering the unspoken secrets of the Moore family.
Play as a tourist in 1987 exploring the house now turned museum, investigating it, gathering clues and piecing together the events of that horrific night.
Can you uncover the decades old dark truth haunting your family?
Lost Caves
The “Master Mind-Numbing” Achievement is one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do in a video game. True to its name, it is excruciatingly tedious and actively wastes the player’s time as much as it possibly can. Why would you even include something like this in your game if you know it’s terrible?
Besides that one Achievement, Lost Caves is a competent and (mostly) enjoyable little platformer that reminds me of “The Great Cave Offensive” from Kirby Super Star mixed with the aesthetics of an Amiga-era platformer. If this sounds up your alley then definitely pick it up as it’s worth its meager price and a normal playthrough doesn’t take very long.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Surprisingly good for a simple $1 platformer. Responsive controls (although you can’t rebind them, at least on keyboard, which is a downside), solid exploration and treasure hunting, nice music, and a cool final boss. It’s a short game - maybe 2 hours or so, but it also has a postgame so you can spend more hours 100%ing it.
Edit: It’s now $7. For such a short game, it might be worth waiting til there’s more content added honestly, or if it goes on sale.
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
Slumber Clause
Slumber Clause is a roleplaying, point-and-click throwback to the classic text adventures of the 80s and 90s with modern choice mechanics and a character-driven story about nightmares, death, and ephemera—all in glorious 4:3.
Play as a recently-widowed paramedic mom battling a mean case of sleep paralysis. When you’re not trying to hold your waking life together, you’re navigating surreal dreams of unspeakable beauty and endless possibilities that always seem to end in tragedy. All the while, a hooded figure stalks you. Collect clues to discover who they are and what they want.
Slumber Clause will be released episodically using Steam’s Early Access system, with pricing for the entire game increasing when each new episode is added.
KEY FEATURES
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Customize your mom with a text-based character creator.
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Swap between modern and classic user interfaces.
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Make choices that change the outcome of a novel-length story.
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Choose wisely or it may be game over.
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Take a closer look at the world with investigate and conversation mechanics.
Anti Frank’s Wrath
Anti Frank is unleashing his wrath on the universe! Play by yourself or with a few friends locally to take down hoards of zombies and stop Anti Frank! Play as one of four unique characters and buy new upgrades and weapons as you rid the universe of zombies.
Anti Frank’s Wrath is a top-down arcade shoot-em up based in the futuristic 1980’s. It supports 4 player local co-op (or steam remote play).
Drive-By Cop
Good game. Very simple but fun. Steering through actual motion controllers not recommended, better use thumbsticks.
Did not get motion sick by driving car and shooting bad guys. Car behaves like it should, wish for more different weapons and reloading options.
xoxo
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
If you ask me ‘Drive-By Cop’ falls just short of being a fun little indie game. The idea is you drive around shopping at bad guys and sometimes bad guys in cars. There are no other weapons, the “bad guys” just kind of stand there and it lacks any form of excitement. But I do feel there is a bit of potential here because adding a few game modes like a balloon popping and maybe a Mario kart style battle multiplayer game and you could have something fun here. I can look past the Roblox graphics and lack of content if only the game is fun to play which sadly this isn’t. This is not something I currently recommend, but if I could have given it a neutral rating I would have.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Whim
Step back in time to a world where colours were few, animation was slow, and everything had a distinctly ‘blocky’ feel. Apparently disregarding most of the last 30 years of advancement and innovation, Whim is a classic ’80s platformer like grandma used to make. Just much, much bigger.
Not the Welcome I Expected
Whim has just returned to his castle home after a much-needed break. As the sole assistant to Sir Leonard Fawkes, the renowned researcher and portal expert, he has had very little time to himself for the past 8 years. Arriving into the castle bailey, Whim discovers that things are not quite as he left them. The normally bustling courtyard is eerily quiet, the air feels heavy, and strange swirling orbs are now dotted about the place. The few people that Whim can see appear to be in some kind of trance, and he can’t shake the feeling that he is in danger. He needs to find Leonard.
What’s in the Game?
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Proper old-school 2D platforming. Walk and jump. That’s it. At the start, anyway.
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Travel from room to room as your freely explore the vast castle, avoiding the various baddies and other hazards, as Whim tries to piece together what’s going on. And collect stuff too.
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There’s no attack button so rein in that killer instinct. Whim’s no fighter - he’s a researcher’s assistant.
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Beware of falling too far. It actually hurts more than some games would have you think.
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The castle is just the beginning. Embark on an epic adventure spanning over a dozen diversely themed worlds.
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Surprises around every corner. Well, not every corner. If they were around every corner they wouldn’t be surprises any more. But surprises around many corners. Some, at least.
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Find Gizmos to expand your repertoire, such as the Afterburner, Neon Slacks, Pegagus Wing and Marblyzer™ [warning: use of gizmos may involve pressing other buttons].
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Meet friendly characters who might want you to do stuff for them in exchange for goodies. Some sort of quests to do on the side. Side quests, I suppose.
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An entire soundtrack of weird but slightly funky adaptations of classical works, such as Mozart’s Turkish March and Boccherini’s String Quintet in E Major.
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Find all the many secrets hidden amongst the sprawling worlds. If you do, something nice might happen.
Whim’s Weird and Wonderful Worlds
Whim will visit many other worlds on his journey. Here are just the first four.
Sugar and spice and all things nice - that’s what this world is made of. Saccharine Ridge is a naturally-formed confectionery wonderland, consisting of various sweet-themed features such as mint forests, chocolate hills, candy caverns, honeycomb beehive and an enormous sponge cake, to name a few. This place gives new meaning to the land of milk and honey.
Towering some 100 metres above a wide blue ocean, these two towers house a car factory always working overtime. While one tower contains the assembly line itself, the other consists of various offices handling the running of the business. Camshaft Highrise also includes a loading dock below the building and scrapyard out the back, as well as a figure-8 test track suspended in the sky, looping around the two skyscrapers.
The gold rush never ends in this frontier; mainly because the stuff is practically everywhere. Fortune Junction is a prospector’s dream, consisting of a vast tract of desert and a mine shaft where precious metals can be literally picked up off the ground. It also contains a thriving Wild West-style town and bustling casino. It doesn’t matter if you lose – just grab another fistful of gold off the street and keep gambling!
On the perpetually darkened banks of a moonlit lake nestles a quiet village. Its quiet is not one of tranquility, however, but terror. Twilight Shore is a haunted realm filled with all manner of ghoulish creatures. A gothic cathedral, dwelling of the world’s more frightening denizens, stands ominously on a hill above the village, while in the depths of the murky lake many more horrors await.