Waking Mars
Platform games aren’t at the top of my list - mainly because of their limited world, low replayability and (many of them) being highly linear - however, Waking Mars is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve been playing lately, and for me, one of the best platform games to date. Its sci-fi/ Mars setting and artwork caught my attention; but it was the goal of creating and encouraging an ecosystem within the Red Planet that sold me on it.
The story is simple and straightforward, but it is intelligently executed and really intriguing. Character development is little, but just right. There are no enemies, only yourself, the ‘flauna’ and the environment - but you might be surprised at just how much of a threat you can pose to yourself. The goals are laid out before you in a no-nonsense manner: you are exploring, searching, gathering, manipulating, creating, and de-constructing to create, in a more favourable way to the environment’s (and your) needs. There is something to be said for balance, and you learn by trial and error; but don’t worry, there is nothing that you can’t undo - though it may require a measure of patience.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Exploration Games.
Hard science fiction is a rare guest in video games. Not having any evil aliens or cool laser-shooting guns isn’t a good premise for dynamic action. Luckily, Waking Mars isn’t actually aiming at cheap thrills or fast-paced shooting, but rather prefers to be a meditative journey and succeeds at it.
The year is 2093, player takes the role of Liang, chinese astronaut, taking part in international planetary mission to Mars, studying life that was discovered in an underground cavern system. If the thought of some green evil aliens pointing their death-ray guns had crossed your mind at this point, shoo it away. Or maybe you’ve thought of some ancient ruins, secure vaults,containing secrets of advanced precursors? You’re wrong again. Life that has been discovered is rather primitive. It is a strange kind of hybrid between plants and animals. It’s called Zoa. Not much is known about these species; you will be the first and only human to make contact with it and observe it in its natural habitat.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
The Fall
Disclaimer: I have a credit on this game. My opinion is biased, but perhaps the passion that drove me to get involved says something in itself.
Last year I put my support behind a crowdfunding campaign for the first part of an episodic action adventure game blending light metroidvania gameplay with the kinds of puzzles you might find in point and click adventures, created by Over The Moon Games . At the time, I’d not heard of John Warner nor Over The Moon Games, but The Fall’s premise caught my attention and as I got to know John, I knew that my instincts had pointed me in the right direction.
– Real player with 66.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Atmospheric Games.
This is an interesting concept of a game, fairly original in some of its gameplay style, and it kept me motivated for most of my playing time…sadly this didn’t last too long. I mean, not the motivation but the game itself didn’t last too long.
And i don’t mean it just talking about the amount of hours playing time, but the game itself is not finished. That’s one of the big bad surprises that awaits you when playing it.
When you buy a game called “The Fall” and that’s it, no “episode 1” or “first part” or “some day in the future of the universe we will finish this game” you really don’t have a clue that you are buying just the first part of an unfinished game.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
![Event[0]](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/470260/header.jpg)
Event[0]
I’ll admit it: I fully bought the hype for Event[0]. It ticked off so many boxes for me: a (potentially) malevolent AI, a derelict spacecraft, beautiful graphics and design, a well written, alternate-history plot, and the ship AI responds coherently to things that you ask of it? By typing things to it? Does this game really have a semi-unscripted dialogue tree? I was sold.
In the end I did get all of these things with my purchase, but each to a lesser degree than I was hoping for. Things started off really well: the opening sequence of the game sets the stage, hinting at the world you’re about to enter and infusing your character with a bit of backstory. I was excited to start, and my first interaction with the AI was amazing: I typed something out into a terminal, and the world responded accordingly! Wonderful.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Atmospheric Games.
I have won a giveaway contest with US$ 20 in steam credits, so I chose this game which was on my wishlist. Original idea with an AI interface, gorgeous graphics, and it had a Linux version! Bottom line though, it disappointed me on all these points.
Before I explain it, the summary:
PROS:
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Gorgeous graphics
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Good soundtrack
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Original idea
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Spacewalking is quite good
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Comfortable typing interface
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Moderately interesting puzzles
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Good time-saving feature where the game writes down the passwords and important strings for you.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
P·O·L·L·E·N
Of note: I played this on a regular screen, no VR. So I can only review that.
Pros:
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Great retro-futuristic style graphics
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Interesting sci-fi story
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Cool secrets and collectables
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A detailed world that feels real
Cons
- A few bugs, crashes, and optimisation issues, but mostly well polished.
My Score: 8/10
If you like the kind of game where you can just take your time to explore, read lore, find secrets, then you’ve come to the right place.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Game: P·O·L·L·E·N
Genre: Atmospheric First-person Exploration Game
Developer: Mindfield Games
Publisher: Mindfield Games
_This game wasn’t played using a VR headset.
Copy supplied by developer_
P·O·L·L·E·N is an atmospheric first-person exploration game developed and published by Mindfield Games. The closest comparison that you can make with this game is Gone Home.
STORY
You play as the sole member of a rescue team who is sent to the moon of Saturn Titan to help the scientists in Station M who have been having some problems. However, when you get there, there is no one to be found. What happened here? Where is everybody? You will (mostly) find an answer to these questions.
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
Captain Disaster in: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots
I had fun playing the free prequel “Dark side of the moon”, and I thought of giving this one a try. It’s a very different game. Much more polished in many ways.
The visuals are very consistent, increasing in quality as you reach the climax, which is very rewarding. The story has a lot more work, with more developed characters and references to the prequel. The music fits perfectly and sets the mood. finally, it’s really rare to solve a puzzle by chance, or have to do pixel hunting. Almost every puzzle can be solved by applying logic. The dialogs go on the same line as the prequel, with tons of pop culture references, and a bit of breaking the third wall, plus tons of comedy everywhere, as you can probably guess from the title and the trailer. You can tell there is quite a bit of work leaving enough hints for the player to solve the puzzles when stuck.
– Real player with 23.3 hrs in game
This is a delightful game that uses a traditional point and click interface. It has all the elements of a successful adventure… witty dialog, funny cut-scenes, well acted voice-overs, a silly story, quests with obscure solutions, and a hero you can’t help but like. In a word, it is just plain fun to play!
You control Captain Disaster as he navigates the cosmos, picking up and delivering a package. What should be a simple errand sets off a chain events that will keep you smiling through the entire game. Cultural references are constant and puzzles range from easy (if you are paying attention to the clues) to obtuse. In the end, I never minded ‘try this, try that’ problem solving because the accompanying narrative kept me entertained.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Episode 1: MissionKT
Just before a meteor crash triggers the ultimate demise of dinosaurs you have a chance to play MissionKT and explore their world. Discover how much stardust you have inherited from T-Rex. Complete a series of quests. Find the hidden treasure. Interact with dinosaurs. Escape from Earth before the meteor seals your fate. Single player and 1-4 player versions to play with friends and family.
Episode 1: MissionKT follows the four-member CREW of the Cosmic Egg (time, space, and size-change travel ship) as they visit the dinosaur extinction era to find out how much STARDUST (atoms) they inherited from the Last T-Rex. They are in the Cosmic Egg when the killer asteroid hits the earth and they return to Earth to learn why the land dinosaurs died and why some species survived.
Insiders
Pros:
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Nice concept, nice cut scene.
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Exotic story.
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Gameplay, graphic, sound track, sound effect are not so bad.
Cons:
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Game progress is very slow at begin you must do many quest to get new gears. (doesn’t mean mining or crafting for me)
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Enemies are really hard to fight for beginner. (no problem when you equipped with end game gears)
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Your ship will flying very slow at begin, and the story line are quest running.
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Seem the game are in development.
I need to say something to developers. Did you try your game before release ?
– Real player with 46.9 hrs in game
I started playing this when arteries was the only map available. The game has come a long ways, the new maps have been enjoyable, and while they still have some things to work on and bugs to crush, I’ve found myself enjoying what is very much like a space / aircraft fighter game with resource harvesting.
Also, if you are a fan of movies like Innerspace or Fantastic Voyage, you may find yourself sucked into this even easier.
– Real player with 45.6 hrs in game
Inua - A Story in Ice and Time
#### A mystical game in Canadian far north
Inua is a mystical narrative adventure spanning several time periods in the Canadian far north.
Follow the story of Taïna, Peter and Simon, three characters separated by more than a century but whose destinies are mysteriously intertwined with Nanurluk, the great polar bear.
10 000 thousand years ago, nanurluk lived peacefully with her cubs? One day, motivated by ambition and their desire to show their superiority, humans attacked her. After a long and dire hunt, Nanurluk was slain ,disturbing the balance between man and nature.
Navigate through time and instill ideas into the minds of characters to bring back harmony to the world.
#### Of time and space
Travel to the Canadian far north, navigate between the ages and interact with the past to change the present. Inua, will have you unravel space-time to solve puzzles and guide the characters. Each level is made up of several scenes that take place in the same location, but at different times. As you move from scene to scene and era to era, you will uncover events from the past. You will be able to breathe new ideas into the characters to help them overcome the obstacles that stand in their way and change the course of history.
#### An epic of historic proportion
The original and supernatural scenario of Inua is based on a very real story: that of the Franklin Expedition, a British mission in the 19th century set to explore the then unknown Arctic. Shipwreck, illness, mutiny: by gathering clues, you can shed light on the tragic destiny of this expedition, whose fate is still largely unknown..
#### Inua - A Story in Ice and Time is :
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A supernatural tale based on incredible historical facts.
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An extraordinary story inspired by Inuit spirituality, based on extensive research with Inuit artists and supervised by an Inuit author
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Original puzzles based on space and time manipulation
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A game conceived by the creators of Bury Me, my Love and Vignettes, adapted from an original story by Nathalie Frassoni and Frédéric Bouvier, under the breathtaking artistic direction of Delphine Fourneau of the Klondike collective
Lightyears from Home
Set in a solar system far from Earth, “Lightyears from Home” is a sci-fi game that puts the player in the shoes of an engineer following clues to an unknown galaxy in search of someone who had long gone missing. The story begins with the player exploring Glacier IV, a geothermal ice planet that was formerly explored by a major mining company before being abandoned due to unexplained casualties.
While a story-based metroidvania game at heart, “Lightyears from Home” will incorporate mechanics from various game genres, including survival, crafting, and RPG, to create a uniquely player-driven experience. The player faces not only the planet’s wildlife but also the environment itself, providing a constant challenge to the exploration of the game world.
Otherside
Interesting, short and surrealistic Science Fiction game. Kind of in the same vane as Fugue In Void. I actually think it’s a little too short. But what do you expect for a $1.00 and programmed by one person? Would be nice to see this in a large scale game.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Not sure what the hell I just played but it was awesome and totally worth the $1. This game would go good with mushrooms.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game