Out There (2014)

I felt like the game is random, I made choices hoping those are the right choices because I had no idea what was going on.

Random alien says something Disapprove - Approve I have 50% chance of getting this right.

Random thing happens. What to do? I have no idea, I have no knowledge nor information. I just pick an option and hope for the best.

I jump from solar system to solar system, I run out of this or that because none of the planets have what I wanted. Sh!t happens, my equipment is broke, I can't fix it.

I tried a few times, never got to the end. I did not enjoy the gameplay, it felt random. I deleted it.

If you enjoy the game, and do it over and over again, I am sure you will remember the good choices, this is just not fun for me.

A space-traveling rogue-like sound like a treat, but I have to admit than in about 10-15 play-throughs at Normal difficulty, I've had fewer interesting (and sometimes agonizing) decisions to make than dead-end deaths where my fuel ran out, or my Oxygen. The basic gameplay loop is jump to a star system, move around the planets and try to collect resources (with a minimal UI), rinse and repeat. the occasional discoveries are what prevents it from being utterly boring and the alien race encounters intrigue. However, I found that I was the victim (or fortunate recipient) of luck most times, and that strategizing was not really an option.

Lo and behold, on my first play-through on Easy I managed to get much farther into the game and finding advanced technologies (and especially bigger ships) allowed me some control over my fate. Even the random events were getting familiar. Surprisingly, in this play-through I also got to the/an end, which was semi-satisfying.

I found the lack of explanation on how things work in the game (certain technologies, outcome probabilities, alien languages) leaned too far into "explore the unknown", requiring repeated boring attempts at the game in order to figure out.

I just recently installed all these emulators for DS, GBA, PS1, N64 and PSP on my phone. They run really smooth, with speed throttling and savestates! I like that also since I have an LG G2 phone, where the volume buttons and on/off buttons are in the middle of the back of the phone, when I hold my phone like a controller I can press one of the buttons for speed throttling without moving my thumbs, so I can move around and progress in fast forward mode. :D

Sadly, I can only play Danganronpa for psp under specific settings with choppy sound otherwise it will not work, but most other games have been pretty smooth. Jean D' arc, Disgaea 1 and 2, Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman, ZHP Unlosing Ranger, etc. I think I will try and beat FF2 on my phone. Probably the GBA version though.

Also, in other phone game news, Out There Omega is pretty darn fun. It is sort of like FTL without the combat system. So you are left adrift in space and you hop from solar system to solar system, drilling and probing for resources. 1/3 times you get an interaction sequence where depending on your choices you will be rewarded with new tech or penalized with damage or resource loss.

The resource system is sort of cumbersome, but I think that might be part of the fun. Every resource is represented by its periodic table abbreviation. There are about 20 or so different resources. Certain combinations allow you to craft specific tech you have blueprints for. Others will fuel your ship, oxygen, or repair the hull. Some ships take different types of resources to refuel and repair.

The entire journey requires maybe 50 or so jumps, but along the way you find other things like aliens who make you promises to help you if you stop by their designated area, and other human colonies that tried to expand.

You also come across abandon ships maybe 1/20 solar hops, and you are given the option of switching ships. Each ship you come across is usually better than the one you're currently using, but sometimes the different resources required to repair the ship may be out of your grasp.

I actually came upon a human colonist ship full of human survivors left in cryogenic stasis. The colonist ship required W (tungsten) to repair. As I transferred the resources over I dropped it and foolishly clicked the verify button. There goes my ship upgrade. There goes the lives of over 300 survivors in cryogenic stasis I could have delivered home! GAH!

Fallout Shelter is also apparently out for Android now. Going to try it out tonight.