Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game

Скучная, пустая, урезанная РПГшка. Вы где видели, чтобы в игре нельзя было пройти самый первый сюжетный квест, не зачищая почти полностью все побочные задания 1-ой главы игры? Т.е. без всякой сюжетной затравки вас берут и отправляют зачищать побочные задания в локации. От них (почти от всех), кстати, отказываться нельзя. Вы обязаны помогать каждой рядовой кукле, с которой начали диалог. Ведь иначе вы просто не сможете пройти по сюжету. Мотивации что-либо делать у героя вообще нет. Просто рядовой бездомный с помойки, который вдруг решил "А убью ка я сегодня сотню человек". И все диалоги этого "героя" сводятся к "Я брать задание" и "Заплати мне". Уже на этом этапе играть неинтересно, сюжета мне не дали, мотивации не дали, чего-то интересного или хотя бы живого не показали. Но в добавок к этому игра ещё и душит игрока. Система прокачки: 1. Меткость оружия ближнего боя зависит от Восприятия, ни от Силы, ни от Ловкости. Вроде бы холодное оружие в игре есть, но билд через него будет слабее того же билда через Дробовики. 2. Харизма - не просто имбовейший стат игры, но и портящий тебе игру при низком значении. Что даёт харизма: Больше членов отряда, Возможность скипать бои, Возможность выучить ощутимые бонусы на всю группу и Улучшает настроение напарников, которое увеличивает скорость прокачки их навыков. А теперь, представим, что вы захотели играть за персонажа без харизмы. Да, вам придётся участвовать во всех сражениях, да, у вас будет меньше членов отряда. Но самое главное, у ваших напарников будет изначально плохое настроение, а это даст ощутимый штраф к прокачке навыков. Да, из-за вашей необщительности, ваш напарник плохо учится стрелять, носить броню, уклоняться и так далее. Что за бред?! 3. Боевая репутация. Вот вы уже играете через низкую Харизму. Вам приходится часто сражаться. Ваша репутация любителя сражений растёт. И что? Из-за этого вы получаете ещё больше штрафа к настроению напарников. Что?! А значит ваши напарники ещё медленней прокачивают навыки стрельбы, ношения брони, уклонения и так далее. Чем вы чаще сражаетесь, тем хуже напарники качаются. Бред же. Более того, этот штраф работает и на напарников, которые прямым текстом одобряют решение вопросов силой! "Как же круто, сейчас снесём несколько голов! Но качаться я буду хуже, потому что у тебя репутация любителя сносить головы!" А?! 4. Напарники сразу же раскачены хуже встречаемых противников, уже прямо с 1-ой главы. Вот нам дают Джеда. И что? Меткость, уклонение, инициатива у него хуже наших противников. Только броню он носит чуть лучше противников, только толку, если 1-ый же выстрел по ногам опускает уклонение до нуля?! И того выходит, либо у тебя прокачанная Харизма, и у тебя будет нормальный отряд. Либо ты играешь без Харизмы, и у тебя бесполезный набор в отряде, который не хочет ничему учиться. И это особенно проявится в душной боевой системе. Боевая система: 0, Всего 2 уровня сложности: "Простой" и "Какой игра должна быть". Разница между этим уровнями сложности в 2-3 раза (в зависимости от параметра). 1. Локации мизерные, враги могут спокойно фокусить твоего самого слабого персонажа отряда из любой точки. Тот же танк для отряда совершенно бесполезен, его просто не атакуют. 2. Вас контратакуют при беге. 3. И при этом каждый раз вы начинаете бой в центре арены, окружённые врагами. Вы на открытой местности, а враги уже рядом с укрытиями. Т.е. у вас без Харизмы персонажи и так слабее противников, плюс им в первых ход надо бежать в укрытия, ловя дополнительный урон от контратак, 4. У врагов часто высокое сопротивление против любых типов гранат. Ну т.е. как бы гранаты есть, та же светошумовая, но работают они часто на 50-90% хуже заявленных чисел. 5. Практически нулевое геймплейное разнообразие. Выстрел, быстрый выстрел, выстрел в часть тела, выстрел с умением. 6. По сути в игре и нет деление на классы. Каждый персонаж - это универсальный солдат, который должен быть сразу же хорош во всём. Толку от специализации нет. Слабого хоть в чём-то просто зафокусят командным огнём противники на мизерной арене, где он не сможет спрятаться. 7. Потерявшего сознание персонажа не спасти. Через 3 хода бой просто завершится. Хотя таймер в 3 хода - это обман, ведь это произойдёт за 2 хода, если у противника инициатива выше выбранной им цели (один ход просто скипнется из-за очереди хода). И что по итогу: Маленькие арены; Малое число умений; Высокие резисты противников и Невозможность защитить слабого. Т.е. даже и без того малое заявленное число геймплейных возможностей урезано почти до нуля, а чем меньше тактического разнообразия, тем сильнее успех боя зависит от циферок и работы генератора случайных чисел. А числа вашего отряда сильно зависят от прокачки вашей Харизмы! И того, не прокачали изначально Харизму, получили низкие числа у отряда, ваше прохождение запорото или стало в разы сложнее. Какая интересная ролевая система! Точнее её отсутствие. Итого: Совершенно пустая скучная игра со сломанной ролевой системой, с кукольными персонажами, с неживым миром, с нулевым разнообразием, с поломанной боевой системой и системной прокачки, в которой сюжет даже начаться нормально не может. Абсолютно не заслуживает своих оценок, даже как челлендж её воспринимать желания нет, лучше потратить время на что-то ещё. Дроп!

THE BREAKDOWN: +Extensive role-playing options for combat, dialogue, and stealth +A unique setting with interesting faction politics +Open-ended quests and solutions to problems -Combat feels sketchy and has random difficulty spikes -Dry writing takes the wind out of some of the more interesting concepts -Companions are not memorable and have little personality -Interface is cluttered and frequently overwhelming Colony Ship doesn't waste time emphasizing exactly what kind of game it is. Starting a new playthrough greets the player with some exposition about the setting, and then it's right into a detailed, elaborate character creation screen with dozens of options and little context as to what each means. Whether this sounds gloriously open-ended or frustratingly opaque is likely the best early sign of how much you'll enjoy this indie CRPG. Taking place in the far future, Colony Ship follows the story of a generation ship launched by a Christian fundamentalist organization towards Proxima Centauri in response to Earth's failing climate and resources. Along the way, the strict religious rules enforced by the ship became too grating for some to endure, and a mutiny took place. Though not entirely successful, the mutiny had profound effects, damaging the engines enough to slow the ship's approach and splitting the survivors into a variety of factions, the three largest of which descended from the religious zealots, the former security force, and the mutineers. Scattered throughout the failing vessel are many like the player, however - freelancers just trying to claim their share of the increasingly limited resources. When they stumble upon what might be a life-changing treasure, the player must decide who to ally with, who to support, and how to turn their discovery to their advantage. How these intricacies are navigated is very much dependent on how the player is built and who they choose to party up with. Load up with cybernetics and a rifle and become a violent enforcer, intimidating and shooting your way through problems - or focus on medical skills and persuasion and make yourself impossible to ignore through sheer charisma. All the classic options of a CRPG are present here, and to the game's credit, they have a good amount of depth. I opted for charismatic but dangerous, always arguing for a peaceful solution when possible but wearing heavy armor and a shotgun so that I could excel in close quarters if talking happened to fail me. As far as I can tell, it would have been very possible to get through the entire game without ever firing a shot with minimal save-scumming. In truth, I might have preferred to have done so, because the turn-based combat felt perfunctory at best and was frequently frustrating. Styled in the action points system of many recent tactics games, Colony Ship's ostensibly about using cover, skills, and gadgets to overcome the odds, but while I hesitate to call it poorly balanced - skill issue and all - I noticed wild spikes between one encounter and the next. On top of this, certain 'options' didn't feel like options at all; go into battle without a personal shield in the accessory slot or try to get through a group of mind worms without melee weapons and you're pretty much just forfeiting on the spot. Still, there's no lack of party members - some impossible to miss, others surprisingly well-hidden - to help support you when things get dangerous, and it's possible to become incredibly overpowered if you optimize accordingly, which has its own appeal. Unfortunately, while I applaud the game for being so extensive with its playstyle options, I'm not sure I felt the writing made occupying the eponymous colony ship as fun as it should have been. In a CRPG like this, there's a LOT of text to get through, and how much of a chore that feels like is often one of the defining measures of its quality. The setting and lore present are fascinating, as are the concepts in play - but the moment-to-moment writing and characters just didn't grip me enough to feel invested. There were some quests that defied this trend, NPCs who shined brightly enough to break the monotony, but just a few weeks after playing, I struggled to recall the names of most of the people I interacted with or their motivations. This is highly subjective, and the game's Very Positive rating on Steam includes dozens of reviews praising the plot, so I could be an outlier - but I would have liked to see more personality from my party and my protagonist. That said, the vessel itself is a compelling character; exploring the ship and studying the politics underlying it kept me consistently interested even when the people aboard didn't, so I can't say that I was bored often. From a hydroponics facility full of mutated plants to a shuttle bay filled with refugees who'd converted landing craft into improvised dwellings, there's plenty to admire about the worldbuilding. Despite its problems, Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game takes big swings, and I think it's worth exploring for those craving a new CRPG for that reason alone. While occasionally dry in places, the game prides itself on choice and consequence and follows through on these themes. While I personally found myself craving stronger characters to get attached to, as a role-playing fantasy, there's no denying that this indie effort punches above its weight.

This game is really bad in combat department, sort of okish in talking department then bad again in stealth. Enemies in this game are insane. All of them put all of their points into dodge, armor use and aim and straight cheat - my charcters cannot attack enemies in melee range with pistols and rifles, but enemies can shoot you with burst fire in melee range. Enemies do not need to put points into science, talking, sneaking, so they all have super high level of combat skills and are pimped up with combat feats. I try not to slack in combat, but cover in this game is limited and never useful because guns range is like half of the room. Combat skills level up in a snails speed. Solving one encounter by talking gives often a skill point per encounter in social skills. After few fights I did not even level up one combat skill. Let me give you an example of how unbalanced this game is - enemies just used consumables with a total value of 600 credits while all I have is 800 credits. Sure I could use consumables as well to get through this fight, but I would then be broke and unable to play finish next fight because all the loot from this fight is like 100 credits minus healing and negative modifiers from being knocked out. More nonsense of this game - enemeis who you stand in melee range are 'enganged' meaning they cannot shoot the character with most shots, BUT THEY CAN SHOOT EVERYONE ELSE AND IGNORE THE DUDE WITH HAMMER IN FRONT OF THEM ... what is the meaning of engaged then? nothing. More - enemy reaction fire triggrs left and right, sometimes every step I take, while my dudes never perform reaction fire. Even more nonsense - my crew waits for enemies to arrive, but when they fight starts, my crew is all out of cover while all enemies start in cover surrounding my team -> my crew are a bunch of noobs. Weapons are armors in the game are a flat curve and z zero sum game. You find a new gun with does 1 more dmaage than the previous one - major gain? Nope, because next enemy you fight will have 1 more armor and 10 more dodge - good luck. It takes the same amount of time to kill a guy on level 1 like on level 6 which makes gear system obsolite. Unless you do not have any other RPGs with turn base combat - do not buy this one. As for stealth - turn base stealth just doesn't work (unless in invisible inc where they tell you where enemies will move). Trying to complete a stealth mission without making a stealth base character with lots of stealth feats is pointless in this game.

Look at that! 50 hours! Maaan, I tried. I tried to like it because I adore games like Wasteland, Shadowrun, etc. There is just so much that went wrong with the leveling mechanics in Colony Ship. Wanna be a BAMF in combat? Get ready to piss off even the sweetest people and clear out half the population of the game. Wanna talk your way out of stuff? Get ready for no combat at. The middle-ground doesn't really exist. Never encountered a game where save-scumming is guaranteed.

This game tries too much to be like original fallout but fails miserably. it pretends to be hard but in reality it's just unbalanced and uninteresting. Too much random, too underpowered heroes, too complex fights, peaceful ways blocked by too high stat requirements etc etc etc. In the end you just feel constantly annoyed by the fact you need to fight the game developers instead of enjoying the game.

This game had two things going for it that I really liked: It was very similar to the 'Shadowrun Returns' series of games and it was about a generation ship (one of my favorite SCI-FI concepts). I completed my playthrough in about thirty hours (a few hours of that was attempting the same combat many times because I did not build my party well for battle). The story was a great exploration of humanity and the tangled web that four hundred years of history living in such close quarters would create. If you're looking for game with min-maxing and lots of combos and strategic depth of combat I would caution you temper those expectations. However, it is entertaining all the way through and I was feeling compelled to try and explore every corner of the ship (of which I know I missed a few).

Thoroughly enjoyable as an RPG to lose yourself to for 40 hours. Fun character building, looting, and a good story with memorable other characters. While some may enjoy the consequences of doing things in an "non-optimal" order or missing out on content they did not discover initially, I do not, and so I made use of a reddit thread that spoiler-free recommends which order to do certain areas (https://www.reddit.com/r/ColonyShip/comments/17sxnq5/order_of_area_exploration_advice_for_new_players/). RPG'ers not familiar with Iron Tower games should also look up some build guides (steam community). I highly suspect that knowing which skills to max from the beginning of a build for which characters, and then sticking to it (maxing a few skills instead of going for an all-rounder approach) is actually the "intended" way to play. I have no problem with this in design or execution, but it may be a stumbling block to new players.

I've finished my first full playthrough, and am stoked to play through it again. 1) Setting/Story There's no shortage of dystopias in the RPG genre, but to my knowledge this is the first PC RPG to make use of the generation ship setting. Dialog, various artifacts, the sort of items you find, and of course the structure of the ship itself all reinforce the claustrophobic decrepitude of the setting. 2) Presentation It's an indie game, but I think the graphics are beautiful, with each section of the ship looking distinct and the enemies looking suitably ominous/disgusting. Sound, however, is minimal even by the standards of indie games - ambient sounds in particular seem peculiarly scarce. This isn't a dealbreaker for me by any means, but YMMV. No cutscenes (which I at least love), and all voicelines are text only (which I prefer, being a quick reader). 3) Mechanics This is an RPG in which you can't do everything, and you need to specialize, as you level skills by using them. This lends itself to replayability. For my first playthrough, I went pretty hard on speech and utility, and somewhat into stealth, leaving me with poor combat skills. Like the first Deus Ex (a game I was often reminded of while playing) almost every problem has multiple paths to solve it. If blasting your way in isn't possible, maybe hack the turrets? Stealth past? Do some wheeling and dealing? This flexibility is nice, as the combat is challenging - although it is fair. Once you learn how things work, you can figure out what gear to bring to particular fights, whether you have the right skills to consider a particular encounter, and so on. An excellent game, which requires much more effort to learn than most modern mainstream RPGs, but far less than say, Underrail.