Ostranauts

This game is one of the best I have plaid in years. Its a super creative idea that combines a lot of fun intricate gameplay in a way that doesnt feel overwhelming. So far, I have focused on the salvage and shipbuilding aspects of the game. It can be played in a really relaxed way while still being spiced up by periodic thrills of real danger. If you enjoy custom-building fortresses or vehicles, deep-space themes, dystopian cyberpunk, and/or resource management I'd say you will find something to really love here.

Its a good game. Well, there a bugs. Many of them actually. Not release Cyberpunk 2077 but more like todays Cyberpunk 2077. (Fantastic game if you haven't played it, here's my cross game propaganda, play it ;) ) But maybe i just love these engineering type games too much, because even with those bugs i love this game. I spent 120 hours on my first play through and i am still going. In this game you start as a corp slave salvaging for fractions of a penny on the dollar of the stuff you bring the company. The main plot point of the game is to go from rags to riches so you quit your job take a loan and buy a ship (there are a few starter ships, some better than others). Now that the character creation is over you are let loose into the scrapyard yourself, get into your ship and start scrapping derelicts, the game features a 2D landscape that you can move around in, Flying your ship feels nice, managing the relative velocity to your target with the fuel you have sometimes needs a bit of planning, in the early game inconsequential but once you learn to love some of the other less used modules (well get to that later) and your ships get bigger (that also comes further down), planning and executing a boost that will change your trajectory to reach your target in a more favorable angle a long way later is a nice thing and feels cool to execute. Once close to your target (5km) you can then dock where you need to line up with the docking port of the to be docked ship with your own docking port, then clamp to it. This can prove rather difficult if you have a lot of cross-velocity trying to push you off. Looking at you VORB, you will get what i mean if you play the game. NOW we get to the really cool stuff, building the ship up. You have a basic ship that has life support (hopefully, not all do) When you enter a derelict you can scrap it for parts (this is the main way to do income early game and kind of your job to yourself), later new avenues of income open up but for now its scrapping. So grab your tools board a derelict and start unscrewing those juicy parts (dont forget your trusty pressure suit), like thrusters, nav consoles, fuel intakes, gas pumps, scrubbers and sooooo on... but now the magic happens. You could sell these for credits BUT you can also just build them into your own ship. This is the part i love most and is A if not THE core aspect. So grab some walls some floors some conduits for power and start expanding your own ship, just remember that more mass needs more fuel to move the same distance in the same time, but usually comes with more space so more salvage. First thing you should do is if your ship does not have an air pump with an oxygen canister attached to it, that first, definite that first. Besides that the sky is your limit, or the space in this case? Irrelevant. Let your creativity out to create a ship, that is not only nice to look at and useful but most importantly it is yours. Its not like where you buy something like a vehicle in another game where you choose between 7 rovers that all have the same stats, You can custom build the ship. You build what you need, you can create specialization out of generalists. You do the walling, flooring, cabling, every machine in there is for you to build where you want. It is YOUR ship when you're done. Things like the NAV console, the navigation terminal is a board where all modules on it are - well - modular, you can rearrange, remove and add new modules to it to create a layout and functionality you like. Some modules are essentially useless in the early game, like the time advance view of the solar system, in the early game serving little use but it becomes a vital tool for interplanetary travel. The reactor, Perhaps one of my favorite things in the game, the modular reactor (the parts used for its functionality are) by objective standards not the greatest and in-depth part of the game but i have a weakness for such machines. Knobs and buttons, so many knobs and buttons. While operation is simple and takes 10 seconds max once you're just going through it on a routine, it feels nice to generally press these buttons in the whole game actually and turn dials. If you get into interplanetary freight, remember that thirteen helium-3 tanks and one deuterium tank is the ratio that will get you the farthest, i read 12.7 : 1 to be more precise. Lets talk about a part i wish was more fleshed out (besides the fusion reactor mechanics), logic. LOGIC, in the sense of, Machine A do this when Machine B does that, example: Oxygen pump turn on when oxygen sensor triggers alarm. This is about the depth of the logic system, there are wire boxes that allow for logical comparisons like "AND" or "OR" but the applications are currently limited, you cant for example wire it to a door to get a signal if its open or closed to create automatic airlocks. Which i find a large missed opportunity. I should mention there is AI crew you can hire, buuuuuuut i dont have enough experience (2 minutes before reloading a save) to talk about them. But what i can say is that there is a social system in the game, it is a life noir after all. So maybe besides helping with work they can be of use as emotional sandbags too. I am in the mid to late game i think, I left scrapping behind and now do interplanetary bulk freight (one of many other ways to make a living). While solo is probably not the intended way to play the game, it is the way i choose and its working out good enough :) Thanks for reading :3