The Message from Deep Space

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this is peak, only get it if your good with doing middle school level maths (possibly greater because i havent beaten the game quite yet)

Are you the type of freak who thinks that building an alien language dictionary from first principles is fun? (Hello, friend!) If you like the [b]concept[/b] of this game, you can buy with confidence. First: yes, the game 100% sticks to the conceit: you really will be starting from nothing, creating your own dictionary for alien communication, starting purely with universal laws of math and logic, but building towards concepts you might at first think impossible: emotions, philosophy, even metaphysics. I found it awe-inspiring. It's also extremely challenging at times. Thankfully you're helped by your in-game fellow scientists, who can provide small and larger prompts with the optional 'ideas', 'hypotheses', and reference pages. I encourage you to lean on these! Unless you're a polymath, there'll be some topic area that is just too far out of your wheelhouse. (For me: I spent a [i]lot[/i] of time in the 'Chemistry' reference.) The one area I found weaker is that in the late-game, the scientist ideas and reference pages seemed to dry up a bit, right when I needed them most. I did need to cautiously search online for hints, for several sequences in the final few acts. That's a shame, because it's absolutely worth sticking through right to the beautiful ending! One thing I really didn't expect is how much [b]heart[/b] this game would have. I loved the conversations between the scientists and their gradually-revealed characters. But I [i]especially[/i] loved what emerged over the course of the translation task. It defied my expectations multiple times, and I mean that in the best way!

Stopped Playing during Act VIII. I found the abstract concepts where not explained in enough detail to figure out its meaning and to many similar singnals where intreduced at once without the need to do so. Why would you define 3 Different ways of saying bad to simply say death is bad. I needed to look up all translations and event with these translations i could not solve half of the messages, because knowing if they expect -156, -154, -152, or -127 is nearly impossible (nearly the same meaning). Looking in to future Solutions, i can see that most of these symbols are not used again. I think it would have been better to spend some more time exploring good and bad and going through more examples than simply something dies and that is bad. Something lives and that is good.

I love the puzzles and the setting, the banter in the (NPC) team is funny and refreshing.

the beginning will run you through a gauntlet of every high school science and math class you ever took, the ending will run you through a gauntlet of feelings

game is great ! amazing concept, characters, worldbuilding, immersion, and puzzels. really gets me thinking hard. my one and only problem is the fact it makes my computer blow up. lowest graphics settings still drains the battery like crazy. i wish there was a setting to get rid of object rendering and basically just have the 2 screens without any effects. just buttons and somewhere to type and a textbox for when characters speak. thank you for an amazing game and i hope a graphics setting like that comes out.