The Message from Deep Space

The best game i've ever had the pleasure of playing. It will forever hold a special place in my heart, the same place as Outer Wilds and Return Of The Obra Dinn.

so peak omgosh

This is a really wonderful and surprisingly moving game. I've always enjoyed reading about SETI projects to build a shared vocabulary using frequency modulation and didn't realize that what I really wanted was to decode such a message until I played this game. I was completely absorbed from beginning to end. I did find the non-gameplay NPC dialog a bit annoying, although I suspect the game would feel empty with it turned off. The dialog scroll also takes up a fair bit of time and doubles the amount of clicks to get through if you read faster than the scroll.

Really unique puzzle game. If you like hard sci-fi like Children of Time or or The Three-Body Problem, or if the premise just sounds interesting, give it a try. I like that the game never tells you the "right" interpretation of any word, it's up to you to understand the message. And by the end it's super satisfying to be able to read full complex sentences using only the vocabulary you personally defined. I like the music and other members of the translation team. Their occasional ideas and the weekly meetings make it feel like you're actually part of a science team decoding the message. I'm not too big on the low-poly, glitches, and scanlines art style, but it wasn't too distracting. The whole game could be just text so whatever. It has kind of a reverse difficulty curve, where you spend the beginning doing math and chemistry problems, but it eventually gets easier as you define more words. But that's just the nature of the problem I suppose.

I don't leave a lot of reviews, I don't typically share my opinion, much like the protagonist, me ... do I got this game because it scratched the itch I had after watching "Project Hail Mary" or "3 Body Problem", and I played because I liked the challenge. Along the way this game fundamentally changed the way that I communicate with others or think about broad concepts in language. This game increased my IQ by 10 points. I stayed for the incredibly endearing insights on philosophy. If you're reading this and considering getting it, do it. I want you to know that it will challenge every part of your knowledge, but the payout is worth it. I also want you to know that cheating is okay-- I would be lying if I said I didn't look up the answer about 2 dozen times. What's important is that you can comprehend your own translation.

Amazing game, loved it so much. I finished it in three days non-stop, couldn't stop thinking about it, thank you for making it!!!!!

Some of the puzzles are a bit iffy (especially puzzle 100) but I'm enjoying it