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| Ark 13 has a long way to go in order to make it to Titus Nova |
| Quick Info | |
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| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | Fugitive Games |
| Publisher: | Iceberg Interactive |
| Release Date: | 5 Mar 2016 |
| Time played: | 3.1 hours (INCOMPLETE) |
Not the First Time I Played
Towards the end of 2016, I purchased a lot of games, including Into the Stars which had a whopping 70% discount, only months after it was released on Steam. This can sometimes be a warning sign, i.e. a sign of a game that didn't sell very well due to bad press, but I'm a big sucker for sci-fi games, especially ones that appear to be emulating FTL, which I did enjoy, despite its steep learning curve. Also, back in the day, I used to enjoy watching shows like "Robotech" and "Star Trek: Voyager", so the whole concept of a large starship trying to make their way safely across the galaxy, just resonates with me. The icing on the cake was that Jack Wall scored the music for the game, the same Jack Wall that wrote music for BioWare RPGs like Jade Empire and Mass Effect.
The game was originally part of a Kickstarter project and then entered Early Access on Steam. On release, the game received mixed reviews with a Metascore of 61. The general gaming public weren't as forgiving though: on Steam the game holds a "Mostly Negative" rating based off 38% of the 392 user reviews being rated positive. If you look up the developer, Fugitive Games, it seems like their website no longer exists.
I actually played the game several years back but wanted to give it another try so I could finally get around to reviewing it.
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| Somehow, getting to Titus Nova will ensure you're safe from the Skorn |
Star Trekkin' Across the Universe
The goal of Into the Stars is to guide your home planet's last colony ship, lucky Ark 13, to the other side of the galaxy to settle a world called Titus Nova. This is not going to be an easy task as hostile aliens are out there, waiting to attack you: in fact, these are the same aliens that are responsible for you leaving your battered home world in the first place. Also, the previous 12 Arks have all gone missing, so things are looking particularly grim.
At the beginning of the game you are given the opportunity of setting up your ship for the expedition. You can choose one of the presets (i.e. "Combat", "Balanced" or "Long-Haul") or customise your setup entirely. If you choose customise, you first pick your captain and besides picking a portrait and name, you also have to pick their background which will confer certain benefits: a Military Officer background gives better combat rolls while a Scavenger background means you're able to carry more back during resource gathering missions. A Civil Engineer background will allow quicker construction of civilian buildings and a Survivalist background means you're just, well, lucky in every situation.
Then it's on to picking your ship components. You can pick life support systems, protein sequencers, engines, shuttles, mining equipment, weapons and shields. They all have different costs and some are more efficient than others. They all run on different resources too, the same resources you will be able to mine from planets such as Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Hydrogen and Magnesium. It's probably wise that you load some of these resources on your Ark, especially ones that act as fuel for all your systems!
You also get to pick your senior staff from a pool of crew members. Each crew member has different strengths and weaknesses and will have points assigned to attributes such as Engineering (influences weapons accuracy), Piloting (skills at piloting a shuttle during away missions) and Medical (effectiveness at healing others). Their proficiencies have an influence on how successful you are at combat, dealing with domestic issues and away missions.
Once you've picked your captain, ship components and crew, it's time to take your Ark… into the stars (see what I did there? Yeah sorry, not sorry).
Home is Where the Ark Is
So the first thing you'll probably notice when playing this game is that the graphics are, well, passable. The game is almost a decade old now so the graphics are starting to look dated but were probably just fine back in the mid 2010s. What you'll also notice is that Jack Wall has done amazing job with the soundtrack: it definitely has a retro 70s/80s sci-fi feel to it and reminds me of space music (the genre) or music by electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre.
In terms of the gameplay, you control your slowly meandering spaceship through a huge section of space split up into various sectors with ones likely to attract the attention of hostile aliens highlighted on the map. The game has a very similar reward vs risk mechanic to FTL where loitering around planets or derelict ships could grant you useful items or resources but you also run the risk of getting into a fight. When you visit planets on your way to Titus Nova, you can send away teams to gather valuable items and resources. The nature of the missions will mean picking an away team with suitable skills. For example, if you are mining a planet and playing the mining mini-game, having someone with high Mining skill will make things easier for you. Likewise, having a crew member with good piloting skills will ensure everyone returns home in one piece.
Just like the SDF-1 in the old animated TV show "Robotech" (which in turn is based off the Japanese "Macross"), Ark 13 is actually a floating city in space. You're responsible for the welfare of its citizens and in gameplay terms, they work like a sort of health bar. If all of your citizens perish, it's game over. Obviously, the ship being attacked by a hostile alien force is one of the ways you can suffer casualties but the more mundane tasks of ensuring there is enough food on the table or air to breathe will be a frequent headache. Riots and crime waves can also break out amongst the population and this is where officers with high Command scores can help settle disputes.
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| A high Mining skill will make this mining mini-game easier |
Don't Detach Me Now!
So, when I mentioned that your ship "slowly" meanders through space, I really mean it: the ship is so damn slow. This doesn't help because the gameplay loop itself is kind of boring to be honest. On paper, a game that simulates "Star Trek: Voyager" or "Robotech" sounds like a great concept, and the 1999 game Homeworld was a big success for its day. But Homeworld was an RTS and this is not. The game seems to have a lot of dice rolls and menu screens. There is a lot of reading of text and stats and not really much in the way of animation besides the ship slowly meandering through space, a cut-scene that plays when you land on a planet and the mining mini-game. It's almost as if they ran out of budget or ideas and while you can definitely appreciate the beauty of space you feel detached from everything else. I think the game would've benefited from a more consistent style, even if they adopted a snappy, cartoon style found in many indie games, instead of trying to go for a realistic approach.
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| The city and its inhabitants are what you want to ultimately protect |
In Space Noone Can Hear Your Stomach Grumble
Ultimately, the fact the game is boring pales in comparison to what I believe is a game-breaking bug. As mentioned before, worrying about food and air is critical and something you'll be dealing with, a lot. You run out of these resources very quickly, even if you give your citizens half-rations. In the few games I played, there were times that I did finally manage to secure more resources to run my food sequences and life support, but it didn't do anything! The population kept decreasing at the same rate until everyone died and it was game over. Others have commented about this issue too so I'm not the only one to have experienced it. I don't know if it happens everytime or I'm just one of the lucky ones, but if gathering resources has no effect on the death rate of your citizens and you don't have enough time to get to the new planet, doesn't that mean every trip is doomed from the start? What is the incentive to playing then? There isn't one. Which is why I can't recommend the game in its current state. Unfortunately it also seems unlikely the game will ever be fixed since the developer Fugitive Games don't exist anymore.
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5
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A decent enough idea on paper, Into the Stars has okay graphics and a fitting soundtrack by renowned composer Jack Wall. However, a plethora of text and numbers, and little in the way of actual gameplay means this game turns out to be rather boring. Worse, there are certain situations you can stumble upon where the game is unbeatable, not because you made poor choices, but because it's broken. |
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