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| Redshirt, the game that couldn't get 3.5 stars on GOG by skip 02/08/2014, 11:54pm PST | ||||
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| I got this thing on one of the bundle sales, because RPS said it was worth few bucks. RPS sometimes exaggerates to support the indie crowd. Everyplace you look has given this thing an average 6/10 including fucking GOG where Daikatana gets 2.5 stars. The basic premise is that you are a lowly Redshirt working their way up the career ladder, maintaining friendships/relationships, working on skills, and trying to keep a work/life balance. This is all done through the ship's social network, Spacebook, modeled after FB. Occasionally, you'll be sent on away missions and most of your party will die. Meanwhile, a timer ticks down to a "big event" that nobody except high ranking officers are allowed to leave for, so you better be a high-ranking officer before that day comes. It's basically a more structured Kudos.
Pros: - Interesting concept for a game and I can forgive a lot for an interesting concept - I have a soft spot for any sci-fi - Sound is fine and the music is reminiscent of old sci-fi soundtracks - There's a lot of sci-fi in-jokes referencing Star Wars, Star Trek, HHGTTG, etc. They're not obnoxious and unless you know the reference, you probably won't even notice it. It's pandering, but a title called "Redshirt" so who can be annoyed? - The mechanics of strengthening social relationships is clear. The characters who will want to go to a particular social event will be highlighted. It's also obvious when a character is basically too cool for you. Whatever: - The art is serviceable. The faces and drawings are all flat and lifeless, but were bad in such a bland way that it's hard to care about it. - There's a sliding scale for gender or you don't have to pick one at all, if you care about that stuff. Cons: - It's never clear what the point of adjusting all the dials in the beginning is. Quirkiness raises everyone's likelihood of befriending others and going to events not interests. The other sliders go down, but it's stuff like bigotry (how likely species will comingle) or chattiness (their update frequency). Why would you want that stuff increased? Is your own species more likely to friend you then? It's not clear form the descriptions at all what the pluses of those things are. - You are at such a huge advantage of being bisexual there's no point in being anything else. - You are also at such a huge advantage of being the sexy green alien woman, that attracts friend requests and relationship requests like crazy so there's no point in being anything else - Based on the above two, the only reasonable way to win is to suck up to every boss of the next career rank so they'll hire you whether or not you have the right rank in skills. You can also buy a ticket off the station but you won't be able to save enough money since you'll have to replenish your happiness with activities and repair stuff. You can also hook up with a commanding officer, but by the time you even are able to talk to the officers you'll be such a high rank yourself that it's easier to just sleep your way to the last job rank. You can earn enough skills to get there, theoretically, but again, you'll be spending so much time responding to Spacebook bullshit and trying to keep your health/happiness up that it's not feasible. This also means there's zero replayability. - Your happiness or physical health takes huge hits as you climb the career ladder. What fucking sense does that make? I'm in a cushy supervisor job, why is my happiness taking a bigger blow then why I shoveled radioactive waste? Okay, it's stressful in its own way, but they should've come up with some other stat to reflect that instead of making it seem like a desk job is more miserable than wading through the ship's sewage pipes - Most of the stuff that you can buy to help buff up stats or happiness/health breaks after a few days. Why is the decorate knife or bonzai tree I bought breaking? They all break at different intervals, so it's not like you can just tick off what you want to fix every Saturday. When you don't fix them in time, you have to pay the sticker price to fix them. Oh and the game doesn't tell you until after they're fully broken so you have to check manually everyday if anything is close to needing repairs.The most useful items are the low-level ones because they're so cheap to fix and still give comparable stats to the higher priced ones. I've never played SS2 but I now understand fully why the breaking guns sucked so hard. - Whoever designed this had no idea how social relationships work. Why am I losing happiness when I refuse a relationships request or defriend someone 6 social ranks below me? This game was made by nerds who like to think all social relationships are equal, but the high school kids who made fun of them knew better and I think deep down, they do too. I should be casually shucking of lower ranking friends as I start to schmooze with the big boys. If anything they should desperately want to hang out with me. But that would require a more thoughtful handling and knowledge of social relationships beyond reading the Wikipedia page on Dunbar's number. And that's what really kills the game. It sticks incredibly closely to FB's layout, to its detriment. Why can't this futuristic social network have a dislike button? Why can't I just wholesale block entire ranks of people whose job score is lower than mine? Why is't there a way to see your overall reputation (funny, easy, asshole) beyond your social rank? Why can't I threaten people? The senior officers don't care when we're killed on away missions, so they sure as shit won't care if I throw a space-horse head in a bed. This may also be a reflection of the mounting sensitivity about death threats game devs have (to themselves), but it wouldn't reflect how a minimum-wage cut-throat would get ahead. There's so little difference playing a deadly space-octopus vs sexy green alien vs. robot because the interface flattens all interactions into "like" buttons or messages that range from "OMG let's hang out" to "OMG, Why haven't we hung out. :(" It's just such a dull simulation game. Papers. Please let everyone know that they could make a game about an average worker less fun and now we're all stuck with it. |
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