What have we here?
A solar prominence is a stunning sight in astronomical imagery; an eruption of amazingly hot material from the surface of the Sun. One would assume, the laws of physics being constant across the observable universe, that such events also take place on other stars.
So knowing all this, I was already suspicious of what the situation was going to be in a game of the same name: Prominence.


Notes from a short journey
Prominence is a point and click adventure game in a first person perspective. It's a while since I've come across one of those where the locations are 360 degree bubbles, but that's what the developers have chosen for this one. However, in contrast with older games in this style, the locations are rendered in high resolution, and they're generally closer together than before too. It didn't take long for me to forget about the bubbles and think of them as stepping stones instead.
The story of Prominence begins with an explanation that you're part of a Letarri mission to establish a colony on a new world. However, the game begins when you wake up, seemingly alone, in the medical bay of high tech, futuristic space base, but the lights are dim, and things aren't working well.
As every good sci-fi geek knows, the first priority in any high tech disaster zone is to get power, life support and communications up and running. That's certainly the way I approached the beginning of the game. Whilst trying to avoid spoiling what happens, once the base's systems are in better condition, the game interface gets some interesting additions. To put it simply, Google Glass has nothing on what the Letarri can do with their computers!
The look of Prominence sticks quite closely to the smooth lines and holographic graphic aesthetic of the Star Trek family of science fiction. We're not in the Wild West of space (like Firefly) or a slightly Steam-Punkish Mid West (like Star Wars). However, not everything can be fixed by asking the computer to do it for you. There's real work to be done.
The puzzles in the early part of the game include inventory puzzles, and logic puzzles. This game is about more than 'find key card A' and 'get the spanner from B'. You need to pay attention to how things work, and think ahead.
Having said that you're alone in the beginning of the game does not tell the whole story of course, and though I've not played more than a few hours of Prominence, there are other voices in the story.


Jumping to conclusions?
First of all, this First Look is based upon a pre-release, press demo, which came with notes on how the game will contain more interactive content, as well as telling a much longer story. However, the content I did see left me in no doubt that Prominence will be a very intriguing game, and I hope there will be more twists and surprises along the lines of those in this demo. (Oh how I want to say more about those, but I won't).
Finally, I have to say, I'm looking forward to the eventual release of Prominence; it's a very promising game.