TALES OF COSMOS

 

Genre:    Adventure 

Developer & Publisher:   Red Dwarf Games             

Released:   October 2016             

Requirements (minimum):

    • OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3
    • Processor: Dual-core 2 GHz processor
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 310 or equivalent graphics card
    • DirectX: Version 9.0c
    • Storage: 300 MB available space

Additional screenshots

 

 

By flotsam

 

Tales of Cosmos

Red dwarf Games

Meet Perseus and Professor Gagayev, the former a dog, the latter a monkey (I think) and both of them astronauts. Stranded on Chlorine Beach in unchartered space after a shuttle malfunction due to a mysterious magnetic field, the intrepid duo must find a new way to wend their way around the cosmos and escape their predicament.

Slap bang in the middle of their predicament is the giant planet Novoclad, impenetrable when first discovered, but clearly the source of the difficulty.

Their corner of the galaxy is a charming place. Six or seven other planets and moons are to be discovered, some with other stranded spacefarers, some with local denizens just going about their planetary business. They might chirp, or bark, or squeak with Perseus, who will bark at you, helpfully subtitled in the human language of your choice. In that regard it is readily accessible to speakers of many languages, there being no spoken word whatsoever.

The look and design appealed enormously. Each planet or location is different, from the almost inviting world of Chlorine Beach, to the complete black nothing of Object 72, the moonscape of Tyrus or the “dark and stormy night” vista of Clades. Some are stark and barren, others not so, with structures and objects dotted across the landscape. Some are small, taking little time to circumnavigate, others rather large, and piloting your spaceship around the planet offers a more timely way of getting from A to B. All hand drawn, they provide an engaging game world.

Despite their differences, each planet is presented in an intriguing and unique way (I certainly haven’t come across it before). Describing it won’t do it justice – better to have a look at the screen shots - but I will give it a go.

Round and round

As we know, planets and moons are spheres, and so they are here, albeit two dimensionally. Land on one and regardless of size, the curvature of the world is apparent.  Land on a largish one, and you will be looking front on at a sizeable portion of your planet. It will be in the foreground occupying, say, the bottom two thirds of the screen, curving gently left and right, with the background of space visible at the top of screen. Moving Perseus or the Professor left or right will effectively cause the planet to spin in that direction, enabling you to explore the environment. Save for a barrier or two, on most planets you will eventually end up where you started, having effectively circumnavigated the globe.

Land on a small one and the same principle is deployed, but you will be able to see a lot more of it at a time, and the planet itself will occupy a smaller part of your screen. With the smallest planet you can see the whole thing, as it hovers in the centre with space all around.

It is different, and it works, portraying a real sense of size and scale. This is further accentuated by the spaceflights between planets, which require you to literally fly your ship through the emptiness.

To do that will require you to fashion a new spaceship on Chlorine Beach. Once you can take off, your little rocket ship can explore, but will be primarily interested in the directional markers that appear at the edge of the screen, indicating something is worth visiting in that direction. It is invariably a planet or moon, but is certainly something you can land on or dock with. Each has a little number gauge indicating how far away the particular thing currently is, and they aren’t stationary, changing in orientation as you fly around. Once the particular location is visited, that particular marker will identify the name of the location from that point on, making navigation back and forth that much more deliberate.

I said space was empty, but it isn’t sterile. Objects float by, there can be swirling colour, and a minimalist but haunting soundtrack might be deployed. Planets might be quiet, or again have a background track, with other effects depending on the nature of the planet itself. Minimalistically grand is how I would describe the aural landscape, and when added to the visuals I found it rather excellent.

Forward and back

You explore the outer portion of the planet, with some amount of movement forward and back but generally left to right. Occasionally you will find holes or doors you can enter that might lead to a room or tunnel system. When that happens, only that location is visible, the rest of the screen being blank, giving a feeling of being inside something smaller.

Perseus is engaging, possibly even cute, small but determined, and with a loud right click woof that can be useful for making things happen. He does all the talking, and when shown things by the Professor he may very well offer helpful insights as to how to use it. When things work out, a frivolous backflip might result.

The Professor provides the monkey-power. It is he who picks things up and uses them in the environment. With his wrench clasped in his right hand, once liberated from the crab, he can build things, whack things, pull things and other things as well. They make a very resourceful team.

You play both, and can switch between them at will. You can get them to follow each other, the most prevalent activity, or send them off on their own. The latter is necessary for some puzzles, each contributing different actions to the solution.

Puzzles are all about finding and using items in the correct way. Some items can be combined, but by and large are standalone. Generally I had an idea about what to do, but I did resort to doing things to see whether something would happen. Some solves were a tad opaque, and some a little too contrived (breaking the car window for instance) but by and large, with the insights of Perseus, I moved on without too many roadblocks.

The puzzles which require both characters to participate independently are probably the ones that will offer the most challenge. Part of that challenge will be working out what to do, part co-ordinating the activity. If there was a down side in the whole game, it was the last character interaction, involving the mysterious visitor, which is too finicky by half and may well test a patience or two. Being last it leaves an impression, but everything till then is on the upside.

Once you acquire the means to leave Chlorine Beach, it’s a big open universe. Novoclad is barred to you at first, as is a space station, but the other locations are accessible. Things in one place are used in another, and you will do a fair bit of back and forth, but it never got tedious.

You can save at will, and it saves periodically. It is all point and click, you don’t die, there are no mazes, no sliders, no musical or colour puzzles. Tweak settings from the menu, including how the camera reacts in certain circumstances. It is about half a dozen hours and delivers in spades.

I played on

OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit

Processor: Intel i7-6700 4GHz

RAM: 32GB GDDR5

Video card: AMD Radeon RX 470 8192MB

 

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