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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December 2016
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