The gameplay is novel, but high repetitive. You jump to a new star system and decide which planets to visit. There are 3 types of planet, each of which offers different resources, but each type costs you different resources to mine. Run out of any of three key resources and the game ends. There are tech upgrades that allow you to jump further, use less of a resource, and so on, but you find those randomly, and can lose them as well. I’ve had long games where I only got 1-2 techs, and didn’t have the resources necessary to install them. The game is very heavy on randomization—random events can easily end your game by, for example destroying your engines without the resources needed to repair them, or dropping you in a star system that you can’t jump away from because you haven’t got the tech upgrades that allow for longer jumps. Star systems are mostly randomized so it’s easy to encounter a string of systems where you can’t replenish your oxygen and so you die. There are four ways to win, but after 50+ play-throughs, I’ve never even gotten close to one of them, and I shudder to think how rough this game would be on Moderate. The language system for dealing with aliens is fun but gets repetitive after a while, and the alien races are entirely interchangeable. So while I like the idea of the game, in practice it’s an exercise in frustration, because no strategy will overcome the effects of randomness, at least no strategy I can figure out.

I got it after seeing it on "App All Knight" i got a about a year ago don't know if I paid 5 dollars for it and I'm not sure if its worth that for someone just coming for a casual space game but if you're read to micro manage resources pick abandoned space craft for parts and learn alien language. (At one point i was playing for so long I actually started being able to read the alien text instead of slowly gaining the words after randomly choosing responses) which is one of the parts i feel is a little weak; when you find alien planets and make contact they ask you a question then basically respond yes or no and then depending on what they wanted to hear they will ask to trade or will fear you each time you learn a new alien word that then becomes english next time you find a new alien race. But its also a strength in a sense because its just one feature that you can do you come across choice events that can greatly help or hinder you depending on how much alien language you understand,what resources you have, and some just plane luck. That also a part luck. A game thats going great could end in a few turns because bad luck strikes some times that bad luck is going down a wrong star trail that becomes a dead end or too spaced out that you cant reach that theres no possible way you couldn't have known about when you chose it half an hour before if your session lasts that long. But overall its a great game that i love to play

A pretty choose-your-own-adventure type Resource management game. My favorite aspects of this game include: the flavor (it has a a good lost in space vibe), The aesthetic (cool comic are style with lovely coloring), The sound track (this is the best part of the game imo. Barnhoorn did a great job), and the variety of outcomes. Some of my gripes include: The RNG gods are brutal in this game so it may take you several tries to find the only thing that will allow you to beat the game, an upgraded ship. I played this game initially thinking it was a puzzle i was going to solve, that kept me interested for a while, but i eventually discovered that the difficultly primarily exists due to RNG (random number generator, aka luck/chance). You are so reliant on luck in this game that beating it will be a matter of making a run with right series of dice rolls. There’s very little one can do to improve their chance of survival. Resource burn is too aggressive imo. The devs might consider creating a normal/easy mode with slightly less severe resource burn. Though the difficultly (chance of not dying) does reflect the likelihood of the character making it back to his home-world, and maybe this is inline with the theme of game. It also very well replicates the feel of those old pulp choose-your-own-adventure books, which always seemed to kill me from what seemed to be the most innocuous decision.

Look, I'm a fan of punishingly difficult games and love the sense of accomplishment you get from repeatedly dying over and over until you find the right formula to win. A lot of games do this very well, and are at least somewhat skill-based in its execution. This game is not like that. It's hard, yes. It's extremely hard. But it's hard because of the random nature of the game. I have played countless new games where I can only manage to make it to 2 or 3 systems with little to no resources until I am forced to lose. And I've played countless others where I go strong, halfway towards the goal, learning all the alien vocabulary and getting multiple new ships, only to hit 3 or 4 successive systems with no resources and lose. The game gives you no skill-based option to succeed. There are ways to manage resources to increase your chances of survival, but ultimately you are a slave to the randomization of the resources you find. Meaning that even if you do everything right, you will still most likely lose unless you get lucky. I want to like this game, but even when I make it semi-far and accomplish a lot, I'm not enjoying myself because I know at any moment some random encounter will happen and I'll lose everything in the blink of an eye. Repeatedly. This game is beautiful and well made, but it just isn't fun to play. If you're a fan of punishing games with no sense of accomplishment, this is the game for you.

It’s easy to write this game off as being too dependent on random chance. But that's completely overlooking that the game gives you many tools to manage the risk of bad things happening, and upside of random good things, which is where the deep strategy and fun comes in. The tricks take patience to learn/discover, but it’s rewarding when you do, and you’ll consistently be pushing deep into the game if not beating it each time.Aside from the gameplay, I liked the illustrated style, and the atmospheric music was nice as ambiance, though not too memorable. There are a few neat ideas here too like learning the language as you progress. The game works well in the mobile format - you can stop and start playing quickly, though it has that “One more jump...” addictive property, so maybe it will still be hard!My only criticism is that a decent amount of time spent in the early/mid game (basically until you get a better ship) is centered on doing the same things - drilling/probing. I wish there was a little more variety to break that up. But ultimately I think the deep strategy and accessibility as a mobile game make this a game worth playing if you appreciate that.

Though beautiful and evacative, low chance of success games like this irritate me more than they entertain. I gave this one a chance for being pretty and somewhat innovative, but obnoxious oversights like being unable top up your ship from the resource mining or fuel probe screens' meaning you often waste some of what little the game allows you make it positively unforgivable, IMO. I also hate that it doesn't care if you do everything right as best you know nor does it lay out a progression for cumulative success, let alone have a decent percent chance of it.At first I gave this 1 star, but now that I ground through enough frustration out of sheer boredom and resentfulness over the purchase price, I see how it wants to be played: rely on finding other ships, never travel laterally or you will be punished extra hard for violating its little trails of stars spaced just so (unless you've already built advanced distance equipment), and if you find a path of garden planets, stick to it or you'll get a game-ending, rotten string of dead rocks and black holes (which is apparently supposed to be fun! I don't care that there's a Wormhole Generator to warp to black holes if I get it only .05% of the time!!!!!). Enjoy! >X-P