Set in the narrative universe of NEO Scavenger, another production of Blue Bottle Games, Ostranauts promises to catapult us into a space future dominated by a capitalist dystopia, a bit like in any self-respecting noir sci-fi. So everything revolves around vile money, and so will we and our fledgling space scrap business. After years of doing low-grade jobs around the Solar System, the time has come to set up on your own and become captains of their own vessel, braving the void of space to make a fortune in this ambitious 2D simulator.
Finally on their own
Once a new game has started, we will be able to create our own alter ego e customize his traits, his starting equipment and his working past. The latter will be fundamental, as it will allow to characterize the character, his knowledge and even friendships, nemesis and ... lovers! The possible backgrounds are different but, at the time of our test, only that of a "shipwrecker" (scrapper) was viable. Once the career has been selected, a series of (apparently random) choices allow us to describe our character's past. How did you spend your free time between shifts? Have you tried to take any shortcuts to earn some extra money? All these choices that are proposed to us are various but preset: no dice rolls or skills but, simply, certain crossroads that have very specific consequences, ranging from an illegal income to the honest reporting of a precious object discovered in the workplace. A good way therefore to quickly establish the past of our captain, giving him some extra money with which to start his own business and some nemesis to revive the situation a little but also to give him some more skills, such as greater competence in hacking or in mechanical engineering.
Space simulations
The mechanics around which the game revolves is the simulation of your spaceship and its crew. Batteries to be replaced and generators to be serviced will be just some of the tasks that the on-board personnel will have to manage on a daily basis, ensuring the functioning of each subsystem. Energy is in fact the most important component on our ship and, once it is exhausted, we will have the minutes counted before the crew suffocates and freezes to death. Not exactly a walk in the park then.
Not only that, we will also have to take care of keeping those on board healthy, while making sure that the psychological and social component is not neglected. Space is a hostile and lonely place! While we survive the pitfalls of Ostranauts, we will have to try to make our space scrap business as profitable as possible, being careful not to destroy the ship at the first dock and avoiding the security patrols who won't like our little thieves.
As many ideas as shadows
If on the one hand the premises of Ostranauts are interesting, with a complex simulation system linked to multiple aspects of the game ranging from social interactions to maintenance, on the other hand all this is not, at present, as it presents itself. Bugs abound and the difficulty in managing your ship is given more by not knowing and not being able to manage the various aspects than by real challenges to be overcome. In fact, at present it seems that the framework of the game is present, with objects and tools, but there is a lack of a form of interaction that makes it usable. An example? During our trial we did not survive for long given the inability to connect a new battery to life support, despite countless attempts. This resulted in the slow but inexorable depletion of the ship's energy reserve, with an inevitable global shutdown. The lack of explanations makes any attempt to survive even more difficult, thus turning the first games into simple countdowns. We are obviously talking about a title that is preparing to land in Early Access, a period during which the developers will also work closely with the community to fine-tune their creation, collect feedback and correct errors. The ideas, moreover, are there and seem valid if framed in the right perspective of a game still in development that would benefit both from further attention and from a community able to support Blue Bottle Games. We can therefore only hope for further updates that transform Ostranauts in the game it should and would like to be.
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