Recent reviews by prefixcactus

A very good shooting simulator. Kind of like QWOP but with handguns. The mechanics of loading, unloading, checking, firing, etc your gun are quite addictive, at least to a nerdy character like me. Also very atmospheric, despite the basic graphics. Well worth the full price. Stay tuned for receiver 2 though.

I loooove this game. The fact that I'm a fan of the "Let's get ourselves into a very very ♥♥♥♥♥♥ situation and then try and think up a crazy plan to get out of it" genre obviously plays a big part in it, as does my love for space. There's a number of games of this type, though, and this one is a very well made one. It's very fun to play, the interface is marvellous, and when you screw up it's entirely your own fault and not the game's (unlike e.g. The Masterplan, which has you cursing at the interface all the time, and if you misclick you're probably totally screwed and will have to restart the whole mission). Most importantly, when you do get yourself killed, you'll die laughing. Failing your ridiculously impossible plans is probably more fun than pulling them off, actually.

The only non-marvellous thing about this game is the progression. You start with practically nothing, and have to do lots and lots of repetitive missions in which you meticulously kill everyone on the ship, which lets you (very slowly) unlock the awesomer gadgets with which you could then finally start doing harder missions in crazier ways, which is the funnest part of the game. As your own skill progresses, you will be able to do more with less, obviously, and when you generate a new galaxy you'll probably be doing crazy stuff with nothing but a wrench, but getting there is a bit tedious. Still, the special Liberator characters remedy that, and Defector missions give you a taste of the fun early on, as well as some free training, so it's not that bad, just slightly annoying.

One other thing that isn't immediately obvious is that retiring characters is also a good thing, and that the game is about that, in a way. You get to play new ones and to pass on some particularly interesting items. Until you understand that, having your character shot or captured is quite sad. Afterwards you drink to them with the other guys at the bar and go on. Maybe you're gonna rescue them or at least find their gun and carrry it proudly.

In the end, this game has a kind of philosophical quality. It teaches you to not get attached to your stuff or situations and be ready to handle whatever life throws your way. Things get lost, opportunities get lost too, the show goes on. And today we drink to that.

Oh, and it also is for some reason windows-only, which is usually a big no-no for me, but it's so good that I boot into windows to play it anyway.