Author: mzehnmzehn
Steam: Released
Developer: Morgondag
Publisher: Morgondag
Gende: Adventure, RPG, Exploration, Sci-fi
Release Date: August 20, 2015
Limitless space-time continuum, soothing atmosphere and a poetic twist. Sounds like a strange mix for a minimalistic rogue-like, doesn’t it? Well, RymdResa is more than your typical roguellike.
Story premise of RymdResa is a bit of a cliche as you see the Earth explodes leaving our astronaut avatar only one hope – to find a habitable place in the neverending vastness of space. Soon you begin to realize that your are probably the only human left alive, and that there is a little chance that you will find a new home in the ‘Big empty’. As years go by and your resources run low, so does your psyche, burdening you with moral doubts and at times deep poetic conclusions.
Separated in a three unique chapters, each having a different premise, Rymdresa feels and acts like a true space odyssey. As space you travel through is procedurally generated by means of y and x axis there are literally no bounds to where and how far you can go, and for how long you can try to survive.
As in any rogue-like game, the basics are difficult to master and take a bit of time to get used to. You start the game with the most basic of space ships and first thing’s first, you have to find yourself enough resources to survive. You gather resources scavenging through celestial bodies and abandoned spacecrafts or picking up particles of astral dust. Well, it’s not exploration as it first comes to mind, as you just need to get close to the objects and click the explore button.
The real reward is finding them in a first place. In many cases you will have the option to choose between two presented choices, and according to which one you pick, the consequences you ensure. You can either gain resources and spacepoints or you can lose them depending on your choice. Unfortunately the right and wrong options are always randomized and there is a 50:50 chance all the time. As years go by and you find more and more useful stuff you will be able to buy new vessels and upgrade them with a vast array of items just waiting to be found in RymdResa.
Spacepoints are constantly being added and subtracted, acting as a form of currency that can be spent to launch voyages with the game’s seven other ships, and items to outfit those ships are carried in a general inventory accessible at all times.
There are many different upgrades that you can apply to your spacecrafts; maybe you want your shields to be of a higher capacity so you can take a more rigorous punch from space debris or hostile UFOs, or maybe you want more powerful engine to cover more distance faster, or, maybe you just want a whole new ship with different preferences altogether. The RPG-ish style of your inventory immediately lets you know that there is huge amount of upgrades available. Ofcourse, you need to find those items in your voyages before you can actually implement them to your liking.
Weapons are permanently offline as there is no combat in RymdResa, and i’m really glad there isn’t any, because the omnipresent melancholic atmosphere is just as perfect as it is. Actually that’s the thing that stroke me the most from the very start of my adventure. That strange, even bizarre feeling of loneliness and complete separation from some kind of a illusionary safe-zone.That simple yet deep poetic twist most noticeable on the audio-logs you record as endless years go by, beautiful soundtrack that is implemented just spot-on, and the loneliness in the narrator’s voice… a huge square perfectly rounded. There have been very few games that ever evoked that unique feeling in me.
Besides the main story which is pretty straightforward, there are many unique things to find. You can encounter all kinds of different entity out there. Ranging from stationary puzzle-like bosses, to I guess Gods with whom you discuss life itself, and wage physical and psychological battles, fought through clever dialogue riddles.
Incentive to go forward, to collect more points, to see what new can you discover, is allways there but as the hours go by your dedication for playing and immersion in the game slowly start to go a downward spiral of “I’ve been here before” and “I’ve seen that before”. That’s the only serious problem with RymdResa, the cruel repetition in thing to do.
Once you complete the main story you will probably have many spacepoints and researches available and you will probably see and sail with every one of the eight unique spaceships. Even reaching a higher pilot levels stops being a reward because you maxed out your skills and gotten all the perks.
But I get it. As a rogue-like title you will eventually have to put many hours to experience all that RymdResa has to offer. And adding even more to what allready exists would probably kill the part of the whole experience. Although, updates for new content are being announced.
Being said, I truly believe that any fan of the rogue-like or space exploration genres will enjoy the game as much as I did. And I really did enjoy it. The poetic twist added is a great bonus and brings a special flavour to the cosmic table. On the other hand, I can see how someone else couldn’t find motivation to endure the repetitive and sometimes cruel journey to your final destination, to the End.
The most tranquil space rogue-like you will ever play, but so unforgiving at times. It’s worth a shot for everyone who is looking for a different experience. When someone asks me about this game all I can say is that there are very few, even any games like RymdResa out there. It’s also worth mentioning that I personally didn’t encounter a single bug or glitch in my time with this game.
PROS:
- atmosphere and presentation
- storytelling
- rogue-like elements
CONS:
- repetitiveness in exploration
- feels like a grind at times
OVERALL: 76/100
