Where once it was zombie games, it’s now all about space. It may remain the final frontier for humanity, but it’s being fully and deeply explored by developers in a virtual sense. This isn’t a bad thing, just a different one and I — being a massive, massive fanboy of the ever-expanding and mysterious void that surrounds us — can wait to get stuck into these titles. Take Cosmonautica from German indie Chasing Carrots, which describes itself as a mix of The Sims and Elite.
I’m all for complex strategy / management games, but there’s something to be said for titles that can deliver brain food while at the same time keeping the mood light. Cosmonautica looks like this is the path it’ll take, though I’m hoping it’s not too superficial with its material.
Gameplay-wise, you start with a “small washed-up space cruiser” and as you play you’ll have to explore, trade and treat your crew well in order to craft your own money-printing empire. How do you go about that exactly? Well, let’s take a look at some of the features:
- Explore the galaxy and pursue intergalactic trading in dynamic and random generated solarsystems. You are able to trade different kinds of goods and some rare and illegal stuff, too.
- Take care of your crew. Only if they fit together well and are satisfied, you are able to get the optimum out of your space company.
- Hold exciting space battles against enemy space ships. The well planned structure of your space vessel and the abilities of your crew are key to success.
- Beautiful and alive space stations. This is the place to be, because pretty much everything revolves around these trading hubs.
- Play pre-built scenarios, measure your skill in public challenges that are running worldwide or just built own scenarios and challenge your friends.
The visual style (and the music) is definitely the sort that you’ll embrace or immediately be turned off by, fortunately, you can watch the video above an immediately ascertain which side of the fence you fall on.
I’ve linked to the Greenlight page below, but it’s already made it through Valve’s popularity contest, so all you need to do now is wait.
Cosmonautica [Greenlight, via Reddit]
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