2003 Independent Games Festival Finalist
Here's how a typical game works: You spend 20 hours or more pounding through a series of pre-planned linear obstacles, very often hurling your controller across the room or banging on your desk in frustration as you meet a boss that seems well nigh impossible until you go read a walk-through... And when you are done, you are done, because you've finished, and why would you ever want to play it again?
Here's how Strange Adventures in Infinite Space works: You spend twenty minutes or less, you have a satisfying game experience, and there is never a moment of frustration... if you fail it doesn't really matter because you can always start another game. And when it's done, you find yourself saying "damn, it's over already? I want to play again."
In SAIS, you have a starship, are in hock to a mobster, and have to raise enough cash to pay him off in a limited number of days. You click on a star system and warp there, finding... something ... sometimes a strange alien artifact, sometimes moaning space whales, sometimes people who help you out or want to trade, and sometimes hostile alien craft you must fight. And then you keep going until you run out of days (you can be late, but pay an interest penalty), and either pay off your debt or (presumably) have your legs broken.
The game is randomly generated each time, and the universe you face is different every time you play. A huge number of different encounters can occur in the universe, so even though you may run into the same encounter the next time you play, even after you've played a lot you may encounter something new--and anyway, you never encounter them in the same order.
This randomness has a downside; sometimes you're just screwed from the start, because you run into the tough aliens at the beginning, when you haven't found cool weapons with which to upgrade your ship. Them's the breaks, and no big deal; you lose, it happens, play again, better luck next time.
Ernest Adams calls this "the perfect little game." We're not sure there's any such thing as perfection, this side of the grave at least, but the sentiment is spot on. SAIS is, if you will, a gem-like "casual" game for people who don't play "casual" games... That is, like casual games, it's a quick play and easy to pick up and a highly enjoyable way to waste a little time. But unlike casual games, it's not another braindead pick-three puzzle or some damn thing; it's a space exploration and combat game stripped down to its bare essentials. Quick pick-up gaming for geeks like you and me.
You will like this game.
N.B.: The developers have now released it for free.
Nice one!
Excellent short game. The only thing that prevents me from giving it a 5 is the low resolution thing. It's only 640x480 and I could not find a way to set it to higher res (and don't know how you can run something like this in a window). But that's just the chrome, the gameplay itself is (short) fun!
Star Control
It should be said that this game owes a debt to the Star Control franchise. Game play and design are very similar to the original (which remains one of my favorite games).
SC2 influence
You have to credit Starflight and Star Control 2 when presenting a game like this (I think we did), but the game's actual --and direct-- influences were Butterfield's The Voyage of the BSM Pandora (SPI) and Costikyan's Star Trek: The Adventure Game (West End). Boardgames!
Strange Adventures Indeed
This was my first Manifesto Games purchase, and I must say it and its sequel (Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space) are both great games. I would recommend them easily to anyone who just needs a great space opera fix. Plus there are great mods for this game as well. Plus it's not that difficult to create your own ships (they have tips on how to do that).
Not bad. kept me entertained
Not bad. kept me entertained for a while. Definitely worth a try.
A nice game, good job.
My first purchase from Manifesto Games. The game once in a while gives you a 'big' quest which takes some work (and a bit of luck) to win. Usually the game play is fast and fun.
Greg's summary above leaves out two other options, you can be a scout ship with scientists who just want to explore, or be a military vessel concerned with sizing up the opposition and engaging in diplomacy. However, the default mission is the most fun, where as a space pirate you can shoot the rude BEM's when you want to.
There is also a fight mode where you can throw various ships against each other. The cool weapon effects and different fighting strategies add a nice bonus to the game.
Yay!
Great little free game, which sounds patronising, but there should be more of them.
I keep getting blown up and sucked into black holes, and I disagree with costik that it doesn't matter. I'm juuust engaged enough to go "Aw shucks," and feel a moment of real disappointment. That's a good sign, that even though this game is played with a series of mouse clicks, and a very very basic strategy, there is enough there to get me invested.
My only criticism/confusion is mercenary payment. They ask for a piece of equipment and ALWAYS complain that it's either not advanced enough for them to upgrade, or too advanced for them to install. I quite like the idea of sharing my awesome weapons with my hired goons. Is this possible, or is there a bug? Is there any way of knowing which weapons will work for them? This is a minor mechanical thing, though, and doesn't really detract from the game.
This game is amazing in its brevity. I had a strange adventure before breakfast today. I can see myself using this as a "break game" during research, rather than Dwarf Fortress or FreeCol which by their nature tend to turn "study break" into "study over."