Developer: Pixel Delusion
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Unsupported
Rrp: £7.19 (Gog.com and Steam) £11.99 (Epic) £12.01 (Humblebundle)
I’m not sure what exactly to call this game, it doesn’t fit into an single genre neatly except for puzzle game and calling it that feels somehow wrong. Yes, you do solve puzzles, that is the main part of the game so assigning it that genre is accurate. But it’s also a game where the choices you make matter. How the game achieves this is interesting though, as you rarely given a simple binary choice in a text box. Instead it’s your actions that make the choice, for example; at one point some Cosmonauts stage a protest within the puzzle you’re tasked to complete. If you run into one (even if accidentally) you make a choice which changes the stories direction and this kind of choice will occur many times.
The black humour in this had me giggling along with the frankly absurd (but in the best way) story. The puzzles themselves are quite difficult. It turns out that having to rotate and attach space station modules together is very difficult when your in space using only a small drone and you’re on a strict timer. Throw in that you have to be careful of which sections the ‘hit’ with your drone because breaking some of those modules, such as the potato storage, will have an effect on the rest of the game.
As you build the various space stations etc you’ll eventually get Cosmonauts floating around. They’ll help when you damage, but not destroy, a part of the construction. However, because they’re floating around sometimes they get in the way which can lead to… fatal consequences. Each of the Cosmonauts has a name, and one in specific is named Yuri. Yuri became the bane of my life for a while (until he met a very accidental and untimely death), I don’t think I’ve muttered “Fuck off Yuri” as much without watching a Yuri Geller show.
If you want a challenging puzzler with a dark sense of humour then this really is a great game to pick up!
