Developer: Phosphor Games
Publisher: Phosphor Games
Rrp: £5.59 (Steam)
Released: 26th August 2015
Available on Steam
Played using: keyboard and mouse
Exploring space and discovering is something that Humankind as a whole dreams about. We’ve written books about it, made TV shows and movies based on the idea and of course created video games on the subject.
In this game you play as an astronaut, a member of the Corps of Discovery. But something has gone awry.
Corpse of Discovery is a First Person Exploration game, you play as an unnamed astronaut on the newly discovered planet Tellurus. Your job is to place terraforming markers and return to the shuttle the base for pick up, at least that’s supposed to be your job.
There are some slight spoilers in this review because it’s near impossible to review this game without giving something away.
As you wander the map a small robot (the A.V.A unit) will follow you, giving you help, guidance and occasionally a remark about your personal file… At least at first.
You’ll find flickering pink waypoints appearing on you HUD along with the normal white waypoints. Finding and interacting with these will reveal more about the character your playing as, but will get you admonished by AVA.
The exploration of these worlds and attempts to complete your missions will be hindered by some flying… Things. If these find you they set you back to the last competed part of the mission you did, the further into the game you go the more of a pain in the backside these things become.
With each completed mission the screen fades to black and you awake back in your base, as if nothing happened. Except each time you awake the base has changed, subtly at first but growing more severe with each new awakening.
The world outside and what challenges you’ll face also changes with each awakening, quite drastically so. The hazards of each world vary in one you have to limit your exposure to sunlight and avoid great dust storms in, another you must avoid falling to your demise.
It’s clear the developers wanted to convey a message, the one I got was about the importance of family but I think it’s equally possible it could be about the sacrifices people in the vein attempt to be immortalized. I take that back, moments after writing that very paragraph I found a… Secret that basically told me the message they were trying to give, and from a very unexpected source (or maybe it was a decent imitation).
And now on to the nitty gritty of it all. I have a number of issues with this game, firstly there is no run function (at least at the very beginning) and it feels like your character is sliding along the floor rather than walking. When you consider how many times you repeat this particular scene that’s pretty damn annoying. Of course once you don the space suit the movement seems almost normal, at least as far as first person perspective games go.
My comment about repetition leads nicely into this next complaint? This game dragged on for too long, I kept wondering when exactly this was going to end. At one point I actually said “I get it already! No need to hammer it home!” Don’t get me wrong the game has some charm but it really overstays it’s welcome, especially in the final levels, those were just obnoxious.
Then there are the graphical issues, game suffers from quite severe amounts of clipping, although this mostly occurs on the second planet in regard to the flora.
The draw distance is also pretty bad with some parts of the world popping into existence suddenly rather than fading in as they should. Now I know my rig isn’t the most powerful in the world but that really shouldn’t happen.
For me the major bugbear is the plot, the game starts so well with its mystery of why you keep waking up on what look like wildly different planets, posing lots of questions. What are the strange creatures that are hunting you? What are these anomalies you keep seeing on the HUD? Why does AVA seem to be very focused on death? The list gets bigger as the game continuous. And then… You hit the end of the game, with nothing answered… Well maybe one thing, but I’m not inclined to believe it, especially after what you have to do to get to that point (you’ll know what I mean if you play it that far). It’s just so disappointing!
I wish I could recommend this I truly do, but in honesty it’s just not that good. Sure it has some neat ideas, but a nice idea isn’t enough. If you feel like trying a walking simulator with a bit of a difference then by all means give it a go. Me? I’m just glad I got this on a sale.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Dear Esther
The Stanley Parable
Among the Sleep
