Xenominer Review : Update 1.31

You are hurtling through space at sub-light speeds. Your ship, a small scout cruiser, slows down as a rather bright star comes into view. As you deal with the massive g-force of your ship's sublight engines cutting out, you hear a slight tearing in the ship's hull. You glance at your monitors, and note your inertial dampeners are beginning to fail. After making a quick prayer to your gods, you dash for your space suit, helmet, and what minimal survival supplies you can find. You take a last glance out of your window, and see a fast approaching pile of rock you could barely call a planet. Was this the target, or just a way-station? The useless thought is driven from your brain as fast as it came. Your ship is about to crash land on a probably unknown planet. The last thing you hear is the crashfoam from from your ship deploying like mad in every direction. You'll probably survive, but for how long?

You wake up to an informative and helpful artificial intelligence personality, known as Daisy, kindly guiding you to your next move, your next desperate action, as you seek to make this planet your home for the time being.

Xenominer puts you into a different world, but makes you feel like it's yours. What I mean to say is, it will inspire moments of wonder, and terror, just as easily as a trip into a deep unknown forest would. I had never played a "voxel" game before this, so didn't quite know what to expect. But now that I have, I'd probably never play any other besides this. The gameplay is just too sweet, too interesting, and too addicting to ever let another game like this into your life.

Let's talk about the game:

Graphics:
It's hard to talk about graphics without breaking it down to its elements. Every piece of this game has been hammered out and presented in a top notch form. The GUI/HUD overlay always feels modern and easy to read. The EKG-like meters for health and radiation are fun to look at, if a bit hard to understand at first. The pick, your main tool for gathering resources, is a wonder to behold, actually sniping bits of matter into your stasis generating backpack via a stream of energy, whenever you need to gather materials. The blocks themselves have been redone from the bottom up as of update 1.31, meaning there is seamless blending of the materials you are harvesting, and the structures you create will be visually pleasing. The skybox, an epic depiction of a Saturn-like ringed planet, that transitions from day to night often, is also a wonder to behold. Another beautiful sight is the mushroom like landscapes, mounds of crystals, ice and surface regolith. This is all procedurally generated, depending on if you choose a random or chosen seed, but the algorithms in place make it look really marvelous, meaning you'll never be disappointed in what you find.

Gameplay:
As was said before, the gameplay puts you right into the world, to the point where you will be scared and running for your very survival off the bat. You will find yourself a scared running rabbit at first, before you slowly find yourself gaining confidence and new ways to survive, and build your life on this planet. You won't last long, or may die of boredom underground, if you don't make good use of the crafting system, so let me explain that now. It is all based on your ability to build technology. Research and development, finding the right resources, and maximizing your resources will help you a great deal in creating an effective life outside of the tunnels. I myself found I wanted to take to the skies, using a programmable bot to take me into floating islands, and building glass domes so that I could survey the various areas. The sun, as you find out soon, is deadly. Luckily, building a structure with glass is easy, and you can usually find ways of building above and below ground, and constantly digging. The 'bot' is a fun part of the game that also needs mentioning. For those ambitious enough, you can learn to program him quite easily to help you on your way. Eventually you will want to upgrade to a high level pick, and jetpack, among other things. What you build and why is really a mystery still. I imagine the real gameplay elements are coming in the future, for now, it can degenerate into a build-fest sort of thing.

Sound:
I thought the sound was nice, but I didn't really enjoy the music so much. I felt it got a bit tiresome the longer the game went on. A few options for how this is done would be nice in an update. The sound effects themselves seemed fine.

Difficulty:
I didn't find the game as difficult as I originally perceived it. It does a much better job of scaring you, than actually killing you. Nevertheless, you may find yourself dying a few times if you are careless. Simply finding the spot where you died and picking up your items is usually a good idea. If you don't find them quickly, I'm sure they'd de-spawn and you'd lose them. But you seem to re-spawn with a nice bit of equipment. Still, this is probably a good reason to buy one of the storage containers to keep your more valuable resources in.

The Sci-Fi:
The last question we are all wondering, is how is the world building, the sci-fi. What's to come of this franchise in the future? I can say that the world building seems quite solid, and they seem to have a really good handle on the "hard sci-fi" elements that hard core sci-fi fans will seek out. Ideas like nano-technology and asteroid mining, artificial intelligence on a grand scale, etc, are all here. This means that there really is no limit to what this company, Gristmill, can do if they have and continue to get the resources. They aren't one of the "mine-craft" clones to cross a million sales yet, but if they do someday, I'm sure they'd bring more to the table. For these reasons, I'm not very interested in multi-player unless it's to help build the world in some way, make it more complete. Nevertheless, multi-player does seem like it's on the horizon. This is definitely a game we'll be watching with a close eye, over here at the sci-fi hub. Check back during the next update.

Verdict: 4.25/5 (because we know it's a work in progress, expect this to go up on the next update)

Odyssey 3011 Review

Are you a casual observer of outer space, or a hardened space marine? Do you enjoy saving aliens, and being a help to the galaxy, or are you an opportunist with no reverence to the law? Whether it be mining asteroids, space trading, or protecting the galaxy, Odyssey 3011 will scratch that itch!

Odyssey 3011 is an Elite clone, or interpretation, not based in the same world or with the same characters, but the same general idea. This alone would interest us over here at the Sci-Fi Hub, but add to that good graphics, and gameplay that is both mighty challenging, rewarding and fun, and then world building which invites comparisons to Douglas Adams' Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and you have 8-12 hours sunk in before you know it. And if you are anything like me, you won't be anywhere near solving Odyssey 3011!

For those who are not familiar with the concepts of Elite, it is basically an entire galaxy which is procedurally generated. At first this may sound farfetched, or not particularly interesting, but it's not entirely like that. It's not a random seed, but a chosen seed that the developer decided upon early in the development process. This means planets you find, alien races you encounter, and trade routes you favor, can all be shared and discovered within the community. The relative hostility or danger of a territory is usually linked to their government. The more democratic, the less dangerous, generally speaking, unless there is some kind of event going on there, or you are wanted for some crimes. Staying alive before you begin to upgrade your ship is a major challenge this game provides, so be prepared to fight for your last space breath. The rewards are sweet.

Let's talk about Odyssey 3011

Graphics:
The graphics in Odyssey 3011 range from good to absolutely exceptional. At first you'll find yourself wondering when the next space station will look exactly like the last, or the next planet and sun configuration will be all too similar to one already visited. These fears are unfounded! Odyssey 3011 does an excellent job of not repeating itself and having lots of unique docking stations and random stuff to see. The glorious power of the random content generation is site to behold, so try to break out of the mundane early and check out the galaxy. There's a great many ships to see, and each have their own shapes and textures associated with them, besides individual stats. This is all presented against a beautiful black spacey background. You'll see a lot of this as you are learning to travel from system to system, especially before you get the hang of this game's fast travel system, and upgrade your ship's engines. The GUI as you'll see below is another feature of this game that I really enjoyed. I don't have the best eyes, so when a game is easy for me to read, I'm impressed. It's also presented in a sleek, minimalistic way, which hearkens back to the humble roots of the Elite franchise. Just be ready for a lot of green.

Gameplay:
As already mentioned, this game will challenge you right from the get-go. It's a tough galaxy, but a rewarding one if you can get past the initial hump. You'll have to choose your upgrades wisely at first, since it will have more to do with you immediate survival. Want another pair of those hellfire missiles? They'll cost you a pretty penny in the beginning, when you don't have a credit to spare. There's always a way to make money though, so don't be afraid if you appear stranded, as that can happen. (Hint: Go mine some asteroids). As you progress, and your ship/you gain a reputation, aliens will begin messaging you to enlist your help. If you choose to help them, the rewards are often amazing, but the risk can be too great. This is where the randomness can occasionally backfire on you if the message is too dangerous, or sends you into a territory your ship isn't equipped for. My advice is to wait for another message, as you probably won't be able to answer them all anyways. The messages themselves can be quite humorous, also of a random nature. Something that is certainly worth noting is the controls may take some getting used to if you don't modify them yourself. I have my own personal preference which mirrors a FPS, but your taste may vary. If the controls bother you, experiment with them early and often. The space combat is tricky at first, but the basic AI's aren't that difficult to predict once you get to know their behaviors. From there you can usually out maneuver them or use raw firepower if you have it. Just watch out for space collisions, which do happen.

Sound:
The music in Odyssey 3011 is some of the best, most classic music you have ever heard. That is because it is actually classical music! (haha, I made a joke). Seriously, though, the music is exceptional and the game offers 3 modes of play, on, off and occasional which seems to play more like 33% of the time. All of these modes are nice, but sometimes I just want it 'on' all the time. The effects are all perfectly suited to this genre, so you'll be right at home before long, exploring space as you like to do!

Sci-Fi:
Well, this is the tough part where we really break down if this game is delivering or not. First and foremost, we want to see delivered good science fiction world building. That means alien races, planets, a whole galaxy that we want to see and believe in. This game does deliver that, but in an unexpected variety with the randomness. To think that this is all based on one random seed can almost justifiably cancel what you really think sci-fi is! It challenges the whole idea of storytelling to the core. But when you consider that this was all algorithmically bent to seed the game in a fleshed out way, around the developer's own unique ideas and perspective, I have to applaud the effort. Simply put, this developer's games, worlds and ideas are fun to witness and deserve our applause and understanding. Check back often for information on interviews or updates on this game, as this world comes into our understanding. These fundamental questions are the biggest things keeping Odyssey 3011 from being a perfect 5/5 for the indie marketplace.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5

Sherbet Thieves: Moonshine Edition

Aliens are stealing your Sherbet supply! What's an honest farmer to do!?

The sci-fi genre at worst can sometimes degenerate into space invader clones, and impossible bullet hell shooters that feel like their graphics are on steroids. Sometimes you just want to party, upgrade your ship and protect what is yours! Or what is this farmers? If you are looking for a lot of personality, jokes and a deep love of what science fiction can be, this is the game for you!

Your job is to upgrade your "space-man" guns to protect the "sherbet" from the greedy aliens. You'll encounter killer tomatoes, stealing bee's, pirate ships, and hookah smoking, ring of smoke blowing, carpet riding psychedelic dweebs. And more.

Let's talk about the game!

Graphics:
The graphics have been updated quite a bit as of "Moonshine Edition," meaning that you should probably go pick up a copy and tell your friends. We've noticed a nice particle engine and a lot of pretty bright graphics, as well as a well drawn charcter who tells very funny jokes. The bonus is that between rounds you have an easy to navigate series of menus which allow you to upgrade your ship, or choose your level, in an open world sort of way. All of this is well presented in a very black, spacey, way.

Gameplay:
As has been noted, you can upgrade your spaceman. What this means is that all the guns, all of which have funny names, such as iconic-blunderbust, can be bought or upgraded between or after any round. If you are getting stuck, going back and getting perfect scores on the normal levels can mean a max of 2-4-6 moonshines. If these moonshines are exhausted, don't hesitate to jump into infinite mode for a few rounds to get the upgrades you require. I think I noticed about 20 levels or so to explore. They get progressively more difficult, so be prepared to go back and farm the early levels if you are not an expert already. The guns themselves are another matter all together, they are not only well named, but they fire in ways that you've probably never seen or heard of before. Deploying gravity and upgrading your weapons mid game is an important part of the juggling act this game becomes. Yes, you have to upgrade your weapon mid battle! Besides upgrading your guns base ability, they'll become more powerful during the battle as you pick up power ups, maxing out for short bursts of time where you are an absolute menace to the baddies! Needless to say, this can all leave you breathless and spent before long, so be prepared to use the save features and come back later if you don't feel you have the stanima to do the whole game. I'd say you could spend approx 2 hrs on this game, and for 80 ms points, that's about as much as you can expect these days.

Verdict:
4.5/5

Welcome to the Indie Sci-Fi Hub!

Welcome to the Indie Sci-Fi Hub. This is a site that will be dedicated to bringing you information on Xbox Live Indie Games that dare to cross over to the Science Fiction genre.

What to expect in the coming months:

- Coverage of past Indie Games which have notable fan bases or prominent placement in the best selling list. Or have critical acclaim.
- Coverage of games which may have slipped under the radar, but have strong sci-fi roots.
- Interviews, highlights, and updates as they become available. If the game is being worked on, we will be covering it.