Out There: Oceans of Time

I love the original game (65 hrs on it & more to come) & waited patiently for this, but I don't think what they did here works. what makes me play the original is that's it's short, unforgiving, mysterious, and to the point (get home) and I love the art style & music. this game is easier, has expanded gameplay mechanics which are.. ok, neither good or bad, but make things take longer. since the game takes longer, it's more frustrating when bad luck wipes you out (although there are save points now in white dwarf systems). things I like: the music's great, being able to finally take hydrogen out of the scoop & put it directly into the engine is great, and the greenhouse mechanics are kind of cool. things I don't like: dropping the original's comic book style, the morale system is an unnecessary chore because the characters are void of personality, the character writing is really bad (apparently this game's dialog was written by a professional screenwriter, but you wouldn't know it), the character models are fugly, the planet models don't look near as cool or varied as they did in OT, planetary exploration is repetitive, the labyrinthine star path you have to follow feels arbitrary, the story is generic space opera stuff... but the core of this is still a resource grinding game so there's little narrative depth (not w/these characters, anyway) or a conflict (since combat isn't a feature). the original game is about getting home & grinding resources because you HAVE to, this game is about saving humanity (or something) & exploring, but with no straightforward objective & expecting you to enjoy grinding resources & taking care of your unlikable crew for the fun of it.

Would've been great if we got voice acting for the characters.