Out There Review

Played on Nexus 7. You can get this game on Android and iOS. Developed by Mi-Clos Studios.

Story

Well, this one really puts you in a tight spot. After being sent on a mission in space, something goes wrong, leaving you stranded in space far from Earth. I'm not even going to bother with how it happened or even what your life was like before that, because all that matters, is that you're stranded in space. The game will give you some if this information, but it's really minimal. While I might fault a game for barely having a set-up, I'm actually very satisfied with the way they introduce you. Not only is it more economical for your time to read less of a story that you are probably going to forget, but it also let's you gravitate the situation towards yourself. By omitting information of the main character, you tend to view the unfolding events with your own eyes, letting your own experiences insert themselves in the situation. Does he have a family? That's not important. What's important is what you would do if you were him. Maybe you having a family would effect your decisions in the game. What I'm describing is probably an idea that you realized when you experienced your first story, and every story you heard from thereafter. I only bring it up to make the point that this game really lends itself to that way of thinking. It keeps itself perfectly vague.

Gameplay

Your goal is to just jump from star system to star system in order to get back home. Navigation is a cinch. Just touch a spot and you're  there! Along your journey you will see black holes, alien races, new technologies, and other various space phenomena.The trick of the game is in its resource management, however. Your ship has a limited number of spots, and performing tasks like moving and even breathing require elements and minerals. What is the most frustrating though, is the spending of resources just to get resources. Having to spend 5 units of ore just to dig up 3 units of ore is an example of when the game really starts to show itself. This is incredibly compelling in that the game seems to direct your anger at yourself, and not the game. Instead of saying, "This game is terrible," you find yourself saying, "Why did I make such a terrible mistake?" The ingenious complexity of the gameplay is what makes you coming back. 

Now how is it that an example, such as the one I previously described with the ore, will make you blame yourself and not the game? I thought this was puzzling as well, but I knew there had to be a reason for me to want to come back to disappointment on every warp jump. I believe it is because the game makes you realize that you can only do so much as someone with limited knowledge of what's next. Sometimes it's rewarding to encounter a situation in which you make a dire risk to trade all your resources to an alien race, only to find that the same race will be the one that returns your resources to you two-fold in a later encounter out of gratitude. That being said, you realize that the game isn't doing this to make you feel good, it's doing this because that is just what it happened to decide. For that reason, the game is demanding, punishing, and cruel. The sooner you realize that you are just a feather in the wind like Forrest Gump, the better off you will be. 

Verdict

As much as I talk about the cruelty of the game, it is truly something worth playing. Immersing yourself into this dire situation is quite a sobering experience, and one that I would recommend to anyone.

RATING: 8.7/10