Space is always something that has fascinated me and something I think about at times. Do I believe that there is other life out there? 100% yes. Earth and the distance we have been able to travel in our galaxy is just a ridiculously small section of the entire galaxy. Hell, i'm sure there are other humans out there, billions and billions of miles away having the same thoughts that I am. Sadly, I don't think that we will ever find our answer of other life in the galaxy, at least in my lifetime. This is why I really like games and movies like Mass Effect, Interstellar, Contact and others that explore the great beyond that is space. I got to check out a game like this at PAX East called The Long Journey Home and I really enjoyed what I saw.
The Long Journey Home, a space exploration RPG that is set to launch later this year. History is made when humanity takes it's first long journey into the unknown that is space. Then something goes wrong and the crew is now stuck on the other side of the galaxy and sets out to make it back to Earth. The game gives you a crew that each has their own unique traits and professions like a scientist, an astronaut, a medic and others. You also need to keep an eye on their well being and keep them alive as well. One of the crew members was badly injured during the initial jump and the developers told me that this may or may not happen each time you play through the game. Some of the crew members can also help with materials or relics you find. On one of the planets, we found some kind of relic which looked like it may have belonged to an alien species. Certain crew members had no idea what it was, while others chimed in on what they thought it could be.
Of course this is a space exploration RPG, so one thing you will be doing a lot of is traveling from planet to planet. One thing that the developers wanted to make sure of was that the space travel was both fun and different, so instead of just mindlessly traveling from planet to planet, they have added some small touches to keep it interesting. One cool part of the game that I saw was that when traveling from planet to planet, gravitational pulls from the planets and black holes will be something to look out for. You can also use this to your advantage as you can use the gravitational pulls to slingshot yourself around a planet and conserve fuel.
There are also a number of hard choices you will have to make on your journey home as well. You may meet up with an alien that says he is willing to help you out, but that alien might be in conflict with other aliens in the galaxy. If you you decide to take him on board, you may have found a new ally, but you may have also made more enemies throughout the galaxy that will come after you if you aren't careful. This did happen as we had other alien species coming after us during our space travels because they wanted the alien that we had on board. There was also an incident where aliens were coming after us because we owed them money and it was time to collect. Another choice I saw was that you may encounter a species that runs a slave ring, and you may be forced with making the choice of offering up one of your crew members or facing annihilation. If you do this, you do get the option of rescuing your crew member later on.
The game will also offer a huge amount of replayablility as the galaxy will all be randomly generated so it seems that some of the choices you made, alliances you formed, and planets you visited will be different each time you play. I love this idea because it seems like this is a game like XCOM where losing and being forced to restart isn't a bad thing as there is just as much fun to be had on multiple playthroughs.
I only got a small taste of what The Long Journey Home has to offer, but this is absolutely a game I will be keeping on my radar as I am really excited to see what else this world has to offer.
The Long Journey Home is scheduled to be released later this year on PC, Xbox One and PS4.
