Strange Adventures in Infinite Space - Game Review

Overall:

Developed by Digital Eel
Published by Cheapass Games
Platform: PC
ESRB Rating: N/A

Most good computer games require a huge investment of time. Spending hours and hours of exploring territory, building armies, vanquishing enemies, solving puzzles, and performing many other tasks to achieve victory. Sometimes you want something simple, a game that's quick, fun, and takes very little effort. A game that fulfills those requirements is Strange Adventures in Infinite Space.

When you start the game, you are presented with fifteen stars to visit within ten years. At these stars you can collect useful upgrades to your ship, valuable artifacts and life forms, and allies in your travels. You can also encounter hostile aliens, a supernova, or a black hole that will end your trip short. How many good encounters you collect as well how you handle the bad encounters determines your score. All these factors along with the star map are randomized with every game, so boredom is minimized, but so is the ability to use strategy.

The interface is very simple: you click on a star and it gives you the travel time to it and a 'Engage' button (anyone who watched Star Trek: The Next Generation knows what that button does). Combat between your ship and enemy vessels is also very simple, you simply click on an enemy ship and your weapons fire automatically. If you wish to retreat, simply click on the 'Retreat' button (whether you make it is another question). Since there are no statistics on the various ship components, the outcome is never completely certain. While that can annoy some people, you never bored watching the skirmish.

The whole game is done in a tongue in cheek style with stars named for science fiction authors and rather odd descriptions for the trade goods you collect. There isn't a lot to this game. The graphics and sound will hardly task any decent computer system and the variety of people, places, and things are limited. But the whole point of the game is to be brief and fun (the longest game I played must have been about fifteen minutes). And with a price of $15.00, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space is irresistible.

Eye Candy:
Ear Candy:
Gameplay:
Replay:

• Buy Strange Adventures in Infinite Space at Cheapass Games!