Writing is smart with enough leads to keep you wanting to explore just a bit more. Minimalist presentation is clean & slick. View: įrom the team that just released Citizen Sleeper In Other Waters is a stylish, intelligent & meditative experience. It's got rough edges for sure, but it's also got a ton of heart and a unified focus that only seems to come through with smaller productions like this. Objects feels like a labor of love put together by a tiny team of 2. There's more writing exploring these threads than you'd expect to see in the genre. That's not even to mention what happened to all your friends who are now elderly while you didn't age at all. 70 years later you catch back up with the group only to find the system established and rife with political & commercial conflict. As part of a vanguard fleet sent out to colonize a new system, you misjump and float in cryo for decades. It gives a great feeling of ownership to your craft.Īnd while you can play all the roles found in space sims (trucker, marauder, bounty hunter, etc.) there's also a great story on offer as well. Instead you sitting behind a myriad of computer consoles calibrating headings, managing systems, switching out damaged physical parts. You're not using joysticks to fly and shoot your way through the galaxy as in No Man's Sky or Rebel Galaxy. OiS is a sandbox space sim where piloting your ship feels more like playing as a submarine navigation officer. I'm subbing this thread for future inquiry. If you have similar taste in reading, let me know what games you've enjoyed! To add a splash of colour to the OP, here are some sci-fi books I like that might serve as an extra point of reference. A little about why you like it would be great, if possible.

Please at least provide a title and screenshot(s)/video of your suggestion. These criteria are quite specific, but I'm willing to consider various genres as a compromise. Ideally it'll have a great soundtrack or a layered SF soundscape to help stay engaged and immersed. This also ties into atmosphere and presentation.

Ideally the game will make me think a bit after switching it off, either about decisions I made/will make, or about the concepts it explores. This ties into the points about themes and tone. So ideally the game will be easy-on-the-eyes. Pixel art or lo-fi art is often a natural choice for smaller, less demanding games. This ties into the aesthetic and how demanding the game is. I definitely don't mind having to stop to read things, if it's teaching the player about the systems or the world. It should either have thoughtful dialogue or some nice flavour text to soak up somewhere in-game. It should just be comfortable with its tone. That's not to say it should be pretentious. It has to take itself somewhat seriously, in terms of presentation, writing, etc. Sombre tone with good world-building/detailĪ rich, immersive atmosphere is a huge plus. Ideally it'll have fast loading and won't hog system resources.Īn Intel i5, 8GB RAM and an SSD are all I have to work with. Whatever the game is, it needs to embrace on-board graphics. You could be controlling vulnerable humans, indifferent AI, piloting powerful mechs or commanding a ship. It could be set in deep space, an 'earth aftermath' scenario, on a space station, etc. 'cerebral' in the title can be interpreted in various ways, or ignored entirely. I'm in the mood for a very specific sort of game, and would like to ask you good people for suggestions on what that might be. I love discovering new experiences in games, and love getting recommendations on Era.

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