Review for The Long Journey Home. Game for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/05/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/11/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 14/11/2018
What would you do if you were missing, far from any place known to you and unable to communicate with anyone who could rescue you? Could you keep your nerve, brainstorm and come up with a plan to get home? This is the situation in which The Long Journey Home wants to immerse the player. This adventure, developed by Daedalic Entertainment and narrated through a sci-fi setting, sees the player busy managing a crew lost in deep space due to a mysterious accident. Resource management, constant dangers, diplomacy with alien races are the keys to success in the enterprise.
Lost in space
In the opening bars of the game, we have to decide which members make up the crew of four astronauts. The choice determines which sets of starting items or abilities we have at our disposal. We can then customize the ship, the lander and finally leave. Our journey alternates in two main game modes. The first concerns the navigation in the various solar systems, in our opinion the most fun phase. The spaceship in fact has a limited amount of fuel, deciding which route to take to reach the various planets is crucial. The gravitational attraction of the various celestial bodies can also heavily deviate your course, making you spend a much greater amount of fuel than expected. Using the gravitational slings correctly, the launch windows during an orbit and measuring the speed when approaching a planet, puts a strain on your piloting skills.
Each solar system is procedurally generated and the available resources are partially visible even before landing on any planet. This allows for delicate planning regarding which systems should be visited. There are places where gaseous resources are present in large quantities, to fill the tanks of your vehicle, or surfaces rich in minerals so as to repair damage to the hull, or you can still find antimatter, useful for making the "jumps" between a system solar and another. It is also possible to meet asteroid belts where to juggle to avoid collisions or space stations of trade with alien races and so on. In short, the possibilities are so many and always different. After a few minutes the high difficulty of the game makes you immediately understand that every choice made heavily influences the exploration phases. The cargo space of spaceship and lander is very limited and it is often better to diversify the resources to be transported.
One small step for man
The second type of gameplay concerns the landing on the various planets. The lander, once detached from the mother ship, makes its descent towards the ground. The gravity of the planets is variable and therefore also in this case your ability to modulate the engines determines the success of a mission. Crashing the lander to the ground results in minerals being spent on repairs. Maneuvering incorrectly limits the possible extractions you can make on the surface. In fact, you must always keep a sufficient supply of fuel to re-enter orbit or you will say goodbye to a crew member! Each mission can also stress the pilot, injure him or worse… Thanks to medkits, purchased or found around the galaxies, you can solve these problems but obviously they are precious resources that should be used only in an emergency.
Of all the graphics component, certainly not excellent but still sufficient, we particularly liked the characterization of the backgrounds, weather effects, earthquakes, miasmas, etc., which make each planet unique. A little surprise on every landing. On the other hand, the menus are not convincing, they are really minimal. Moving in the various sections of the ship, nothing memorable or practical leaps to the eye.
To infinity and beyond
Your purpose is obviously to return to earth, so how do you do it? Each galaxy is connected to another group of stars. In order to reach it, thus advancing in the right direction, we must pass through particular gates, incredible structures that project our spaceship towards the chosen destination. The use of these gates incurs a fee and you must pay particular attention to the breed handling this passage. Making enemies can greatly complicate your situation, requiring a detour that will greatly lengthen your return. In The Long Journey Home there is also a cdecidedly sketchy combat component, but a good interlude between the various phases of exploration.
All this is completed by a myriad of variables, objects, components for the ship and for the lander, quests that are entrusted by the factions we meet while traveling between the solar systems. The game is therefore really complete and guarantees an experience of many hours to complete. If you choose not to go straight to the goal, but to wander to explore every corner of the universe, longevity is even greater. We recommend this choice only if you are really passionate about the survival genre, the punitive ones. The Long Journey Home is unforgivingRunning out of fuel and preventing the life support system from functioning is one of the biggest problems to avoid, but there are so many things that can lead you to Game Over. Luckily there is a rewind feature which does not force you to start from scratch.
Of course we don't shout at the masterpiece for this exploration and resource management title. If you are looking for a challenge, you will find bread for your teeth. The piloting sessions both in the solar systems and with the lander are very fun and challenging. Perhaps the real problem that doesn't make this game better is the repetitiveness of the available actions. The developers have made efforts to diversify a lot, but the very nature of the game mode leads to excessive redundancy. Nonetheless, it remains a game not to be rejected, in fact it offers much more than various indies without a real structure.
► The Long Journey Home is an Adventure-RPG game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/05/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/11/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 14/11/2018
