got its hooks in the moment it recounted the story of The Speaker, a public orator of legend. When interdimensional conquerors threatened the galaxy, his unbroken 46-hour speech shamed the invaders so thoroughly that they turned around and went back home embarrassed. And that’s just the tip of an iceberg of weirdness.
That said, I’m probably going to be playing more Underspace once I’ve finished writing this, because I’ve a high tolerance for jank and there’s some very solid bones here. Plus, maybe I’m a bit more nostalgic for Freelancer than I’d like to admit to myself. While the excellentis a good point of reference for a similar, recent game, this is more old-school.
Another element separating this from Freelancer is that once you land on a space station or planet, you’re able to walk around in first-person, chatting with NPCs and quest-givers in multi-choice dialogues. They’re a surprisingly well-written and chatty bunch, each species having their own quirks but individuals are treated as such rather than archetypes, even when they’re strange microscopic critters piloting floating robot tables.
One other notably Early Access-ish element of the game is the performance. Despite the game not looking much prettier than its 21-year-old inspiration, it made my laptop creak a bit in places. Not a dealbreaker for me, but it’s one more rough edge to deal with. I’m only a handful of hours into what the developers estimate is a 16-hour main story and I’m excited to see more.