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Space Quest Prequel "Decisions of the Elders" RELEASED!


boston

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 Whoo! Finished it! You'll be happy to know I prioritized this over Moebius.

 

The Good!

 

This was a really fun game! It really comes together in the second half, where I learn who the elders actually are and I couldn't bring myself to take a break. The puzzles are plentiful, the moon logic isn't completely off-world, and I especially like the twists throughout. Even the cheesy romantic subplot with its space-cow-fart-filed heart-shaped balloon keeps it from being another dredge-through-the-jungle adventure. Otherwise, the graphics nail the old-school style, the humor is funny, and its kind of heartwarming. Even the country music at the end is a surprisingly nice fit for the game.

The Not-As-Meh

 

A lot of my puzzle solving was either "mix items until something does something" or "look for the slightly unusual pixel in the background". Fortunately, a lot of it fell into place rather quickly once I started backtracking and I'm grateful that the game didn't have any fail-states. Even finding that drill bit as soon as I entered the scene was one of those strange "I shouldn't have been able to find that" moments. Same with "talk to rock" as a puzzle solution (although any seasoned adventurer would be doing that anyway!) 

 

Overall:

It's a delightful addition to the growing world of interactive Space Quest fan-fiction! There's enough clues to keep the puzzles from being impossible, goofy moments a-plenty, and you can finish it in a few hours. Some SQ fans might take offense to lack of death sequences or the obvious fan-service, but overall, it's a nice job all around. I really enjoyed playing it and I hope to see more from you in the future!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Great game, I just finished it and I enjoyed it a lot!
 
Things I liked the best:
  • The humor was great, it had a witty sarcastic vibe throughout... I think the humor is one of the most important things in Space Quest and this really nailed that.
  • I loved the narrator in particular, the descriptions and the interplay between the narrator and the main character... I like that the narrator was genuinely helpful, but was also sarcastic at the same time.
  • I really liked the helpfulness of the descriptions, so that you knew where there was a definite dead end, or an object that definitely didn't need messing with. In other games I often find I'm wasting time trying everything out on an object that doesn't do anything, when the game should have just told me something like, "this bush probably doesn't do anything," so I'm glad this game did that!
  • I liked that the puzzles were clear and logical and you had enough clues to let you know the kind of direction you were meant to be going in without having to randomly guess. 
  • I liked the plot, characters, and the puzzles and thought they were interesting and fun.
  • I also liked the art work and it felt like I was playing a classic game (I think the pixelated graphics actually help with that to keep the look consistent... sometimes fan games' art is a bit of a hodgepodge when it's higher-res).
  • The music was good too, just to keep the mood ticking along.
 
Things I thought could be changed or improved (these are all pretty minor things):
  • I enjoyed the pixel-hunting, but early on I didn't know that there was going to be pixel-hunting, so I was stumped at not finding the "shiny piece". Once I knew there would be pixel-hunting, I was able to figure out later puzzles without as much frustration, but the game could have maybe given a clue about this earlier on, so the player knows that there will be some pixel-hunting to do.
  • I would have liked a bit more space stuff and a bit more alien stuff personally, I think that would have made the locations a little more varied (but they were great locations for what they were).
  • There were a number of grammar/spelling mistakes (I noticed at least a couple of "form" instead of "from" and stuff like "engne" instead of "engine")... not a big deal, but I think getting a couple of people to play through it and note down these things would just tidy it up a bit.
  • There was one odd instance near the end of the game (I think just before we get on the ship) where the word "shitty" was included, which kind of threw me for a second like, wait, there's swearing in this game! I think if there were swear words throughout the whole thing that would be ok, as it would be consistent, but because it was like a one-off instance, it seemed weird... I'd just replace that with "crappy" or some other less sweary word.

So I enjoyed this game a lot! The minor quibbles I have are more to do with just tidying up the game than any proper problem with it...

 

This is the first SQ fan game I've tried, so I'll have to give the others a shot in the near future...

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  • 2 weeks later...

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