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[Recommend me]A game like the movie Sunshine!
.Tripwire.
FirmanRegistered User regular
FirmanRegistered User regular
I've been on a bit of a space kick lately, and after just rewatching Danny Boyle's Sunshine I feel a specific hankering. I won't mention how I think the movie fucked up with a lame final conflict (OOPS) but what I feel the film did really well was communicate the following ideas:
Isolation
Claustrophobia
Majesty of space
And this is what I'd like to experience in a game now. Most of the sci fi games I can think of take place on alien planets or are focused with shooting, which might be inevitable. But obviously if I'm dodging flak cannon rounds during a spacewalk there's probably not much time to just pause and look at the planet above me. So please recommend for me any titles you feel surpass others in incoporating the themes I listed above (even at the cost of losing scientific accuracy, like Sunshine - it's entertainment!).
Anyone remember Trees of Pangaea? I loved that, even though it was just a tech demo. When I was wandering around in their desert, I started to actually get that hopeless alone feeling, which I thought was a sweet accomplishment. Surely some similar simulation but beyond our exosphere exists as well.
Personal and technological preferences: I own a PC (capable of anything - I once asked it to define love numerically and it was all like "Fuck man, let's just go run a thousand simultaneous instances of Crysis on high settings") and DS, the latter is probably completely unhelpful in this case (though I do own Metroid Prime: Hunters). But if you know of something applicable that is console only, please feel free to mention it and I'll try to find a way to play it. I'm averse to MMOs as I'd like to pay for the software just once. Lots of bonus points to any games that deal with some sort of doomsday event.
I have a feeling Dead Space might be mentioned a lot, so be assured I'm already planning on getting it. And yes, I've played Lunar Lander, you old fart!
The short of it: Tell me a PC game that explores the juxtaposition between space being BIG and man being SMALL, where you play as the man because playing as the universe would be silly (actually no, that would be awesome, recommend that game too).
If no games like I've described exist, I have a follow up request: make them for me! Ok cool thanx.
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
.Tripwire. on
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Freelancer would be a good suggestion, but the last you tend to feel is isolated.
EVE Online is an MMO but dear god fuck does it ever have some pretty-ass space.
There is a disturbing lack of games that actually involve space.
XBL/PSN-Polaris314/Twitter/DJ P0LARI5
The first one, it's got some years on it's back but it's still one of the greatest games ever made.
Even though it's an RTS you do feel the littleness of man and greatness of space every minute, the isolation is very much there as well. It's not just a "build more troops" game either as the resources in the game are finite.
I had to pay close attention from the first level to make it through alive.
The story and general atmosphere is spot on fantastic as well.
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edit: I see you actually mentioned Dead Space in the OP, so I'll be a bit more helpful and give a bit of a nod to System Shock 2. I can't really add anything to what's already been said - it's not so much about the majesty of space, but if a sci-fi setting is enough to get you past that, the feeling of isolation is definitely there.
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Yeah System Shock 2 sounds like your best bet, although it doesn't really feature exploration of space as such, you're pretty much alone on a spaceship with unpleasant things and depressingly limited ammo and capabilities.
Stalker and Fallout 3 gave me a good atmospher of desolation and isolation (when you're away from the inhabited settlements), but those are "post-apocalypse" style games as opposed to space sci-fi.
edit: shit, sorry, just read that you need basically a PC game..
Hm.
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This. You want Homeworld, badly. If you haven't replayed it in the past couple years, play it again, you'll be surprised at how beautiful it is for its age. If you've just plain never played it, what is wrong with you.
o_O The only thing Mass Effect evoked in me was a distinct need to replay Kotor 2.
The portions of Dead Space outside the ship are done really really well. The way the sound dies while in a vacuum and the way you move in zero G is damn well done.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Ok and I also never played Homeworld, but I do own the sequel. But I haven't played that yet either. I have this disease that compels me to buy every game I see and then just assume I'll get around to playing them all when I retire in forty-five years.
Begin operation: "getting around to it"!! :P
Be sure to pick up and play Homeworld before doing Homeworld 2, I cannot stress this enough!
Homeworld 2 has probably tainted your perception of the original game just through its existence - not because it's bad (though it kinda is) but because you've probably picked up on a bit of the first game's plot. Basically you should forget about the sequel, acquire the first game through any means possible, and play it in the dark with the sound up.
(Counter-intuitively, a lower resolution (640x480 or so) is probably more impressive than a high one, because the textures won't stick out like a sore thumb.)
Also the manual is full of some awesome, really well-written history fluff which dovetails with the first few missions so nicely if you read it first - but not everyone is a nut for that kind of thing like I am.
All this aside, I can basically assure you that Homeworld's skyboxes alone will fill your jaded, empty heart with the majesty of space.
It was executed very well and people who say it was like Event Horizon are retarded
Event Horizon was spectacularly goofy and Sunshine was anything but
Also you are describing Dead Space pretty much, and you should probably play Mass Effect too because everyone should play Mass Effect
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Never seen Event Horizon, but
The whole movie was pretty unconventional. I mean, we never left the ship, so it was claustrophobic, and when we did it was to return to Earth to indicate the mission's success. That's where the powerful conclusion lies, and I would have rather not seen their solar descent at all. The climax should have just been fighting to survive against Pinbacker and ultimately destroying or quarantining him, while the wounded crew remainder pushed the mission forward.
Then we could have just spent some time with his family, after they watch his message home (which shouldn't have been the second before they see the sun rejuvenated anyways). The audience would feel the displacement after having been aboard the Icarus 2 the whole film, and wonder what the fuck is going on, just like earth population's been for years. And then after a tense while, we see what the characters on earth see, and the sun flares up to its proper magnificence. Fuck, that is the beauty of the story right there. The planet is saved and the family is going to wait for their loved one's return indefinitely, while those of us watching know what shit really went down.
The whole movie managed to be intense while moving slowly and remaining dark (when shielded from the sun). I see no reason why it had to become some disorienting, frenetic "OH SHIT WE GOTTA DEFEAT THIS MONSTER OR THE WORLD IS DOOMED" thing at the end. The situation was dire enough, and in a much more sophisticated way.
So that's why I say the ending sucked scrotum. Just felt like such a wasteful counteraction to the rest of the film, which I thought was great.
So researching some of the titles I've heard here somehow led me to a page reminding me about Starship Titanic. Jesus, where the hell did that game go? I remember seeing a CGW ad for it and then never hearing about it again until now.
Steam needs to kick its butt into hyperdrive to get all these old games I've missed available.
I feel like mentioning Dead Space. Have we mentioned Dead Space yet? I think the game he is looking for is Dead Space.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I didn't feel that it wasn't executed well, it just felt kind of unnecessary. And for the record, I like Event Horizon too.
XBL/PSN-Polaris314/Twitter/DJ P0LARI5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ku5G4ovnUU
This game has probably billions of planets and you can land on any one of them.
Better hope you have enough power to escape the gravity though, it has Newtonian physics as well.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Moonghosts.
It takes place on the MOON. It's also a PS2 game.
Well Newtonian physics is no joke so this game is by no means easy. Also, did you have jjffe, the fan patched version? This game was fairly buggy at release.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
An awesome 2D space action/adventure/simulation game. A huge universe to explore, interact with, and conquer.
PS4: Voranth
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But also Homeworld.
I'll concede that point. Both are fantastic and should be required playing for children and the elderly.