Kevin C. Wong

iOS Game - Out There (2014) [+]

I previously reviewed Out There six years ago. Re-installed it last month and played it a bunch on my iPad and still plays great.

This is a space exploration rogue-like where you start with a small ship far from Earth and a million years in the future and are trying to make it back home. You gather resources (elements) which are used to build, repair and power your ship (you have oxygen, fuel and hull to maintain). It's a balancing act of what to carry since every separate element carried as cargo (at max 20 count) and ship item takes up a space.

You encounter aliens and slowly the galactic tongue. You encounter some special events and slowly learn the background. There are five different endings (besides dying) and with the help of an Out There Wiki I did two objectives and working on my third before I got distracted and never came back.

Moderate replay-ability. After a few tries you can sort of distinguish a good start from a bad one (well, bad ones tend to end quickly). Also once you discover a ship you can use it as your starting ship and some of the ships are quite nice.

It was good to play it again for a few weeks and maybe I'll come back to it and do all the missions one day.