Element Space - turn-based sci-fi tactical RPG

[BlackAdderBG]

The price is good enough to take the risk, downloading now.

 

[Infinitron]

Some details here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...-is-out-now-and-blends-politics-with-tactics/

Element: Space tactically exits early access today

Tactical RPG Element: Space quietly snuck out of early access today, after a short but eventful stint in public production. The debut game from new independent studio Sixth Vowel, it’s hard not to make comparisons to Firaxis’s XCOM after looking at the screenshots and trailer. However, after playing a chunk of the game in the run-up to launch, I found myself surprised that while XCOM is invoked, this may have more in common with Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but with more politics. See the launch trailer below, and let me explain that odd comparison a bit further.

Element: Space – at least from what I’ve played so far, admittedly not one full playthrough – is a ‘light’ tactics game. You’ve got at most a squad of three characters, from a total of eight possible party members. While you can alter them a little through skill trees and weapon choices, there’s none of the technical finesse you get in other games in the genre. While there is a little bit of running around freely in-between fights, it’s purely for narrative and exploration purposes, rather than Mutant: Year Zero‘s blending of stealth, navigation and tactics.

Combat in Element: Space seems streamlined. At least early on, your chance of hitting an enemy behind light cover is a flat 50%, and shots that hit hard cover damage it. Battles seem more like tactical puzzles, with each fight giving you a ranking based on your efficiency. Characters also partially recover health between fights. There may not be any cartoon rabbits cosplaying as David Bowie battling pseudo-Italian plumbers, but this feels familiar. It has some ideas of its own though, like targeted cone-based overwatch and movement outside of cover not being grid-based.

What sets Element: Space apart is its structure. It’s a shorter but more broadly branching RPG with a political core. Your dialogue options skew towards four political ideologies mapped out on a basic graph. Humanism and Independence are apparently opposites. Autocracy versus Bureaucracy is the other conflict, and each of the seven factions you can meet (all humans, sorry – no weird aliens here) exist somewhere on this grid. Depending where you stand, you can end up taking different missions, recruiting different party members or just pissing off everyone.

While I’m curious to see if the story can hold itself together or whether it collapses under its own broadly political aspirations, I’ve got my weekend all booked up. I’d love to hear thoughts from anyone else who played the game through early access. It’s nice to see a game not afraid to be overtly, loudly political, but in allowing you to pick where you stand on the spectrum, I fear it’ll end up just saying a whole lot of nothing. It’s just amusing to see something so self-serious attached to systems that remind me of slapstick cartoon antics.

Element: Space is out now on Steam for £15.49/€16.79/$19.99. Inca Games are publishing.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

honestly looks really bland and this is typically my bread and butter genre mashup
characters seem really boring without any actual story, combat looks meh

 

[Nortar]

I had hopes for this game. Sadly it's all pretense and not enough quality in anything.

 

[Latro]

starkill looks cool though

 

[BlackAdderBG]

The game is amateurish, writing is atrocious, LoS is annoying without clear rules, as a whole documentation is lacking. Combat animations can't be skipped,as you have to wait for your guy to end his animation(be it fire, movement etc., that is one thing nuXCOM did good and should be standard for all tactical games). Some annoyances like on-map dialog move on its own so you have to read fast, but when on the ship (that is the hub of the game) you have to hit enter to progress it, maybe they were planning to voice the dialog, but ran out of money. So far I like only one of the characters, the melee girl, she is fun to play with.

 

[Lhynn]

Started playing a while ago. So far so good. The lack of budget is noticeable right from the start, but my expectations are pretty much 0, so well see how it goes.

Seems to have 0 exploration and there is no reward for doing better in combat, other than doing better in combat. Im fine with that.

Anyone got access to some documentation on the characters skill threes? you cant even plan ahead.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I had hopes for this game. Sadly it's all pretense and not enough quality in anything.

Same.
I expected it to be in early access until 2020, was sort of shocked when they announced it was releasing.

 

[StaticSpine]

Wha? They announced the game will be out in Q1 2019 when starting Early Access.

 

[Lhynn]

Well, the game is a disaster, littered with gamebreaking bugs.
The writing is annoying. That universe feels a bit like [Current year] SJWfest, where the good leaders were and are all women, where our AI goes out of its way to help lesbian couples, etc.
Theres no reason not to have character creation. The Captain, because of the lack of the depth and personality, could have been played by literally anyone, even a transexual black midget.

The combat was very challenging until i got the mercenary black dude, he gets an AoE that does high damage every turn and pins everyone in it down. You can usually neuter around 1/3 of the opposition with that thing. After that it just became fairly easy. This could change back to being challenging as enemies get stronger, but ill never know because i ran into a dialogue that never progresses, therefore ending my short journey into this universe.

 

[Van-d-all]

Heh just noticed that game, read the last 4 pages and adding that to it essentially looking like AssEffect x nuXcom it's too soyboy for me.

 

[MicoSelva]

The game is now available in IndieGala Hump Day Bundle for $3.50 .

 

[thesheeep]

Humanism and Independence are apparently opposites. Autocracy versus Bureaucracy is the other conflict,

That doesn't even make sense.

 

[Lhynn]

Its not like they are opposites, they are just philosophies and they happen to always conflict in the options given. At least thats how the game treats it. The 4 of them interact for the most part, you can pick the humanistic choice, the independent one, the autocratic one or the burocratic one.

In the end its a retarded gimmick and nothing more, one of your companions will always like the autocratic option and his loyalty will go up when you pick it, but another companions may go down. So you kinda play your character the way you want to or try to catter to the imbeciles that follow you to increase their bonuses.

 

[Harry Easter]

The game is now available in IndieGala Hump Day Bundle for $3.50 .

Well, that was fast OO.

 

[belated]

The game is now available in IndieGala Hump Day Bundle for $3.50 .

Along with that platformer Avellone wrote the story for as well, Degrees of Separation. That was also quick...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The game is now available in IndieGala Hump Day Bundle for $3.50 .

Along with that platformer Avellone wrote the story for as well, Degrees of Separation. That was also quick...

The Avellone touch of death

 

[Rahdulan]

That was shocking. Not that I'm complaining. Hell, I had both games wishlisted.

 

[Life of the Party]

 

[Falksi]

3 hours in and I the criticisms above are very valid, the additional voice acting only makes things worse, but I'm still enjoying it so far. There's just a lot of good ideas in there when it comes to the battles, and for the silly cheap price I've already had my money's worth.

The bugs and woke shit are annoying as fuck though for sure. One minute key characters aren't appearing, the next my droid is concerned about some lesbo relationship. And yes, the writing is fucking awful.

Still, I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening chilling out on it.

 

[Falksi]

Lasted 8 hours until the bugs became too much and the the writing and wokey-pokey became too annoying. It's a real shame they didn't get their act together here, as some of the combat ideas are great and work really well....when they work.