The Single Player

Exploring and critiquing games and media, not just as entertainment but as a discipline and art form.

“Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” Review: Mastery, Exploration, and Old School Star Wars

Posted on 8 January, 2026 by Anthony Langsworth

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (or Jedi: Survivor) is a science-fiction adventure RPG developed by Respawn Entertainment, the same company that created the prequel, Jedi: Fallen Order. Thankfully, Jedi: Survivor is a worthy sequel, improving on the prequel in every way.

You play Cal Kestis, a Jedi Knight, continuing his fight against the Empire. Retreating to the backwater planet Koboh after a mission on Coruscant goes horribly wrong, Cal stumbles upon a forgotten planet that could be a hidden refuge for those he holds dear.

At first glance, Jedi: Survivor appears mechanically similar to Journey to the Savage Planet, the previous game I played. Both are exploration traversal games set on alien planets, where you wander, discover new areas, fight foes and collect resources. You have the traversal mainstays like the double jump and a grappling hook. You gain upgrades as you progress, allowing you to access more areas, defeat stronger enemies and complete challenging timed events.

However, the similarity ends there. Journey to the Savage Planet is about fun with cartoonish violence, densely packed levels and self-aware humour. Jedi: Survivor is about mastery, both in combat and traversal.

Jedi: Survivor‘s combat is “Souls-like”. Enemies hit hard and often outnumber you. Success requires learning enemy abilities and correctly timing parries and dodges. Combat is challenging, meaning you will die frequently as you learn and experiment, but not punishing, assuming you unlock shortcuts to shorten the journey back from the respawn point.

Jedi: Survivor adds two new lightsaber stances to the versatile single-blade, fast dual-blade and defensive double-blade stances from Jedi: Fallen Order. The crossguard stance, inspired by Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, adds a slow but damaging greatsword. The blaster stance, as its name suggests, has Cal Kestis wielding a blaster and lightsaber, fulfilling Han Solo or Wild West gunslinger-style fantasies.

Jedi: Survivor is also about exploration, with big, broad maps filled with traversal puzzles, riding mounts and even a speeder bike sequence.

Jedi lend themselves well to this style of play. Ever since Luke’s first training scene on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, Jedi have demonstrated themselves to be acrobatic and athletic. They often befriend local wildlife.

Structurally, Jedi: Survivor has peaks of action during intense, story-relevant scenes and boss fights, followed by more leisurely downtime. Players can spend these breaks exploring, collecting or bounty hunting. You can expand their very own cantina via recruiting NPCs, fishing (by interacting with an NPC that appears at water), finding music tracks for the DJ, collecting plant seeds to fill a garden or scanning defeated opponents to use in holotactics games. Companions sometimes join Cal for story-specific sequences, often opening new areas or teaching Cal new abilities.

Jedi: Survivor‘s storyline explores purpose, sacrifice, friendship and acceptance. The story is told mainly through cutscenes, conversations with the many supporting characters and force echoes, which reveal past events or conversations. While it deals with galactic-relevant events and drops a few familiar names, the story focuses mainly on its characters, creating a personal story that tugs at heartstrings.

Just like in the movies, Jedi: Survivor has occasional bursts of humour, like the overheard banter between enemies, particularly the B1 droids introduced in the prequel movies. Struggling through tough fights to face Rick, the door technician, will bring a smirk to your face.

A now stubbled Cal even has a brush with romance, a taboo subject for Jedi, but handled tastefully and respectfully. It adds a little sexual tension, like in The Empire Strikes Back.

However, Jedi: Survivor‘s themes are only deep enough to motivate you, and not a genuine examination like in Cyberpunk 2077 or The Witcher series. While minor characters can sometimes point you to interesting parts of the map, there are no true side missions or plot choices to add depth or consequence.

Jedi: Survivor is unmistakably a Star Wars game, and not just because it involves lightsaber-wielding Jedi using the force against the Empire and other instantly recognisable tropes. Jedi: Survivor continues the themes of droids as people and good fighting an asymmetric battle against a seemingly overwhelming evil. Cal’s ship, the Mantis, is a Millennium Falcon equivalent, a similarly delapidated but faithful steed carrying Cal and his pseudo-family from stage to stage.

Cal views the path ahead, which juxtaposes the technological sandcrawler in the background with primitive ochre buildings

The game is faithful to Star Wars in its environment design. Most worlds you visit are technological backwaters, where primitive ochre and stone buildings are juxtaposed with automatic doors, artificial lighting and droids. Like the movies, Jedi: Fallen Order mixes the familiar with the alien or technologically different.

A lush, misty valley on Koboh, showing sandstone cliffs and gentle sunbeams

The colour palettes are muted pastels. Gone are the brilliant greens of Kashyyk and the purples of Dathomir in the first game. Instead, there are the reds of Dune-like Jedha, the greys of Coruscant and Californian scrub-like Koboh. These palettes give the game a realistic feel and make each location clearly unique.

Jedi: Survivor has Star Wars‘ audio pedigree. Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab return from Jedi: Fallen Order to deliver an emotional, epic, orchestral soundtrack that evokes the best of John Williams. The distinctive lightsaber whoosh, blaster ping and AT-ST foot clang abound.

Like Jedi: Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor respects Star Wars as an intellectual property and a genre. It is neither derivative nor uninteresting and avoids redefining elements for its own ends. NPCs, like Darth Vader, are used faithfully. Jedi are noble, humble and capable, not the flawed, inflexible strawmen presented in later works.

Cal is a young male Jedi with a droid sidekick like Luke Skywalker. However, Cal is motivated by survival and the desire to protect, rather than seeking adventure or saving his father. Cal’s later dabbles with the force’s dark side present it as seductively and terrifyingly powerful while implying Cal’s greatest challenges lie ahead.

This series has cemented itself as a worthy addition to Star Wars lore and canon. At about thirty hours to finish for a storyline-only playthrough, Jedi: Fallen Order is about double the length of Jedi: Survivor. Those looking for a challenging and faithful Star Wars RPG will relish it. I look forward to the inevitable sequel.

“Dune Prophecy” Review: Fun but Wasted Potential

Posted on 5 January, 2026 by Anthony Langsworth

Dune Prophecy is a science fiction thriller and political intrigue series based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune, exploring the formation of the Bene Geserit. Dune Prophecy is aesthetically inspired by the recent Dune movies and funded due to their success.

Dune Prophecy is set ten thousand years before the Dune novel and movies, with the machine wars still in recent memory and much of the main elements of Dune already in place, such as spice, Arrakis, personal shields, noble houses and the Imperium.

The series is the story of Valya Harkonnen and her rise from unremarkable daughter in a minor noble house to head of the Sisterhood meddling in galactic affairs. Ostensibly, the Sisterhood is a group of female truthtellers and advisers to nobles. In reality, they are a spy network looking to subtly control events. The series opens as a Sisterhood-arranged marriage that would cement the future viability and pliability of the Imperium goes awry.

I initially found Valya’s motivation weak. Revenge drives Valya Harkonnen: revenge against the Imperium for the lie of Harkonnen cowardice during the machine war and revenge against house Atreides for her brother’s assassination. It drives her to kill, manipulate and subvert with no regard for others.

The problem is all this setup happens offscreen. We do not see what the Harkonnen did during the war to warrant such ostracisation. We do not see her brother’s death, whether he died valiantly in an honourable duel or whether it was a dishonourable stab in the back. Seeing these would have justified Valya’s crusade and outrage. It would have made it personal. Without it, we only have an unrelatable, potentially biased character’s word.

Meanwhile, everyone else seems to accept things. They may not be happy – the Harkonnens live on an inhospitable, frigid world, pitifully peddling whale fur – but they move on. They find Valya’s resistance, if not hostility, to the status quo grating and disrespectful. Valya self-righteously dismisses their protests as weakness. Add it to her revenge tally.

Perhaps Dune Prophecy is a parable about Darwinian survival in a (literal) cut-throat universe. However, survival is easier with access to the highest levels of government through a network of flawless lie detectors. Survival is easier when using “the voice” to compel others forcibly. Survival is easier when you and your sisters can easily slaughter elite guards. Her final conversation with Evgeny, the weak and wheezing Harkonnen patriarch, is both a mercy culling and a ploy to bring someone more easily controlled into the fray.

Perhaps Dune Prophecy is about righteous justice, but the Harkonnen sisters’ exceptionalism and unreasonable sacrifices demanded from others show a skewed moral compass. “Sisterhood above all” becomes an autocratic rallying call. Valya fights against forces within the Dune universe because they challenge the Sisterhood’s control, not because of justice, skewed or otherwise.

Valya is the anti-hero the twisted, dystopian Dune universe needs. Her ends justify her means. Whether you believe her version of events or sympathise with her is ultimately immaterial. Valya is the only character in Dune Prophecy with any real agency, so her actions are key.

Meanwhile, Dune Prophecy adopts the aesthetic of recent Dune movies: dimly lit ochre and grey stone buildings contrast with airy, open outdoor spaces. However, while the Dune movies contrasted the black, organic Harkonnen machines, the weathered, practical Fremen and the boxy Atreidies, none of that appears in Dune Prophecy. The budget for the series was likely a fraction of the movies’. Hence, there are no ornithopters, extras for imperial sycophants or the hallmark lingering wide landscape shots from the recent Dune movies. The Dune movies felt like “larger than life” documentaries. Dune Prophecy feels small and not about momentous events that could reshape the universe.

Perhaps I am being unfair. Frank Herbert’s original novel sets a high bar for other stories in the same universe to meet. Not every story can say so much about politics, gender roles, military science and sociology. However, there is so much potential here. Instead of fulfilling it, Dune Prophecy seems too focused on unnecessarily exploring headcanon, while blurring the line between science fiction and fantasy with spiritualism and predestination.

Lost potential aside, Dune Prophecy is not a boring or poorly made series. The plot weaves unpredictably, creating tense moments. The non-linear storytelling sometimes exaggerates the impact of events, reversing the order of cause and effect. The score keeps that retrofuturistic feel, combining tribal and modern instruments to underscore the unsettling feudal and futuristic mix the Dune universe is known for. The costume design is excellent, with the black-veiled sisterhood “witches” and grey, Gestapo-like palace guard uniforms hinting at authoritarianism.

Regardless, Dune Prophecy focuses on merely unravelling the status quo it initially presents and then setting up a subsequent series. The outcomes, if not the plot, are predictable. Dune Prophecy functions well as a thriller but lacks anything substantial. Hopefully, the next season will deal with more profound concepts, like those that elevated the original novel.

“Journey to the Savage Planet” Review: Exploration in the Name of Exploitation

Posted on 1 September, 2025 by Anthony Langsworth

Journey to the Savage Planet is a science fiction adventure game developed by Typhoon Studios. Tasked by Kindred Aerospace, the fourth-best interstellar company, your job is to exploit a new planet in the name of capitalism, err, I mean, explore a planet for possible human habitation.

You play an unnamed astronaut, sent to an alien planet to catalog its features and inhabitants. You explore the landscape, scanning flora and fauna, while gathering resources. Back on your ship, these resources unlock upgrades. These upgrades provide additional mobility and options, which open up more areas and so on.

Journey to the Savage Planet includes some combat. However, it is not the game’s focus. Instead, combat is a series of puzzles to keep areas unique and challenging. The boss battles gate content, ensuring you have certain upgrades and know how to use them.

Lush, alien landscapes ripe for exploitation, err, exploration

The level design is also economical. While regions feel huge at first, explorable areas are actually compact and densely packed with secrets and interesting tidbits. Early regions have areas only accessible with later upgrades, encouraging players to revisit content with more experienced eyes. You unlock teleportation early, removing a lot of tiresome travel.

Journey to the Savage Planet offers co-op play, your in-game “meat buddy”, for assistance or more social play.

Mechanically, the above sounds like a standard 3D exploration/traversal game. This is true. The game gradually exposes you to progressively more difficult puzzles that build on previous experience, like any good puzzle game. Turorialisation is usually subtle, although the game sometimes shows applicable controls as a hint. Unlike more linear puzzle games, the game’s open world allows players to switch to a different puzzle or area and return later, along with freeform exploration.

However, Journey to the Savage Planet coats this well-implemented but otherwise unremarkable gameplay with a thick layer of absurd, satirical, anti-capitalist humour. Your ship bombards you with ads that use familiar tropes and techniques to peddle ridiculous products. Periodic messages from the self-serving and insincere Kindred CEO echo the worst of an egotistical cult of personality. He savours sushi on his private jet while you eat ooze-like grob on your decrepit spacecraft. Even the feigned encouragement from your shipboard computer is sarcastic.

The humorous context gives purpose while downplaying negative aspects. It is hard to take your character’s death seriously if your CEO and ship’s computer do not. Killing and exploiting the wildlife is OK because it is in the name of “science”.

Dopey Pufferbirds hopping around their business in a lush, alien forest. — Dopey-eyed pufferbirds hopping around

Journey to the Savage Planet‘s bright, saturated and cartoonish art style, creature design, and sound effects reinforce this. The cute, ball-like pufferbirds, for example, have large, anime-like eyes and emit high-pitched cheeps. Many-headed baboushkas scream comically as they dash around. Feeding aliens grob makes them fart collectable resources.

This art style also ensures plants, creatures and terrain features are recognisable, easy to differentiate, yet clearly alien. This style will not date as graphics capabilities improve and adapts well to lower fidelity devices.

The soundtrack is roots rock, heavy with guitars and stringed instruments. It gives the game a playful, blue collar, “Wild West” feel. I would have liked more variety between tracks, though, as it can become repetitive.

While there are challenging moments and your character will die often, Journey to the Savage Planet is not difficult. A new upgrade, using a previously overlooked environmental feature or rethinking the approach is usually the answer.

Even the various MacGuffins, such as orange goo to increase your health/stamina or alien alloy for upgrades, can eventually be detected using your scanner. These scanner upgrades replace a frustrating game of finding the obscure nooks and crannies with the fun traversal puzzles. You know where the desired objects are. You just need to find out how to get there. I usually find completing collections tedious, but Journey to the Savage Planet had me happily doing so without initially realising it.

Journey to the Savage Planet‘s anti-plutocratic and pro-environmental message becomes less subtle later in the game, particularly as you approach the last boss. It taps into the anti-“tech bro”, “save the planet” zeitgeist.

However, the game’s message takes a backseat to the fun, avoiding lectures and keeping things light. The game hides its message under an obvious corporate caricature. It avoids imposing moral quandaries or showing the heart-tugging broader effects on society, as in games with similar themes such as Cyberpunk 2077 or The Outer Worlds.

Journey to the Savage Planet takes around fifteen to twenty hours to complete and about five extra hours to find all the collectables. It will appeal to those looking for a light-hearted exploration and traversal puzzle game. However, those looking for genuine challenge or put off by satirical, cartoonish humour should look elsewhere. Many puzzles emphasise the vertical, giving sweaty palms for those afraid of heights, too.

“Universe for Sale” Review: Zig Zagging through Spirituality

Posted on 14 February, 2025 by Anthony Langsworth

Universe for Sale is a science fiction “point and click” visual novel with a distinct, hand-drawn art style. It was developed by Tmesis Studio and published by Akupara Games.

Universe for Sale follows Master and, later, Lila. Master is an ascetic monk from the Cult of Detachment. The Cult believes that physically separating parts of their body also detaches negative emotions or experiences. By the time we first meet Master, he is little more than a skeleton with ears. He wakes up each day, having slept on the ground in the market, and seeks out Lila.

Lila is more human, although her hair consists of blue-green tentacles after an accident where she lost her father. She wakes each day to sell custom universes in the market or use the proceeds to decorate her home. At least, she did until Master came along.

Universe for Sale‘s gameplay consists of walking around, exploring, conversing with different people, interacting with objects, and completing minigames. Most minigames are straightforward, although some, like the Lila creating universes, can take some experimentation. The minigames’ purpose is immersion, not challenge or mastery.

Master stands in a dark basement of the church. Behind him, stands a bookcase full of confiscated artifacts. — Assorted knick-knacks, with a few pop culture references for the keen-eyed

Universe for Sale’s setting, the colony, is a wonderful fusion of fantasy and technology, hanging precipitously in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. Powered by rusting windmills and protected from acid rain with hydrophobic fabric sheets, every scene reveals more about how such a fantastical world exists and functions.

The hand-drawn art style, apart from minimizing development costs, keeps the tone light by avoiding squalor and “cartoonifying” Cult members with detached body parts. It also allows for easy exaggeration of features, making the various characters larger than life.

The colony’s inhabitants push the boundaries of humanity, from intelligent orangutans to robots. Neither Lila, with her tentacle hair, nor Master, a walking skeleton, are out of place.

The colony’s juxtaposition of technology and poverty feels familiar, but every scene’s bizarre or technological oddity reminds you of the futuristic, alien setting. Only in such a setting could Lila’s profound ability to create and manipulate universes be so minimised.

A visual novel game like Universe for Sale hinges on its writing. Thankfully, it delivers, mainly via nonlinear storytelling. Lila’s daily grind, Master’s enigmatic task and a children’s fairy story weave together as Master tries to order events into something coherent. The slow emergence of relationships while learning more about the world is intriguing. Each day brings curiosity, excitement, and some trepidation.

Universe for Sale is a story about spirituality and recovery. There are many ways to tell a story, impart wisdom or heal emotional trauma. Each person’s journey is unique. Focusing on one religion or method blinds you to others.

Universe for Sale contrasts the rigid control and doctrine of established religion with self-actualization and fulfilment. The dominant “church” in the game is probably meant to be fictional. While the futuristic and imaginative setting helps de-anchor it from reality, the cathedral-like stained glass windows and pews are hard to miss.

The Cult of Detachment’s teachings, by comparison, are initially alienating but then softened by including them in a children’s fairy tale. Master’s patience, sincerity and compassion contrast with the preaching, control and dismissiveness of the church.

Master stands in an alley way, deserted except for a cat-like Lomri — Master shares a moment with Lomri

Meanwhile, some unspoken natural order or authority is patiently asserting itself. Plants continually grow into and infest buildings. The church cannot eradicate the cat-like “lomris” that nest near Lila. Lila’s octopus-like hair, her friendship with the colony’s animal-like inhabitants, and the Kraken gatekeeper between the physical and spiritual realms hint at animism. Metaphors and references abound.

Universe for Sale has limited replayability. There is a single ending and dialog choices only satiate curiosity. The game awards achievements for reaching story milestones, as well as for doing humorous or unexpected things, so a second playthrough may help fill any gaps.

For those intrigued with fantastical worlds, non-linear storytelling or unravelling mysteries, Universe for Sale is ideal. Universe for Sale is short, taking four to five hours to finish, but tells its story well within that time. Like the varied universes Lila creates, it encourages us to open our minds to myriad spiritual possibilities.

“The Invincible” Review: A Contemplative, Retro-futuristic Thriller

Posted on 24 January, 2025 by Anthony Langsworth

The Invincible's signature image, showing a deceased astronaut buried in sand.

The Invincible is a science fiction thriller and adventure game developed by Starward Industries. Based loosely on Stanislaw Lem’s novel of the same name, published in 1964, does its premise still hold up after sixty years?

You play as Dr Yasna, an astrobiologist from the Interstellar Commonwealth spaceship Dragonfly. You awaken on a Regis III, a distant and desolate planet, with little memory of recent events. Your job is to discover what happened to your expedition while unravelling the planet’s mysteries.

The overused amnesia trope may dissuade some. However, given the source material’s age, the original novel likely inspired the trope. Yasna’s amnesia is also central to the story. Yasna regains some memories through flashbacks, but The Invincible‘s first hour or two asks more questions than it answers.

A blue-green alien sea stretches to the horizon, with a ringed planet hovering overhead. — Regis III has some beautiful vistas

Mechanically, you walk and climb around the desert environment. You drive rovers, operate computers and navigate with a scanner and a metal detector. Dr Yasna automatically tracks important notes and maps in her journal, which you can refer to if lost. She talks over the radio with Novik, the Dragonfly’s “astrogator” or captain, getting context and guidance.

The Invincible has a fantastic retro-futuristic aesthetic, reminiscent of The Forbidden Planet, Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds or Space 1999. Controls are large and analog. Robots lack the modern pseudo-organic look. Spaceships are gleaming rockets. Technology is practical and grounded, electromechanical instead of electronic. Even futuristic inventions like force fields are just applied electromagnetism with bulky wires, magnets, and insulators.

The aesthetic makes The Invincible believable and distinct hard science fiction. It also reduces complex apparatuses to simple controls that require no instructions, which is perfect for a game.

The aesthetic grounds The Invincible to the late 1950s or early 1960s. The developers did not introduce modern sensibilities or conveniences. The characters smoke. They lack the equivalent of mobile phones, although you can find a bulky Pong game console. The developers even retained some esoteric names from the novel, like calling a spaceship’s captain an “astrogator”.

The soundtrack is unsettling, an often discordant mix of percussive and theremin-like synthesized instruments. It ensures you always feel on edge. Nothing is ever quite right. It recasts the barren scenery, often starkly beautiful, as alien and isolating. The instrument choice also reinforces the 1950s/60s science fiction feel.

A rocky ravine reveals a planet or moon peeking at the end. Yasna's space suit's microphone is ever present on the bottom left. — Your microphone and nearby alien planets are a subtle but constant reminder of where you are

The Invincible generates a comic of Yasna’s progress and decisions. It summarises the story and highlights important decisions. The game shows you the last panel when reloading a save to give the player context quickly. Once again, it fits with the pulp comics popular during the 1950s and 60s.

Thematically, The Invincible deals with humility and hubris. Humanity’s Ozymandian discoveries on Regis III challenge our understanding of life and intelligence. Our anthropomorphization and existing taxonomies can hinder as much as help. For example, the separation between biological and machine is not always clear. Yansa’s isolation means she has to resort to her basic wits and grit.

The Invincible shows us some things will always be beyond our mastery. Humanity’s weapons, for all their might, assume human constraints and thinking. Even humanity’s advanced medical science cannot regain lost memories. The significance and irony of the game’s title slowly becomes clear toward the game’s end.

Despite its futuristic setting and existentialism, The Invincible is ultimately about human nature. Amidst the Cold War-like paranoia and mistrust between Yansa’s pseudo-European Commonwealth and the pseudo-American Alliance, our similarities outnumber our differences. The Commonwealth’s and Alliance’s different technologies are interoperable. Human touches like sharing cigarettes can potentially unite us, as can challenges like those on Regis III.

The Invincible is short, taking six or seven hours to complete, but it is about the right length. There is some replayability. Most of the game is linear despite appearances, although you can make decisions at key moments to steer the remaining story and reach different endings. Achievements reward attention to detail or acting unpredictably.

The Invincible will appeal to those looking for contemplative science fiction with a strong visual and audio aesthetic. The developers have been faithful to Stanislaw Lem’s vision, which still holds up today. While humanity has not visited other planets as in the game, it is easy to consider humanity the master of its domain. The Invincible reminds us that the universe may have other plans.

“Everspace 2” Review: A Wonderful Space ARPG

Posted on 28 April, 2024 by Anthony Langsworth

Everspace 2 is a space fight simulator with 3D movement focusing heavily on combat, exploration and puzzles. Rockfish Games, the developer, describes Everspace 2 as a “space shooter” with “RPG elements” on its Steam page. That is untrue. Everspace 2 is an action role playing game (ARPG) like Diablo or Path of Exile. And it is terrific.

You play Adam Roslin, an ex-military fighter pilot working for an uncaring and manipulative corporation. After a routine mission goes wrong, you are captured by outlaws and escape to a long abandoned base. You and your fellow escapees then rebuild and prepare for a heist that could set you all free.

Flying your ship in Everspace 2 is a joy. The controls are less detailed than those of more complex space simulators like Elite Dangerous. Still, such an outwardly arcade-like game offers a surprising degree of control. Dodging enemy fire, circling capital ships, and navigating maze-like tunnels all feel fluid and natural.

The combat is vibrant, frantic and engaging. Like most ARPGs, you usually fight swarms of weaker enemies, each with different weapons, defences, and abilities. This structure provides constant variety and changing tactics. Your relative strength also fuels the requisite power fantasy.

A warm red star and a blue nebula shine through an asteroid field

Locations also contain puzzles, providing cerebral but slower-paced play. As you fly around, your sensors can detect and track nearby loot, mineral deposits or other points of interest. Your ship has a tractor beam that you can use to pick up and move things around, such as removing debris from a passage or picking up a battery to slot it into a socket elsewhere. These usually unlock doors or containers of potential ship upgrades.

Everspace 2 tells its main story through cut scenes showing hand-drawn images with voice-overs. While low-budget, this style works well for a game focused on flying spaceships. The main quest has excellent pacing while introducing more about the universe and its inhabitants.

There are plenty of side quests and activities, too. As with many RPGs, they are often the most interesting, flesh out the world and introduce unique NPCs. Chasing rogue AIs, rescuing trapped miners, or appeasing crime lords are all on the cards. Racing tracks and rifts filled with difficult enemies satiate those seeking a challenge.

Mechanically, Everspace 2 is a testament to game balance. Everything, including your character, gear, and enemies, is geared to a level. Level differences are more pronounced than in other games. Foes more than a few levels above you are deadly. Those a few levels beneath you will be merely speed bumps. Everspace 2 periodically increases the level of enemies to keep the challenge consistent.

A ringed planet seen from the surface of a desert planet

Aesthetically, Everspace 2 is beautiful. Each location is a postcard, with asteroids, massive space stations, aging wrecks, vertigo-inducing icebergs and/or vibrant nebulae. Many are varied and original, like an iceberg in a solar flare or a megafauna skeleton, evoking wonder and appreciation. Each star system also has its distinct look, making them feel unique.

The electronica soundtrack is also on point, supporting the sci-fi feel. The zen-like cruising pieces contrast with the exciting, upbeat combat ones.

A green beacon in the middle of a dark gas cloud

However, Everspace 2 is not perfect. My biggest gripe is with the writing in the main storyline. No one expects deep or complex writing from an ARPG, but this does not excuse poor writing.

The characters need more substance. Ben and Delia are just cardboard cutouts and deserve motivation and agency. Maddock becomes a contrived, grumpy omni-antagonist. Combining some supporting characters, like Ben and Tareem, would have enhanced both. Everspace 2 also unnecessarily sexualizes a female supporting character at one point.

Similarly, the early main story has too much “I need you to do this, but I am not going to tell you why for at least two cut scenes.” It feels unnecessarily opaque and confrontational. The game also removes the player’s agency at a few key moments, railroading you.

My other gripe is with loot management. Most of the copious loot enemies drop is trash you sell or disassemble for crafting components. The rare upgrade is fun, and Everspace 2‘s crafting system means you will always have suitable weapons, modules or consumables.

However, the constant gear drops and level churn mean periodically yanking yourself out of the fun combat and puzzle game loops to clear your inventory. Loot management is a broader problem with ARPGs’ variable intermittent reward structure, but it is still a problem.

A ship in an asteroid field hovering over a ringed planet

I initially thought Everspace 2‘s lack of replayability would be a problem. It lacks a skill tree or other ARPG elements that specialize your character. No advancement or story choice blocks off content. ARPGs have traditionally used these to encourage players to create different characters to replay content differently.

However, being able to quickly switch out a new ship or experiment with new weapons or modules means experimentation or change is refreshingly easy. Meanwhile, the perk and challenge systems provide attainable alternative goals that offer useful benefits instead of gatekeeping high-level content from less dedicated players.

Ultimately, Everspace 2 is a game that knows what it wants to be. It doubles down on that explore -> shoot -> loot -> craft game loop. If you enjoy that loop, and you will find out quickly or via the free demo, the game promises hours of the same. Otherwise, you will bounce off Everspace 2 hard.

Everspace 2 also knows what it does not want to be. It is single-player and offline, eschewing the complex code, gameplay loops and community management required for multiplayer or online play. It focuses on quality over quantity, providing a few well-developed star systems to explore. There is no piracy, salvage, political simulation or other distractions.

It took me about 60 hours to complete the main quest, including most side quests and challenges. As with most RPGs, you could complete it in under half that time, but you would miss the best content. Meanwhile, the developers continue expanding and enhancing the game, showing a welcome love and attention to detail. If only all ARPGs were this good.

AX Healing Krait Mk II Build

Posted on 13 March, 2024 by Anthony Langsworth

An Elite Dangerous ship build that heals shielded “tank” ships when fighting Thargoid interceptors in wings or teams.

This arrangement is similar to how MMORPGs structure groups. The “tanks”, usually Imperial Cutters or Federal Corvettes with Prismatic Shields, try to draw the interceptor’s fire by staying close, hot and dishing out damage. Healers try to keep the tanks’ shields up, particularly when hit by an interceptor’s lightning attack. Dedicated anti-swarm and anti-scout ships handle the thargon swarms and scouts. The rest try to draw damage using more traditional anti-xeno builds and tactics.

This post assumes you are familiar with Thargoid interceptor combat.

Goals

Create a ship to:

Heal tanks’ shields. This requires the Regenerative Sequence experimental effect on Beam Lasers.
Remove the caustic debuff from tanks. This requires a Decontamination Limpet Controller and a Cargo Rack for limpets.
Reach tanks. Beam lasers and limpets are only effective within a kilometre or so. This build needs the speed and agility to reach them.
Survive around hostile thargoids, including thargon swarms and scouts. This requires strong shields, strong hull and removing your own caustic debuff.

Build

Krait Mk II blueprint by CMDR-Arithon (https://swat-portal.com/forum/gallery/image/9624-krait-mk-ii/)

Link: EDSY (have it open as you read about the build for easy reference)

Healing is a fun way to contribute while giving a different set of challenges. Elite Dangerous rarely creates opportunities for different roles within a team. A healer’s focus is on enabling others to be more effective.

Other ships, notably the Anaconda, can provide more raw healing power because they have more hard points and a larger power distributor. However, the Krait Mk II is faster and more agile, helping you get to more mobile tanks when needed or be more forgiving when you are out of position.

Healing:

Healing Beams: Efficient Beam Lasers with the Regeneration Sequence experimental effect are the best way to regenerate allies’ shields. The Regeneration Sequence experimental effect restores a team- or wingmate’s shields instead of damaging them. Efficient means you can fire the lasers for as long as possible, healing to heal through an interceptor’s lightning attack. The Concordant Sequence experimental effect increases the regeneration rate of the shield for ten seconds. However, the buff does not stack and tanks’ prismatic shields often have a slow regeneration rate.
Fixed Weapons: Tanks are usually large, slow-moving targets. Fixed weapons give enough extra damage/healing to make them worth it.
Power Distributor: An interceptor’s lightning attack will drain a tank’s shield quickly, particularly if it temporarily disables the tank’s Power Distributor. A Weapon Focused Power Distributor, four pips weapons and a full capacitor allow you to keep restoring the shields for 30+ seconds.
Decontamination: A Decontamination Limpet Controller and copious Cargo Racks for limpets means you can help remove the caustic debuff from tanks or, if attention permits, other allies. However, this can be challenging. Scouts, thargon swarms and interceptors often shoot off attached limpets. Limpets are also slow, and even a slow Federal Corvette can outrun a limpet. Cooperation with the tank is required. In a pinch, decon limpets can repair hull, including your own.
Tagging: Remember to shoot the interceptor a few times for a second. Otherwise, you will not get any combat bonds when it dies.

Defence

Shields: Many AX pilots prefer to go shieldless. However, given nearby tanks should be keeping the interceptor’s attention and scouts, thargon swarms or other interceptors may be nearby, strong shields soak up most of the damage that should be coming this ship’s way. If the shield drops, consider a reboot/repair to quickly restore it to 50%.
Caustic Sink Launcher: Given the difficulty of heating up with a shield and Efficient Beam Lasers along with the prominence of caustic clouds and missiles, a Caustic Sink Launcher helps keep the healer focused on the tank’s health and not its own.
Absolute Damage: Guardians do absolute damage so maximize raw shield and hull strength where possible.
No Guardian Modules: A Glaive’s anti-guardian module field will not worry this build.
No Shutdown Field Neutralizer: Most tanks have a Shutdown Field Neutralizer that will protect you. If not, swap one of the Shield Boosters for it.

Tactics

Team structure: Ensure you are in a wing or team with the tanks. Otherwise, your Regeneration Sequence Beam Lasers will damage their shields, not heal them. It also helps you easily locate your tanks by looking at the blue points on your radar.
Positioning: Keep the tanks within one kilometre and between the interceptor and you. Beam Lasers are most effective within 800 m. This position also reduces the chance the interceptor will target you.
Pip management: The default choice is two pips in systems and four in weapons. You will occasionally need to put pips into engines to boost away from caustic missiles or catch up to a distant tank.
Anti-Interceptor Shield: If your team is struggling against an interceptor, firing five beam weapons against its shield will bring it down quickly. However, this will bring you in range of its lightning attack and will put you on its target list for caustic missiles. Target the shield with care.
Anti-scout: Destroying scouts is challenging but surprisingly doable if you can get up close. It can keep you occupied while waiting for interceptors to jump in.

“The Creator” Review: A Complex Juggling Act

Posted on 7 March, 2024 by Anthony Langsworth

Warning: This review contains light spoilers.

When I watched the trailers and read the synopses of The Creator, I thought this would be a movie about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). In an age where the technology sector has commoditized machine learning, calling it AI, this movie seemed to promise yet another warning about unchecked technological advancement and humanity’s negative tendencies. However, I was wrong.

The Creator is set in 2065. The global West wages war against AI after an AI nuked Los Angeles. It follows Joshua, an undercover US soldier sent to infiltrate AI society. Grieving for Maya, his dead wife, he pursues an AI superweapon while balancing his loyalties between his single-minded US military superiors and the AI community that adopted him.

If examining AI is The Creator‘s focus, it has a few premises the audience needs to accept. Humanity has also created artificial general intelligences (AGIs), AIs that are conscious and have emotions. AGIs can be housed in robots and control them to a human-like level of coordination and ability.

Humanity has also created life-like human robots called simulants. Their faces are clearly human, but a slight turn of their heads reveals their obvious ear canal-less artificiality. They have feet firmly planted on each side of the uncanny valley.

So far, this is standard science fiction fair. However, The Creator goes further. Human consciousness can be read, stored, and uploaded into a robot. Your soul can now be digitized. Add to this that humans are encouraged to lend their likeness to simulants, that damaging a robot destroys the housed AI and that simulants can eat and drink. The superweapon is a robotic child with a child’s presumed innocence, hitting parental instincts hard. Can the movie humanize AI more? Can you distance it from modern-day AI more?

That was when I realized The Creator is not a warning about AI’s dangers. It could have been a fantasy epic about souls and magic. The Creator merely adopts the current zeitgeist for broader audience appeal.

Instead, it is two things. The first is a critique of the West’s exceptionalism. Like the “War on Terror”, the war in The Creator is a battle for New Asia’s hearts and minds. The USA is not fighting the people of New Asia, only the AI they harbour. The alleged lie at the start of the war, that errant programming and not AI launched the nuke, hits hard. This lie parallels the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, necessitating its invasion. As his motives shift away from the West’s established truths, Joshua slowly becomes a “terrorist”. Nuance and sympathy are trodden underfoot by the unwavering West.

The movie’s war is also a new Vietnam War, one that the USA is determined to win. The new AI society is based in New Asia, spanning most of South East Asia today. The film juxtaposes jungles, rice paddies and longtail boats with towering megastructures. Technology and tradition are ubiquitous. Women joke as they construct new simulants just like they would weave clothing. Most of the movie was shot on location rather than using a green screen, giving the movie a natural, tangible feel.

Unlike in the Vietnam War, the USA does not put thousands of troops on the ground, endangering its citizens to suppress a resistant populace in rugged terrain. Instead, the space station, the USS NOMAD (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defence), looms in the skies. It is a miniature version of Star Wars‘ death star, poised to rain nuclear freedom. It becomes a symbol of technological and industrial superiority but also oppression.

When the USA fights on the ground, it uses its industry. The huge tanks rumbling through the jungle, large enough to make a Warhammer 40K player envious, epitomize the American approach to warfare: technologically lead and ruthlessly efficient. Their telltale thunderous sound and size intimidate and deter as much as their weapons do.

The Creator portrays US soldiers as bloodthirsty and uncaring. “It is only programming,” they say as they slaughter enemy robots indistinguishable from humans a few moments before. Contrast this with the AI, who lack weapons larger than small arms. They seem a minuscule threat against the disproportionate might of the West. They constantly lament the war, claiming they only want peace.

This confronting portrayal reinforces Joshua’s plight. Seeing the USA’s military-industrial complex from the receiving end is something few Western viewers have likely considered. Seeing near-religious fervour on the faces of what traditionally are the rational good guys is startling.

However, if you humanize the West’s enemies beyond that of humans and present them as homogeneously pacifist and constantly sympathetic, you risk a straw man fallacy. The Creator tries to shatter the USA’s self-image of a perfect, altruistic world policeman. However, this is a well-trodden path and more complex than the movie’s simplistic portrayal. Geopolitics is about shades of grey, not black and white.

Secondly, The Creator examines Joshua and his grief. His robotic arm and leg, lost when the nuke hit Los Angeles, make the war personal. The movie’s initial scenes and copious flashbacks see him in a loving relationship with Maya, his pregnant wife. Her apparent death at the movie’s start sends him into depression.

However, the prospect of Maya’s survival lures him back. He forges a Faustian bargain with his US military superiors to help find Nirmata, the AIs’ head architect. The child-like AI superweapon, Alphie, could be a facsimile of his unborn child. Pursuing love is a noble ideal, but has fate given Joshua a second chance or is he delaying hurtful acceptance with a technological substitute?

Meanwhile, The Creator is full of religious allegories. Technology offers the ability to be reborn and live forever, albeit in a robotic body. The AIs’ reverence for Nirmata and the saffron-cloaked monks’ inability to harm it borders on worship. The USA’s bomb robot bows before Alphie’s deific ability to control machines remotely. The final scenes depict a battle in heaven, and the grief-filled survivors return to earth weary from their pyrrhic victory. These and Hans Zimmer’s operatic soundtrack add gravitas and impetus, if not a slight unreality, to Joshua’s journey. The Creator is not merely a story. It wants to be a modern-day fable.

Ultimately, The Creator wants to say a lot, possibly too much. I applaud the vision and scope. It is dense and ambitious, and its special effects are fantastic. However, The Creator reduces complex issues like Western hypocrisy and AI’s potential to forces of nature, nearly overshadowing its examination of grief. The movie juggles many ideas and metaphors simultaneously but almost drops a few.

Dolphin On-Foot Support Build

Posted on 3 March, 2024 by Anthony Langsworth

An Elite Dangerous ship build.

Goals

Like the Cobra Mk III On-Foot Support Build, this ship build’s goals are:

Get the commander to/from on-foot missions introduced with Odyssey. This requirement includes transporting an SRV (for mission support or raw material gathering) and a Detailed Surface Scanner (for finding points of interest).
Endure a sustained assault from on-foot enemies. This requirement ensures you can complete mission goals rather than rushing back to defend your ship.
Land at every surface settlement, outpost or station, effectively requiring a small ship.
Provide fire support to kill scavengers and other ground enemies. As these are too small to target with most ship-mounted weapons, this effectively means missiles or mines.
Have a fast boost speed. The build should reach supercruise distance quickly for material farming or escaping hostile ships.
Have a reasonable jump range and a Fuel Scoop for travelling to on-foot engineers or distant missions.

Build

Dolphin Blueprint by CMDR-Arithon (https://swat-portal.com/forum/gallery/image/9486-dolphin/)

Link: EDSY (have it open as you read for easy reference)

When I first approached the problem of getting my commander to on-foot missions, the Cobra Mk III seemed to be the perfect choice. I still had the one I used early in my commander’s career. Its versatility and repurposing a ship I loved made it an attractive choice.

However, I recently unlocked all the on-foot engineers on a second or alternate (alt) account. I took it as an opportunity to try different things, including different ships. The Dolphin proved to be surprisingly effective at this role compared to my Cobra Mk III On-Foot Support build:

Feature	Cobra Mk III	Dolphin	Comment
Jump Range	30.58 LY	33.93 LY
Pitch/Roll/Yaw (seconds for a complete turn)	3.4/1.2/12	4.0/1.1/5.3	Dolphin has better yaw, making flying more natural and attacking ground targets easier.
Boost	605 m/s	591 m/s
Raw Shield Strength	625 MJ	681 MJ
Hull Strength	665	1001
Fuel Scoop Size	4	5	Faster fuel scooping.
Thrusting Heat	40%	31%	Easier fuel scooping.

Comparison of Cobra Mk III and Dolphin builds

Where the Cobra Mk III was superior, it was not relevant. For example, the Dolphin has only two small hard points compared to the Cobra’s two medium and two small. However, the Dolphin’s two small hard points have better convergence, making hitting small ground targets like on-foot scavengers easier. The Dolphin’s lower ammunition capacity is rarely a constraint.

The Dolphin has more flexibility and utility. The Dolphin’s extra utility slot frees up internal module slots that the Cobra Mk III needs for Guardian Shield Reinforcement Packages. The Dolphin could even use a size five Prismatic Shield Generator, although this makes power management challenging.

The only real difference is aesthetics. Some people dislike the Dolphin’s more organic shape and the wheezing sound of its boost. The Cobra Mk III looks and sounds more like an Elite Dangerous ship should.

Defence:

Prismatic Shields and Overchanged Power Plant: Most of the defensive measures are the same as with the Cobra Mk III. Strong prismatic shields protect it when attacked by scavengers or pirates. The Power Plant is Overcharged so it can service the power-hungry shields.
Strong Hull: Unlike the Cobra Mk III, this ship can afford strong hull protection. It has the internal slots for Hull and Module Reinforcement Packages. Its size five Thrusters can maintain a fast speed with the extra weight.

Offence:

Ground Attack: The Advanced Missile Racks provide explosive area damage against on-foot scavengers or guards. The Dolphin’s hard points are close, making targeting easier, and the fast yaw means moving sideways faster to change targets or to dodge incoming projectiles.

Utility:

Double SRV bay: This can transport both a Scarab and a Scorpion or two of your favourite kind of SRV. Dropping down to a 2G does not give any significant advantage. Coupled with the Cargo Rack, you could use this build for surface missions.
Advanced Docking Computer: Odyssey added the ability to auto-land on planet surfaces. This module allows easy landing when distracted or on uneven terrain near surface points of interest.

Solo Tactics

Flee: This build runs, not fights. Its prismatic shields protect it long enough for it to escape. This build will outrun almost everything with its almost 600+ m/s boost speed. Most enemies will mass lock this build, so the high speed is welcome.
Power (pip) management: Place four pips in systems and two in engines when landing to maximize shield protection. Otherwise, do the reverse to maximize boost frequency, speed and agility.

Wing or Team Tactics

Pairing: This build can transport two commanders to and from an on-foot mission location, providing each with an SRV.
Rescue: This build can rescue an on-foot commander who has lost their ship or would otherwise wait for an Apex. Use missiles to kill any ground targets, land to pick up the commander, and then boost to supercruise before enemy ships take down the shields.

PvE Combat Vulture Build

Posted on 1 March, 2024 by Anthony Langsworth

An Elite Dangerous ship build for more experienced players, effectively an end-game version of the Beginner PvE Combat Vulture Build.

Goals

The goals are:

Create a build that uses the Vulture effectively for late-game PvE combat, such as Hazadous Resource Extraction Sites, High Intensity Conflict Zones and Threat 7 Pirate Activity signal sources.
Use any module or engineering in the game to maximize effectiveness and the Vulture’s strengths.

Build

Vulture Blueprint by CMDR-Arithon (https://swat-portal.com/forum/gallery/image/9464-vulture/)

Links: EDSY (have it open as you read the guide for easy reference)

As mentioned in my Beginner PvE Combat Vulture Build, the Vulture is a wonderful small ship to learn PvE combat. It is cheap, packs oversized weapons and teaches good skills like pip (power) management.

However, the Vulture is rarely seen during end-game combat. Large ships like the Federal Corvette and medium ones like the Fer-de-Lance and Chieftain tend to dominate. They have more firepower, better hull and shields, speed and/or agility.

No clever engineering or obscure modules will change this balance. However, the Vulture is far from useless. Some even see its disadvantages as a challenge. Killing NPC pirates in a fully engineered Federal Corvette is relatively easy. Doing so in a Vulture requires more skill.

Offence:

Intertial Impact: The Internal Impact experimental effect changes the damage from 100% thermal to 50% thermal and kinetic. This change means the Burst Lasers become effective against both shields and hull. However, it adds a 3% jitter, which is much larger than it sounds.
Efficient: Some people use the Short Range Blaser blueprint to maximize damage output but this drains the distributor quickly. Using Efficient means you can fire indefinitely with four pips to weapons.
Fixed: A small, nimble ship is the perfect platform for fixed weapons. The extra damage over gimballed weapons helps, as does the immunity to chaff or even needing to select your target.
FSD Interdictor: An FSD Interdictor is useful for interdicting assassination mission targets, wanted ships for bounty vouchers or even powerplay ships for merits. Swap for another Guardian Module or Hull Reinforcement Package otherwise.

Defence:

Resistance: This build focuses on high resistances for shields instead of raw strength. Unless you consistently fight plasma-armed enemies and cannot dodge the slow-moving projectiles, this focus gives a high effective strength with fast regeneration.
Fast Charge versus Lo-Draw: Like most ships using Fast Charge on a Bi-Weave Shield Generator, the Power Distributor cannot supply enough power with two pips in systems to rebuild the ship at the optimal rate. This build’s shields should drop rarely but, if they go down often, replace the Fast Charge experimental effect on the shield generator with Lo-Draw.
Reactive Surface Composite and Thermal Resistance: Reactive Surface Composite inverts the standard resistances for armour, making it strong against kinetic and explosive weapons but weak against thermal. To compensate, the build uses Thermal Resistant on one of the Hull Reinforcement Packages. This gives the build net positive resistances on the hull.
Guardian Shield and Module Reinforcements: Guardian Module Reinforcement Packages provide slightly more protection than Module Reinforcement Packages but cost some power. Swap for normal Module Reinforcement Packages if you do not have them unlocked. The Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package is the only non-utility module that buffs a shield.

Variations

Shieldless: A shieldless version (EDSY) reduces longevity but lets you put the system pips into engines for greater speed and agility. Consider it a challenge. Replace the Shield Generator and Shield Reinforcement Module with Guardian Module Reinforcement Packages and a Hull Reinforcement Package respectively. Replace the Shield Boosters with Shielded Point Defence and Chaff Launchers. Replace the Efficient blueprint on the Burst Lasers with Sturdy, giving them more protection and higher armour penetration. Sturdy costs more power but you have power to spare, even with an Armoured Thermal Spread Power Plant.
Anti-Thargoid Scout or Hunter: To create an AX version (EDSY), take the shieldless version and replace the burst lasers with Azimuth Enhanced AX Multi-Cannons. Fill the utility slots with Caustic Sink Luanchers and an Enhanced Xeno Scanner. Replace the FSD Interdictor with a 1A AMFU and the Guardian Module Reinforcement Packages with normal Module Reinforcement Packages to reduce power use and prevent a Glaive field from damaging them. Replace the Reactive Surface Composite with Military Grade Composite, because the additional resistances are unnecessary. Once again, other ships fulfil this role better but this build can hold its own.

Tactics

Finding targets: This build works best against wing-less large or less agile targets. Anacondas, Asps, Pythons and Type-10s are generally easy prey. Using fixed and jittery weapons against fast or agile targets, like Elite Vultures and Vipers, is doable but frustrating.
Point blank: Get as close as possible to enemy ships, preferably above or below where their surface area is maximized. Avoid jousting as it reduces time on target. Instead, circle strafe, pre-turn and landing gear-turn to track ships as they pass by. Hold down fire. Even with only two pips to weapons, exhausting the distributor or overheating will take minutes.
Power (pip) management: Two pips in systems and four in weapons are usually sufficient. Temporarily shift pips into engines to boost or run down fleeing ships. Ironically, power management is easier in this build than in the beginner version. An Overcharged Monstered Power Plant gives more than enough power. A Charge Enhanced Power Distributor gets it to where it needs to be.