Space for Sale, space construction by THQ Nordic in preview
Space for Sale
THQ Nordic's showcase was undoubtedly substantial and the publisher managed to slip a myriad of trailers into the 45 minutes of the show with discreet grace. Among the many games presented, however, there were only four absolute novelties, and it was inevitable that among these it was Alone in the Dark that took most of the attention, given the importance of the brand involved. Yet, in the group of new arrivals, another title has captured our interest, thanks to its cartoonish look and the interesting underlying idea: we are talking about Space for Sale, a sort of weird management "city builder" where, however, they are not built. entire city centers, but the goal is to make alien planets habitable for customers from all over the galaxy.At the reins of the project are the Mirage Game Studios - developers of the good Little Big Workshop - and from what we have seen there is the possibility of finding a little gem full of humor in your hands. Here's what they told us about Space for Sale.
Space, the last frontier of construction
Space for Sale: don't be fooled by the tranquility of the situation, dangers are around every corner . Or every plant in this case The premise of Space for Sale is a classic: your alter ego has huge debts to pay off with an alien construction company and the only way to repay them is to jump into all the more thankless jobs. this has to offer. Considering that the aforementioned company works on a galactic scale, the best way to be useful is to make habitable planets normally full of dangers, taking a fair percentage of the lots of land sold.Yes, in other words, Space for Sale is not the "usual" management system, precisely because its premise seems to guarantee the protagonist's continuous movements during the campaign. Your little man armed with a spacesuit and fantasy, in fact, should not stay too long on the various celestial bodies, since once satisfied the clientele it will be necessary to switch to other ecosystems. This greatly distinguishes the game from a city builder or a classic management software, due to the constantly changing situations, and also distances it from the previous work of the team, which was based on the continuous evolution of a small factory and on the constant increase of the level. of challenge. Ah, apparently the environments will be generated in part procedurally, so each game will be an experience in itself.
The particular structure of the game does not mean, however, that there is no underlying complexity. The Mirages have specified that it is still a sandbox, where the recovery of resources and the management of the territory are fundamental. In addition, a growing difficulty should be guaranteed by the absurdity of the requests, due to the already underlined alien nature of the customers. If, in fact, most of the time you will only have to limit yourself to building functional homes, in other more bizarre cases you may have to meet needs that are nothing short of crazy, such as the construction of pools full of lava; we are seriously curious to see how far mission objectives will go, and how they will change according to the planet.
Builders, not warriors
Space for Sale: Lava-filled planets are a risk constant, but some customers like the heat The complexity does not seem to stop at the requests: the mechanics were not particularly deeply entered during the presentation, but it is clear that at the base of the game there is a fairly elaborate system of construction of the houses, with the possibility of giving shape to an energy network (and probably also water, if logical). That wasn't enough, structures require materials to be placed, and this is where the collection comes into play, which emphasizes exploration a lot.Each planet has unique flora and fauna, and since they are alien plants and creatures there is no shortage of surprises; therefore it is not the case to approach without thoughts to everything that you see: big flowers could easily explode, and the behavior of the animals could be anything but peaceful.
Space for Sale: you are not fighters, therefore to get the minerals on the shell of this strange beast you will have to use "alternative" means. Fauna is also central to the gameplay, since one's alter ego is not a warrior and cannot actively fight against beasts that turn out to be aggressive. Outside of the simple escape, therefore, it seems that in the title it is possible to make certain creatures harmless simply by exploiting the surrounding environment. An interesting example involved a kind of strange space crab with a great love for fruit: once fed on a sleep plant, ours went to sleep, allowing us to safely recover minerals from her shell. We suspect there will be many similar situations during the campaign.
Any other goodies? Well, the simple plot of Space for Sale seems not only linked to your debts, but also to a strange "space corruption" called, in fact, Space Rot, which must be countered at all costs to make certain areas habitable. In addition, the game also offers a potentially very entertaining cooperative mode, although for the moment it is limited to just two players and the additional options it offers in terms of gameplay have not yet been analyzed in detail.
Colorful, full of humor, and conceptually very interesting, Space for Sale could be one of the best surprises presented during the THQ Nordic showcase. Of course, it is difficult to properly evaluate a game of this kind from a short presentation, yet the foundations for an original title with the right depth seem to be there.
