Software:The Long Journey Home (video game)
| The Long Journey Home | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Daedalic Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Daedalic Entertainment |
| Writer(s) | Richard Cobbett[1] |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | Windows May 30, 2017 macOS June 28, 2018 PlayStation 4, Xbox One November 14, 2018 Nintendo Switch September 4, 2019 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Long Journey Home is a 2017 space exploration video game by Daedalic Entertainment for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Plot
The player controls the crew of Earth's first jump-capable starship. The game begins after a jump to Alpha Centauri goes wrong, leaving the misfit crew stranded on the far end of the galaxy.[2] As the crew journeys back home, they meet aliens who offer them various quests.[1]
Features
The goal of the game is to return home after being lost in space.[2] The player navigates a procedurally generated universe,[3] which is randomized to make the experience of exploring more open-ended and diverse.[4]
The physics of ship movement are realistic, as the player has to use gravitational slingshot to navigate.[1] There is a steep learning curve to be proficient to travel.[1][5]
The player will encounter aliens who offer them quests. The player can choose to help, ignore, attack, or even betray the quest-giver.[2] For example, when an alien asks a player to transport a box, the player can decide to open the box and steal what's inside of it.[3] Each alien has their own culture, which creates challenges around cultural misunderstanding.[5]
Development
Daedalic was a game studio known for point-and-click adventure games with a narrative focus.[4] The team has described the game as a roguelike space role-playing game, drawing its main inspiration from Star Control II and Starflight.[2] Where Star Control II described many aspects of the alien cultures through dialog, writer Richard Cobbett pushed to improve on this by making this culture more visible and interactive.[2]
The team strived to maximize player choice, allowing them to break or ignore quests, or attack even friendly encounters.[2] Quests were designed to encourage forward momentum, and also illustrate the different alien cultures and personalities.[3] This led to what Cobbett described as "a lot of writing", which was organized in spreadsheets using proprietary tools.[3] A goal for the game's writing was to create feelings of loneliness, vulnerability, and desperation.[2]
Initially, the game featured a trade system, but this was simplified in favor of credits.[2] A month after the game's release, The Long Journey Home was updated with an easier story mode.[6]
Reception
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The reception to The Long Journey Home has been mixed. Its aggregate Metacritic score is 68/100.[7] Adam Smith of Rock Paper Shotgun compared the game favorably to the openness of No Man's Sky with the short minigames of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, but felt that there was "not quite enough here to win me over completely".[8] Polygon, giving the game a 55% rating, explained that it was "extraordinarily difficult to navigate" and "infuriating," concluding that the game had failed to live up to the promise of a "truly narrative-driven roguelike."[9] Giving the game a 6/10, PC Games N praised the characters and setting, but criticized the different minigames as tedious.[10] IGN, which gave the game a 6.4, complained of "the weight of frustrating and tedious minigames" that were "often unfair."[11] Kotaku dismissed the game as built upon "a poorly-implemented version" of Lunar Lander, "an infuriating experience" and "a poorly thought-out homage."[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Smith, Adam (11 May 2017). "The Long Journey Home is a wonderful space odyssey". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/05/11/the-long-journey-home-preview/. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "The RPG Scrollbars: Questing at the speed of light" (in en). Rock Paper Shotgun. 2016-11-14. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-rpg-scrollbars-questing-at-the-speed-of-light.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "The RPG Scrollbars: Notes On Writing A Universe" (in en). Rock Paper Shotgun. 2017-02-13. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-to-write-an-rpg.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Campbell, Colin (15 May 2017). "The Long Journey Home offers a rich vision of space exploration". https://www.polygon.com/videos/2017/5/15/15631892/the-long-journey-home-preview-gameplay. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ricchiuto, Madeline (13 May 2017). "Daedalic's The Long Journey Home Will Release On May 30th". https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/05/13/daedalics-long-journey-home-will-release-may-30th/. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ↑ "The Long Journey Home gets easier in 'Story Mode'" (in en). Rock Paper Shotgun. 2017-06-04. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-long-journey-home-story-mode-added.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Long Journey Home for PC Reviews". CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-long-journey-home/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
- ↑ "The Long Journey home review" (in en). Rock Paper Shotgun. 2017-05-30. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-long-journey-home-review.
- ↑ Caldwell-Gervais, Noah (29 May 2017). "The Long Journey Home review". https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/29/15709616/the-long-journey-home-review-pc-daedalic-entertainment.
- ↑ Forward, Jordan (November 6, 2017). "The Long Journey Home PC review" (in en-GB). https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-long-journey-home/the-long-journey-home-pc-review.
- ↑ Johnson, Leif (31 May 2017). "The Long Journey Home Review". http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/31/the-long-journey-home-review.
- ↑ Gardner, Elliot. "Why I Can't Stand the Long Journey Home...". http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/06/05/why-i-cant-stand-the-long-journey-homes-lunar-lander-tributes.
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