Despite 60+ crew members, there was a distinct lack of security on the payroll and after writing on a piece of paper (he was a mime, after all) he managed to convince both the head of personnel and security to enlist him.It started out simply enough, a humble mime boarding the NSS Cyberiad looking to entertain the sleep deprived crew whilst they go about their daily business, who are in constant danger from traitors amongst the ranks, changelings, vampires, space anomalies, Syndicate operatives, nuclear strike teams, alien infestations, space vines, power mad security, fires, wet floors, cultists, slimes, rogue A.I.s…..there’s a lot of ways to die in space.
Walking through the corridors he found his first criminal, a saw wielding maniac trying to cut a girl up. Not a problem for Officer Mime, a flashbang a a pair of handcuffs later the perpetrator was being dragged to the brig kicking and screaming, “Why won’t you talk to me and tell me what I’ve done!?”.
Officer Mime was rewarded, Officer Mime was on the up.
Before he could relish in his newfound role however, the armoury blew up and in poured syndicate operatives hell bent on destroying the station and all those who called it home. After a long and drawn out battle, Officer Mime managed to escape on the emergency shuttle...maybe the next station he embarks on won’t end like this...oh who’s he kidding, they all end like this.
Space Station 13 is insane. INSANE! It’s a role playing game in the truest sense of the term. Imagine Velvet Sundown with 60-100+ players on a server, with systems so deep, even hardcore Rogue-like players will be overwhelmed.
With a surprisingly deep history of development, the game is open source now, where players are free to edit pretty much any aspect of the game they desire. Different servers are all running off different, custom code that offers something unique every time they play.
There isn’t a job on the giant space station it’s set on that isn’t important; the people in robotics can’t build mechs if cargo doesn’t order them from central communication, the doctors can’t cure anyone if the technicians can’t work out why there’s no power to medbay...ghetto surgery with wire cutters never works as well as you’d hope.
What makes the game special is that every job has more systems to learn than most games do. They’re deep, challenging, rewarding and filled with hidden goodies to find. Botany can grow plant people under the right conditions, chemists can make the most insane drugs you’ll ever see in a video game, janitors can use chemical spraying guns for maximum efficiency, the clown can...urghhhhtheclown.
This, of course, makes the game incredibly difficult to learn. To it’s credit, once you understand its internal logic, it all starts to make sense...it’s just not very apparent what that logic is when you first log on. It uses a 2 hand system where, as a player, it’s required that you’re aware of what’s in your hands at all times...and what hand you have active. When starting out, it’s far too easy to take a zippo lighter to someone’s eyes when all you meant to do was pick them up off the floor.
It’s not exactly a looker either. All these systems come at the cost of any sort of animation, where all the action takes place on a simple graphical window whilst the player is bombarded by descriptive text (and chat) on the right hand side. This often leads it to be frustrating, especially in combat where it can be near impossible to hit your target correctly. It takes practice and does come together after a while...but the game is more about outsmarting and out roleplaying your opponents than beating them in a straight up fight.
Once you get past the initial hump though, it’s an experience that no other game can come close to touching upon. The player base is passionate about role playing and when everything clicks into place, you’re left with a round of a video game that takes about an hour but lasts forever.Finally, the game runs in a bit of a ghetto launcher. Using the BYOND platform of freeware games, there servers are kept afloat by running an advert whilst you connect to the game. This has never bothered me but I have had people get a bit paranoid and scared off by the launcher...their loss, I suppose.
Over at the gaming Hub, we've really started to get into the game and every Sunday evening we’re getting a small group of people together and playing an in house game. It’s devilishly fun but we’re always looking for more people to make it better.
I appreciate this game is not for everyone but if you've read this and feel like it’s for you, then please drop on over to our mumble and ask us about the game. We’re happy to fire up the server and teach you the ropes which gives you the best opportunity to get into the game (the documentation out there is good but not great) and it brings in another player for our in house games, it’s a win/win.
Thank you so much for reading this, we hope to see you on the station soon.
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