The Station

[Ross Scott]

Genre: Adventure

Year released: 2018

Ross's rating: Unrated

Link to game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/565120/The_Station/

Free to play: No

GaaS: Unknown

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[NightNord]

Story with a twist, even though the twist message isn't really very twisty. Very short. Very nice UI and overall game execution. Looks like a tech-demo or presentation for something bigger. Walking simulator with very light "puzzles" (mostly need to solve riddles of sorts).

[Mira]

ehh, it's alright I guess? It looks nice, but the story failed to really pull me in; too much petty drama and if you pay enough attention to the surroundings you can see the plot twist coming pretty early. Voice acting isn't very good either. If Ross thinks Rama II had the most dysfunctional astronauts, he's gonna find this rough.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Mira (see edit history)

[Mira]

1 minute ago, RaTcHeT302 said:

Is this a walking simulator, or do you actually get to do stuff and make choices? I can't tell much from the screenshots.

"Walking simulator" describes it pretty well, I suppose. There are a few puzzles you need to solve but the story progression is pretty linear; your actions don't affect the outcome of the game (as far as I could tell).

[TheMG42]

The game is beautifully rendered; I particularly enjoyed the opening and closing cut scenes as well as the times where you could stare out the windows and into the depths of space. The game is primarily a walking simulator with some light puzzle elements.

 

The game's premise is very similar to Tacoma, another game on this list, which I thought was fantastic. You board an abandoned space station orbiting in outer space that has suffered a malfunction to it's systems. As the investigator, you need to piece together what happened to the crew via audio logs, emails and other flavour text. Unfortunately, The Station's story didn't really capture me like Tacoma's did. It felt much more hollow and less developed, despite both games having a similar run time. The characters in The Station also feel really underdeveloped. All I took away from any of them is that two of them were in a love affair, but even then, the game wasn't doing much to make me even care about it.

 

The voice acting also really didn't do much for me. It wasn't bad per se, but it really didn't help immerse me in the story at all, create any character arcs or get me invested in these missing astronauts.

 

On the technical side of things, the game's frame rate can be a bit laggy on Xbox One and the loading times are a bit of an ass.

 

When I initially picked up The Station I felt that I was going to be playing a similar game like Tacoma: A short, story-driven game with a good twist at the end. But by the end of the game, I felt that all I played was a Unity engine tech demo.

 

Overall, I'd give this game a rating of Doubt.

[Tyk-Tok]

Guess I'll be the odd one out but I actually liked this game a lot. The tone and atmosphere appealed, and I enjoyed the little sci-fi tale being told. The puzzles were of the common sense variety, which is my sweet spot. It can also be gotten very cheap on sale, and that might adjust expectations.

[Tobin]

Very much an "on-rails" type of gameplay. You are led to each area and objective, complete it, then move on. Not much in the realm of choices. Some light puzzles. Low replay value.

 

At about 2 hours to complete, it's basically an interactive movie.

 

Wonderful visuals, though. Good atmosphere and a constant feeling of tension and danger at sweet-spot levels. Careful exploration adds to the story and gives you more immersion, but doesn't affect the ultimate outcome. 

 

A decent story, although the twist can be seen coming a mile away by savvy players. The characters come alive the more you dig into their logs and personal effects. Each one has their own story.

 

In the end, you are an observer. Your mission is to assess and report, not to help, and that is exactly what you end up doing.

 

I liked it, but only at a $10 or lower price tag; it's not worth more than a Tuesday night movie ticket