Can someone explain the story to me?

[Helmut Schnitzelnazi]

I played through the whole thing - I have no idea what the hell the story is. I got to the end of the game and the whole game is just fixing 4 mainframes in exactly the same way and collecting oxygen containers which seem to be every 10 meters preventing me from actually worrying about oxygen at all. I was expecting some kind of storyline, and there doesn't seem to be anything. The game was not fun at all for me, and I really don't want to play through it again - can someone explain to me what happened to the station?

[Shane]

Not 100% sure, to fair im opposite dont care about the story, just like floating around on the game, but... as i understand things:

the spacestation and crew is the fourth literation of the project darkstar funded by a billionaire on earth as a way to combat effects of global warming, the project was created in order to make a off world food supply for the continued growth of mankind

One of the staff in charge of the food production pushed the limits of the stations capabilities too hard in order to increase productivity by placing the darkstar into direct sunlight for too long, Bearing in mind thats the purpose of the station. And i assume blew it up !!

Not exactly a full version of events, but thats how i am interperting events minus the personal BS between crew members, etc...

[Helmut Schnitzelnazi]

I was really expecting a storyline akin to firewatch or something, but I really got nothing here... The first hint at any story was at the very end. I kept playing it expecting something else to happen other then collecting oxygen canisters but nothing happened. It's 10 minutes of game stretched to 3 hours by making the floating go so slowly.

[Shane]

I can relate very closely to that point, I have even thought it myself whilst playing, if it wasnt for the amount of time it takes to transverse between locations it would be so much quicker in terms of completion.


PS, there is a recording inside the tutorial that contains a good portion of the starting storyline and only take a minute to restart and listen too if your interested.

[distortedr1]

It is about a high achiever Alex Oshima, who is put command of a mission to produce a plant called SPIRTIUS which produces lots of oxygen with mainly sunlight. Her commander stationed on earth is pushing for a production quality and quantity at a certain date in order for the product to be transported to the moon, deposited, where it will produce oxygen for a future moon colony.

The issue is that production levels are not going up fast enough and the time that Alex and her crew keeps getting increased until they can produce the amount needed. The issue begins when one of the crew members, McDonalds starts to go stir crazy because he misses his daughter who is angry at him for never being home. The medical doctor and the scientist (Alex's childhood friend) have begun a sexual relationship and drug use. Almost everyone in her crew wants to go home aside from Alex and Oliver, so Alex in order to get everyone home sooner and to "be the hero" comes up with an idea to keep the station longer in the sun in order to grow the Spiritus faster.

Command doesn't like the idea. Some of the crew don't like it either, but Alex goes ahead with it anyway. Keeping the station in the sun puts pressure on the power core. Eventually the thing blows, tearing the station apart. Three days before this event, the scientist sends in a complaint to command about Alex mis-using the station, putting the crew in danger, etc. The other members seem to bear no ill will toward Alex, probably because they want to get home and her plan will get them home sooner. The medical doctor only got his job because Alex over looked his past drug use. Otherwise he would have never been able to fulfill his dream to get to space. Oliver, the oldest, has cancer and wants to stay in space until he dies, and is doing research on solar radiation's effect on cancer. Mcdonald just wants to get home. Lopez, the youngest was full-filling her dream doing a space-walk when all of it went down.

So the story really is kind of a moral-gray zone. Alex, although her decision probably caused the accident, is the one to survive, and likely going to be blamed for the event. I guess it is about the pressures of command.

[Danny_G13]

@Distorted yeah that is a pretty comprehensive summary.

What I got was Alex pushing everything too hard, including two operations which were hurting each other (the sunlight and the core) and that too hard push caused the station to blow.

Liked how the story sped up and started mean something although it was a slow burner and the game's own design was let down by some awful navigation HUD. Took me 6 hours literally to find the Mobilus mainframe and only absolute blind luck got me there in the end.

As for the ending, the reason mission control want all the logs is they want enough data to absolutely hang you, because they know what you've been up to but couldn't exactly castigate you while they were trying to get you home. So you could pay for your excesses.

Yup, Alex, the commander, let Liam on and ignored his drug addictions because he was good at his job. Although Edwards did say he'd got involved with someone who was making him 'want to do things' - well that was surely Hudson, who admitted copping off with him, so she was taking just as much advantage of him as Alex was. And she said she was using him so she certainly isn't an angel.

Ultimately it is a tale about a bunch of flawed individuals, quite well told, and many of them paying for their flaws with their lives, while Alex escapes. Only to get back to earth and probably go to jail for the rest of her life. Although there was a conspiracy on earth that she destroyed the station deliberately.