The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic post-Earth world revolving around a multi-century trip on a colony ship. You are just one person, who lives in an area of the ship, called the Pit. You are not a hero, nor are you anyone special – yet.


You start out by creating your character in the game. You do this by allocating attribute and skill points. Attributes define your character for the entire game – there are only a few opportunities to upgrade these permanently.

For example, you may want to roleplay a strong basher, who wields sledgehammers and massive armour. If that is the case, you would want to allocate more attribute points to Strength and Constitution than Charisma. In the end, it is up to you to create a character that must survive in an exceedingly difficult environment.

Skills in this game level up as you use them both in combat and/or dialogue. This means that if you want to be a particularly good rifleman, you will need to ensure you keep using your rifle. If you want to be very persuasive diplomat, you will need to use your Persuasion skill in dialogues.

The game does feature many ways to improve skills, including a variety of quests, which can be handled in multiple ways in addition to training provided by NPCs. However, your starting skills are likely going to define your early game.

You will also be able to ‘tag’ a specific number of skills – dependent on your Intelligence attribute. These tagged skills level up faster than other skills, so you will want to tag skills you especially care about. In the example of the basher above, you may want to tag Blunt weapons.

Finally, you will select one special feat. Feats are essentially special bonuses. Each is unique and can completely alter the way you play your character. For example, some feats increases your graze damage and others may make you more evasive or even provide better trading deals.

Once you finalise your character sheet, you may also select a gender, portrait and your look for the game.

Two important notes:

1. Playing a Jack of All Trades and a Master of None is very difficult in this game. Starting out you should decide to either focus on being a diplomatic-style character or a combat-focused character.
   
2. Unlike Iron Tower Studio’s previous game, the Age of Decadence, Colony Ship RPG can be played with a party of followers. These can be recruited throughout the game – up to a maximum of 3 at any one time. A low Charisma stat restricts the numbers of followers.

If you played the Age of Decadence by Iron Tower Studio previously you should know what to expect from the Colony Ship RPG. If not, read on.
The game plays out on what I would call an isometric view of yourself. (Techy people say it's better to say bird's eye-view)
You control your character using the mouse and most actions are mouse based. The game is text-heavy and will require to read a lot. Luckily, the text and story are well-written and very interestingly, many of the stories interweave. The first chapter of the game sees you set against two of the Pit’s main leaders as its main quest. However, there are many other quests to follow, which in the long-term may be just as, if not more consequential than what happens in the Pit.

No single playthrough will be the same due to so many ways of completing quests. As such, you will also not understand all the differing factions’ viewpoints by only playing the game through once. The colony ship does not have a good versus evil fight. Each of the factions think their way is the correct way. It is up to you and your character to decide the outcomes.
Combat is turn-based and requires a lot of planning and investment, so do not think your highly intelligent and charismatic character with zero combat skills will be able to win any fight in this game.

Combat includes a range of weapons (e.g. knives, swords, hammers, machine guns), grenades (e.g. smoke, flashbang, stasis) and gadgets (e.g. shields, cloaking devise). The combat features a wide variety of attack types such as aimed attacks (e.g. headshots), single shot/bursts and more. These should all be used if you want to win the more difficult fights in this game.


For me, the major selling points of this game are its:

• interesting setting
  
• challenging combat that rewards using all the resources made available
  
• interweaving storylines

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes turn-based combat systems and good stories and who is not afraid of challenges.
I would not recommend this game to people who dislike turn-based combat systems, reading or are too much into graphics to enjoy older-looking games.
Pros:

• Amazing writing
  
• Lots of interweaving stories and arcs
  
• Challenging combat: with old style aimed attacks á la Fallout
  
• Lots of different skills and attributes affecting almost all questlines

Cons:

• Old-looking graphics
  
• You will die - a lot.

[h1]Background[/h1] The game takes place in a [strike]post-apocalyptic[/strike] post-Earth world revolving around a multi-century trip on a colony ship. You are just one person, who lives in an area of the ship, called the Pit. You are not a hero, nor are you anyone special – yet. [h1]Character creation[/h1] You start out by creating your character in the game. You do this by allocating attribute and skill points. Attributes define your character for the entire game – there are only a few opportunities to upgrade these permanently. For example, you may want to roleplay a strong basher, who wields sledgehammers and massive armour. If that is the case, you would want to allocate more attribute points to Strength and Constitution than Charisma. In the end, it is up to you to create a character that must survive in an exceedingly difficult environment. Skills in this game level up as you use them both in combat and/or dialogue. This means that if you want to be a particularly good rifleman, you will need to ensure you keep using your rifle. If you want to be very persuasive diplomat, you will need to use your Persuasion skill in dialogues. The game does feature many ways to improve skills, including a variety of quests, which can be handled in multiple ways in addition to training provided by NPCs. However, your starting skills are likely going to define your early game. You will also be able to ‘tag’ a specific number of skills – dependent on your Intelligence attribute. These tagged skills level up faster than other skills, so you will want to tag skills you especially care about. In the example of the basher above, you may want to tag Blunt weapons. Finally, you will select one special feat. Feats are essentially special bonuses. Each is unique and can completely alter the way you play your character. For example, some feats increases your graze damage and others may make you more evasive or even provide better trading deals. Once you finalise your character sheet, you may also select a gender, portrait and your look for the game. Two important notes: [olist] [*]Playing a Jack of All Trades and a Master of None is very difficult in this game. Starting out you should decide to either focus on being a diplomatic-style character or a combat-focused character. [*]Unlike Iron Tower Studio’s previous game, the Age of Decadence, Colony Ship RPG can be played with a party of followers. These can be recruited throughout the game – up to a maximum of 3 at any one time. A low Charisma stat restricts the numbers of followers. [/olist] [h1]Gameplay[/h1] If you played the Age of Decadence by Iron Tower Studio previously you should know what to expect from the Colony Ship RPG. If not, read on. The game plays out on what I would call an isometric view of yourself. (Techy people say it's better to say bird's eye-view) You control your character using the mouse and most actions are mouse based. The game is text-heavy and will require to read a lot. Luckily, the text and story are well-written and very interestingly, many of the stories interweave. The first chapter of the game sees you set against two of the Pit’s main leaders as its main quest. However, there are many other quests to follow, which in the long-term may be just as, if not more consequential than what happens in the Pit. No single playthrough will be the same due to so many ways of completing quests. As such, you will also not understand all the differing factions’ viewpoints by only playing the game through once. The colony ship does not have a good versus evil fight. Each of the factions think their way is the correct way. It is up to you and your character to decide the outcomes. Combat is turn-based and requires a lot of planning and investment, so do not think your highly intelligent and charismatic character with zero combat skills will be able to win any fight in this game. Combat includes a range of weapons (e.g. knives, swords, hammers, machine guns), grenades (e.g. smoke, flashbang, stasis) and gadgets (e.g. shields, cloaking devise). The combat features a wide variety of attack types such as aimed attacks (e.g. headshots), single shot/bursts and more. These should all be used if you want to win the more difficult fights in this game. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] For me, the major selling points of this game are its: [list] [*]interesting setting [*]challenging combat that rewards using all the resources made available [*]interweaving storylines [/list] I would recommend this game to anyone who likes turn-based combat systems and good stories and who is not afraid of challenges. I would not recommend this game to people who dislike turn-based combat systems, reading or are too much into graphics to enjoy older-looking games. Pros: [list] [*]Amazing writing [*]Lots of interweaving stories and arcs [*]Challenging combat: with old style aimed attacks á la Fallout [*]Lots of different skills and attributes affecting almost all questlines [/list] Cons: [list] [*]Old-looking graphics [*]You will die - a lot. [/list]