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Hello again /qtg/, Great Value archivebro is back with the milk, and the promised review of Voidship Bridge Simulator.
In this quest, you play as Dallas Annon, ||acting|| captain of the last voidship left in the galaxy. Unbeknownst to the characters (but in the title of the quest) is the fact that the entire thing takes place within a simulation. As such, there are essentially two elements of intrigue at play- the first being what happened within the 'reality' the crew of the voidship to put them in their dire straits, and the other being what precisely is happening in terms of the simulation itself.
Intrigue aside, the main draw (and indeed the main focus) of the quest is the management of the ship and its crew, leading a cast of interesting and (literally) colorful characters to make their way through perilous situations. The quest takes a lot of aesthetic cues from the Starfox games, an influence the qm has fully admitted, but the actual experience is more similar to FTL if you've played that, calling the shots and leading your crew being a greater focus than high octane spaceship action.
For the pros, the mystery elements are reasonably well executed, and the core cast of characters is quite enjoyable. The writing is tight and efficient, communicating what needs saying without overindulging in unnecessary specifics. The effort placed into the art- retro style animated illustrations reminiscent of old-school adventure games- really helps to get you immersed in the setting as you read along. Despite the knowledge that the quest takes place in a simulation, it never feels like the captain and his crew are truly safe, and the tension in both action and non-action scenes is palpable.
If I had to come up with some criticisms, the way things are written sometimes makes it difficult to visualize what's happening in a given scene whenever there isn't a drawing to supplement the posts. Particularly in the combat portions of the quest, the extent to which the specifics of the battle both in terms of choreography and execution of tactics, is communicated leaves something to be desired. This is of course perfectly fine given the genre of the quest, but as a person who likes to be able to watch the fight scenes in my head like a movie when I read, it was slightly disappointing.
Quibbles aside, if you ever watched a show like Star Trek or Babylon 5 and thought to yourself that it would be really cool to be the captain of a spaceship, Voidship Bridge is (as far as I've seen) one of if not the best places to go for that experience. If anything I've said seems appealing to you, I'd highly recommend it.
