By Adam Smith on January 10th, 2012 at 12:01 pm.
I seem to have a thing for thrusting at the moment, which probably isn’t entirely healthy or appropriate. As long as I make sure not to go outside and mingle with the public until this troubling phase passes I’m sure no harm will come of it. Eight Days In Convoke pops you in the cockpit of a UFO, hovering about and abducting people. They just stand there, sedately awaiting a chance to contribute to alien science, but various sorts of missile defense system make plucking them off the ground rather difficult. I’ve only played the demo and while it’s not the smoothest craft I’ve piloted, it’s quite attractive and scratches a certain itch. My thrusting itch. The full thing, with 40 levels, is £2.99 on Desura. Thoughts on fuel follow.
You would think that aliens who have managed to travel all the way to our planet would have fuel tanks capable of keeping them above ground for more than a couple of minutes. Not true. After a few abductions they have to land and refuel. They do the refuelling in between all the science, which can lead to very messy situations if they mistake petrol nozzles for probes.
The lack of fuel means you’ll rely on drifting quite a lot, only hitting the thrust button when it’s absolutely necessary to redirect or avert a collision. For all its simplicity, it’s genuinely exciting and the levels I’ve played are well designed, leading to plenty of near-landings and desperate last ditch measures. There’s almost a puzzle element to some of the trickier areas, as planning a route that provides cover without sapping too much juice becomes quite a task.
10/01/2012 at 12:16 NomadKing says:
Perhaps your current thrust addiction could be cured with the aid of an office chair, 2 fire extinguishers and an empty supermarket car park. For a real challenge, just remove the ‘empty’ :)
10/01/2012 at 12:17 HexagonalBolts says:
Steady!
10/01/2012 at 12:20 torchedEARTH says:
They will use two types of fuel, surely. The main game will be based on engines that can work within Earth’s atmosphere, whereas intergalatic travel will be handled by a different set of hardware for faster than light travel.
10/01/2012 at 12:24 Adam Smith says:
They could have sixteen different types of fuel – fact remains, the one in my UFO is a crappy sort of fuel. It makes for a more entertaining abduction spree, sure, but there are serious health and safety concerns.
10/01/2012 at 12:27 JackShandy says:
For a second I thought that thrusting link was going to lead to the Katawa Shoujo impressions piece.
10/01/2012 at 13:28 BooleanBob says:
Thruster? I hardly even kn*dies*
10/01/2012 at 14:46 Mr_Initials says:
He died as he lived. Telling terribly punny jokes
10/01/2012 at 16:36 Raiyan 1.0 says:
I’m nodding vigorously. In agreement.
10/01/2012 at 13:45 Astatine says:
Has RPS reported on Desura the games distribution platform before? I’d never heard of it.
A quick google suggests a lack of evil. The Linux client is even going GPL.
I should try this, if I can rip myself away from Skyrim and TOR.
10/01/2012 at 15:50 jonfitt says:
Click the Desura tag at the bottom of the post and scroll down.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/03/08/desura-moddb-takes-on-steam/
10/01/2012 at 18:31 Hodge says:
Yeah, Desura seems OK. IIRC it started out as a mod manager before evolving into a Steam-like(-like). The games you buy aren’t DRMed to it, so you can play them without having to launch the client first.
They’re also responsible for one of those Indie Bundles, but I can’t remember which one.
EDIT: Jonfitt beat me to it.
10/01/2012 at 22:32 bsplines says:
It’s the Indie Royale bundle you’re talking about
10/01/2012 at 13:59 rustybroomhandle says:
Anyone remember Thrust, by Firebird? Damn annoying swinging pendulae of stupid.
10/01/2012 at 14:29 Jackablade says:
“I seem to have a thing for thrusting at the moment”
This seems almost obligatory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcGXR00x1ro
10/01/2012 at 18:33 Hodge says:
Wait, so which of the UFO remakes is this one?
10/01/2012 at 19:20 ColOfNature says:
Dropzone was the first game I played on my shiny new C64, many (many) moons ago.
11/01/2012 at 00:08 longwwq says:
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(http://url7。me/c6i4 )