Objects in Space blasts off early next year
Extraterrestrial submarines
Not long now until you get to sit in the cockpit of your own floating Cold War submarine-inspired spaceship, because Objects in Space [official site] is coming out early next year. Before now it didn't have a publisher, but 505 Games have decided to bite.
If you haven't heard about it before, it's an open-world "stealth-action" space game that thinks the ships in other space trading games are too fast and nippy. They should instead be big, bulky, and look like they've come straight out of the '70s. So, you sit behind a retro cockpit, try and stay off other ships' radars by hiding in asteroid belts and, if combat can't be avoided, take them out from long distance.
It's an open world, and there will be lots of dialogue (handled through on-screen text) and choices to make. Here's developer Flat Earth Game's co-founder Leigh Harris:
"This is an open world in which time is always passing and events unfolding. NPC dialogue is never repeated, so if players are faced with a choice in a branching conversation, they can’t come back and change their minds later on. We’re really pushing the ‘open’ part of open world with this game. There is no hero’s journey or main quest line here, but a wealth of small stories the player can choose to engage with if they wish."
I'm intrigued by it: I've watched a fair few let's plays of the Silent Hunter series and really enjoy the plodding pace. Objects in Space looks like it's trying to emulate that.
Here's five minutes of gameplay – the video is from 2015 so things will have changed, but it gives you a good idea of what to expect:
And as Joe wrote in 2015, you'll be able to build your own ship consoles at home that work in the game, which is cool. If you fancy learning more, the dev blog is pretty good, and includes regular podcasts discussing the game's progression.