Out There: Ω the Alliance

This expanded adventure game brings more content to gamers looking for gripping tales in space, with a hefty challenge to keep players both engaged and frustrated. Out There: Ω The Alliance casts players as an astronaut stuck far from home thanks to a tragic ship malfunction. So players are literally just trying to figure out the fastest and safest way home -- but things aren't that easy. Virtually every action you make will spend your precious resources, forcing you to find more. From mining elements and collecting gases to interacting with aliens, players will be challenged to gather the supplies they need to travel across the galaxy. What's more, random events, like miraculous wormholes across the stars or infested alien bulkheads, and other incidents can radically affect your plans. In fact, you may find that you think you know what you need to do in a system, only to have your drill explode or be caught in a battle and have those tactics ejected into space.

In fact, the largest issue that arises from Out There is just how difficult the game can be. Since everything in the game is randomly generated every single time you play, your mission could end in a handful of turns or half an hour later. As a result, some play sessions can feel like your success is left to a roll of the dice that you don’t even have control over. It would've been nice if players had the option to influence their astronaut's chances by deciding some of his skills or abilities before the game begins. Making him an engineer or a navigator could've made gameplay just slightly easier. But in some ways, the challenge is also what makes the game so engaging. In fact, you'll frequently find that as soon as you end one game, you'll quickly start another to see if you can improve on your previous round. Out There: Ω The Alliance is one of those adventures that will have you boldly exploring where this astronaut hasn't been before.