Vessels Reviews

An absorbing [b]Golden Age Science Fiction[/b] adventure, complete with mind-parasites, non-centrifugal spaceships with artficial gravity, and groovy space uniforms -- but with more character development and [i]believable[/i] emotion than that great ol' two-fisted stuff tends to have. [i]Vessels[/i] moved things along with dialog that consistently grabbed me, but turned into a [i]somewhat[/i] frustrating choose-your-own-adventure when I was in the third act trying to get the best ending. The correct sequence was counterintuitive, really -- but I wouldn't have dreamed of dropping the game. It was well-worth playing to the actual end, because I loved the style and became deeply attached to the cast. There are only three people besides your guy Gates, whose face in-game is always [b]macroblocked[/b] like he's a juvenile offender: Rakesh the company compliance guy (who doesn't actually [i]like[/i] that everyone hates him now); Esme the scientific wallflower, tortured by pent-up longings; and Peyton, the drunken lady pilot whose marital problems are spilling over into her work. You know those "problem" characters who are so defined by their issues that they're just annoying, and you don't care what happens to them? It's not like that here. Warts and all, they're your [i]dysfunctional little family[/i], and you want to make the best decisions for them -- see them do better, be happy once again. [i]That's[/i] part of the reason it's so hard to figure out what to do for them in the third act! To save them . . . you have to make a decision that totally runs against that [b]savin' grain[/b], which led me to waffling around forever trying to figure out absolutely [i]anything else[/i]! This I see as only a single point off -- despite the frustration it caused, and the unfounded suspicion of a bugged, locked-out ending I began to have. (Anyone who's played games long enough knows that feeling, like a chill running down the spine . . .) Otherwise it was great adventure! The true ending is cool and bittersweet, worth a misty-eyed thumbs up!