The Captain Reviews

"The Captain" is a quite nice pixelated sci-fi-space-opera adventure where you play Cpt. Thomas Welmu on his epic quest to reach earth after a transportation accident and end the war between two intergalactic factions. The whole ordeal feels like a mix of Star Trek, Mass Effect and FTL, with a lot of sci-fi tropes mixed into the blender along with some goofy humor, but there are also serious undertones and moral dilemma. Choices feel meaningful and it (often) feels like you have agency. There is auto-save and only "one" savefile, which can be a little irritating, but this is the whole gist of the game and creates replay-value. Also the UI and the item interaction is not the best (Sometimes you "activate" items, sometimes you drag-and-drop them, it can get a little confusing). Apart from that: The presentation is nice, the sound fitting, the writing good, it's a well done package! Also the AI-characters and the interaction with them are refreshingly human-like. Definetly worth a try and definetly deserves a broader audience! [spoiler] For those who found the "secret" band-room and Welmu's poster: I found it hilarious for "Kobayashi Maru" is a real band by the way; we once played on the same gig with them [/spoiler]

This is a reluctant recommendation. I fooled myself into thinking this game would be more than it advertised - somehow I believed it was rogue-like, similar to FTL if done by Star Trek. It's not. The Captain is what it says on the tin: a retro point-and-click adventure game, reminiscent of SpaceQuest from the old days. It's much improved from those days - more user friendly, with multiple ways to finish each scenario and ways to choose which scenarios you want. But it's still an adventure game with a single plot, which limits the replayability. Sure, you can go back and start over and try to get a better result - but once you figure it out, there's nothing left. Can you enjoy this game? Absolutely. It's well done, has humour, and has tons of secrets. It's not the game for me, but that's my own fault. It could very well be the game for YOU.