Space Scaven Reviews

I started this game with hopes of completing it quickly. Turns out this puzzle game is a little more involved than I thought. You are a lone space engineer armed with a hook to pull things around (which could be you, at times). You arrive at various abandoned space stations and are tasked with recovering at least one data recorder, presumably to understand the fate of the station, before you can move on. The beginning two thirds of the game is fun with some challenging puzzles. I recovered all but two data recorders in the first thirty levels. Then the game introduces alien bugs and everything goes downhill. Bugs are super perceptive, hard to kill, and will bite you. Two bites and you are dead. Since they run faster than you, it is a given they will chase you down. The bugs wouldn't be so bad except for two game design elements: sloppy controls and your hit box. I understand that things are hard to move in space. However, in a precision puzzle game when you need to move objects in the proper orientation to the proper location under duress where if anything is wrong you die isn't fun. It also seems that your hit box is about three squares big when you are carrying something, even after you drop the item. Many times I dropped an item and died three squares away from the super mandibles of some alien bug. Another game design decision that created unneeded angst was the oxygen meter. I can understand working in space you need to have oxygen. However, there are undamaged parts of the station the didn't leak oxygen. Not a problem, until you get to levels and it seems like the entire station is leaking requiring you to continually fill up on oxygen. This generally isn't an issue, which to me means it becomes an unnecessary game design element. Finally, the save system takes some getting used to. The game will automatically save your game anytime you pick up an item such as a health kit, oxygen tank, or data recorder. However, the state of the game is not entirely saved in the same way. Many times I have died, to be resurrected with a game state just different enough to be an issue or worse fatal. Having to restart an entire level because of this is not fun. The menu selection shows lack of polish. Every time you start the game the menu starts you on level one. You have to manually scroll through all the levels to get to the one you are currently working on. Every time. I am sure some global variable could have been programmed to make this a little more user friendly. And finally, level 46. WTF??? This level took me 2 to 3 hours just to finish. I did complete it with 2 of the 3 recorders. Getting the third one was not deemed worth my time. I had high hopes for this, but ultimately was disappointed and cannot recommend.