Arcadian Rhythms

It’s eight months since we last checked in on Out There. A lot can happen in eight months. A passenger travelling between Earth and Ganymede can wake up from cryosleep to find himself adrift in an unknown region of space, far from our solar system. A game can complete development and be released. Eight months!

Last August I quoted the game’s billing as “a dark and melancholic adventure in deep space”, and it’s fair to say Mi-Clos Studios have cleaved close to that vision. The game’s brief introductory slideshow establishes that Earth has exhausted its resources and humanity has failed to escape our solar system. That’s a bleak enough backdrop in SF terms: we’re a failed space-faring species.

That’s not enough to stop some mysterious force snaring a passenger travelling to a moon of Jupiter, however, and gift them knowledge of new warp technology. Thanks to this intervention our chosen emissary is able to explore the stars, with the irony being that the rest of our species lacks both that ability and knowledge of his enforced mission.

Out There is a very lonely game. The game might be played on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets in living rooms, train carriages and public locations around the world, but that does not hinder the game’s inherent sense of isolation. Your character is alone, separated from the rest of the species by lightyears and science so advanced as to appear magic, and left to explore a universe that is if not hostile then uncaring and dangerous.

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