Breathedge

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Leisher
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Breathedge

Post by Leisher »

Subnautica is one of the best games I have played recently. Hell, ever.

Breathedge is a clone of that game and it doesn't shy away from that fact. In fact, Breathedge embraces it.

You are a survivor of a space liner that had exploded during its journey. Now you're there in the debris, floating in space, and you need to start surviving so you can plan a way home. Plus, you really want to meet Babe. Meanwhile, you start to unravel what happened to the space liner. Thankfully, your space suit's AI is there to help you and crack jokes.

Like in Subnautica:
-You have needs: oxygen, water, food, and health to watch. Food and water are only mildly annoying to get early on, but after that, it's everywhere. Oxygen is the key item and acts as a leash to your character. Initially, your slow rate of travel and low oxygen capacity means you are pretty much stuck in the starting area of the game, but as you can move faster and store more oxygen...
-You will get messages from other survivors and find notes hinting at the overall plot of the game. You'll also find tons of "daily life" items showing how whacky this universe is and while they are collectible, I never found a use for them.
-Everything is spread out and needs to be discovered. So exploration is a big part of the game. The world isn't Fallout big though, so no worries there.
-You scan items to learn how to build them.
-You can upgrade your suit as the game progresses giving you more abilities, particularly faster travel and more oxygen capacity.
-You can eventually build vehicles that enable you to travel faster.
-There are baddies that will hurt you, but combat is not a huge part of the game.
-You can build a base and decorate it, but it's really not essential to the plot because the whole point is to leave where you are anyway. (There is one item you must build the most basic of bases to get to advance the plot.)

Get the point? This is Subnautica in space...I mean, Subnautica is set in space, but on an alien world. Breathedge is, literally, in space.

Breathedge's story comes at you in chapters, and once you hit chapter 4 the game changes. Not completely, but it's much different from how the game was played to this point. Breathedge's biggest strength and weakness comes in the story. It's weakness is that it never sets the same mood that Subnautica set. Maybe because Subnautica was the first on the scene, but everything felt more "important" there and the atmosphere really fit the game. However, Breathedge's strength is that it doesn't take itself seriously. Thus, you have a chicken as one of your primary tools, the world and its lore are a bit odd, the villains are out of the ordinary, there are some genuinely funny moments, your suit will mock Sci-Fi tropes and question why you're able to break the laws of physics, and so on. Some jokes hit, some don't, but all stay within the same theme.

I enjoyed it and recommend it, but play Subnautica first!
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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