Review of SpaceVenture by Doom

A lost license, a Kickstarter, 10 years spent in development hell, almost no news… up until September 2022 when the backers-only version was suddenly released. Do Andromeda Guys still have it? God yes! But there’s always a “but”.

The game’s a ride, both gameplay- and bugs-wise. I had to replay almost every section because of those, felt like walking through a minefield. I experienced every kind of bug possible and had to reload and restart multiple times, like in the good old days. It even froze during the bonus part which starts after credits stop rolling! And please, remember to enter the ship while you are fixing it, or the game will break itself.

SpaceVenture also feels dated and unfinished right from the start, with occasional graphical and sound glitches. Smart cursor is not all that smart, active areas don’t always highlight, so it’s easier to just click everything like in a classic Sierra game. Voice acting is great, but also messy: some lines are voiced, others — not, including the narrator whose voice actor did a great job impersonating Gary Owens (RIP) which adds a lot to the atmosphere.

I liked the idea behind the complex UI. Discovering it is kind of a puzzle itself, with all those numerous options (the app store parody was great fun!), but I see how it may become pain in the arse for many others, similar to Feeble Files. Combining items in particular is very cumbersome. A traditional Sierra interface would’ve worked better.

Where the game truly shines is humour and gameplay. SpaceVenture is funny, epic, well-written, a truly old-school Andromeda Guys game and a worthy successor to the Space Quest saga. Puzzle design is imaginative and often experimental, like the 3D physical puzzles which would be new to the series, but still feel right at home. They even included a space sim of sorts and managed to squeeze some jokes there too.

Overall I think they made good use of their engine, it really adds a new dimension to the old formula (unlike that pseudo 3D maze from SQ5). It just looks very dated and unpolished, like they found original assets from Space Quest 7 and continued from then on. At this point a port to Adventure Creator or some other professional engine would be more than welcome.

And while the game starts in a rather bland location, it actually gets better and better once you leave it and start fixing your ship to travel between various planets doing your plumber job and saving the galaxy. Gameplay becomes more relaxing and less linear as you are given several tasks to complete and can explore a bigger area LucasArts-style.

Local humour is a mix of old-school sarcasm and parodies with satire on modern entertainment industry, Facebook in particular as it’s part of the main plot. You can just lie down on your bed (like Ace does) and listen to half an hour of recorded parodies on TV shows and ads, very funny stuff.

I didn’t expect much from SpaceVenture and ended loving it. Yes, the current version is totally broken and unintuitive, probably doomed to be a spacegoat for many gamers and reviewers, but it’s this one game that brought my 1990s back. I can only hope Andromeda Guys will fix and update it before releasing to the public.

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right