Moonbase Alpha from NASA is being called a ‘First-Person Explorer’ MMO. The game is designed to be played with multiple players with a single objective in mind, to re-pair the fictional Moonbase Alpha before your fellow astronauts suffer a gruesome death by oxygen deprivation. With this preview, will take a look at all the aspects that make up the experience that is Moonbase Alpha.
Story:
The story is simple enough, you and your fellow players are astronauts on the moon. While you are cruising around in your rover, your oxygen producing equipment is hit by space debris. It is now up to you and your fellow astronauts to race against time to repair the equipment before the base looses all oxygen and everyone inside perishes.
The story of Moonbase Alpha is simple in concept, but is also compelling and urgent enough to feel the stress that an actual astronaut would feel in this situation. You get only one cut scene in the game, and that shows the beginning of the mission itself. The rest of the story is told to you through voice communication with the base. You will receive updates through your astronaut’s headset about current oxygen levels and the rate that oxygen is being produced. You will also receive pleas from your fellow explorers as they start to feel the effects of oxygen deprivation.
The story itself is functional, and that’s about it. You are given the objectives and the circumstances of this mission, with just a little flavor added along the way through communications with the base. The story is treated with the utmost focus on realism and I certainly feel that NASA did a great job in bringing that to the people. Truth be told, though, I still feel like there was something missing from this game. I understand that the story is supposed to be this way, but in comparison to other games out there, it feels very bare bones through it all.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of Moonbase Alpha is very interesting. You choose the map that you would like to play on, and this will determine the amount of people you can have play at one time and the amount of objectives that you need to complete. You are also given a time limit on each map, this time limit represents the amount of time you have to complete the repairs before the rest of your crew starts to suffer from the lack of oxygen.
On your mini map, you are shown the areas that need your attention. Each repair is shown as a different color, a yellow marker shows an easy repair while a red marker shows a much more difficult repair. As you come up to each damaged module, you have to make the decision as to whether repair it, or replace it. You are given only a limited number of new modules, so you can replace everything. In either case, you have to make sure you have the right tools for the job, and you are only allowed to carry one tool at a time.
As you repair the modules, a mini game will appear that will allow you to cut down on the time required to complete the repair itself. You will be shown a rudimentary circuit board, that you will need to follow the circuit in order to shave seconds off of your time. On the easy repair nodes, this game isn’t as critical, but on the harder nodes that will take you upwards of three minutes to repair, you really need to master this mini game because every second counts!
The key here is coordination, and that is very hard to do with a game filled with internet players that you don’t know. The reason a mission like this would be very successful is due to each individual having a set role. You would have a commander who would organize the astronauts, an engineer that would be specialized in repairs, and so on. I found that very few people would actually listen to advice from the other players and are used to going off on their own. The other item that really frustrated me was the ability to only carry one tool at a time or for the robot to only have one tool set on it at a time. This would lead to me thinking that I have completed all of the welding torch repairs with the robot, moving onto the hand repairs, and then finding out that I missed a welding repair on the other side of the oxygen producers. Then I would have to run all the way back to the tool shed, get another robot, and run him back to make that repair, all the while wasting precious seconds. Of course, this would have been a completely moot point if my fellow astronauts would have worked with me to complete the mission.
Graphics and Sound:
The graphics looked quite good but are by no means ‘stunning’. You get the feel that you are really on the moon. I felt that the shadows worked very well, and that the moon’s surface looked exactly like it does in the old photos that I still have from some of the Apollo missions. The astronauts all wear the same equipment, the only way to tell each other apart visually is the different color of trim that appears on each suit. I would have like to have seen some customization, either by gaining ranks whenever you finish a mission, or by selecting a role to play, such as commander or engineer.
The voice acting for Moonbase Alpha won’t win any Academy Awards either. Like most of this game, it is very functional without being outstanding. You receive voice messages through your comm system, and they are pretty much done in the same military style, whether it is a systems update, or a plea to hurry up because the oxygen is running out.
Final Thoughts:
Moonbase Alpha desires to bring to you the realistic look at lunar living and exploration, and I feel that NASA delivers in this regard. It is just, in this day and age of video gaming, sometimes real life can be very tedious. You move about the base, making repairs on damaged modules, but these only slightly vary in execution, and become quite repetitive very quickly. The game also relies heavy on the cooperation of others on the larger maps. For those of you playing with your friends, this will become a very nice way to play. However, if you are relying on the cooperation of anonymous internet players, good luck my friend, you will need it! Overall, I feel that for a free simulator of life on the moon, NASA’s Moonbase Alpha does a fantastic job, but it is geared for a very select audience that has the focus to complete a series of tedious tasks in a row to accomplish an objective. Moonbase Alpha is available now, for free, from Steam.
