Space Pirate Captain McCallery has Crash Landed on an alien planet! Explore a strange and hostile alien world in this Low-Poly 3D Action-Adventure game.
Positive
28 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | Y | Y |
easy to pick up and start playing, controls are straight foward. Storyline was good, im excited to see where it goes. Enemies have a very strange and unique look to them. Theres a ton of different items to pick up and use for different stat? bonuses like speed, or no fall damage ect. I like how there was a hidden weapon in the game if you went out of your way to actually explore the planet. Soundtrack was decent. Achievements were a bit buggy with unlocking when i closed the game, but they managed to unlock so im not complaining just pointing it out for future players.
This game is actually a lot of fun to try and speed run, once you know the layout of the game, its fairly short, maybe 10m on a good run, so to try and speed run it and see your time decrease is a lot of fun, the game just has a nice flow that makes you want to keep on playing it.
[h1]SUMMARY[/h1]
N64 without the nostalgia appeal.
This game tries DESPERATELY to fix adventure game, into platformer, into shooter, into "trippy experience." While it has a comforting aesthetic to work with, using low-poly aesthetic mixed with a fantasy/sci-fi design, it fails to do anything clever, unique, or really memorable with any of it. You trapse around a bunch of narrow catwalks, harvesting plants, using rocks as a ranged weapon because of your pitiful punch, fending off ever-grander enemies, until you get the laser gun, which simplifies a lot of the mechanics and out-right erases them.
The game starts off somewhat interesting with a dash instead of a jump, for you to clear gaps and move faster through the environment, and a punch which you can hurt enemies with. It will likely cause you to hurt yourself, but it's a risk. Or, you can pick up large rocks and toss them at enemies, which is far less accurate but more safe, and you have to be careful not to lose them by throwing them off ledges. This dichotomy creates an action economy which makes the game world feel more immersive for the player. You go about 10, maybe 12 minutes before you find the laser gun, and once you do, those mechanics go out the window. Indeed, even the mechanic of using the laser gun to destroy parts of the environment is only ever used a couple times, and it's only to destroy blocked passage ways, never for anything else. Once you get the laser gun, the semblance of a thought-out gameplay style goes out the window. The laser gun is long range, quickly and easily recharges, automatically targets, and lasts for a while after a full charge.
The game tries to slow you down with its energy mechanic, but it proves it doesn't add anything to game, really, just a hindrance for you to keep in mind. There's a plethora of plants scattered throughout the environment which restores a ton of energy per plant, some have other effects like hallucinations, restoring health, but the main thing you'll want is energy. Dying in this game means very little, as it uses the Dark Souls mechanic of finding checkpoint marks and if you die you respawn there, with full energy and health. There is very little at stake, the combat is completely dumbed down for 80% of the game because of the laser gun, and enemies are mostly unimaginitive.
The game tries to use a SNES-like 8-bit soundtrack, which clashes with the N64 vibe they are clearly trying to imitate, albeit clashing to a lesser degree. The level design is vague and boring. There are few if any stand-out features or architecture that catches the eye, it's all just a foggy blend of rock textures, moss, and dirt, with the added factory at the end which looks even more bland than the rest of the game.
I can't help but feel the developer couldn't wait to rush his game out of the gate, when it obviously could have used another couple months in order to lengthen it, add more personality to the enemies and environments, and fix the broken, monotonous gameplay. Oh, and fixed the block-moving glitches, that too. I got stuck multiple times on the same puzzle because my character got stuck on the large blocks you have to move. That added about 6 minutes of extra game time, which, at 49 minutes long, was pretty significant. For 4$ you can do much worse, but you can also do much better. You could buy the entire Snail Trek quadrilogy, which I would recommend over this as an adventure game.
[h1]OVERALL SCORE[/h1]
Not Recommended
[h1]REPLAY VALUE[/h1]
Average
A fun 3rd person shooter/platformer with a sense of humor. An energy mechanic keeps you on your toes, and the low-poly look is genuinely striking. A great game to spend an afternoon with
It's not a bad adventure game, but the camera is atrocious and really frustrated me, also resting resets all the hard work you have done which is also just annoying, and you have to rest because of the energy system that continuously depletes.
Vi que salio el tercer episodio de este juego y como esta parte estaba en muy buena oferta la compre, me sorprendió para bien, unos gráficos de N64 que traen bastante nostalgia, al mismo tiempo tiene algunas cosas interesante en el termino de jugabilidad, como que tenemos que mantener al personaje alimentado y no hay salto, sino que tenemos un dash el cual nos sirve tanto para esquivar ataques enemigos asi como para el plataformeo.
Me arrepiento no haber comprado tambien la segunda parte que estaba en oferta, ahora a esperar jaja.
I’m not sure whether it’s the semi-linear storyline, the third-person player view, or the eating mechanic, but something about this game just doesn’t sit right with me. Where "And All Would Cry Beware!" was one of my favourite games, the Space Captain McCallery franchise just seems like it’s missing something. Sure, it captures Renegade Sector's signature aesthetic, but I just don’t see myself coming back to this one.
Whilst all of this is true, I don't think it's a necessarily bad game, and so I can't in good conscience give it a negative review.
An adorable little low poly game of the cheapest price but wholesome production. The aesthetic is pixel art on basic 3D textures, which kind of makes it feel like a NES game if it had been hit by a modernizing ray.
Deceptively simple, but somehow manages to have various gameplay elements that made me go "Oh wow, I didn't expect this sort of mechanic here!" and it was a pleasant surprise and made me enjoy the experience a bit more. I beat it in a little over an hour, but I've still to get the secret achievements which I'm not sure how to get since there are no guides written for this game at time of writing, so maybe I'll play it further to see if I can find them.
The only little nitpick I have is that the audio loops are very very repetitive, but you can turn off music while keeping the sound effects on in the options, so you can simply listen to the waterworld snes soundtrack instead in a separate window (fits quite well!) while you play.
All in all, I loved it. I bought the sequel to this one in the two-pack steam bundle, so I'm going to play it now. Will review afterwards!
Definitely worth it's price.
A short and interesting romp through an alien world! I finished it in 30 minutes, but times may vary between players - I kind of blasted through it.
Pros are the energy system, which serves as both a hunger meter that has to be replenished through the use of food you can pick up in the world AND that can be traded for ammo, and the lovely feeling of adventure. The last part of the game is particularly cool - it's an ancient temple with keys to find and some light platforming. I had a lot of fun with it!
Cons are the fact that killing monsters serves no purpose, which means that you can and should just run past them, and the lack of progression. Once you find the gun, that's about it, nothing is going to change gameplay-wise. However, the energy system creates a loop that is interesting enough for the short length of the game, so it's not that bad.
TL;DR: Space Captain McCallery - Episode 1 is a nice Renegade Sector game, and a niftly little indie platformer. It's on the short side and it doesn't do much, but it does it well! I would definitely advice trying it out for how cheap it is, as well as having a look at the rest of Renegade Sector's catalogue.
Originally a negative review, but later I came back and saw "negative" attached to this game and didn't like that.
Pro:
- Many fights can be avoided or made easier with lateral thinking.
- Battles require balancing awareness of your enemy and your surroundings.
Cons:
- Some block puzzles glitch and become impossible
- Some sound effects really weren't properly mixed.
- Auto-aim is essential but often throws you off ledges.
Pretty good.
Episode two is better in my opinion.
[H1]Charming game, but I don't like it.[/h1]
There is a lot that I like about the game and I find it charming. It has nice graphics and it is simple in the right way. The dodging is fun to use to move around, the shooting and locking on is intuitive. Generally it functions quite well. I also enjoyed harvesting consumables for energy and HP, which you can sacrifice for ammo. I thought those systems were somewhat novel and I enjoyed them.
I am having trouble navigating the areas, and it gets brutal starting at the gigantic sky and subterranean worlds that comes around/after a moveable blocks puzzle. This is maybe 15 minutes into the game. The maps are sprawling with massive branching paths that switchback, join up and split upwards/downwards or into a forked path again, while windingy all over the place. It becomes very difficult to remember where you are or where you've been, when the graphics consist of completely basic geometry, simple textures and no notable landmarks. There's no objective marker, map, or guidance system, so all of that compounds to a tough ask of any player's memory and spatial skills/recall.
If you want to put yourself to the test based on my assessment, you'll probably like this game. If my description makes you shiver, you'll hate this game and feel lost and frustrated and confused.
The Renegade Sector energy and style is all here. If you like his other games, I recommend this one.
The Renegade Sector games have a lot of charm to them and you can tell the love that was put into games such as this one. I dug the sense of adventure and can't wait to play the other episodes!
This game really surprised me! I was expecting to enjoy it, but I thought it would be fairly standard.
I found it a great action-adventure game that really captures the feeling of being lost on an alien world. There's an interesting hunger/energy mechanic that's actually handled really well. It gives the game a cool sense of urgency it may not have otherwise. The environments are quite eerie and have some very nice lo-fi texture work. Combat and enemy encounters are generally quite fun, though there can be some minor frustrations occasionally. A minor spoiler: This game features one of the best implementations of a hallucination mechanic that I've seen. Overall, it's a brisk and very satisfying journey. Excited to try episode 2!
Alec's work shows you can generate an incredible amount of atmosphere and beauty with a handful of polygons! Whilst dash instead of jump was an initial discomfort, the exceptional level design meant it was a treat to navigate the space, cascading between platforms. Enemy design was excellent, I was a particular fan of the beam bot! This developer knows their niche and is crafting solid experiences for the genre. Support their work and buy this game!
In case you are blind, this is just another low poly, pixel graphic, sci-fi exploration game. But you know what, it felt fresh and unique. Surprisingly, I didn't find this game boring at all. Easy to learn mechanics. The one thing that annoyed me was switching targets.
Only played a short time so far but it's fun! Definitely worth the low entry fee.
A solid retro action adventure game. Short and sweet, with crunchy combat, tricky dash platforming, and a sarcastic robot.
A great little throwback to all those PS1 action games that they just don't make anymore. A real gem that you can beat in just a few hours (less then two hours for me), but well worth the price. This game knows exactly what it is, and delivers in a fun little package. I highly recommend picking this up and treating yourself to a great afternoon.
Just be careful of the mushrooms...
It's great! Not the most complicated stuff, but we absolutely need more games line this.
I love everything this dev does, the fact that it's a series delights me even more.
A brief but enjoyable game, albeit I suspect I probably overlooked some hidden paths! If you're after a pleasant little romp of a game, you can hardly go wrong here as the game's not terribly demanding technically, nor is it too challenging. However, despite it not being challenging, it's also not boring, as it's fun to dash about and blast the alien fauna trying to take you out, and the environments are splendidly unusual in their zigzagging form and verticality.
Also, don't hesitate to take the 'shrooms around enemies, you'll be in for a nice little surprise!
P.S. There are some minor visual glitches, but nothing that really impedes one's ability to play the game.
Just picked this up today and I'm really enjoying it so far! Getting a lot of nostalgic flashbacks to the early days of N64 and PSX with the low poly visuals and soundtrack.
The combat and mechanics are very well done and keep you in the zone just like any old school shooter would. I'm also really enjoying the open areas (especially the caves) that allow the player to explore. There's one particular chasm you have to navigate your way down while being bombarded by enemies that felt incredibly satisfying to maneuver properly.
Overall, a very fun game, I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to Episode 2!
a short and pleasant action adventure, brought me good enjoyments, although a bit near the middle nearly exasperated me with the monsters knocking me off narrow ledges quite a bit
Space
I love this old school beautiful little gem!
Really, it's just fun and challenging enough to require my full attention.
Good work, can't wait for the next chapters
Awesome game. Pulpy, smooth, elegant.
Lovely sci-fi short story with fun and weird low-poly-art (if pixel-art can be a genre...), simple shooting, platforming and exploration. The best idea of the game is to take the collectathon pickups and make them not only useful but strategic: fruits and mushrooms heal, provide energy for movement and charge the weapon. Also some cause hallucinations, which makes the already kinda trippy game even better looking. Enemies are basic but not boring goofy/creepy aliens, nicely mixed with enviromental challanges (mostly falling). I enjoyed the ideas and the atmosphere and appreciate the dev fixing some minor bugs and even implementing suggestions only hours after I mentioned them. Waiting for the next game.
A beautiful homage to nostalgia, this game not only has a great color pallette, but a great adventure full of puzzles and action that reminds me of Zelda and MegaMan Legends. These textures are SO COOL! I highly recommend this title!
With that being said, I think with a quick update to minor changes, I hope to see better camera control with Gamepads, an increase the UI Text, and a bit more space to exit the space craft would be greatly appreciated as it did distract from the great gameplay.
