| Developer | Publisher | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Robot Gentleman | Robot Gentleman | Microsoft Windows-Xbox Series X/S-Xbox One-Nintendo Switch-PlayStation 5-PlayStation 4-iOS-Android |
60 Parsecs! is a story-driven survival game. The game came in 2018 as a sequel to 60 Seconds. Fortunately, the developer did not abandon his creation and recently released a free update for it. The update includes things like more graphics, sounds, events, etc. Because of this, there is another opportunity for us to check out the game, although this update won’t change the core gameplay.
The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Where a nuclear war takes place that destroys even a research station around Earth’s orbit. In critical moments of this madness and destruction, you must collect all the resources you can and go to the heart of space by saving up to three other crew members. This opening sequence acts like an exciting adventure game, but the rest is slower and has a more logical approach.
In 60 Parsecs! you are almost always in a small spaceship, and the whole gameplay, the story, and everything you need to know occur there. Sometimes according to some events and your decisions, the interior appearance may change slightly.
The game developers have made maximum use of a limited environment. We would have liked to have seen more diversity, especially since it is clear that talented graphic designers were behind the game. In any case, after spending hundreds of days of game time and just staring at the same environment, you will start to feel so much bored. In general, the developer has not paid much attention to diversity in their game. Even the music and voices are limited, and you hear almost no voice dialogue.
The strength of 60 Parsecs! is the intertwining of narrative and gameplay. In many games (especially action ones), you can practically go forward without paying attention to the story; you can skip dialogues or see the story of the game to the end with random choices, but this is not the case with 60 Parsecs!. Here the game is associated with understanding the events and decisions.
Every day of the game, you will get a general description of the conditions and situation of the story and your people, and you will get the statistics on the increase and decrease of your resources. You can also check the missions you are in charge of. Then it is more important to check the computer and decide on the new situation ahead of you. Every day is an important day. Each day you have a complex event or moral decision in front of you that you have to decide for. These choices are based on the resources, tools, or even physical abilities that you have in your arsenal. Of course, some of these decisions are repeating, and as soon as you see the first line of the report, you already know what option you should choose. However, for most events, you need to read reports carefully and have a fair understanding of your condition.
Like an interactive novel, almost every decision you make can completely change the course of the story. Hence the decisions are engaging, at least for the first or second time you start the game from the beginning. The game also has many endings so that the story could end differently, each time you begin it.
Some of the decision-makings are easy, like choosing between yes and no, but many of them depend on your list of resources. So crafting and upgrading resources are such important things you should do almost every day. Most of the time, you have to think about producing food or first aid kits to survive but rest assured that ultimately it will come to a point where you have to sacrifice the lives of your crew to repair a specific defective part of the ship.
Note there is three game mode in 60 Parsecs!. One is the main mode that narrates your group’s journey for survival. Another one puts you in different scenarios to finish the game in pre-defined conditions, and the last one is a survival mode where you have to survive as many days as possible.
In general, if you don’t get tired of reading long texts, 60 Parsecs! is a good game for you. Thankfully, the game also has a mild sense of humor to make it easier to cope with its large number of texts.
The review code was provided by the publisher.
| GAMEPLAY | ART | VALUE |
|---|---|---|
| 80% | 70% | 80% |