Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager

[Oexmelin]

Currently on sale at GoG - perhaps to capitalize on the Moon Landing anniversary.

And they are right: I started reminiscing about Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space. I know the reviews are mixed. Have anyone tried this version?

[celedhring]

I have. It's essentially a souped-up version of the old game. It's actually not that deep of a game, since the basic mechanics are the same as the 1990s one. It's all about raising reliability on components, push the launch button and watch (I think they should have made this last part more active). Ultimately the game loop is about figuring out the most efficient way to spend your money. And it has a bit of "playing an excel sheet" vibe. Presentation is rather awful but I don't care much about it in these kind of games. It's fun enough if you liked the original or the theme - the game has a much larger catalogue of missions and components than the original and it's just fun to browse those, and you can play sandbox if you don't want to be railroaded into choosing the most worthwile missions and just want to do other stuff.

There's also a new campaign where you play a global space program and you can colonize Mars and shit, but never got around to play that one.

I think the game essentially suffers from the problem that it's very faithful to the original, and something that was compelling gameplay in the early 1990s might not cut it in the 2010s.

[Oexmelin]

It's what I feared. Thanks.

[HVC]

if you want a space game try kerbal. its actually really fun. and beyond the goofyness of it, they've worked hard to get the physics right now (although obviously not the same as earth since the scales are different.