Astronaut: The Best
- August 15, 2023
- Universal Happymaker
Get on Steam"Astronaut: The Best" is a procedurally generated space-themed game where you navigate episodic storylines and make crucial decisions. Your arsenal includes training, sycophantic groveling, lying, and witchcraft as you aim to make history or risk ending up dead in a ditch. The game features five missions, hundreds of decisions, and thousands of procedurally generated astronauts, each with their unique personalities and traits, ensuring no two plays are the same.
PC
Steam Deck
Windows
Reviews
- The game features great writing, art, and music, providing a unique and engaging experience with a humorous and chaotic atmosphere.
- It offers a fun blend of management sim and roguelike elements, allowing for inventive scenarios and replayability with absurd outcomes.
- Players appreciate the game's ability to make failure enjoyable, with each playthrough resulting in hilarious and memorable stories.
- The core gameplay loop can feel repetitive, with many missions having similar dialogue and mechanics that may lead to frustration.
- Some players find the luck-based mechanics and grindy stat training to be a nuisance, detracting from the overall enjoyment.
- The art style and humor may not appeal to everyone, making it a game that is best experienced through gameplay videos before purchasing.
- story36 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 83 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's story is primarily structured as a visual novel with preset, branching narratives, leading to a repetitive experience that diminishes replay value due to similar dialogue across missions. However, it compensates with humorous writing and absurd scenarios that create unique, personalized stories for each player, making it enjoyable for unwinding and sharing wild experiences. While the randomness of events adds a layer of challenge and strategy, the overall narrative can feel stagnant, as many players find themselves re-reading lengthy text from previous attempts.
“The story contains humorous dialogue with witty character remarks and interactions, and has quite a few choices which provide opportunities for multiple playthroughs.”
“The writing is so genuinely funny, and the things that can happen as a result of succeeding or failing are so absurd, that I just fully accepted each weird, wonderful playthrough as my own story.”
“Of the five missions, #3 was my favorite (spacewolves!), but as you go on, there's some pretty cool world-building that gets layered into the personalized procedural goodness.”
“I would say it's more of a visual novel with preset, branching narratives than a roguelike with a procedural story that is advertised as being very different every time you play.”
“It's very samey, and there's actually not much of a reason to replay missions because so much of the dialogue and story is the same every time.”
“It feels like a punishment to have to reread all the same long paragraphs of text you've seen before just because you failed previously, clicking nonstop to gather all the information you just gathered before in some of the mission types where you have to investigate.”
- humor30 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as absurd, chaotic, and full of personality, appealing particularly to those who enjoy surreal and offbeat comedy. Players appreciate the inventive scenarios and witty dialogue, which contribute to a unique storytelling experience with each playthrough. While some find the humor inconsistent, many agree that it effectively lightens the learning curve and enhances the overall enjoyment of the game.
“Funny, chaotic, full of personality.”
“The writing is so genuinely funny, and the things that can happen as a result of succeeding or failing are so absurd, that I just fully accepted each weird, wonderful playthrough as my own story.”
“The story contains humorous dialogue with witty character remarks and interactions, and has quite a few choices which provide opportunities for multiple playthroughs.”
- gameplay10 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The gameplay is generally enjoyable, featuring a fun concept and quick mechanics that keep players engaged, regardless of success or failure. However, some users find the core loop repetitive and the presentation of certain mechanics, like the wheel spinning, frustrating. While the visuals can become dull over time, the overall execution shows promise and could benefit from further refinement.
“The concept itself and gameplay is fun though, could be great with some polishing.”
“And while I haven't given the roguelike mechanics enough time to settle in, I'm charmed by the execution so far.”
“Great art, funny writing, quick gameplay that's fun whether you 'succeed' or 'fail'.”
“The core gameplay loop could be more interesting than 'press your luck', and the visuals for the often repeated segments get dull eventually.”
“Little things like how the wheel spinning mechanic is presented can potentially get on a person's nerves.”
“The gameplay mechanics can be frustrating at times, leading to a less enjoyable experience.”
- graphics6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's graphics feature a unique art style and presentation that may not appeal to all players, with some finding it quirky and humorous. However, the visuals can become repetitive and dull over time, particularly in frequently repeated segments.
“This one's an oddball; the art style, sense of humor, and presentation are not for everyone.”
“Cons: the core gameplay loop could be more interesting than 'press your luck', and the visuals for the often repeated segments get dull eventually.”
“Everything from the unique play style to the unique art style.”
- music4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in "Astronaut: The Best" is highly praised for its vibrancy, contributing to a unique and engaging experience alongside the game's strong writing and art. Overall, it enhances the game's immersive quality.
“With vibrant art and music, Astronaut: The Best provides a unique and engaging experience.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game frustrating, as significant effort in character training can still lead to disappointing outcomes due to reliance on a luck-based spin wheel mechanic, which can fail even at maximum odds.
“The stats are all really grindy too, and it's frustrating to train your character so hard but have everything left up to luck in an unexciting spin wheel, that even at '100' percent odds can still fail, and has happened to me.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the game highly replayable due to its engaging charm and the intriguing mysteries surrounding its gods, making it a worthwhile experience to revisit.
“The replayability value makes this game worth playing, especially with the charm it has through its gods and mysteries.”
“The replayability value makes this game worth playing, especially with the charm it has through its gods and mysteries.”
