Expertly designed and extremely realistic, Odysseus Kosmos and His Robot Quest by developer Pavel Kostin and publisher Herocraft, is a classic science fiction game that combines lighthearted humor with challenging mental puzzles. In the game you play as Odysseus Kosmos, the lone human crew member of a research vessel space station floating in far away space. The main mission is to survive the dangers of space while also repeatedly repairing your ship, which constantly seems to be breaking down. Although I personally found the pace of the game a bit slow at times, the high quality of the graphics, characters, and gameplay makes it a winner.
First of all, one of the best aspects of the game is, surprisingly, the humor. Odysseus Kosmos’s one companion is Barton, a robot who dishes witty comments of backbiting sass. At one point, he directly asks Odysseus why he is so lazy and unmotivated, and I found this unapologetic honesty incredibly refreshing and amusing (see below). The designers of this game clearly put a lot of effort into writing the dialogue between characters, which I appreciate. As for Odysseus, the main character is also equally adept at shooting back clever comebacks, and he is a lot more sarcastic and laid back than most of the hero characters I have played in other games. A noteworthy moment was when he started belting lyrics from Moana while taking a shower, which was shockingly relevant to pop culture and very relateable (also see below). In my opinion, the sense of humor in Odysseus Kosmos and His Robot Quest is a positive differentiating factor that sets this game apart from others in an innovative, unexpected way.
On the other hand, one area of the game that I struggled a bit with was the pacing. At least when I play video games, I like to move from one objective to the next fairly quickly and enjoy a fair amount of action, whether it be battling enemies or reacting to major plot twists. However, with this game, I felt that the narrative often stayed static for too long; in the beginning, for example, all of your tasks pertain to fixing and repairing different parts of the ship, from equipment to lights to feeding the pet rats. And for most of the time, it takes a lot of brainpower and out of the box thinking to complete these tasks, which involve multiple steps of finding the correct tools and using those items in the correct sequence. It took me almost an hour to fix a machine because it required a screwdriver, which was randomly found in the intercom speaker on the wall. In order to retrieve the screwdriver from the speaker, I finally realized that I had to turn up the speaker to maximum volume using the main control system and then test the speaker, which causes the speaker to vibrate enough for the screwdriver to fall out. After completing that task, Barton just assigned another list of chores to complete, which just made me want to quit the game. Of course, I do not believe that this disqualifies the game from being great, but I do think you have to mentally prepare yourself for a lot of critical thinking and mundane tasks when playing this game, rather than shooting aliens or piloting your ship through space.
Just to reiterate, although there is some monotony in the beginning, I think this game has stellar graphics and a fully realized sci-fi game world that more than compensates for its shortcomings. Odysseus Kosmos and His Robot Quest is an extremely entertaining game, and I cannot wait to see what else it has in store.
Rating: 8/10
Here is the Odysseus Kosmos and his Robot Quest Trailer:
Odysseus Kosmos and His Robot Quest is now available for PC via Steam for $14.99.
PC Review
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Overall Score - 8/108/10
From the moment I first played Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy on the original Xbox, I have always had an avid curiosity and enthusiasm for video games. I admire their ability to immerse us in completely different worlds, and I am always eager to see how they integrate the newest breakthroughs in digital technology to make virtual reality feel real. I am currently a senior at UC Berkeley, but when I'm not studying I always make time to play Xbox One with my younger brother.
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