As I like Sci-Fi in general, I was kind of excited, when I stumbled upon Calisto.
The Game manages to deliver a good Story with nice looking models and some simple, yet not obnoxious feeling mechanics.
yus... onto details!
Renders:
The models are well designed, the motion scenes really good and no character of the novella struck me as ugly or weird. Even the smurf.
Except: Wetlooks. Scenes like the showerfuck look kinda weird thanks to the wetlook, which needs improvement.
The Cast:
MC - Ah the poor, rather frivolous Marine who doesn't fit into the core. It made me giggle actually, as the characters in the prologue are rather over the top in the way they act.
Getting MC fired from the core just because he had sex with the commander's mature daughter... uuuuh... rather thin ice. no matter what problems those two had with each other, but to get someone fired from the core takes a bit and proof xD
Ah well. It's okay as it is, as a story starter.
So our Marine gets fired and tried to get himself a freighter.
Shady loanshark later the fun in space finally begins.
So to say he is an okayish MC. Nothing extraordinary, some illogical background things, and a rather nice and openminded way to handle things.
For an MC really likable. A minor point to dislike another horse stud. ugh...
The Girls - Okay, I dunno how many words can fit into this review tool, so I will keep it brief.
We have our Ex-Stripper Pilot, who is a bit inconsistent as a character in herself. On one hand, she starts off wanting to take it slow with the caption, on the other hand, they end up fucking rather quick.
Kind of like 2 Days from "Let's take it to slow please" to "fill me up" escalated very fast. The rest of her is rather enjoyable. She is openminded relationwise, rather smart and reliable.
Next, we pick up the masterpiece of the novel, Lia.
This girl is, despite her age - coming from a very long-lived race - is rather innocent and pure. Or more like... Outright adorable. In her ways, she stays logical as a character, true to her innocent shyness and the design of that race is interesting as a bonus.
Although the change of color when she climaxes really made me crack, it fit her perfectly.
Later on, something happens that comes along a little bit of over plot convenient, but okay. If one wrote oneself into a dead end, there's nothing like a Deus ex Machina to save the day, aight?
After that, we pick up the ex-pornstar, Medic of the Team.
She comes of mature, cares about the mental and physical health of the crew, and offers stress relief. The last thing made me raise an eyebrow as this is a bit... uh... typical for more fuck focused games.
In my books, I could have lived with leaving her on the planet. She doesn't really add much to the Story plot and characterwise.
With the reason to meet the Medic, follows the one to encounter our soon to be a bodyguard. The Pandoran smurf-copy *giggle*
Kara is an oddball in my books. On one hand, she is a really strong and cold-blooded bodyguard and fasts on the trigger to pull. On the other hand, she is written like a small kid in some situations. Which annoyed me. So she isn't really one of my favorites but if I ignore those strange inconsistencies, as a bodyguard she is a good pick and crafty.
Next in line is our lesbian Duo.
The rather trope like redhead, easygoing, loves to look beyond her mate to fool around and the rather trope like aggressive lesbian due to past happenings.
Plotwise both are enjoyable, stay in their boundaries as characters and for the grey mouse crusader lesbian, we get a glimpse of why she is like that and so far I deem it acceptable.
For the redhead no background is given so far or I overlooked it somewhere.
And last but not least, the little stupid lovey-dovey princess from the station who got us fired in the first place.
I laughed about how the story played out with her.
Stupid good for nothing Girl runs after her big love, gets crashed hard by reality and hires herself onboard of MC.
Oof. I'd have loved to get a say as MC if I want to take her or not.
Later on she actually becomes useful. Kind of. So I guess lucky me... woho.
The Storyline:
We start of indebted, hunted and manage somehow to get away with busting a major deal, not only netting us the best castmember, in my books, but also your freedom later on, as the one putting a bounty on your head gets his own problems.
The base setting is that two major factions, earth and Kraal are kind of fighting with each other, which reached some form of truce.
The Kraal now try to grab a planet with rich helium-3 deposits as a major asset for fueling their fleets. Thanks to the truce though the earths hands are tied for helping the poor inhabitants of the Planet.
That's where we come in thx to our ex-career.
Of course it is a rather bleak trope that civilians get asked to do covert missions for the military but it fits in the story nicely so I don't care about the trope. Would it be a novel though I would have called you out on it as that is rather lazy writing.
The rest ensues nicely and thanks to the dialogues we get, is quite enjoyable.
Gamemechanics:
Oh joy... run around and search for what to do.
Luckily that rather pissed thought subsided quickly. Events are marked with stars, so it is kind of hard overlooking them.
The Game sports a simple yet not obnoxious tradesystem to raise funds for yourself and your crew.
After you got the lesbian couple and raised the findings for the shipscanner you can start salvaging wrecks, which sadly isn't nearly as lucrative as the simple trading. So I'd like to say this needs balancing/improvement.
For what it tries to be, I am missing a few things like upgrading the freighter. Or changing ship and stuff.
There is kinda literally nothing to do with your money, after you bought the Shipscanner. So it would be nice to add, in futureupdates, more stuff you can waste money on. Shipimprovements, comfortstuff for the crew or even new ships etc.
Language - found a few typos, but nothing that would have annoyed me or killed the flow while reading.
On to the final rating:
Renders: 5/5 (Dont really see the wetlook as a big impact on them.)
Characters: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Language: 5/5
Result: a solid 4/5
Overall a good experience to read it and quite enjoyable. Nice renders, a very beautiful firefly as crewmate and a decent trade/salvage system.
P.S.: Forgot to mention a good and fitting soundtrack!
