RymdResa describes itself as a ‘poetic roguelike’, a game that features procedural generation and plenty of player deaths, but still allows for a relaxing experience. For the most part, its minimalist aesthetic and lack of combat goes a long way to achieving this, although how ‘poetic’ it actually is is open to debate. Following an asteroid strike that has left Earth uninhabitable, players must venture into space to discover new planets and ensure that they are habitable, before terraforming them and creating a new home. RymdResa is certainly a more laidback approach to the roguelike genre, but does that make it worth playing?
The main campaign is broken down into three different chapters, each with their own particular objective. The first chapter, for example, has players hunting down the origin of nine different signals, while the second chapter tasks you with finding materials to be used in the building of a new colony. Aside from these main objectives, players are also given a series of tasks, which change with each playthrough, such as using boost 50 times, or exploring 35 different objects. The fact that these minor objectives change with each game means that although you’re always aware of the immediate goal, the route that you take to get there can change, and the playstyle you employ to ensure success one time may need to change the next time you play a particular chapter.
Each time you start a game, you choose a particular ship from a selection of eight. The first ship is always free and ready to be used, while the other seven are unlocked as you progress through the game and are bought using spacepoints. Spacepoints are the currency of RymdResa, and are earned by completing the aforementioned minor objectives, or by exploring certain items on the map. Spacepoints are used each time you buy a ship, as once a ship is destroyed, that particular instance of it is gone forever, although you keep any upgrades and aesthetic changes you may have made to that model. Different ships have different strengths and weaknesses, such as having better acceleration or being able to carry more resources. Resources work as both health points and fuel, as you gradually lose resource while travelling around, but hitting asteroids and mines takes off a sizeable chunk all at once.
Asteroids and mines are your main foes in RymdResa, as there isn’t any real combat to speak of. Despite this, there’s still a strong element of danger, especially when you find yourself in a large, packed group of asteroids with your resources at a dangerously low level. Initially, I found navigating through groups of obstacles quite difficult, partially due to my ship feeling like it was sliding all over the place, but once I realized that I was supposed to be in space and brakes aren’t exactly a thing in a vacuum, my troubles were eased somewhat. I also found that using a controller is much more responsive that using a mouse and keyboard, although that may just be my console-leaning tendencies talking.
Perhaps the most notable characteristic of the experience that RymdResa presents is its aesthetic design. The game looks like a cleaned-up space simulator from the 1980s, with a minimalist 2D presentation and an almost MIDI-like sound design. Many of the ships look like they would be at home in a version of Asteroids, and both obstacles and explorable objects looks like paper cutouts placed on a backboard painted to look like space. With the option to turn off most of the UI, and the fact that different zones are marked by a change in color scheme and background music, a relaxed trip through RymdResa’s galaxies can feel a little like travelling through the visualizer effect in Windows Media Player.
RymdResa feels a lot like a Flash game that has been expanded to release as a full retail title. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that your mileage with the game may vary. Some players will race towards the end point, finish all the objectives leave the game sitting idly in their Steam library, while others will leisurely take their time with the game, slowly exploring the galaxy and using their time to wind down from a particularly busy day or an intense session in another title. There’s a fair amount of content on offer here, and although RymdResa feels a little barebones at times, it goes most of the way towards achieving its poetic goal.
