Colonies: Neociv

Colonies: Neociv – Demo Impressions

Colonies: Neociv is a sci-fi action adventure game developed by Twist-EdGames.com for Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace (XBLIG). December 17, 2011 was the release date for this sci-fi opera indie game. If there was an indie game that gave me an immediate great first impression it would be Colonies: Neociv. The dramatic opening featured nice music along with spectacular visuals that grabbed me immediately. The main menu screen featured Playtest V 11.28, Play Game (Trial Mode), Extras, Purchase Game and Quit Game. I first went into the Extras area to see what was in there and low and behold i see that Bureau Agent Kendal 2 will release early next year (awesome news). It all makes sense why Colonies: Neociv screams quality. Bureau Agent Kendal was really good in its own right created by the same devs.

The trial for Colonies Neociv actually lets you play different parts of the campaign which i thought was a nice touch from the developers. To play the campaign choose Story Mode then your difficulty. You can now choose from several areas from Colonies: Neociv’s demo. Normal Start shows a great opening cinematic cutscene with voiced narration that details the lore of Colonies: Neociv.  The cutscene looked great and gave a strong space opera vibe. The opening cinematic also tells you about Neociv and how it is supposed to be the rebirth of mankind. Like a safe haven of sorts to start over. J.S Sterling was the character who was talking during the opening cinematic. He is also involved in Colonies: Neociv’s gameplay demo from time to time.

After you watch the opening cinematic involving spaceships and planets you meet the game’s protagonist in Nessa. She is woken up and is called into Greywater Training Facility which leads to the next option of the demo. Training Room is the second option you play in Colonies: Neociv’s demo. The Training area will be the first and only time you actually play the game’s shooting mechanics. What immediately took me by surprise was the fact that this game imploys cover shooting gameplay ala Gears of War. The Training Room tutorial taught me how to get in cover, shoot, explore and destroy robots. Controls: RS-aim/point and click objects, RT-shoot, A-cover and LS-move character. The controls are fine regarding gameplay.

Explore Old Power Plant is the last option that you can “jump” to in Colonies: Neociv’s demo. Like the option states your exploring an old power plant. Exploring revolves around pointng and clicking on objects. You also point and click to navigate the power plant. You cannot freely walk around in third person. You point and click to an area, then you see a cutscene of Nessa walking to the area. Midway through the power plant Nessa gets a message from an anonymous stranger warning Nessa that she is being hunted by Greywater. Most of my time in the power plant was centered around searching for Data Fragments. After finding them i then had to solve a puzzle involving them.

All three sections of Colonies: Neociv’s demo gave me different aspects of the game which leads me to my next thoughts. The game has a high quality presentation and diversity in gameplay. Its true you might not be able to run around and shoot things freely. However, the adventure aspects involving story and exploration are solid. The actual cover and shooting gameplay is decent as well. The visuals in Colonies: Neociv are some of the best i seen on XBLIGM. The lighting and texture work is top-notch. The animations could be better but good enough to not distract  from the overall quality. There are many dialog text to be read and choices do seem to play a part throughout the story.

If you ever played Heavy Rain Colonies: Neociv has some of “it” in it regarding presentation. It seems dramatic and has that story driven vibe and atmosphere. I can see this game getting really good reviews in the future. I really enjoyed Bureau Agent Kendal so i wouldn’t be surprised if this game gets praised to high heaven. Thanks for reading.