OPUS: The Day We Found Earth (aka BAWWWWW In February: The Conclusion)

Earlier in the month I made a blog post when I was not OK. I was not OK because I was playing an indie game about a large headed child figure who is for some reason lost in a world which is somehow surreal, unfamiliar, threatening or a combination of all three. Well, I'm not about to repeat that experience! Let's get some happy games in. 

...said Dalek, and then went on to finish Never Alone, Shovel Knight and The Binding of Isaac, before starting in on OPUS: The Day We Found Earth for review.

There are many factors which have contributed to my popularity, internet stardom and almost preternatural prowess with the ladies. The point I'm trying to make is that strong decision-making is not one of them.

You can watch my first impressions video above. Or you can keep reading. Y'damn luddite.

O:TDWFO is the resource gathering game from Mass Effect 2 with a plot, and there's nothing not awesome about that. Emeth is an adorable large-headed robot (COME BACK, IT'S NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS) and possession of Dr. Lisa, who with her sidekick and unbearable shitheel Makoto are searching the galaxy for Earth in order to fix humanity's genes because reasons.

One day Lisa teaches Emeth to work the telescope. An undetermined amount of time later, Emeth wakes up to find the ship deserted. Bereft of any context, Emeth gets on the telescope and starts obsessively combing the stars for Earth. And there you have it. Game.

OPUS is very short, very sweet and an absolutely perfect game for dipping into. It takes a couple of minutes to find each planet, index it and name it Chungus, and each one advances the plot with a cut scene.

The writing is great. The tropes are all about as tired as you can possibly imagine, but the length of the story means the charming characters never outstay their welcome and the urgency of the task at hand never has a chance to sink into the mire of routine.

If I had to pick one thing wrong with OPUS, it's that it should warn you to play the game on the top difficulty if you're able to breath through your nose or eat with a knife and fork. I ripped through the medium setting in 93 minutes. If I had to pick two things, the second thing would be that the controls on the adventure game sections are a bit dodgy.

Neither is a game breaker though. O:TDWFO comes highly recommended.