It's fun, the story is engaging, and the characters are loveable, but don't let this non-linear promise fool you. It gaves you very little freedom. The first few hours of the game goes like this. You can choose your character's class but it makes no difference during the gameplay whatsoever. Neither the money that comes with your class, as after you passed the initial phase of the game, you'll have enough money after like the first planet you visit. A pilot saves your ship from a crash. You can ask her to join you, or ignore her, she'll become your pilot regardless. You run into an annoying drunk guy in a bar. Next day your character wakes up next to him naked in a bed, regardless of your characters gender, or the sexual preference you want to roleplay here. And he'll become your crewmember whether you want it, or not. There is a skilled mechanic, who will become the lead engineer on your ship, you don't have a saying in that. There is an antipathetic doctor who wants to be your crewmember. He asks, the game lets you refuse, then he still becomes your crewmember. There is a cryo-chamber that drifts in the space. You can choose if you collect it or not, but your team will collect it regardless. There is a woman in the cryochamber, you can choose whether you want to hire her, but she'll become your crewmember regardless. There is a quartermaster that your stuck-up doctor wants to bring on the ship, you can reject the offer, but the quartermaster will get on the ship regardless. A teammate of yours don't live to see the end of the game, as get killed during a mission, regardless of anything you did prior to that, and it includes the choice right before the said death. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that you can accidentally get an ending at around halfway of the playtrough, and the game doesn't let you finish the unfinished missions after it, even if you had the good ending, where your ship stays intact and your character continues adventuring off-screen with their crew and ship. I also found the love parts of the game unsatisfying. You can have sex with almost anybody on your crew, but as soon as you had sex with either, your romance with them ends. There is no romance content with either character after you've slept them for the first time. There are writing mistakes. For example, there is a point, where your stupid decision (it's literally yours, they don't die if you play the situation smart) kills a crewmember. Or at least they got mortally wounded, and die on the ship in your arms. It could've been a great scene, but it was like the dullest character death in anything ever. There is no emotional content in the death, it feels less sad than when you accidentally killed your fish in Mass Effect 2. I know, I sounded negative, but I did like this game. It's like a Mass Effect, Firefly mashup, and pretty good at that. It does have a few cases where your decisions are life and death, but generally, it's awfully linear, with very low replay rate.
And I haven't even mentioned the fact that you can accidentally get an ending at around halfway of the playtrough, and the game doesn't let you finish the unfinished missions after it, even if you had the good ending, where your ship stays intact and your character continues adventuring off-screen with their crew and ship.
I also found the love parts of the game unsatisfying. You can have sex with almost anybody on your crew, but as soon as you had sex with either, your romance with them ends. There is no romance content with either character after you've slept them for the first time.
There are writing mistakes. For example, there is a point, where your stupid decision (it's literally yours, they don't die if you play the situation smart) kills a crewmember. Or at least they got mortally wounded, and die on the ship in your arms. It could've been a great scene, but it was like the dullest character death in anything ever. There is no emotional content in the death, it feels less sad than when you accidentally killed your fish in Mass Effect 2.
I know, I sounded negative, but I did like this game. It's like a Mass Effect, Firefly mashup, and pretty good at that. It does have a few cases where your decisions are life and death, but generally, it's awfully linear, with very low replay rate.