Outernauts is a science fiction role-playing game that’s essentially Pokemon meets The Jetsons, and it’s available to play for free on Facebook. Players, or Outernauts, travel from world to world collecting new space beasts and fighting other people. In its essence, the game provides a fun little distraction from a boring day, by completing quests to propel yourself through an “interesting” storyline. Monsters that you’ve captured gain experience and levels, and may even evolve into big bad baddies, although mine in their current state are cuddly at best.
Hiding in this hole, little guy? What for?
Players start out similar to the Pokemon franchise in that you choose your sex and your starting pet. I’m assuming this is to be your main pet, to be boasted as the purest of breeds over your lackey minions you acquire later on. You’re then prompted along a series of tutorial quests that show you the basic game mechanics, such as energy, stamina, and other important traits that allow you to do what you do. What the game doesn’t tell you is how important the diamond gems you get at the beginning of the game are. I found myself spending them all on accident to find out I had to spend real money to get more. That being said, the game also houses straight-forward plots to get you to invite your friends and spend real money on the game, but hey, in its simplicity, this is another Facebook game trying to make money just like all the rest.
The game is web-based and developed by a fairly renown company called Insomniac (responsible for games such as Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Spyro), giving it an edge over a lot of games on Facebook today. Outernauts is polished for being a browser crawler and offers a wide variety of customization for your home world and character. Players can create dojos for their pets, mine ore for galactic travel, and even craft machines that create food out of money. Well, not really on that last one, but you have to pay to make food, and honestly, I don’t know where the ingredients come from.
Quick, Goku, into the Hyperbolic Time Chambers!
Being that this game is soft core gives way to some interesting mechanics. First off, there is no reset button, so make sure the money you spend and the creatures you collect are thought out and planned. And pay attention to the archetypes of the creatures you have and that you battle. Remember ice beats grass, fire beats ice, and electricity beats wind, or something with wind dying to some element or something (very important). Lastly, know that quests are going to take some time. This isn’t some game you can power through, unless you spend real money on it. Come to think of it, how is this game not super popular in Korea yet? Anyway, this game offers a nice bit of game play and strategy if you’re on Facebook and feel like getting addicted to a game you’ll play for about a month. So, hop on send Outernautsto some friends and start catching all those xenomorphs now!
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