Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
Colony Ship is a turn-based, party-based role-playing game set aboard a generation ship launched to Proxima Centauri. The game features a detailed skill-based character system, multiple ways to handle quests, choices & consequences, and branching dialogue trees.
Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game is a turn-based, tactical rpg and choices matter game
developed and published by Iron Tower Studio.
Released on November 09th 2023 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 2,774 reviews of which 2,432 were positive and 342 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.4 out of 10. đ
The game is currently priced at 37.99⏠on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10
- Processor: 2 GHz Processor or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 / Radeon HD 4870 or better
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 17 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
One of the best games I've ever played. Crpgs are my favorite type of game, and on top that is a story that explores compelling scientific ideas. The background idea: Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Sol at 4.25 light years away, with a planet named Proxima B in its habitable zone. If we could accelerate a ship to 0.01c, we could get there in 400 years. Without cryostasis, we would have to create a habitat for people to live. 20 generations of humans would have to live on this ship, with the first generation being the pioneers that create the initial politics, and everyone in between born into a life that was destined to be a sacrifice for the future generations of humanity, maintaining this ship that is floating through the endless black abyss between stars. The game does an amazing job of "show, don't tell" - the mark of good writing. The ship is vastly deteriorated from its initial state, ravaged by civil war. Most people have no idea where the ship is in space or whether or not it is even possible to arrive at the destination anymore. As you navigate this environment, you get to explore the science, how humanity reacts to this situation, the different factions that are involved, and how you yourself would react. Do you take the honorable approach and lay your life down for the mission so your descendants can prevail? Do you decide that your one life belongs to you and live a life of freedom and rebellion on the ship, knowing that it might cause the mission to fail? Or do you put your belief in a higher power, knowing someone above is looking out for you and the ship?
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Long story short, I think Colony Ship deserves to be regarded as one of greatest RPGs ever made, among the elite of the elite. Itâs excellently balanced in a genre of games that is known for a lack of balance, itâs very challenging but fair, the combat is deep but intuitive to grasp, the setting is expertly written, it has fun stealth mechanics, I could go on and on. That said, I donât think Colony Ship is as good as The Age of Decadenceâit doesnât have the off the charts levels of choice and consequence that AoD does, the dialogue isnât as sharp, the prose is a bit less polished, AoDâs skill leveling system allows for better roleplayingâbut overall, itâs a highly respectable follow up game. And although I think AoD is clearly superior, it must be said that Colony Ship does do a number of things better, e.g., combat and stealth, as well as the ability to form a party. However, I think there is one aspect where Colony Ship drops the ball hard, and thatâs its lack of interesting characters. The setting is excellent, the factions are fantastic, but when it comes to interacting with the people inhabiting this expertly written world, far too many of them give a dull impression. The characters are very detailed and believably depicted, but many of them have such mediocre personalities that itâs hard for the player to care about them. Even the most important characters, people the game gives you the option of allying with, tend to be corrupt careerists, rigid bureaucrats, conmen, narrowminded simpletons, bookish intellectuals, etc. Itâs hard to like any of these people, and thatâs a big problem in a game that expects you to take sides in their conflicts. The best example of this mediocrity of characterâspoilers aheadâis the conflict between Jonas and Braxton. On the one hand, Jonas is a fairly honest and well-meaning man, with a certain amount of smarts and savvy, but he has no higher ambitions in life than running The Pit, and heâs clearly in over his head just managing that, let alone taking on more responsibilities. He hardly inspires confidence as a leader. On the other hand, Braxton does appear to have higher ambitions for himself and the world and he has the drive to organise a coup against Jonas, but heâs such a slippery, slimy liar that he also comes across uninspiring. And the game throws this choice at you more or less at the very beginning. Do you want the unambitious, friendly pimp running The Pit? Or the arrogant, scheming, potentially overambitious lawman? Compare this with The Age of Decadenceâs opening actâspoilers aheadâwhere the player is given the choice of siding with Antidas or Carrinas, and the difference is night and day. Although Antidas and Carrinas both have their share of faults, their good qualities far outshine the bad. Antidas is a bit naĂŻve and narrowminded, but itâs exactly his naĂŻve and narrowminded dream of restoring his noble house to its former glory that makes him an interesting character to side with. On the other hand, Carrinas is bitter and volatile to the point of insubordination, but again, his bitterness at the state of society and his willingness to turn against his superiors is exactly what makes him interesting to side with. Thatâs whatâs missing from Colony Ship. For all of its great strengths as an RPG, it doesnât have interesting characters, characters that the player can easily get emotionally invested in and roleplay alongside, like Antidas and Carrinas. The fact that the game stands among the best of the best RPGs ever made, despite having such bland characters that fail to pull the player into the roleplaying experience, is a testament to how well done the rest of the game is.
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Going to recommend it if it's the type of game you're looking for. It wasn't for me, but it's not a bad game and might be for you. I probably won't be finishing it myself. It's the type of RPG that has no renewable access to experience or skill points preventing you from overcoming difficulty spikes with a bit of grinding, and there _will_ be difficulty spikes. It's also the kind of RPG that is tuned to require starting over multiple times and optimizing. If you're looking for a one play through type of game, you won't find it here. On your first play through, even if you're a veteran RPG player, you'll find yourself always a couple of levels too short to pick that lock or hack that computer or pass that persuasion check. Fights will start taking hours and many retries and becoming more and more dependent on RNG luck until you hit a wall (for me was the Bart fight). At that point, you start over and begin optimizing builds and point allocations. The game seems very intentionally built so that your 3rd or 4th attempt will hit that satisfying balance of being just difficult enough to beat it while making you work for it. It just wasn't for me. I like games that are designed for that first and possibly only play through.
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This game... Where to begin? Story. Excellent. LOVED the ending. Choices. Holy shit so many choices. I had decision paralysis at least 10 times. Development of story. There were no stale parts for me, I thoroughly enjoyed and felt that the story was chugging along at all points. Grittiness was a major plus. I enjoyed knowing that my decisions had direct affects on the story, even things like whether or not I chose to fight a seemingly random and pointless battle against no names directly affected my character's reputation and gave me unique options during conversationS. That S is capitalized because it wasn't a one-off comment I made in a random conversation. No it influenced NPC attitudes and behavior toward me and my party for the entirety of the game every SINGLE time I caused a ripple. Telling someone off? Helping out a random NPC? Killing those nameless guys? Picking up a random datapad I found and selling it without to make a quick buck? All actions feel like they MAKE your character yours, something I find severely lacking in many AAA titles, including Baldur's Gate 3 (Sorry but they have to cater to the global crowd. This studio doesn't. They make what they think is good, not what shareholders tell them is good.) Overall Rating? 20/10. I have completed 1 full playthrough, having owned the game since the first day of Early Access and putting it down while they developed it into the brilliant game it is now. Well done Iron Tower Studio. Well done indeed.
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Sum-Up In-depth analysis further down. If youâre looking for some screenshots [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/tho545454/screenshots/?appid=648410&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=grid]click here to view all the ones I took for this game. đŠ Pros đĽ Cons ⢠Interesting hard-sci-fi setting, with solid amounts of well-written, coherent lore to expand upon in your travels. ⢠Stellar value: each run changes drastically based on your build, choices and companions. ⢠Old-school difficulty in its Underdog setting, often puts you against nearly-impossible odds. ⢠Excellent pacing; it alternates exploration, combat, roleplay and encounters in a way that feels balanced. ⢠Solid roster of unique weapons, equipment, enemies and interactions, many of which hidden behind checks and quests. ⢠Some weapon types play out as downgrades of others, ultimately restricting the ârealâ viable choices. ⢠Endings feel unsatisfactory because they donât fully outline how characters, and events, end up after your choices. ⢠Stealth feels unreliable, messy and half-baked. Prepare for a lot of retries. ⢠Solo runs without companions are tremendously penalized and frustrating. Really, just donât. đ¨ Bugs & Issues đ§ Specs ⢠In some cases, companions may get stuck while trying to reach a destination out of combat. ⢠Even with top-grade hardware, a few areas suffer from massive FPS drops and slowdowns. ⢠i9 13980HX ⢠64GB RAM DDR5 ⢠RTX 4090 ⢠NvME SSD ⢠3840x2160 Content & Replay Value: It took me around 35 hours to complete one playthrough on Underdog (Hard) difficulty, taking considerable extra time to finish all the side content I could find. Further playthroughs will be much quicker with prior knowledge. With many branching choices, skill-dependent quest lines and excellent build variety, replay value is tremendous. Is it worth buying? Yes, for full price. The content amount offered, considering the replay value, is plentiful and of high quality. I recommend CSH to all turn-based RPG fans that donât shy away from a challenge. Verdict: Very Good [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548409603]Rating Chart Here Iron Tower worked its uncompromising, old-school magic again; they managed to deliver a hardcore-oriented sci-fi RPG that might not be very innovative, but is definitely well-executed. In-Depth Writing & Worldbuilding After Earth became an unlivable, overpopulated war-torn mess, a generational ship was built to reach Proxima Centauri in many, many years; an habitable planet was found - a fresh start for humanity⌠or rather, another Earth to screw up. Of course, the to-be colonists also screwed up the ship itself with power struggles and misery - just in time for your sorry ass to be born into it. Starting out as a literal nobody in the bowels of the ship, youâll have to find a way not only to survive, but thrive. The main story starts off soon with a sort-of deus-ex-machina that puts -you- of all people on the right track for something amazing. Despite being a bum living in the gutter. Thatâs a great stroke of luck, but hardly feels realistic given that people far more skilled couldâve been hired. Even so, the writing is overall competent: companions have depth, although not as much as in other RPGs, quests feel plausible and have a marked action-consequence factor, the optional lore is interesting to delve into. Visually, CSH isnât a spectacle nor needs to be one; top-down RPGs rarely have the need for mind-blowing visuals, especially for a target audience that mostly cares about gameplay and writing above all. Iron Tower knows, but still they did a -great- job with the fully 3D environment, models and art direction. Exploration & Secrets The ship is divided into several major sections, most of which are locked out until you progress further in the main story in a partial, conditional open-world fashion. Youâre free to explore each once you get there, although many locations will be barred behind skill checks, lockpick or computers for instance - to open doors - quests, specific items and even conversations. Exploration is interesting, but is also highly formulaic: youâll need to do things in a rather specific âorderâ to then be able to backtrack and solve those skill checks initially too difficult - if they are still available, since the world doesnât revolve around you, as it should be. You also will not be able to do everything in a single run - itâs designed that way. There are a lot of secrets, from unique items unlockable at traders, to secret passages discovered only via perception checks, to hidden bosses and more. A lot of such shenanigans are tied to achievements as well, for those interested. Youâll never know when youâll stumble upon the next secret or interesting interaction. Combat System & Bosses Fights play out in a turn-based fashion, with APs used for both movement and other actions. Youâll be able to position your party beforehand in a small grid, so that you can have the best formation - it only matters to an extent, since enemies will be quick to flank and outmaneuver you if given the chance. Death is common and losing fights is easy - most foes will be at your same power level when met and in many cases superior in both numbers and skill. They can literally do everything you can, if not more. Smart usage of precious, finite consumables, careful build planning and strenuous optimization of loadouts are fundamental to just have -some- chances of winning; and youâll get your ass kicked half the time anyway. Oh and donât use pistols, or shotguns, or blunt weapons, because rifles, blade weapons and SMGs are just straight upgrades - yeah, that sucks, but what can you do? A fairly deep system of weapon-contextual attacks, aimed shots with diverse debuffs, DR ratings and passive perks, cover calculations and opportunity attacks comes into play at every move. It takes a while to get used to it, and frankly in some cases, it doesnât make a lot of sense. It works, but I always felt there are hidden mechanics at play that I havenât the slightest idea about. Numbers are everything - the crappiest thugs CAN overwhelm the most elite units if they outnumber you 5 to 1. Thatâs why solo runs are complete ass. Bosses, especially optional ones, are inhumane ordeals that will often test the limits of your sanity and of your alcohol tolerance. If you donât drink yet, youâll start when a 15-meter worm wipes your party for the 35th time in a row, trust me. Character Progression & Skill Checks Your character wonât get stat points by normal means; each level youâll get one perk to specialize your build further - also, no skill points; those are gained by actually doing stuff and getting better at it. Youâll become a master lock picker after you lockpick a hundred of them, pay someone to teach you, or find lost technology that does that for free. Same for every other skill. Itâs a solid system that promotes specializations, and almost every check has an option to tell a specific companion to do something, so they become the specialist you want, in due time. Skill checks are almost always repeatable after failure; itâs always âyou canâ or âyou canât (yet)â - rarely there will be things you can screw up and never have a second chance at. Itâs forgiving, almost too much in contrast with the general âpunishingâ design philosophy of these devs, but itâs good for meaningful backtracking, and doesnât detract from the experience.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 01 January 2025 00:30 |
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| SteamSpy data | 19 January 2025 22:51 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:43 |
| Steam reviews | 22 January 2025 14:06 |
Online players
103
Developer
Iron Tower Studio
Publisher
Iron Tower Studio
Release
09 Nov 2023
Platforms