Classic RPG mechanics with a modern coat of paint.
InSomnia
Developer: Studio Mono
Platform: PC
After hitting it’s modest Kickstarter goal of of $70,000, Insomnia has released a free prologue chapter to whet the appetites of those hungry for a taste. Harkening back to traditional RPG mechanics, veterans of World of Warcraft, Fallout and Skyrim will feel instantly comfortable with the tools at your disposal; transplanted, of course, into a vibrant yet incredibly morose steampunk future.
Where Insomnia strike out against it’s RPG brethren is its narrative development. The game intends to release content in “seasons,” allowing players to experience chapters as they are released. As I have only had access to the prologue I cannot speak to that aspect of the game. What I can say is that Insomnia is a ripe environment for an untold number of stories to take place.
“The Ark” is a gargantuan, half-abandoned space station drifting through space. On which is a wide array of characters, castes and organisations in conflict. The lore is already somewhat opaque, simply reading the loading screen’s flavour text can be enough to utterly confuse the player. Although, this depth is charming and peaked my curiosity and interest in learning about the world.
Character development and skills grow organically as you use them. A nice touch when you consider the narrative development the developers are aiming for. Combat is relatively uninteresting however. Firing your gun or swinging your sword feels similar to the looseness of an MMORPG, with very little weight or impact.
Developed in the Unreal Engine, the visuals are crisp and detailed. The space station is filled with high fidelity characters and items. The visual design is consistent and adds another level of authenticity to “The Ark” and its inhabitants.
Insomnia is still very much in development and so, of course, we can expect many changes between this prologue chapter and the final product. However, there were a number of niggling issues that definitely need to be attended to before the full release.
First of all, performance is atrocious. Running on a mid-range PC, Insomnia chugged often and hard; load times to simply access the main menu were often over a minute; and I experienced too many bugs in the short amount of playtime.
Some gameplay tweaks are also necessary. Inventory management is a mess of haphazard crafting items and having to change from your hacking tool to your repair tool in your inventory after every enemy you dispatch is time consuming and unnecessary.
All of my complaints aside however, there is great potential in the setting, narrative possibility and character customization. I only hope that Insomnia can overcome the prevalent issues and successfully pull off such an ambitious release. With this preview content available to everyone free of charge, I highly recommend diving into the world and getting a taste of it for yourself.
