It seems that walking simulators are a thing now. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s the kind of genre that is very divisive amongst gamers. With the inherent lack of core gameplay, these sort of games have to make up for it in two other areas. You have to put together an amazing soundtrack that helps to suck the player into the atmosphere you are trying to present, and you must have an engaging story that makes you want to play the game in a single sitting as reply isn’t a thing with most of these games. Graphics come up close behind, but as you can play with perspectives and imagery, you don’t really have to present some Unreal Engine 4 landscape, as long as things look the part. The problem with Corpse of Discovery is that it only really nails one of those aspects, and because of this the game comes up short.
If you’re a fan of science fiction tales on a grand scale, Corpse of Discovery is going to connect with you in a way many other games simply can’t. It’s not the most original of tales, but it takes elements of some of the best aspects of classic science fictions films to great effect. It’s one part 2001 A Space Odyssey and another part MOON; two films that I simply adore beyond words. You play a Major that is part of the Corps of Discovery (see what they did there) and has been sent on a mission to explore a far away planet. The game opens with a full motion video press conference that really does a great job of not only setting up what’s going on, but grabs your attention as it’s not something you are used to seeing in 2015.
You are alone on this world and your return shuttle-pod is broken beyond repair. Not to worry as the Corps of Discovery has left you an A.V.A. unit to assist you in your assignment on the planet, and this A.V.A. lets you know not to worry as upon completion of the mission a rescue shuttle will be waiting from the nearby outpost. As this is a walking simulator, you can;t really do anything but explore your environment with the occasional interaction prompt. You mini planet-side outpost offers up a few rooms, but the bulk of the action will be outside on the planet(s). The mission themselves are incredibly easy with you just making your way to the next navigation point and placing/activating something, but the story is were the real focus as this is a walking simulator.
The game itself is broken up into a number of planets, all of which are the same planet -or at least I think they are. I know how crazy that sounds, but going into the story any deeper is going to ruin your experience. Just understand that you’ll be trying to piece together just what the hell is going on in this almost groundhog day like experience. Your mission will quickly turn from one of discovery into one of getting back home to your family. Just based on the story I would highly recommend Corpse of Discovery, but outside this really cool story the game often comes up short. Since you are exploring these alien worlds, you are going to need something that is visually stunning to give you a good reason, aside from story progression, to explore.
Corpse of Discovery falls flat here as the game’s engine isn’t very pretty. Sure, in the screenshots things look great, with and almost point-and-click look, but in action it looks post PS2, but still pre PS3 in terms of graphics. This keeps you on task and makes any soft of exploration in these huge open worlds more of a chore. Not only that, but there really isn’t any reason to explore aside from a handful of mysterious video recordings. Things start of fine, but the later worlds/levels fall victim to the demand of the game. Draw distance issues abound and entire chicks of the world will just pop in out of nowhere. There was more than one occasion where a nav marker looks to be floating out in the middle of nowhere only for half the world to just pop in to existence. Not only that, but I faced some slowdown at weird point during the game as well.
Sound is another issue here, and while it isn’t terrible, it does very little to draw you into each area. Alien worlds don’t feel all that unique and the soundtrack is pretty forgettable. Where it does come through is with the voice overs the game employs. Your A.V.A. unit is your constant companion and will be talking almost non-stop, giving you mission advice or driving you insane with the corporate bullshit that HQ is feeding through it. There are also a number of holo-messages from your family, as well as some really interesting video messages scattered around the world. The audio works well, but if the game implemented a stronger soundtrack and environmental foley work, the game would have really benefited.
In the end Corpse of Discovery really wins out thanks to it’s really interesting story about family, exploration, and our own very existence, but the shortcomings from other aspects of the game keep it from being really great. While I do praise the story for its almost Twilight Zone style storytelling, it does get a little too deep for its own good right at the very end. The weirder the story gets toward the end of the game, the more that graphical limitations really hurt it. It’s still a lot of fun, but I’m not the biggest fan of how the developers handled the games ending progression. Corpse of Discovery is a slow burn sort of game, but if you are looking for an interesting story and can get past some flaws, Corps of Discovery is a unique science fiction experience.
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