Redshirt

 PC
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 35
  3. Negative: 15 out of 35

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  1. Izitmee
    Nov 24, 2013
    4
    Lots of reviews talk about Redshirt as an ironic critique on Facebook (given that it all plays through its equivalent Spacebook), but the game eventually pushes its imitation too far, so much that it instead becomes more like a homage to Facebook. Which is very boring and makes you think that, if the game had a point, it completely missed it.
    So, in the end, you just play through a UI    Lots of reviews talk about Redshirt as an ironic critique on Facebook (given that it all plays through its equivalent Spacebook), but the game eventually pushes its imitation too far, so much that it instead becomes more like a homage to Facebook. Which is very boring and makes you think that, if the game had a point, it completely missed it.
    So, in the end, you just play through a UI (and while I love UIs and complex games, this one is pretty clunky, considering the importance it has to the gameplay) to achieve some goals which are all carried out via "fake social relations", as in the true FB. Which again, is very boring and rather annoying.
    Kudos to the developer, considering this is her first game and took her two years. But honestly I couldn't give it more than a 4.    … Expand
  2. ChoicestGames
    Feb 23, 2014
    6
    Redshirt has a humourous premise and it receives bonus points if you're a sci-fi/Star Trek fan, however the game doesn't really have any lasting appeal after you get over its primary goal in belittling Facebook. You might start to question why you're wasting your time playing a Facebook simulator for $20 when religiously using the real thing is available to you for free (okay, at leastRedshirt has a humourous premise and it receives bonus points if you're a sci-fi/Star Trek fan, however the game doesn't really have any lasting appeal after you get over its primary goal in belittling Facebook. You might start to question why you're wasting your time playing a Facebook simulator for $20 when religiously using the real thing is available to you for free (okay, at least Redshirt probably won't provide your information to US intelligence agencies). If more time was invested in making some of the characters stand out or more believable, the game would've then at least been worth the $20 asking price.… Expand
  3. ThunderHawk
    Nov 15, 2013
    6
    The game's premise is quite good. That's for starters. The story arch is quite good.
    The game revolves around the life story of a red-shirt character, who manages his life through an application named Spacebook. Through this application, we could find new careers, find friends, get friends into events, get latest news, read about our friends, etc.
    The good part : - Funny/witty    The game's premise is quite good. That's for starters. The story arch is quite good.
    The game revolves around the life story of a red-shirt character, who manages his life through an application named Spacebook. Through this application, we could find new careers, find friends, get friends into events, get latest news, read about our friends, etc.

    The good part :
    - Funny/witty comments/situations. This is a great, fun, and funny game. For example, we could apply job as Automatic Door Greaser, whose job is to prevent the automatic door squeaking when the commander goes around the ship. Or be someone who prevents expletive language from being translated. Or someone whose jobs is to hand the commander the pen.
    - Game has quite a lot of wide selection of skills, which you can't take all of them. You must choose, whether you want to be specialized in Engineering or in Medical, for example.
    - The game has a story. Not just "The Sims" title, there are goals you must accomplish within a set amount of time.

    Bad things :
    - Away missions is way to random. Your friends and you can be killed quite easily, without a modifier or something to prevent that.
    - The game goes boring after a few hours. You go to a job, then go to an activity, rinse and repeat. You have to change your activities every day, but the overall thing is the same.

    In conclusion Nice game, but I don't want to play it very much, but pretty solid game.    … Expand
  4. GamingHeretic
    Nov 20, 2013
    4
    Redshirt promises a nostalgic feel by way of memes, inside jokes, and a familiar feel that Sci-fi fans will enjoy. The player begins their journey as a low level technician set on working their up through the bureaucracy. They do this through ‘spacebook’. A play on the well known ‘facebook’, Players make friends, do posts, schedule events, work, purchase things, and even haveRedshirt promises a nostalgic feel by way of memes, inside jokes, and a familiar feel that Sci-fi fans will enjoy. The player begins their journey as a low level technician set on working their up through the bureaucracy. They do this through ‘spacebook’. A play on the well known ‘facebook’, Players make friends, do posts, schedule events, work, purchase things, and even have relationships.

    What the game does well is offer a theme that is very enticing. You get to be a ‘redshirt’ like you see on Startrek: The Original series. There are a lot of inside jokes, and the animations are unique and interesting. It also has a good ‘facebook’ feel that fans of Facebook will certainly enjoy.
    Unfortunately, the game relies to heavily on its theme and nostalgia. The jokes eventually begin to fall short and the game is forced to rely on its own merits. Spacebook is entirely to much like facebook and begins to stale quickly.

    Aspirations, Activities, S.H.O.P, Away missions, and work days are all additions but ultimately have the same feel. Point and Click games require you to be fully engaged through out and relying on the memes alone is not enough.

    The friendships, relationships, and enemies you make can be engaging but becomes stale after a while. There also appears to be an element of randomness to the likes of the others that makes the game frustrating.

    This game is for those who are deep into the Star Trek Mythos and enjoy Facebook. The game is good for a lark, but at 19.99 I would suggest going with Democracy 3 or one of the other games if you wanted to purchase something from Positech.

    Pros:

    - Startrek Jokes and Memes Are funny, inside jokes
    - Initially engaging and pulls the player in.
    - Easy to understand, initially play.

    Cons:

    - Once Nostalgia wears off, the game can become tedious.
    - Far to ‘facebook’ like, advancement is unfulfilling.
    - Restarts feel the same, low replayability.    … Expand
  5. wittgenstein
    Nov 17, 2013
    2
    I was very excited with this one. Wow, a life manager with a science fiction theme? A social network in a space station? Great idea!

    But Very Disappointing. A good looking game that results in a poor game play experience. Lots of things on the screen that makes you think "wow, this will be amazing, micromanagement and that kind of cool stuff". But no. All those buttons and panels you    I was very excited with this one. Wow, a life manager with a science fiction theme? A social network in a space station? Great idea!

    But Very Disappointing. A good looking game that results in a poor game play experience. Lots of things on the screen that makes you think "wow, this will be amazing, micromanagement and that kind of cool stuff". But no. All those buttons and panels you can see in the screen shots are not really for play, just to look better. There are a very little few to do while "playing". Is the game itself who plays, not you. It shows a lot of info, menus and "star trek computer looking" window screens but you really don't have any option. Just keep pushing the "next" button.

    Money wasted.    … Expand
  6. sicanshu
    Nov 22, 2013
    7
    So, in the interest of intellectual honesty, I should admit that I mostly bought this game so I could write a deliciously nasty review of it, observing that "the only thing worse than real social media is fake social media," and so on. So I cracked a beer to get the snark flowing, turned on NPR in the background (to make me feel cleverer than I am), and began to play. When I looked up,So, in the interest of intellectual honesty, I should admit that I mostly bought this game so I could write a deliciously nasty review of it, observing that "the only thing worse than real social media is fake social media," and so on. So I cracked a beer to get the snark flowing, turned on NPR in the background (to make me feel cleverer than I am), and began to play. When I looked up, I noticed that four hours of my life (and a six pack) had mysteriously disappeared. With some shock, I realized that I was, despite my own best efforts, having fun. It pisses me off to admit it, but Redshirt really isn't half bad.

    The Good
    The humor is substantially more hit than miss (although admittedly I'm pretty easily amused). If you've got even a slightly geeky bone in your body, you'll find yourself, well, probably not actually laughing out loud, but at least occasionally going "heh."

    The game's layout is simple and intuitive (if you can facebook, you can spacebook), but there's a startling amount of depth, particularly when it comes to the Machiavellian manipulation of your hapless "friends." For example, I've systematically dumped every significant other I've had when the opportunity to date a hiring manager for a better career has come up. I am currently in a relationship with what appears to be a genderless black cube (we've all been there, amirite?). But it hired me for a job I was woefully under-qualified for, in exchange for what I can only assume are some appallingly grotesque sexual favors.

    The Bad
    Periodically, as the title suggests, you and your coworkers will be randomly assigned to an "away" mission, landing on some alien planet which invariably turns out to be occupied by hostile whatevers, which then proceed to kill most of your crew (many of whom you may have invested time in befriending and/or seducing). This wouldn't bug me so much, but you have absolutely no control whatsoever over whether or not this happens. I mean, would it have killed the developers to at least put in some mini-game, maybe allowing you to shoot at the damn things, or choose which colleague gets eaten first? I mean, come on, at least give us a decent death animation. Just hearing a zap and watching your buddy disappear is totally unsatisfying.

    The Ugly
    Let's face it, this game is not going to win any beauty contests. Graphically it's about as bare-bones as you can get. But come on, it's not like you're trying to have sex with it.    … Expand
  7. Corwin86
    Dec 9, 2013
    6
    Honestly, I do not think this a bad game.

    I bought it when it was still in Beta, and it was already pretty fun.

    At the end, I think the main problem is the price... for 8-10 this is a good game, not for 20.

    Moreover, I'm not very sure that the "humorous" formula pays in the long run...
    I think that a "serious" game would had more market.
  8. JoeyK
    Dec 17, 2015
    1
    It's not so much a Sci-Fi parody as it is a Facebook parody. But I question the intelligence of anyone who thinks it's good satire. You're basically forced to act like an incredibly shallow high schooler, quantifying their relationship statuses with likes and interactions, and judging all value solely on that. And there's nothing else. There's no good humor, just a few references. The UIIt's not so much a Sci-Fi parody as it is a Facebook parody. But I question the intelligence of anyone who thinks it's good satire. You're basically forced to act like an incredibly shallow high schooler, quantifying their relationship statuses with likes and interactions, and judging all value solely on that. And there's nothing else. There's no good humor, just a few references. The UI is a mess, the art looks terrible. Your capacity to "advance" or progress in any way is entirely tied to the tedious and unpleasant social networking core game. The games biggest sin is being entirely about relationships, but giving you absolutely zero reason to care about any of the "characters," or more accurately, randomly generated interchangeable avatars. Either a sci-fi parody about playing a doomed redshirt, or an incisive social networking satire, are potentially interesting concepts for a game, but Redshirt fails miserably at achieving either.… Expand
  9. ymeynot45
    Nov 25, 2014
    4
    The game: is addictive, long, funny & looks great. HOWEVER, it is tedious. The game requires that you work up skills, cultivate relationships and manage resources which are all good, but like a large Civilization game you spend the last third of the game just trying to get to the end turn button as only 1 or 2 actions actually matter during the turn. And just like Civilization, you will beThe game: is addictive, long, funny & looks great. HOWEVER, it is tedious. The game requires that you work up skills, cultivate relationships and manage resources which are all good, but like a large Civilization game you spend the last third of the game just trying to get to the end turn button as only 1 or 2 actions actually matter during the turn. And just like Civilization, you will be up and hour later than you want with the "one more turn" attitude.

    In addition the game has several bugs.
    You can on occasion open too many window in which you can't click an OK button because it is covered by another window & you can't close the window because the game is focused only on the OK button. Any time you have to crash the game to move on ward is a tragic sin.

    Other more common bugs:
    Status bars which show a high % when your actual # is low.
    Stats taking a huge dive for no apparent reason.
    On game loading your stats will be all over the place. It takes a turn to reorder.

    Bad game design elements:
    Away missions, they only take your health stat into consideration when determining success.
    You have 2 dozen other skills and none of them matter.
    Skills in general, in the end it only 5 of the skills matter and even fewer if you just romance your way up the ladder.
    Space Book annoyances, the longer you play the more annoying it gets. People send you messages, if you don't respond they get mad and it hurts your reputation with them (which is fair). But sometimes it also damages your happiness with no rhyme or reason to be understood. It doesn't matter if you end your friendship with them, they will hurt you again, and again with the same message. It needs to be refined.
    I'm a good strategist, but i was able to beat the game on the first try with more than 50 turns left.

    THE MOST DAMMING EVIDENCE of this games flaws, it has been over a year and no one has bothered to make a wiki or walk through for the game. No one cares enough.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Riot Pixels
    Mar 2, 2014
    65
    Redshirt paints an intriguing and, unfortunately, quite plausible version of humanity’s future. Too bad that this simulation lives by itself and doesn’t really need you to play it.
    Read full review
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Feb 3, 2014
    50
    Despite the quirky aesthetic and presentation, Redshirt is ultimately as disposable as the poor, easily-killed people it's named after. [Feb 2014, p.84]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 23, 2014
    60
    The way this relationships-on-a-space-station simulator reflects our real life social networking is way cool. Its price, not so much. [Issue#238]
See all critic reviews »