You're probably talking about Star Trek, but I can confirm. Me and a few friends got this (some of which with VR) and it feels like a fantastic premise, but it's very linear and it has very little content. It feels more like a demo than a full game.
Desperate for more in this genre we ended up playing a bunch of Pulsar: Lost Colony. It has a lot more depth (but can be a bit rough around the edges).
I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games. Unless you are playing against other people, you are never really somewhere and I think that shatters the illusion. The same way that "holding" a gun in VR is really impressive, but the headset can't mimic the wind in your face or cool spray of the sea - these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley.
You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think a game can capture that Vibe (it's a cheap term but I genuinely think it fits).
> I think it's a fundamental limitation of video games.
I don't think so. Game design is a whole art form in itself. Some games suck at it and some games succeed. I haven't played with the linked game, but played with Artemis. That one sucked. The good part of it was being nerdy and role-playing out a fantasy with friends. The bad part was that after the first "battle" engagement we quickly learned that the enemy is very predictable and the game won't provide any challenges to us. Basically yelling "Aye captain, proton torpedo loaded" was fun, rolling up to the next sprite and demolishing it within seconds no matter what "tactic" we employ was not fun. Basically our mistakes didn't matter, and we just had to shoot down everyone who was moving about. There were no commercial traders, everyone comms contacted immediately opened fire on us. Furthermore there was nothing we were protecting other than our own skin. The game forced us to be amnesic murderhobos going nowhere, doing nothing of value.
> You and your friends in charge of a spaceship would probably feel like commanding a PBR in Vietnam
I never commanded a PBR in Vietnam, but I don't think you did either. Probably you have a feeling of what you think it means, maybe action? Daring charges? High speed chases? Maybe inspired by the plot of Apocalypse Now?
In reality it was probably 95% boredom, batting mosquitos and flies away, trying to stay hydrated, and maintaining the bilge pump while doing routine boring work. Punctuated with 5% "damn, we are dead because we just got ambushed" or "damn they are dead because we got the jump on them".
A realistic PBR simulator would suck. One written to follow the feeling or vibe you were thinking when you wrote that sentence? Now that would rock!
Making a bridge simulator is really hard. You are not just balancing one experience but a different one for each crew member. In a real ship if engineering is bored out of their mind 99% of the time that's not a bad thing, in a game that means you just ruined the experience to one of the players. You have to keep all of your players busy, and occupied with meaningful choices, while not pushing them accidentally into task saturation. If you want to make it fun you have to treat each station as a separate game interacting with the others. Which is naturally harder than just making a single game.
> In a real ship if engineering is bored out of their mind 99% of the time that's not a bad thing, in a game that means you just ruined the experience to one of the players.
Sea of Thieves solves that pretty cleverly, by having fewer players than roles but letting people switch roles as required. There's no point having anyone man the cannons while you're not in combat.
The feeling I was trying to capture was really a notion of "this is my seat" rather than a sense of action. I had long periods of boredom in mind, when I wrote that, and I don't think the game can capture it. I picked a PBR because it came to mind, but really even a large RV would work, if you think about it.
Maybe it can if you have a different brain to mine, that's entirely possible, but I just don't think it can work. I hit a point where the only thing I want is more detail, so you need a holodeck in effect.
these issues, I think, don't arise with 2D games because there are too far away from the uncanny valley
Yeah. This is why I can spend hundreds of hours with a game like FTL: Faster Than Light. Its 2D and very simple pixel art give way to fantastic gameplay rife with difficult decisions and lasting consequences! It would be really cool to have the gameplay of FTL with immersive, high-end VR but I think such a game would never be made due to the risks of alienating the audience.
FTL is just purely good game design, but with simplified UI model. If they can integrate with 3D or VR, the atmosphere, and multiplayer we might have a playable bridge simulator.
I’d imagine Bridge simulation is pretty close to actual naval vessel operations. If something like this doesn’t exist then someone should make a naval vessel simulator and adapt it.
Desperate for more in this genre we ended up playing a bunch of Pulsar: Lost Colony. It has a lot more depth (but can be a bit rough around the edges).