|| REVIEW || Kosmokrats (PC)
Developed By : Pixel Delusion Published By : Modern Wolf
Category : Indie, Puzzle, Arcade
Release Date : November 5th, 2020
Space exploration is a topic that's cropped up in video games in numerous scenarios. Some go the sci-fi route and imagine a vast universe with many different habitable galaxies and alien races, some focus on letting you explore space yourself, and just about everything in between. Some games take a serious approach, while others take a more comedic one, and it's comfortably in the latter where this game nestles itself.
Kosmokrats takes you back to the 1960's. As a part of the Space Force, you decide to take a break from slicing up potatoes and wander into the drone pilot's quarters. A screen beckons you over, explaining that in an emergency, they need you to operate the drone until the real pilot shows up. After running you through a rigorous one-minute training course, you're deemed fit for duty and given control over the actual drone in space. 
You and your people have grown bored of Earth, and are now looking to the stars and beyond for a "New Earth". Your job...well it was working the kitchen. Now, you're in charge of putting together the ships and spacestation that will be the home and research hub of your people moving forward.
Each level tasks you with a new job to complete, with all the jobs revolved around helping build ships for your space fleet, or pieces of equipment that will ideally assist you on your journey. All of the projects will have a specific way they can connect together, and that's where you and your drone come in.
The pieces can be moved in one of two ways, pushed or pulled. Pushing is the easier approach, as all it takes is just getting your drone up against it driving it in the direction you want. Meanwhile, pulling will be tougher to do in the sense of there are other things to worry about. The big concern will be the power level of your ship, since your ability to pull is reliant on using the magnet system to connect to a piece if you're close enough.
Now, how will you know which way to put the project together? Each individual piece has a number of colored connectors on them. Sometimes it's just a single one, some can have multiple. Naturally, you'll have to lock them together by matching the colors with each other, but sometimes that won't be enough to figure out the proper assembly. The ship/project pieces are usually painted as well, so this combined with the connector colors will be all the tools at your disposal for a successful project.
One of the great things about Kosmokrats is there's not really a failure/game over scenario, or at least not in the sense of one that would end your journey immediately. There are a great many ways you can fail your assignments. You'll have a time limit before all the project pieces get sucked into the planet's orbit you're working over, or if two pieces get connected that weren't supposed to you won't have any way of separating them.
So while you can fail on a job, you can't fail at the game. What happens is the story itself simply shapes itself around the things you do or don't do. At one point you'll be told to rescue someone's ship with the added option of rescuing a second person. Whether or not you do opens up a fork in the story. Same thing goes for a bit later on when you have to construct a beacon to try and find the "New Earth". The story can go in different directions if your assembly is successful or not.
Outside of missions you'll get to enjoy some smaller things to occupy your time, and some very blatant choices that will also help shape the story. The fleet splits up to either get ready and prepare the beacon or stay behind near Mars to harvest some more potatoes and your choice will have dire consequences on your food supply. You might be asked to help certain crew mates hide, there's a lot of options that will depend on the choices you've made for previous options.
Your workspace holds a number of options for exploring the full extent of what Kosmokrats has to offer. There's a case on the wall to display various medals you've earned throughout the game, which tie into the game's achievements. You'll also earn some currency along the way that you can use to buy food for yourself in case ship rations run out, wallpaper to decorate your workspace, posters, and even computer games to play on your R-Box console which include a version of Tanks to play.
To be fully honest, I wasn't really prepared for everything this game was going to have when I got into it. I simply expected a series of puzzles to complete in space by pushing things around with a drone, and a throw-away narrative. Instead, the story is incredibly enjoyable and features a good mixture of serious moments where you'll question the character of different...well, the characters. And other moments of pure humor, like when you accidentally make your first cosmonaut pancake in space.
If you're looking for a game that is equal parts challenging as it is fun, look no further because this title will surely find a happy place in your library. It's a very nice touch that the story can't end or fail abruptly, so you will always have an urge to keep pushing on and fix whatever mistakes you might have made.
Game Rating : 9.5 / 10
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
A code for the game was graciously provided
to the site for the purpose of a review
