Unlike my recent review of the early EA game Starflight, I can't really
draw even a faint connection between this game and Traveller. However, I
know that there are people on this list that can get into this kind of
game, so I figured I'd post a "review" of sorts to draw attention to it.

For $20 or less, you can find it for Steam on Windows, or in the Apple
Store for iPads and iPhones, and the Google Play Store for Android tablets
and phones. Once installed, it doesn't require a live internet connection
for play; there are no in-app purchases. Note that at least on Google Play,
you download it for free, and then purchase an unlock for the full game
(this does require an on-line connection); what you get in the freebie is
just enough of the game to capture the flavor of play. (I suppose that
should be considered an "in-app purchase", but...)

For those of you who were using computers "back when" when I was, this is,
in many ways, a descendant of the old Infocom-style text adventures: You
are dropped into the game, generally with little information (here, the
Play Store description gives you an overview of your mission, but also
tells you that that's not all that's going on), and you have to explore the
world and interact with people and things to learn more about the world and
solve its puzzles. As you do, you gain additional clues to what is
ultimately going on, eventually solving the game.

In this game, talking to the people (and reading signs or documents) you
encounter is critical - but you don't understand any of them to start with.
Speech is represented by comic-book speech bubbles, with strange glyphs in
them; your character compiles them into a notebook, you assign tentative
meanings to them based on interactions, and if you can properly associate a
glyph with an illustration of its meaning, you'll get the "official"
meaning of the glyph, and when it's used subsequently, you can click on it
and get the translation. Note that a meaning you assign may be "correct",
but not the "official" meaning; when that happens, your tentative
translations will give you the gist of what you're reading, but the
translation won't necessarily be grammatical. (Speaking of grammar, you'll
also have to learn the grammar of the languages you encounter - and again,
they're not all the same.) For those of you who have an interest in
linguistics, all of the languages you encounter are best classed as
"logographic" or "ideographic" - each glyph is intended to convey an idea,
rather than a specific word (for example, a glyph that you might gloss as
"music" might also be used for "song", "chant", and so on), but the glyph
doesn't necessarily have a visual association with its meaning (that is,
there isn't any suggestion of pictographic elements). You will encounter no
less than five cultures, each with its own language, and with puzzles
relevant to the culture to solve. Sometimes you will need to solve one
puzzle to acquire an item to solve a different puzzle (just like in the old
Infocoms).

Graphics strike a good balance between simplicity and interest; they are
neither overly detailed nor boringly plain. Each culture has characteristic
colors and styles to differentiate them.

It will take you upwards of eight hours of actual playing time to
completely solve the game - it's definitely not trivial. It is absorbing,
though, and I recommend frequent breaks, just to make sure you're staying
as aware of your REAL environment as you should be.

®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Mongoose Publishing, 1977-2025. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com

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