Kosmokrats is a clever ship building puzzle game using space physics and momentum to assemble various spaceships by rotating them and connecting the coloured connectors in the right spots and in the right shape to assemble your fleet of spacecraft as you explore deeper into the universe.
Of course it isn’t quite as simple as that as you play a potato peeler who’s been promoted to be in charge of this spacecraft assembly drone, and while you have tractor beams and the ability to push the pieces around you have to be careful not to damage components on the craft or piece them together incorrectly and even to watch out for your fellow spacemen who are performing their own duties who become far too easy to squish as they get in the way maintaining the parts you’ve broken while you’re trying to meet the time constraints in order to earn the money to afford the precious potatoes you need to eat in order to survive.
The really clever part of the game comes from the branching pathways and narratives which unveil as you make decisions whether knowingly or unknowingly which influence the storyline which gets told as you play through the game, whether you actually choose certain paths or the decision is made through intelligence that gets uncovered if you complete a task or fail it there are a number of times the story will branch off into increasingly varied stories, and this adds to the number of playthroughs you get out of the game and the ammount of gameplay on offer.
While the majority of the gameplay revolves around assembling these ships in ever more difficult situations with more hazards and problems to deal with in each of those levels there is a back end management system which you have to smartly invest your money in eating at the right times to not run out of potato resources driving everyone to canibalism, and ensuring you have enough crew left to perform the tasks etc.
Although there will be situations where the situations look dire the game does have clever ways of increasing your potato and crew at just the right situations often told through clever twists of the narrative you will still have a gameplay element involved in this as the ship assembly game is twisted to one where you have to attach as many potato or crew capsules to the ship as you can within a limited timeframe to boost your supplies, all the while keeping the frantic limited time aspect throughout the levels.
At regular intervals you will have a shape matching minigame which also provides a number of decision buffs which can influence the gameplay for example having extra coloured connectors for a number of rounds, which although if you’re assembling correctly shouldn’t be an issue it can lead to more creative shortcuts for completing the task quickly with minimal damage and crew loss but perhaps not the prettiest looking spaceship in the fleet.
The gameplay is fun and challenging and you shouldn’t be afraid to fail as often this will create different narratives in the storyline, and they’ve done a great job of including many space movie easter eggs throughout the branching path’s and tying them all together in it’s own fun and creative storyline.
I enjoyed the puzzle element and the physics felt good, and the time constraints were a good challenge and if you’re into physics puzzles I would recommend this game to you.
Get kosmokrats for yourself on steam now at Kosmokrats on Steam (steampowered.com)
