Every so often, there is a space game that absolutely overtakes the lives of players. A few years back, that title was FTL: Faster Than Light. Soon enough, the exploration-focused sci-fi experience likely to take hold is The Long Journey Home. This epic multi-galactic journey begins when humanity attempts their first jump drive test in space. It succeeds - propelling the spaceship to the furthest reaches of space. There’s just one little issue. The ship itself isn’t doing so well after the jump and there’s no simple way back home. Players must do their best to navigate with their meager crew and make it back to Earth in one piece. This journey home will be quite long indeed.

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The galaxy is absolutely massive and free to explore. Of course, your main goal is to make it back to Earth, but it’s not like that is the only thing to do. Locations themselves are procedurally generated, but don’t expect this to be some sort of No Man’s Sky ripoff. Planets themselves are presented in a 2D perspective and serve as a time when you want to head out and collect resources for yourself. However, keep an eye out where you land. Many planets are already inhabited and residents are often angered by your stealing of their resources. Yep, space is chock full of aliens to deal with.

There are a multitude of alien species out there. Depending on how you interact with them, they may end up loving or hating you in the end. With that said, it’s actually not super easy to game these interactions in your favor. The Long Journey Home features a strong focus on conversations with aliens. Each interaction allows the player to speak, ask, insult, and all manner of other options. Aliens each prefer their own types of conversations. For example, some may enjoy insults and find it fun while others find it extremely insulting. In some instances, having aliens hating you is a huge issue. If the angered alien race is guarding a warp gate then you may not be able to actually use it for travel.

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Players will also deal with random events on their travels. Some may allow them to loot destroyed ships, potentially save other aliens, and a whole lot more. This, along with procedurally generated planets, allow for a tremendous deal of replayability. Despite a focus on conversation, you’ll also need to go into battle on occasion. These fights look downright tough as each alien ship features its own attack type and weaknesses. Somehow, the elements of exploration, conversation and fights all meld together in an exciting way.

The Long Journey Home appears to put an equal focus on every aspect of gameplay. As such, each portion appears tremendously fun to play. As of right now, Daedalic plans to launch The Long Journey Home later this year on PC. Both Xbox One and PS4 owners will also get their shot at returning back to Earth in the first half of 2017.