The Only Way Out of the Nightmare is Through

In Among the Sleep, you play as a toddler who receives a teddy bear for his birthday. The bear comes to life, at least when no one else is around. Which means you aren't alone when you wake up that night and your crib is tipped over. Making your way downstairs through a dark house to your mother's room, you find she's missing.

From there, the game sends you to a peculiar cabin where you feed items that represent memories of your mother into a machine to open a door that takes you to different, nightmarish realms. The goal is always to find another memory and get closer to finding your mother. Sometimes it's a matter of finding your way where you need to go. Others it's about finding something you need to proceed. Maybe there's a sealed door and you have to find the item that acts as the key. Or you have to manipulate the environment to reach a higher path. Find some stuff to put on one end of a seesaw to raise the other end. Very late in the game, like, final level late, it adds the ability to throw stuff so you can knock over jars that hold things you need.

As you move through the game, there are towering, shadowy beings that will appear from time to time. Sometimes you just hear an inarticulate bellow, but on other occasions, you can see them roaming about. One part of a level, you're in some sort of library in a swamp. (In a nice touch, the words on the spines of the books are unintelligible because the kid can't read yet.) The shadow is roaming the aisles, and so you have to pick your spots, ducking from beneath one bookcase to the next without being spotted. (The toddler is significantly faster when he crawls than toddles.)

Later, you're moving through twisted hallways filled with bottles. When you knock one down, and despite my best efforts, I did knock some down, the shadow will emerge, raging. You have to get to one of the cubbyholes or hiding spots that are too small for the shadow to enter. Sometimes, the presence of the shadow frightens the kid badly enough his vision starts to blur and shake. You can press a button to hug Teddy, but while that casts a glow on your surroundings, I'm not sure it does much to alleviate the fear. But I'm also not sure the fear does much to inhibit your movements, though I usually tried to stay hidden and still when those moments happened.

It's pretty clear, even before the search for mama begins, there's something going on here. Your house is full of boxes, there are scribblings of the kids you find as you progress, and it's always just the kid and his mom. Eventually, there are half-photographs of a guy. Ominous! For a while, I thought Teddy was going to turn out to be some evil thing, considering he kept encouraging me to chuck these memories into the machine. It turns out to be more mundane, and more disturbing. Yeah, the end of the game is a real kick in the head I did not see coming. And then it's over, and I was left sitting there thinking, 'Did that just happen? Is that it?' Very abrupt.

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Alex had us watch Thunderbolts* as a precursor to this, due to the post-credits scene. I don't really think that was necessary, but it wasn't like T'bolts was a slog to watch, so why not? As for this, set in its own universe (and in the '60s) four years after the FF received their powers, they've become beloved heroes and celebrities. Now Sue (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed (Pedro Pascal) are expecting their first kid! Which is when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to tell Earth, Galactus will be coming to eat their planet soon.

So, I like the visual aesthetic of the movie, even if the '60s aren't an era I have some massive fondness for. It looks different, distinctive, from all the other Marvel stuff, and that's nice. Let the creative talent's styles and influences show through. (Also, I suspect Reed likes to write things out on a chalkboard anyway, but being in an era before ubiquitous computers means it's not that strange he's doing a lot of calculations by hand.) 

I like they dispensed with the origin, trusting us to understand enough from the TV show intro. I like that the team went into space to try and stop Galactus before he got close, and the whole faster-than-light chase, escape around the neutron star, sequence. It felt right for the Fantastic Four, not winning by overpowering their opponent, but outsmarting them and leveraging their group's individual skills (Ben's piloting, Johnny's adjusting to shooting in a wormhole.)

I was expecting Ben Grimm's voice to be gruffer, but Ebon Moss-Bachrach is also playing a Ben who seems content with his circumstances. He's not wandering rainy streets in a trenchcoat bemoaning his fate, and even tells Reed not to beat himself up about what happened. This version is in a much better headspace than any of the prior film versions, though maybe that's why it feels like he got the least focus. (The rock beard thing was freaky however, and I did not like it.)

A lot of the film is, naturally, focused on Reed and Sue, as new parents of a child that's going to be far more than they thought, and who might be able to save the world, if they're willing to give him up. Reed having to learn to deal with the uncertainty and unknowable parts of raising a tiny human. Sue, probably putting that experience at the UN to good use, keeping the others focused and working to some sort of solution. Don't let Reed get too far into the impossibilities of things, take the time to listen to Johnny when he thinks he's on to something, even if it isn't clear what.

(I sort of like Reed and Sue's big fight isn't because Reed actually suggests giving up Franklin to save the world, but because Sue can tell he's at least run the math on the idea before rejecting it, instead of just categorically concluding, "No way." Reed of course presents it as how his brain works, assessing potential threats and vectors, then trying to devise countermeasures.) 

But Johnny (Joseph Quinn) gets this whole thread about deciphering the Surfer's native language. Instead of just being a shallow attempt to more successfully flirt with the shiny alien, it's ultimately a way to understand her, to reach her, and maybe turn her to their side. Admittedly, turn her with guilt over all the worlds that died because she brought Galactus there, but they were already going far afield from the Surfer switching sides because the nobility or kindness of Earthlings touches their soul, so why not? Given that, it does feel like The Thing doesn't get much time.

Reed's initial solution on how to, if not defeat Galactus, at least escape him, caught me by complete surprise. I'm not sure how he was going to account for the loss of tides when the Moon presumably got left behind, but they were on a tight schedule. Certain corners had to be cut. I also wasn't expecting the film's take on Galactus' ship or how he devoured worlds. It was a little more Darkseid than I would have figured. Maybe that was just the giant, burning maw in the center of the drill. So I don't know if I loved it as visualization for Galactus' process, but it was definitely an effective visual. That whole part where Reed detects the Surfer within the alien world and then boom! Here's a massive ship tunneling out like a worm from an apple. It really depicts the scale at which this threat is operating and how different this is from Mole Man, or Red Ghost and the Super-Apes.

What I Bought 11/26/2025

Back to work after most of a week off. Hooray. At least the snow they were calling for a week ago seems like it's mostly going to miss us. Especially since it's cold enough for it to hang around a while.

Black Cat #4, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The way things are going for her in this book, I suspect she got halfway through the room when a security guard wandered by and remembered he forgot to turn the security system on.

The Cat and Tombstone have a discussion about why she's playing hero, which Felicia describes as a desire to calm things down so she can get back to business, but also because sometimes even a crook would like a pat on the head. Tombstone allows for that, but still has her locked up by Sandman, who somehow found everything she had hidden on her. Then he and Tombstone have a discussion, right next to her cell, about how the fake Spider-Man is shaking them down, but they found where he hides the money.

The vampire Felicia confronted a couple issues ago arrives, looking for recompense for her interference, and Felicia convinces him to get Night Nurse to come see him, so she can escape and get him the money to pay back her debt. She even agrees she'll stand before this Court of Whatever he wants to bring he to at some point, which at least feels glib in a way that's sort of true to the character. The Nurse brings a lockpick set, Felicia escapes (after a particularly unconvincing act by Night Nurse of being overpowered), and runs to the address Tombstone mentioned. Where she finds a bunch of cash, right before a SWAT team finds her.

This is a particularly incompetent depiction of Felicia. She can't hide something where Sandman can't find it? Flint Marko was no genius even before he spent years getting punched by Spider-Man and the Thing. He was on the 10 Most Wanted List, but as an armed gunman type, not some brilliant thief. Tombstone has Sandman take her away, then follows along separately to have a conversation right outside her door, and she thinks nothing of it? It doesn't scream "TRICK!!!!!" in massive letters?

It would be one thing if it was written where she's too angry at Tombstone over past history to think clearly, or if he'd given her the address as part of a deal. Steal the "extortion" money back, and we're square, or I'll rip your face off. That kind of thing. This? This is just Felicia being the most gullible dope in her own book.

Sigh. Wilson needs a big turnaround in this book, or I'm going to have to memory hole it.

Sunday Splash Page #403

"Who's President in 1857?," in Pariah Missouri by Andres Salazar (writer/inker/colorist/letterer), Jose Luis Pescador (penciler)

Set in the late-1850s, in a small town along the Missouri River in northwestern Missouri, Pariah Missouri is a sort of supernatural horror-mystery. There are lots of things going on in this bustling river town, new arrivals from all directions. Native American bounty hunters from the west, free black men from New Orleans, a pair of entertainers from the east. Of course, there are people leaving as well. Maybe "disappearing" would be more accurate. The town marshal for one, and a few teen boys vanish as well. 

Nobody is quite what they seem at first glance. The louche gambler, Hiram Buchanan, isn't just in town to throw dice and talk about how his suit came from Chicago. The man from New Orleans, Jean Lafitte, isn't much of a trapper, but he's got some other skills. And the entertainers have far more going for them than a Punch and Judy show and some fancy fireworks.

I think I bought this after Greg Hatcher touted it in one of his columns, probably back when he was still writing on CBR's Comics Should Be Good blog. There are two GNs, though I've only read the first. Can't find the second volume on its own, and I hate to double-buy things, which has held me back from buying the collected edition. Salazar sets the scene and several of the major players early on, then gradually peels back the layers. This also helps to establish why some characters would help Hiram, besides money. Even as one, obvious threat is dealt with, Salazar is setting up something bigger in the background that would threaten the entire town, and goes into its roots.

So there are characters that don't do much in this first story, that I imagine become critical in the second. Like a survivor of a band of Artful Dodgers that has a "peep stone" that guides him to buried things. Or another marshal, friend of the departed town marshal, who decides to stick around until he learns what happened to his friend. With a name like "Kane", I expect his response won't be pleasant.

Salazar tends to have certain colors dominate the pages. Mostly orange or blue, where everything is colored some shade of those. Occasionally, he'll go against the grain for effect, such as a casino that's most in orange and red, except for one lady, whose dress is a deep blue that really pops against the surroundings.

Pescado has a busy line, detailing every ruffle in the cuffs and train of an upper-class lady's dress, or scratching in the deep lines and stubble on the face of another drunken layabout gambler. He gets a lot of variety in the characters, either by clothing or facial hair or build, so you learn to recognize them, even if you aren't sure what their significance is yet. 

Pariah seems large, not in terms of having a lot of people or buildings, but everything seems spread out. The rooms and lobby of a hotel, the streets. The deck of the steamboat seems to stretch forever into the background. Except on rare occasions where there's a crowd, rooms seems empty. Like everything has been built to accommodate growth that hasn't started yet. Or, like the town was built for more people, and it subsequently depopulated, like it's all that remains of some ancient capital whose builders long since abandoned it. I'm sure it's more the former, a town whose founders have big plans, but given the circumstances, the latter doesn't seem out of the question.

Saturday Splash Page #205

"Prison Break," in Rocket Raccoon (vol. 2) #2, by Skottie Young (writer/artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer)

After his mini-series and escape from Halfworld, nobody much used Rocket Raccoon for the next 20+ years. I've heard Peter David had a panel in one of his Captain Marvel runs where Rocket's pelt was a rug on someone's floor, because, well, I assume he thought that was funny. As with all Peter David's humor, your mileage will vary. Then came Annihilation: Conquest, and Rocket is drafted into Star-Lord's Dirty Half-Dozen. He was a regular in the Abnett/Lanning Guardians of the Galaxy. Probably Bendis' version, too, though I didn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

Then Rocket shot to super-stardom, courtesy of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and that, more or less, brings us to this solo book, with Skottie Young as writer and sometimes artist. Young leans into the movie portrayal, with Rocket as a merc who does essentially anything for money. Rescuing kidnapped princesses, stealing stuff, blowing up giant undersea monsters.

I was never totally drawn into this book, in no small part because I found this Rocket Raccoon a scumbag. Part of the initial story is Rocket, under suspicion of murder, also being hunted by an army of angry princesses he wooed and then scammed out of money to pay off his gambling debts before vanishing into the night. In other words, Young's Rocket is one of those people who dates you to steal your bank info. This did not make me inclined to see Rocket escape the princesses' vengeance, or even really to see him beat the rap for a murder he didn't commit.

(He is, eventually, ordered to pay back all the money he swiped or go to prison.)

When I wrote a Favorite Characters post about Rocket Raccoon, I said that if Mantlo's version was an Errol Flynn swashbuckler, Abnett and Lanning's was more in the line of Bruce Willis, the wise-cracking cynic. Young's version is basically Deadpool, a violent lunatic who occasionally does good things while leaving a trail of ruined lives. Innocent of that particular murder, Rocket still killed a lot of other people, though he argues they're all justified. And the killing is largely a joke, as he even has a catchphrase, assuming "BLAM! Murdered you!" qualifies. When he pleads his innocence to Quill, Star-Lord correctly guesses that Rocket is in the middle of murdering someone right that moment. Movie Rocket was no saint, always focused on a payday or at least protecting his and Groot's hides, but this version seems tipped even further towards, if not villainy, close enough to shake hands with it.

This Rocket also doesn't know anything about his past. The last two issues are him breaking the terms of his probation to pursue a lead on the mysterious "Book of Halfworld," and learning that he is possibly not the only one of his kind in the universe, as he apparently tells everyone. The climax is played as a joke. None of the answers the book provides are satisfactory, and Rocket decides it's stupid to worry about where you came from. Life is somewhere ahead of you.

Eh, it's not the worst lesson I've seen in a comic book.

Young's artwork is fantastic, however. Wild and expressive and exaggerated. His aliens, if still broadly bipedal, can look weird or gross as the situation requires. There are motorcycles that transform into rocketpacks, all manners of spacecraft and weird monsters to blow up (though some of that was drawn by Jake Parker, artist in the back half of the series.) Rocket is far more expressive than a raccoon is likely capable of, and that's put to good use. He's alternately charming, pitiable, or homicidal, depending on what he thinks he needs from one moment to the next.

Mignola and the various GotG artists stuck closer to a raccoon's true body type in their renditions. Chubby body with short, stubby limbs, Rocket walking on the pads of his toes. Young goes leaner, with stick-figure arms and legs, what look like regular feet, and a scruffier fur coat. Past Rockets looked like they put some care into their appearance, but this version actually looks like he spends most of his time one step ahead of angry creditors/cops/ex-girlfriends. His eyes are just red-orange orbs, which also lends a feral air.

I don't think this was ever one of my favorites during it's 11-issue run, not with the Duggan Deadpool, Waid and Samnee's Daredevil, G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, or the Soule/Pulido She-Hulk run going concurrently. But it was the ongoing series that got me back up to buying 10 titles from Marvel in Summer 2014, for the first time in 7 years. Of course, that only lasted 3 months before Avengers Undercover ended, and Rocket Raccoon itself was canceled by the following summer during Hickman's Secret Wars. But if I didn't necessarily enjoy reading it, the art was always fun to look at.

It's Time to Get Stuffed

Narrator: ON A CHILLY MORNING, MEAL PREPARATIONS CONTINUE IN CALVIN'S APARTMENT!

Calvin: *stirring a big pot* He's right, it's definitely a "chili" morning.

Clever Adolescent Panda: I don't think your recipe is spicy enough to be chili.

Calvin: *gasps* How dare you insult my father's recipe. *raises the oversize wooden spoon* En garde!

CAP: *backs away* Wait, get a weapon that isn't covered in food! I don't want stains in my fur!

Calvin: *jabs the spoon towards the panda* Renounce your heresy first! 

Rhodez: *chilling on the couch* I like his dad's chili.

Calvin: Thank you. *still jabbing the spoon at the retreating panda*

Cassanee: *staring out the sliding door* Spilling chili on the floor.

*Calvin shrieks and grabs paper towels, in the process dripping more chili on the linoleum. Meanwhile, a knock at the door.*

Rhodez: *answering the door* Yo, Pollock.

Pollock: I heard a scream, don't tell me one of you decided to kill Calvin when I wasn't here to see it?

Rhodez: Nah, they're just arguing about Calvin's chili and it got messy. 

Cassanee: Play-fighting. 

Pollock: Don't be so sure. Disputes about chili can turn violent. *casts a hopeful glance towards the kitchen* Did it? Turn violent? Is that why Calvin's on the floor?

CAP: I wouldn't hit Calvin -

*The panda notices Calvin looking at him with an extremely unimpressed stare, and remembers various Bonks to the Head delivered over the years*

CAP: That hard.

Calvin: Yeah, Panda Claus only brings gifts to good little CEOs, if such a thing exists.

Cassanee: Panda Claus?

Calvin: Sure! Big, jolly, hairy chin and jowls, doesn't take crap from evildoers?

Rhodez: *looks at CAP* Is he talking about you?

CAP: Maybe. I don't take crap from evildoers.

Calvin: Anyway, the chili *glares at CAP* is ready, and I managed to actually make some decent home fries. And, I remembered I have the extra sleeve for the table, so we can all fit around it like semi-civilized people!

CAP: I brought a salad, and those potato-flour doughnuts you told me about. Isn't that too many potatoes?

Calvin, Rhodez, Cassanee: No such thing.

CAP: *a little stunned* Ohhhhhhhh. . .kay.

Pollock: *scoffs* If it's starches they want, I brought a fine alfredo pasta, and a white bean puree. Also wine, but that's just for me.

Cassanee: Cornbread and deer steaks.

Rhodez: Taco pizza! So much taco pizza!

*Everyone eyes the stack of 10 pizza boxes, as well as Rhodez's feral expression* 

Calvin: Is any of it for us, or are you planning to take it all back to America's Cro - America's Elbow?

Rhodez: Sure, you guys can have one.

CAP: One pizza, or one slice?

Rhodez: *shrugs* I don't know, man, we'll see. I brought some good soda, too, since Calvin buys Pepsi.

Calvin: Not this year! I've embraced being a Wine Bachelor! *extends his glass* Top me off, Pollock!

Pollock: *clutches the bottle fearfully* Not a chance! This is for when you start giving thanks!

Cassanee: Wine Bachelor?

Rhodez: Is that a thing?

Calvin: If there can be Wine Moms, why not Wine Bachelors? 

Pollock: *eyes Calvin speculatively* You know what? Fine. I want to see this.

*Pollock pours Calvin some wine. Calvin swirls the liquid ostentatiously, then sniffs at it a few times. Then swirls it some more. Another sniff. more swirling.* 

Pollock: Well? Go ahead, "wine bachelor."

Calvin: Wooo! *He downs the entire glass in one gulp. His body convulses, head twisting slowly to the side like it's on a spring. His face twists into a grimace* That is vile.

*Clever Adolescent Panda snickers. Pollock extends the bottle.*

Pollock: More for the wine bachelor?

Calvin: *expression still pinched* Sure, just *exhales loudly* haaah, gotta cut it with something. Can I get one of those sodas, Rhodez? Gonna see if I can make a "wine-and-root beer" the new trendy drink.

*The 4 guests recoil. Pollock corks the bottle.*

Pollock: I will feed you another cake that makes you capable of vibrating through the walls of reality, thereby killing us all, before I let you make such a liquid abomination.

Narrator: AFTER EATING!

Calvin: *sprawled on the floor* I'm glad I ran til I puked this morning, 'cause I got a hunch I ain't moving for a while.

Pollock: *slumped in her chair* You. . .just lack impulse. . .control.

CAP: *seated in the corner of the room, only upright thanks to the walls* I saw you undo your belt halfway through.

Pollock: *embarrassed* Calvin's suggestion to mix soda with wine just broke my will for a few minutes, that's all! When i returned to myself, I'd already eaten - 

Cassanee: *curled in the camp chair* 4 donuts.

Rhodez: And one of my pizzas *pulls herself off the couch long enough to glare, then falls back again*

Calvin: So, are we doing the thanks bit this year?

CAP: Of course!

Pollock: But Calvin can't go yet. I need to room in my stomach for the wine I'll need. 

Calvin: *staring at the ceiling* Whatever. Rhodez, you want to kick it off?

Rhodez: Huh? Uh, OK. I got a bigger, better apartment this year, and a cat. He's really cool. I got a big bonus for extending my contract, even if taxes took a stupid big chunk of it - 

Pollock: *sits up, looking alarmed* Taxes? Are we still paying those?

Calvin: Not you, oh mighty job creator.

Pollock: Whew. *slides back down in the chair*

Rhodez: Yeah, I still gotta pay taxes, but maybe by the time this contract runs out, the job market will be better. And my truck didn't wrecked this year, so you know, that's cool.

Calvin: Because you were smart enough not to drive when Florida got snow.

Rhodez: Damn right. *brief pause* That's what I got.

Calvin: Am I going now?

Pollock: No. Let the Cassanee regale us with the high point of her social calendar, the big hoedown by the outhouse.

CAP: *growls* Don't be mean. . .

Cassanee: No hoedown. No outhouses, either.

Pollock: My goodness, you just go right out in the - THWACK! *a tennis ball hits Pollock in the head* 

CAP: Thanks, Calvin!

Calvin: *still on his back, offers a thumbs up*

Cassanee: *smiles* Too much rain earlier in the year, none later, but we controlled the flood damage. Did have a lot of canoe trips. Beat up an ogre that emerged from the Dark Caves.

Calvin: Aren't all caves kinda dark?

Cassanee: Not like this.

CAP: It's a supernatural thing, right? Bad experiences that manifest as a force that eats light?

Cassanee: *shrugs* Probably. Two friends got married. Nice ceremony, but raccoons tried to steal the cake. Big mess, but fun. 

CAP: Neat. Not the raccoons trying to steal the cake, but the rest of it sounded good. I had a quiet year. I helped five lost spirits find peace, beat up two angry ones that were terrorizing people. Although one of them was haunting the person who killed them, but I proved it and got them arrested, so that counts as helping a lost spirit, too. I came up with a recipe for bamboo croquets that my family really loved! I don't think they're edible for humans, though, sorry.

Pollock: Perhaps Calvin could invite Deadpool next year as a test dummy.

Calvin: His next ongoing is being written by Benjamin Percy, so there's not a chance in hell of that. Keep going, panda pal.

CAP: I almost have wall jumps figured out, so I can scale buildings that way.

Calvin: Can't you just climb them using your claws?

CAP: Yeah, but that's not as cool-looking.

Rhodez: I don't know, it'd be pretty cool, you hauling yourself up a building like that. Bad ass.

CAP: I guess, but it's also slower. I want to be fast!

Calvin: A fast panda. Sonic the Panda.

Pollock: Hmm, I smell marketing opportunities.

CAP: *huffs* More like trademark infringement. Which of you is next?

Calvin: Well, you got room for wine now?

Pollock: *picks up the bottle and eyes it* . . .Yes. Go ahead and depress us. *Takes a long drink*

Calvin: Uh, well, work's been a pain in the ass for a variety of reasons, but I'm hoping things are coming together so I won't have to carry such a big load next year. Between the new guy being trained, fewer issues with the software, and one of my coworkers hopefully no longer teaching 2 days a week, other people might actually do some inspections!

CAP: This is an awful angry start.

Calvin: Right, yeah. OK, moving on. There haven't been any real bad things at home, so it's remained a peaceful refuge. I went on a trip with Alex across the eastern U.S. and onto the Atlantic Ocean, which was fun. Boston was much better to walk through than drive, but interesting to see. I would have liked to see more of Portland, and I learned 3 days on a cruise ship is probably my max, but it was a really good experience all around, and it seemed to pick up Alex's spirits. And we each got some art prints out of it, which Alex will probably at least get his framed and up on the wall at some point. Let's leave it there.

Pollock: That was. . .surprisingly positive.

Calvin: It's just your wine goggles.

CAP: No, it was. I'm proud of you. I knew you could be positive if you tried!

Calvin: Don't hug me or I might throw up again after all. Pollock.

Pollock: It has been a challenging economic climate, with the inconsistent tariffs and inconsistent economic messaging. Fortunately, we've made some real breakthroughs on perpetual motion as it relates to generating power for railguns.

CAP: Really?

Pollock: Indeed. We've even miniaturized them into handheld units suitable for riot control and, *becoming evasive* things of that nature.

Calvin: Pollock, are you seriously selling weapons to a wannabe dictator?

Rhodez: That's pretty shitty, even for you. 

Pollock: Relax, the weapons don't actually work at all. Quality control is very poor with this administration, as is any concept of physics or any other science. I could sell them a Super-Soaker filled with the fluid from glowsticks and convince them it was a magnet gun or some sort of neural disruptor. I'm just getting in on the grift while the getting is good! No one is getting hurt!

THWACK! *the tennis ball hits Pollock in the head again* 

Just A-Driftin' Along, In the Vacuum of Space

In ADR1FT (yes, the game uses "1" in place of "I"), you are Alex Oshima, commander of the crew aboard a space station built by Hardiman Aerospace. You wake up in the middle of chaos. Something has happened and the station is shattered the pieces drifting together. Thankfully, the orbit doesn't seem to be degrading, but if you're going to make it home, you have to repair some mainframes first.

What that involves is repeatedly going to the central spire of the station, which tells you a particular mainframe isn't responding. You have to make it to the section of the station related to that mainframe and acquire a new central processor or something like that, then bring it back. It's always the same error message, the part you grab is always the same (save the color.) Once you reach the right spot, it's a matter of pushing a button to initiate the sequence that gets you the part you need.

So the challenge is in making there. Alex is inside a spacesuit, and it has some mobility capability where you can direct your course, speed up or slow down. If you hit stuff, your suit starts to get damaged, cracks appearing in the visor. The jets that provide thrust and maneuverability are a shared resource with your air supply, so you have to keep an eye on that. There's still some equipment producing live currents that, if you hit them, do a considerable amount of damage to your air supply. Also, any time you move outside the confines of the station, the rate of air loss speeds up.

The suit is not at 100% when you begin, so there are some leaks even after you get it repaired. But the station is broken into pieces. You aren't accessing space by passing through airlocks or decompression procedures. You drift down a hallway and whoops, the part at the other end is no longer connected. Or you enter a room and one of the windows is blown out. So there's rarely a point where I would say the station is providing any sort of protection that ought to diminish the air loss.

Each time you reach one of the computer stations to retrieve a part you need, the computer there also upgrades some aspect of your suit. Oxygen capacity, suit integrity, thrust speed and something else I forget. Unfortunately, it doesn't let you pick, so suit integrity is the last thing that gets improved, while it's the first thing I'd have augmented if given the choice, since that would reduce the air loss. The game provides a lot of opportunities to replenish your air supply, either by bottles floating around (all of which flash green to help you find them) or dedicated stations on the interior walls. So it isn't too hard to find more air, and you can get most anywhere with minimal thrust if you're willing to wait for Alex to drift there, but that's more complicated if the suit is constantly leaking air like a sieve.

The one time I died in the game, it was because I tried to reach a satellite the suit's scanner told me had something. The satellite was a ways out, it was very early in the game, and I didn't use my limited oxygen (which I also didn't replenish before floating into the void) wisely. After that, I settled for drifting slowly when I was out in the open, focusing thrust use on course corrections, letting inertia carry me where I needed to go. There's no time limit, so there's no reason to rush, save impatience. And if you float, you can watch the Earth below you, and that's pretty neat.

Once you have the four mainframes up and running again, you can board the escape pod at any time. But there are other things to seek out, if you care. The company wants you to recover things like a special camera and a hard drive. There are 25 solid-state drives floating around. You might also, you know, want to figure out what happened to your crew. (Spoiler alert: They're all dead.) The scanner will help you find things like that, although the crew's suits have a flashing red light you can see from far off. I do wish the scanner didn't think it was necessary to tell me about locked doors. Most of them can be unlocked simply by holding "X" as you float closer, so they're really just, doors. I don't need to know that, and it would significantly declutter the screen.

As you go along, you can also access audio logs of yours and the crew that shed some light into what was going on. Alex granted one crew member a transfer home, but not in time. She was also putting a lot of pressure on the crew to hit the marks in whatever it was we were trying to accomplish, and probably disregarding safety protocols in the process. Which certainly makes it seem like Alex is to blame, but there were things here and there that made me wonder if it wasn't the guy on the crew that this was his last mission. He'd been in space so much, he had incurable cancer, and was not happy about spending the remainder of his days on Earth.

If there was an ending that provided resolution, I never unlocked it. I reached a point where I had certain uplinks working again, but they couldn't transmit because some debris severed a cable. I could find the damage easily enough, but I could never get any guidance as to what to do to fix it. I checked every Youtube playthrough I could find, and none of those helped, though I'm also not inclined to sit there 2+ hours sifting through the videos. Eventually, I gave up and decided to send Alex back to Earth, leaving it at everything being her fault.