Starting a blind playthrough of Star Control Origins (with videos! No spoilers, please)

[Tormuse]

Video 12 is here.

Now with 100% less complaining about things unrelated to the game.

Well, I met the Mowlings... the simple-minded and worryingly pyromaniacal worshipers of the almighty Jefftopher. The conversation with Jeff himself was interesting, and gives me Star Control 3 vibes. (If this game is taking cues from SC3, I hope it's taking them from the few good parts) I realize that I probably should have revisited the Mowling homeworld, Moop, one more time to see if they had any information about the sentient bioweapon that infected them. That'll be first on my to-do list for next time.

This was followed by a visit to the Ancient One and some interestinginginginginging conversations with the Greegrox. With all the earlier insistence that the Menkmack are liars that aren't to be trusted, I suppose I should have expected that they wouldn't have told the full story of why the Ancient One is going after them. Hopefully, if I play my cards right, I can win over the Menkmack and the Greegrox at the same time! We'll see.

[Tormuse]

Video 13 is here.

I spent an overly long time dealing with optional objectives with very little gain, (what else is new?) but eventually got around to getting the Ancient One's egg from the Menkmack and delivering it back to the Ancient One... though I kind of wonder now if there were other bargaining options available to me with that egg. Oh well... I have a saved game just before delivering the egg, in case I want to experiment at a later date.

revisiting the Mowlings gave me no clue as to where to find the bioweapon I'm supposed to find, (though it did prompt me to revisit the Trandals and get a new hyperdrive) so I'm really not sure where to look for that, short of just randomly visiting every star in their space... which I might just do if it comes down to it. In the meantime, I'm gonna go visit the last couple of races I haven't visited yet.

[Draxas]

which I might just do if it comes down to it. In the meantime, I'm gonna go visit the last couple of races I haven't visited yet.

You're giving me flashbacks to SC3 now (this is not a good thing, for the record), since I had to do that once in the middle and again near the end of the game to find the event flags it wanted me to trip before I could move on. Not fun nor amusing, especially since I knew the ultimate solutions to the problems presented, but needed the game to give the option of using them.

[palmpet]

which I might just do if it comes down to it. In the meantime, I'm gonna go visit the last couple of races I haven't visited yet.

You're giving me flashbacks to SC3 now (this is not a good thing, for the record), since I had to do that once in the middle and again near the end of the game to find the event flags it wanted me to trip before I could move on. Not fun nor amusing, especially since I knew the ultimate solutions to the problems presented, but needed the game to give the option of using them.

I will say this much, atleast in the basegame it never is anywhere near as bad as 3 with event flags or sequence breaks at all. It's not an event flag trigger, and unlike 3, exploring randomly can actually be fun cause theres constantly stuff to actually find or sidequests you could come across. And finding the Bioweapons isn't actually as hard to find as they make it sound.

[Tormuse]

...exploring randomly can actually be fun cause theres constantly stuff to actually find or sidequests you could come across.

Yeah, I would go as far as to say I don't think I've visited any system so far that didn't have at least something in it. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, though. There's always something to do besides mining to get resources, but it's really easy to get bogged down in optional sidequests to the point of not getting any of your actual mission objectives done. (Like in the latest video) I don't know if this game has a time limit, like SC2 did, but there are indicators that it might, so doing too many sidequests now might come back to bite me later, not to mention the fact that it frequently obscures which of my objectives are actually important.

[Tormuse]

Video 14 is here.

Well, I found the sentient bioweapon that infected the Mowlings. The Pinthi turned out to be a race of sentient viruses, which... really doesn't make any sense by any modern definition of "virus," but then again, this is the future, so maybe "virus" means something different then. (Sentient bacteria might have made a little more sense, since they are at least alive in the traditional sense; oh well...) And from there, the game became a series of fetch quests, which I've come to expect at this point, where each location I visit, I'm told the next location to visit, and so on... and I mean... that's kind of how the game has to be, on some level, but I can't help feeling like SC2 did it better. Oh well again...

The Pinthi did make an interesting remark about the Tywom having a dark past that I might find clues to in the Chaudhury cluster, and that might be worth following up on in the next episode... though I have a feeling it's going to send me to another series of locations.

[Draxas]

Again flashing back to SC3, sounds like you're describing the Xchagger plotline from that game almost to a T (possibly one of the better parts of SC3, if I'm being honest).

[palmpet]

Again flashing back to SC3, sounds like you're describing the Xchagger plotline from that game almost to a T (possibly one of the better parts of SC3, if I'm being honest).

Yeah wouldn't be suprised if they took inspiration from certain parts of 3 since they did from 2 aswell. Makes sense, 3 had plenty of fine ideas. Though as someone whose played both, wouldn't say its 1 to 1. The Pinthi do have a distinct personality and lore from the xchaggers.

[Tormuse]

Video 15 is here.

I feel like I didn't move the plot forward a whole lot today; I mean I cured the Mowlings, and found out a few tidbits about the Tywom, but the rest felt like so much puttering around. (I didn't even have a really suitable screencap for the video thumbnail) Even the Mukay "trial" thing felt like it was built on stuff that I'd already done in previous sessions, so there wasn't a whole lot for me to do. Oh well... at least I got tons of resources while exploring the Chaudhary cluster, so I won't have to do any mining for a while. (For all the build-up about the Zalence, nothing really came of that, though maybe that remains to be seen, after visiting the Greegrox again)

Again flashing back to SC3, sounds like you're describing the Xchagger plotline from that game almost to a T (possibly one of the better parts of SC3, if I'm being honest).

Yeah wouldn't be suprised if they took inspiration from certain parts of 3 since they did from 2 aswell. Makes sense, 3 had plenty of fine ideas. Though as someone whose played both, wouldn't say its 1 to 1. The Pinthi do have a distinct personality and lore from the xchaggers.

Agreed on all points. This game has plenty of elements that definitely feel like they were at least "inspired" by SC2 and SC3, but it's still different enough to keep it fresh and interesting, so no complaints from me on that front.

[Tormuse]

Video 16 is here.

This one was a lot more eventful. First off, I completed the trial with the Mukay. Their legal system is kind of nonsensical and hypocritical, and they even acknowledge it, but at least it resulted in findings of innocence all around, so that's good. After that, there was a proper boss fight against a suitably imposing enemy, something I haven't really seen so far, so that was pretty cool. Finally, I encountered the canibalistic Phamysht, who are... decidedly rather cultured about devouring people, which is an amusing juxtaposition, but nevertheless kind of grisly. (Maybe even literally!)

They did give me a lead to follow, though, which is good, because the Greegrox didn't have anything to say about the Zalence, so this was the last of my leads. They spoke of a Scryve superweapon, and even described how to disable it, so I have a feeling I might be heading in the direction of endgame territory, which... would be pretty anti-climactic, so I'm hoping there's still more to discover, since there are still a number of unsolved mysteries, not the least of which is what happened to the Lexites. I have a sneaking suspicion that they're the ones that were helping the Phamysht fight the Scryve; hopefully, I'll find out soon.