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Outpost Kaloki, where do I begin... when I was first asked to do the review for this game I of course didn’t know what to think. I am an established Hardcore RTS player in a professional clan, I also am pretty badass in most FPSs I play, so to sit down to something like Outpost Kaloki to try to review it should have been rough, it wasn’t.
If you build it, they will come.
As most RTS (Real Time Strategy) players will tell you, resources are gathered by first spending on them, the same can be said about this cartoonish little gem. The gameplay of Outpost Kaloki is like nothing I’ve really played before but is similar to something like a minimall tycoon meets outer-space; then again, I never used to play these kinds of games before, so I am going purely on my experience with this game.
There isn’t much to do in the beginning, the first few scenarios are more of a tutorial than actual gameplay. I really thought the whole game would be that way, why with all my LEET micromanagement skill that I have developed in my many years of RTS play, the game should have been child’s play... I was wrong, very, very, wrong.
Outpost Kaloki is a very good micromanagement training game. You have to manage your “outpost” by building certain structures to help earn you some cash to build more structures to make more cash and so on. Well you also need power to run those buildings. You are only given so many platforms to build on, so it becomes a balancing act of power, buildings that are wanted by the public, and revenue. To conserve power you turn off buildings that aren’t making profit, this also saves you money, to save more money when you have ample power you can turn off power generators and turn them back on when you need them. You can tell when a building is in demand by little meters in the top right corner of the screen. When a meter is red then the icon next to said meter is what the public is demanding if the meter is green then you have enough or too much and might consider closing one of those structures to save money/power. An “i” for information structures, or a little flower for nature structures (little glass domed buildings that house ponds and herb gardens) to name a few. Once you have everything you need, the story progresses and you advance.
The story is cute to say the least. You are the “hero” trying to save a princess and also trying to find your way back home, after some alien fool fouled up an attempt to create a warp-gate. Your safe return depends on your ability to manage your Outposts and pass the requirements to move on to the next level. The missions get tougher as time goes on; you have to keep up your structures from natural wear and tear, let them go too long and they blow up costing you money to replace, have too many repairs going at once and you might bankrupt yourself. The whole game has this cause and effect, stimulus and response, do or be damned, do too much and be damned, feel to it. If you don’t balance everything to a certain degree you will face financial ruin and be forced to restart the game.
Nothing to see in outer space I guess...
The graphics are by no means special at all. Cartoon style animations while playing with cut scenes that are nothing more than a picture of the “beings” that are speaking, and text balloons with what they are saying. The space stations have minimal detail and the spacecraft flying around aren’t very well detailed either. However, it is a fun game and the cartoony graphics add to the overall mood of the game. There are some cool looking animations when a craft flies through a worm hole, but even that doesn’t live up to today’s standards.
Nothing to hear either...
The sounds in Outpost Kaloki mirror the graphics, very little of anything there. There is some 20’s-30’s sounding swing music in the background and no voice-overs that are understandable because everyone speaks alienese or something. That’s about it for sounds; anything else isn’t worth mentioning...
TheGoodEvil’s verdict!
Outpost Kaloki is a good game to help train you how to multitask effectively, the gameplay is what Outpost Kaloki is all about. If more attention was focused on the graphics and sound, this game would be a diamond instead of just a gem. I recommend this title for children of 10 and up because of its cartoony look and feel, as well as the value of not having any violence, but still enough to keep your child interested.
The Goods,
Great gameplay that keeps you on your toes.
The Evils,
Sub-par graphics, very poor sounds, goes from simple to very complex within 1 or 2 scenarios.
*Note: The overall score was based solely on gameplay and the "fun factor" of the game and not by an average score.
