The Starship Damrey Review

Ever woke up alone? Ever woke up alone stuck in a cryogenic pod with no way out on a seemingly pilotless spaceship? I thought not. 

This week I have been playing The Starship Damrey on the Nintendo 3DS. This game is classed as a horror and the trailers add well to that impression. However, unfortunately, after a short while, the tense atmosphere dissipates. 

As previously mentioned, the game starts with you waking up in a cryogenic pod. You cannot get out and the computer informs you that being in suspended animation may have led to amnesia. What you must do next is hack into the computer system. Once you’ve done it, it seems quite simple, but the first time you play, you will eventually resort to smashing buttons. 

Anyway, once you’ve hacked the computer, you then in turn hack one of the onboard robots. The robot acts as your eyes and ears for the rest of the game as you explore the dark - and seemingly abandoned - Starship Damrey. 

There are two scary moments early on, but after that, the game becomes really tame. For a while you will be looking up and down dark corridors to see if something is going to jump out. But after about the second hour, you won’t care anymore; simply because, there is nothing there. 

The game also gets quite monotonous after a while, degrading itself to a simple game of moving one item to another area, followed by the same again and again, and again, until your eyes bleed. If only robots could cry or bang their heads against the wall in frustration. 

The graphics are also a bit ropey, but I’ll let that slide as this is a short game and it was made by a small studio. The cut scenes, however, are just beautiful. 

One thing I will say is it’s refreshing to play a game that doesn’t have instructions or tutorials. Game hand-holding is something of a pet peeve of mine, especially on the consoles. Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an example that spring to mind, what with an instruction booklet, a poster with instructions and a separate disc with the same ones on it. Talk about patronising. I used mine as a coaster. Assassin’s Creed is another series that is becoming worse with every progressive title. 

But I digress. 

The Starship Damrey does finish with a clever twist, but I don’t feel that is enough to save it. I think it’s a shame really. It is one of those games that starts off really promisingly and has a lot of good ideas; both story and game play wise. These should have been expanded on a lot more and the game would have been much better. 

The Starship Damrey gets 5/10.