SYMMETRY

Review

A crew of three astronauts crashed landed their vessel on a mysterious planet. They were attracted by bright red beams flashing from the surface of the unknown sphere.  Incredibly, the crash site is right next to a facility that looks like a small station built by humans.  The positive effect of this rather intriguing news fades away rapidly after the crew checks on the damage the spaceship Miner 4 endured from the rough landing. Both of the engines as well as the power supply units need to be repaired if they want to return home safe and sound. In addition to this assessment, they are about to discover the harsh conditions on this planet. And what were those red beams?

Symmetry is a survival / strategy game where you take control of a crew of three astronauts (initially) who have crash landed on an unknown planet and need to find a way back home.

As you launch your first game, you’ll be prompted to choose a level of difficulty; either normal or hard. There’s no easy way out in this game.  You’ll be greeted by a small cut-scene which describes what’s going on, and you’ll see who your crew is. There are eight characters in total; each time you start a new game, you’ll be allocated a slightly different crew of three. Bear in mind that out of the eight characters, you will only have a maximum of five at any given time.  While playing the game, an extra two characters will surface to add to your original three.

The gameplay has a simple layout, combining a station of 4 rooms, a power plant with a battery backup, a weather station and a damaged spaceship. The important thing to analyse first is the skill set of each individual member of your crew. By clicking on a character, you will see if he/she is more efficient at wood cutting, food processing, mechanics or gathering electro waste. These skills need to be looked at carefully and used effectively if you want to be able to leave the planet. Each of your characters can learn a new skill, but if you choose this route bear in mind that it will take a bit of time for them to study and gain their new skill, and during that time they will not be contributing to the well-being of the station. Once new study has been undertaken, you can decide to stop at any time.  One of the rooms within the station has a furnace for you to burn wood and keep the station warm. It is vital for your crew to have a warm habitat as the temperature outside the station can drop to -80 degrees at times. The rest room is where you send your crew members to revitalise their health before sending them back to a new task. Make sure to produce as much food as possible in order to feed your crew. The other vital task is to send your characters to search for electro waste, which will be extremely important for repairing your spaceship as well as anything else that goes wrong within the station. Many things can break down such as heaters, the furnace, food processing unit, refrigerator, power plant and health capsules. Not having enough electro waste to repair them can be a death sentence for your crew members.

As you progress through the days, a few additional characters will appear on the scene and it will definitely be a good thing as long as you can make sure that all your members have enough sleep and food. Remember, you only have two health capsules throughout the game and having 5 characters can become a tough juggling act in regards to sharing those capsules. You can upgrade a few items within the station but it will cost you electro waste for additional storage of wood, foods and electro waste, as well as upgrading your weather station and battery backup in case the generator goes down. Again, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. Do you upgrade in order to survive longer, or do you repair your spaceship in order to leave the planet as soon as possible . . . that’s the question?  

The scenery will change from time to time. This will take place when a seismic phenomenon occurs on the planet, but I’ll let you discover that. It might be something to do with those red beams. Also, each time the planet shakes things usually break down within the station.

After all of that, and if you manage to successfully leave the planet, you’ll unlock the survival mode where you have to keep your crew alive as long as you can.

Graphically, the games look very good and I really like the sound effects too. Nice, easy controls to use and the game runs very well. I must say that I would have liked having more things to manage and upgrade within the station.