Kickstarter: InSomnia



I have to admit, that as a genre dieselpunk is wholly unfamiliar to me. In fact, I can, in all honesty, say, that before InSomnia I hadn't even heard the term before, but considering there are cyberpunk and steampunk, the existence of diesel-based aesthetics shouldn't really come as a surprise.

So InSomnia. It's a Kickstarter game. And it's a project on its second round. Now, that's not a warning sign despite Studio Mono having returned to the well after one round of successful funding (and no, I didn't back them the first time around). With the money, a shy over $100k,  from the first campaign Mono has managed to build up a pretty solid looking and feeling the game, with an interesting, nicely designed world. You don't have to take only my word on it, as they've released a pretty solid demo to go with the current Kickstarter, so go and give it a spin if you like. It's for Windows, Mac and Linux, so there are options abound.


All in all, the demo is very promising and it does look like InSomnia is heading towards being one of the more unique feeling RPGs of recent years. I don't know how representative it's towards dieselpunk as a genre, but what I see, I like.

InSomnia is set in a huge spaceship. Or better yet, it's a city flying through space. The background story for it is, that ages back there was the final war upon Earth, which left things all post-apocalyptic and what not. So the only sensible thing that was left to do was to build a huge ship, that was to be used to ferry the people to somewhere else, where it would be easier to start again.  You are one of the people living in the ageing monstrosity of a ship. Though in this demo you can't yet create a character of your own.



The demo, or a prologue as they call it, begins with Typer, a possible companion in the final game, sitting in his chair, drinking booze and being all bored like, when he gets a call. There's some work for him, delivering a package if he wants it, and as this is an RPG, why wouldn't he. It always beats just drinking there for the rest of the game, so off he goes.

The prologue works as a tutorial for the game as well. It shows the ropes in the basic commands and interactions with the game world as well as teaches how to do melee combat with a sword and then how to blast things apart with a rifle. The combat itself is real-time and consists of blocking and shooting/stabbing/slashing/beating the enemy combatant in pieces. It's very much an action RPG, but for example, with melee weapons, you hit harder if you keep the attack button pressed down and not just click as much as you can. And with firearms, you need to aim before the shooting, so it's not just spamming the attack button with either weapons group.

In an ARPG fashion, the combat mechanic expects you to actually move around while battling, doing dodging and whatnot, and generally try to avoid getting caught in the middle of the enemy swarm. Besides just moving around, you can do dodge jumps by using the direction keys and space bar and that is, I found out, a pretty damned handy thing, combined with taking sprints away from the enemies and hiding behind obstacles, which prevents armed combatants from hitting you.


The characters build are what you'd expect a modern ARPG to be. There are the basic stats, like strength and intelligence, skill trees covering stuff like weapons or mechanical skills and traits, which add to the base build of character things like enthusiasm or deep pockets. You gain experience from doing stuff, which helps you to develop the character and the skills get better by using them, so all in all, pretty basic stuff and seems to work just fine.

Besides combat, you can also chat up with people you'll meet upon your adventures. Not everyone has something to say, but there are people all around, who have things to say and some dialogue trees to burn. Some are just fleshing out the background lore, some have important things to add and possible quests to give. Then there are merchants, whom with you can speak, but also, surprise surprise, barter with and exchange your loot into more usable stuff, like bullets and medicines.



Overall InSomnia is one of the more promising RPG's I've seen on Kickstarter. It plays pretty well and the gameplay feels well thought of. It isn't trying to break any new grounds, but what it does, it does well. The game runs over Unreal Engine 4, so it also looks pretty nice and the world design falls under the always nice retro-futuristic aesthetics.

InSomnia is looking for an extra 55 000 pounds in order to add more spit and polish on diesel stained surfaces. For me backing, it felt like a no-brainer, so if the demo and the pitch tickle your fancy, consider giving them a go

InSomnia is in Kickstarter now.


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