My glasses are undeniably rose-tinted, but they don’t blind me. When Captain Forever Trilogy came out two years ago, a revamped version with new components to pour over, I fell in love again. A recent update added multiplayer for up to four people, and I’m now buzzing with excitement. Buzzing! Properly buzzing! There’s a focus on inventive planning, and that’s a big part of why I like it so much. Most ships aren’t hostile at first, so you can sidle up to them and gauge their weaknesses, figuring out a plan of attack. That might mean whipping off some of your kit, re-designing your ship on the fly so you can wedge yourself into a vulnerable crack. Then, when your plan inevitably doesn’t go to plan, you might manage to detach one of their super powerful turrets, quickly glue it onto your ship, and messily win the fight using your opponent’s own plundered weaponry. I’m psyched to see what that looks like in multiplayer. Trying to coordinate an attack when me and my pals can damage each other is going to go very, very wrong, and I am very very here for that. Especially because, oh my goodness, every player shares the same cursor. You all fly about individually, but only one person can drag parts about at a time. That honestly sounds fantastic. Jack. Me. In. That limitation might have something to do with the way the Captain Together update technically only adds local multiplayer, and lead developer “Farbs” is relying on Steam Remote Play for online shenanigans. That also means you can’t easily play with strangers, which is a shame, but I’m thrilled to have Captain Forever multiplayer in any form. If you can’t get any of your friends to bite, there’s a Discord where you might be able to find a pal or two. The bright side is that Steam Remote Play only needs one of you to own the game - you can just invite your friends in. There’s a 35% off sale at the moment, which means you can nab Captain Forever Trilogy for £5.00/$6.50/€5.00 from Steam. You really should. Here’s what singleplayer looks like, in case all this gushing hasn’t convinced you to give it a whirl.
Disclosure: Cassandra Khaw wrote some story bits for Captain Forever, and she also used to write our Bargain Bucket column.
