Space Age is an enticing adventure on any planet

Space Age is a brand new game featuring a team of space explorers who have just landed on an unpopulated, very retro planet named Kepler-16. While they don't initially have a mission to fulfill, after wandering around a bit, the team soon realizes that there's much to be uncovered in this new, yet oddly familiar territory and an adventure is set in stone. The title is now in the App Store for iPhone and iPad at US$3.99.

Have you ever walked into a situation and had a strange thought echo in your mind that you aren't exactly sure what's going on or what's about to happen, but you're pretty sure it will turn out well? That's how I felt not long after launching Space Age. The game takes place in 1976, which is "the future." You are a private that just landed on Kepler-16. The environment isn't all that different from what might be found on Earth: green grasslands, trees (albeit they're purple,) lakes, rocky hills, etc.

Don't judge a book by its cover: Space Age isn't some wild action game where you have to constantly battle graphically intense alien specimens. In fact, quite the opposite: it's an adventure where the characters are tiny and pixelated and the writing exudes a compelling sense of humor. Yes, occasionally (mainly later in the game) you must confront aliens and battle it out, but that doesn't seem to be what the developers are focusing most on.

The game is pretty heavy on dialogue. That's not uncommon for an adventure game, but comparatively it's still chatty. That's not a fault though for two reasons: necessity and humor. The dialogue is mostly essential to understanding what you have to do in game and why it's even relevant to the rest of the story. Since reading all that gets boring, it's helpful that much of it is offers up a chuckle here and there. The writing ranges from sarcastic to witty to just wholly funny while of course being informative. It's truly well done.

So what should you expect out of Space Age's gameplay? In short, a lot of mystery, but I guess that's the whole point of an adventure. Most of the time you don't know what's going to come next because you're just following life as it unravels on Kepler-16. You meet new people, complete tasks, flashback to times on Earth and fight aliens.

Much of your path is in complete darkness until you walk to that area when it brightens up to reveal its contents. It has somewhat of a cone-of-vision effect. This adds to the gameplay though. Certain missions that require you to locate missing items, for instance, need that effect for Space Age to have its challenging component.

Since the controls are limited to a single finger, sometimes I found it confusing to figure out how to complete certain tasks. The game tells you what you need to do, but doesn't explicitly state how. If you need to unlock a gate, it's up to you to figure out which character can do that and what they need to tap with minimal aid.

Space Age is the type of adventure game I've been waiting for on iOS. I've been playing it for the past few days and it's hard to put down, but not because it's addictive like half of the iOS games starring birds. The Kepler-16 adventure is just too engaging to want to quit. The dialogue and design are stellar, too. Space Age is available for iPhone and iPad (and soon Mac too!) for $3.99.