Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role-playing Game – Combat Demo Incoming

According to this development update on the game’s forums, the long-awaited combat demo for Iron Tower Studio’s sci-fi Colony Ship RPG will be going live in just a couple of days, on April 15, 2020. Apart from sharing this bit of news, the update also shows off a number of impressive-looking screenshots and directs us towards Colony Ship’s Steam page.

With that in mind, here’s the game’s official description and key features:

It is the Year of Our Lord 2754…

You will never feel the sun’s warmth under a blue sky, never hear the wind in the branches of a tree, and never swim in the ocean, all because you had the misfortune to be born on the Ship, chained to a fate you didn’t choose. You have never seen Earth and you’ll never see Proxima Centauri either. You’re doomed to live and die on the Ship in the name of the Mission, like your father before you, like his father before him.

The Ship is old. She had already been twenty years in service when she was rechristened Starfarer – a pretty name for a retrofitted interplanetary freighter. No one is certain the Ship will actually reach its destination, and nobody much cares, since no one alive now will live to see it. Might as well get on with your life and try to make the best of it.

Features:

Colony Ship is an isometric, party-based RPG inspired by Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. Your character’s world is a “generation ship,” a massive spacecraft on a centuries long voyage to colonize a distant planet. The Ship’s original government has been disbanded following a violent mutiny and you must negotiate a treacherous path among your fellow passengers and the contentious factions striving to dominate the Ship. Your choices alone will determine who your friends and enemies are.

• Skill-based character system, with feats and biological implants.
• Tactical turn-based combat, featuring standard as well as targeted attacks and weapon-specific special attacks such as Fanning and Long Burst.
• Multiple quest solutions, mutually exclusive questlines, and a branching main storyline.
• 12 recruitable party members with different personalities, agendas, and beliefs.
• 3 main factions and a score of lesser factions and groups.
• A large arsenal including melee weapons, firearms, energy pistols, grenades, and fancy electronic gadgets like the Reality Distortion Field.
• Different environments to explore, from the Engine Room and Hydroponics to the dystopian cities of the Habitat and the Wasteland, the now uncharted corridors and decks that bore the brunt of the fighting during the Mutiny.