All Systems Red, You Have the Bridge
You know what’s fun? Board games. You know what’s not fun? Contracting COVID-19 during game night. Fortunately, developers Thunderbox Entertainment have the solution to this conundrum: play your board games online. This all-new digital version of The Captain is Dead puts you and your friends in command of a spaceship under attack by hostile aliens, where you must rally the surviving crew to fight off the threat. It’s just like a classic episode of Star Trek, except that, well, the captain is dead. Which means the rest of the cast are on their own. Fortunately, they’re all packing something that could be the difference between living to see another day and being scattered as space dust. Let’s take a look.
Retro polygon graphics, phenomenal voice acting, designs influenced by classic sci-fi properties, and a surreal synthwave soundtrack from Occams Laser combine to create a very entertaining package. Better yet, that background music will remix itself on the fly to make sure it stays in sync with the destruction happening on screen. It’ll never miss a beat! Each character comes with their own special skills, so choose from the Admiral, the Cyborg, the Counselor, the Ensign, the Chief Engineer, the Soldier, and the limitless supply of Crewmen. Either divvy them up between your friends or try your best to manage them all in single-player mode.
To win, you must take control of the whole ship, including:
- Bridge – Scan for threats, repair shields and communicate with your crew.
- War Room – The Captain planned ahead, and left emergency dossiers to help you out.
- Armory – Destroy alien ships with torpedoes, and activate auto-turrets to repel boarders.
- CPU Core – Power-up your crew with skills.
- Cargo Hold – Bust open the cargo pods to grab lasers, scanners, and other helpful gear.
- Infirmary – He’s dead, Jim! Oh wait… no… it’s just a flesh wound. That can be fixed here.
- Science Lab – Upgrade the ship, and research spooky, sub-space anomalies.
- Engineering – Fix the Jump Core to get the heck outta there!
The Captain is Dead is now available on Steam, iOS, and Android.
What’s your favorite space opera? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.