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[Sirus]

_{^{(Probably-unnecessary disclosure: my copy of this game was generously provided by Vector/the developers. Thanks again!)}}

What is The Next World?
Well, here's the blurb on Steam's store page:

Welcome to The Next World - a strategic visual novel by Illuminated Games, telling the story of a crashed colony ship and its ragged group of survivors, trying to make a new life on the wrong planet.

TNW is a visual novel/strategy hybrid inspired by The Banner Saga, King of Dragon Pass and Oregon Trail, with an emphasis on planning and decision-making over combat. Keep as many colonists alive as possible by making the tough decisions which will determine how your adventure unfolds. Build colony structures, salvage wreckage, resolve problems with multiple branching outcomes, and manage your colony's dwindling supplies; all while playing through an intense story of political intrigue, sabotage, desperation and survival, by writer Ryan A. Span (FRONTIERS, Mount&Blade, Euclidean).

What does all this mean in practice? Not a clue! This is the very first time I've played this game, and I suppose it can serve as a combination first-impression/review/LP. I'll be taking screenshots as I go, so hopefully I won't miss too much.

I might ask for viewer input sometimes, depending on how things play out, but I intend to be as blind as possible.

Let's get started...

[Sirus]

Part 1
Part 2

[Sirus]

Here we go.



Alarm buzzers and various "computer noises" in the background.
Also, sorry for hueg images. Resolution defaults to a pretty big portion of the screen and there aren't any resolution settings in-game, oh well. I'll try to use text as much as possible, at least when storyboards aren't involved.



Oh dear.
Also, the ship actually moves across the screen. It's a nice touch.

Exodus AI: Thrusters unresponsive. Commence system reboot.



Exodus AI: Crew in immediate danger. Emergency override. Launch all pods.





Exodus AI: All pods launched.



The screen goes dark. 1104 colonists remain.

Exodus AI: ...

Exodus AI: Contact.

896 colonists. Whoops.





Exodus AI: Contact minus three seconds. Estimated survival rate: 43 percent.

820.

Exodus AI: Contact minus five seconds. Bridge taking critical damage.

The shaking comes to a stop, leaving 758 colonists.

Exodus AI: ...Goodbye.





We get a slow pan across the debris of our all-too-soon-wrecked ship. On-board, the woman we saw in the cryopods earlier (at least, I assume it's her) opens her eyes with a muffled gasp. Another fade-to-black.



I'm...not sure who, if anyone, is speaking here. Also, hello people from the OP!

On the other side of the pod's viewport, the colony ship Exodus - your only mode of transport - burns merrily in the distance. Pieces of it lie strewn across the barren landscape, along with a string of other lifepods and cargo containers. Some have landed safely. Others have ploughed headlong into the ground or shaken to pieces in the violent descent. You can make out the limp shapes of bodies lying in the dirt.

Conditions aren't much better on the inside. The lifepod's central chamber is black with smoke, and the overwhelming stench of burning plastic makes the air hard to breathe. Sparks pour from several busted systems where the circuit boards have simply blown out. Half of everything in the pod seems to be offline.

Are we boned? It sounds like we're boned.

: What...What the Hell? Why are we landing?

This dude's name is apparently Shen. Maybe not the brightest bulb, considering that A) they've already landed, and B) There's probably bigger issues at the moment.

: Your guess is as good as mine. This isn't Tanalon. There's no planet like this anywhere near the course I charted. All I know is, we have to deal with this smoke before we suffocate.

And this is Lucy. Captain? Pilot? Navigator? Whatever she is, at least she's focused on the task at hand. That task being "not dying".

: ...And someone needs to check on Captain Singh and the Pilot.

Two strikes for me...



Whoa! Our first choice!
Since I am extremely sleepy and my typing is quickly going down the drain, I'll let someone make this one for me Shall we clear the smoke, check on the Captain, or check on the Pilot?

[Teneb]

It seems some images are missing, at least for me. Also, you can resize them by adding "width=x height=y" to the img tags (so [ img width=x height=y ])

[Hanzoku]

Same here, the images before Shen's mugshot.

Now, to the decision: Let's get rid of the smoke first, it'll make finding the captain and/or pilot easier, assuming they're not dead already.

[RulerOfNothing]

I also support getting rid of the smoke. Also posting to watch.

[Bacos666]

Yeah, better get the smoke.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Smoke the smoke.

[Sirus]

Seriously, none of them are showing up at all? Damn.

I'm a bit worried about downsizing the images because the text is on the small side, but I'll give it a shot.

How about now? Images working properly?

[Haspen]

Only the faces and the last image with choices shows up for me v;

[Sirus]

dafuq

There's no reason for the others not to show up :l

[Urist Imiknorris]

I see the problem. You're using the url for the page instead of the one for the image itself. Compare:

Spoiler: http://postimg.org/image/4ugfum1z3/full/ (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: http://s19.postimg.org/3s69c2j5t/0011.png (click to show/hide)

[Sirus]

Neither of those are showing up for me O_o
Also I've been right-clicking the images and copying the image location, not the page URL.
Clearing my cache, I can still see everything in my post and in my imghost folder.

This is...bizarre.

[Haspen]

Neither of those are showing up for me O_o

[Teneb]

It may be your image host. I saved the image and uploaded it to imgur (which I use for my own LP). Compare:

Spoiler: original (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: reuploaded (click to show/hide)