The Starship Damrey (3DS) - Review

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The Guild series is one of the most interesting concepts to come up in the gaming community in a long time. Small, independently developed games brought to you by some of the biggest talents in the industry. The latest game in the series, The Starship Damrey, looks to bring a little horror to the series by way of a chilling ghost story. Unfortunately, if in space, no one could hear you scream, then no one can hear you yawn either.

The Starship Damrey from Kazuya Asano and Takemaru Abiko (writers of visual novels and games in Japan) is the latest installment in the ‘Guild’ series and it attempts to bring its own unique take on deep-space horror to the Nintendo 3DS. Your character is permanently locked in a cryo-chamber and can only by freed manipulating a utility robot around the titular spacecraft. It’s a unique twist on the classic adventure genre that sadly never really gains any traction.

The very first thing you will notice when starting up The Starship Damrey is the fact that the game will offer up no tutorials or guidance as to how it should be played; the only advice you are given is that sound is an integral part of the experience, so don’t turn off those speakers. You will spend the bulk of the game controlling AR-7, a small utility robot (not unlike R2-D2) as he tries to find the means to free his controller from the cryo-chamber as well as find out what it is that has plagued the Damrey.

You will explore the Damrey from a first person perspective, finding the means to unlock more areas of the (seemingly) haunted spacecraft. The game’s puzzles have a very old-school, Resident Evil vibe (find strange key in strange place, unlock door, rinse and repeat), though some will leave you completely scratching your head as the game gives you very little indication as what to do next, forcing you to literally search every inch of the ship just looking for something you can interact with. That being said, I do appreciate how the Damrey feels like one big puzzle floating in space. Everything is in some way intertwined with something else which makes each action feel that much more important to the outcome of the story.

When it comes to controls, however, the game employs one of the strangest layouts I have ever seen. You move AR-7 with the D-Pad in one of four directions but can only move a set distance. Once you have moved you then look around with the Circle Pad. You can then use the ‘A’ button to select highlighted things in the environment. While this doesn’t sound that weird in theory, trust me, getting your mind wrapped around properly moving that little robot and looking where you want takes quite some time.

One thing that The Starship Damrey does pull off very well is its ‘spooky’ factor. The game never gets overly scary or gory, instead it relies on the ship's atmosphere, ambiance, and the threat of something coming out of the shadows to make you feel uneasy. While this does ratchet up the tension several degrees, the game is marred by a lackluster ending that throws all of the tension that has been impressively built up out the window. There are also some pretty strange scenes that completely break the flow of the game and simply seem odd and out of place.

Visually, however, The Starship Damrey is quite competent. The ship’s interior, while repetitive, does in fact feel like a spaceship and the art style is consistent throughout. Be warned, however, that the game is very dark, so much so that you will be spending most of your time looking into nothingness only to steer poor AR-7 into a wall. The 3D effect is also put to good use, while nothing really pops out at you the game does have a very good sense of depth, which is nice when staring down the long winding corridors of the Damrey.

With the audio being such an important element of The Starship Damrey experience, it's a relief to report that for the most part the game’s soundtrack is fittingly minimalistic and spooky. There are some strange compositions thrown in for good measure but overall the game will keep you on your toes both visually and acoustically. My one gripe regarding the audio experience is that AR-7 will whir throughout the entire game without reprieve. 

Thankfully, though, that won’t be a very long time as the game only lasts a paltry three hours and the only extras are unlocked by finding all of the hidden space leeches (though they might as well be hiding directly in your path) and, in a unique marketing twist, by having a save file for one of the other three Guild games on your system. The Starship Damrey sports an $8.99 price tag, definitely not an attractive amount for a game with so little content and no replayability.

Once my journey aboard the Damrey had reached its conclusion I was left with a feeling of disappointment. The premise was so unique, so wonderfully different from any other game I've played recently, but it's also dull enough to put you to sleep. The gameplay is repetitive and convoluted, the puzzles are simplistic... at the end of the day I can really only recommend this game if you love ghost stories and are desperate for one on your 3DS, but beyond that don’t board the Damrey.

This review is based on a digital copy of The Starship Damrey, downloaded from the 3DS e-Shop.

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