The indie sci-fi space adventure game Elea will soon be available for the PlayStation 4 later this month, as announced by developer Kyodai and publisher SOEDESCO.
Released on September 6, 2018 on Steam, Elea tells the story of a distant future in 2073. A devastating childhood disease has ravaged the Earth. You play as River Elea Catherine Jones, a space scientist. Jones and her husband Ethan have joined an expedition to settle and colonize Solace, a habitable exoplanet, to save humanity from its impending extinction. The interstellar ship named Pilgrimage, which Ethan was on, became radio silent shortly after it reached the planet. Thirteen years later a recovery mission is planned to investigate the likely demise of the Pilgrimage’s expedition and Elea joins it. From there, your wondrous journey will start, moving across space to uncover the mystery.
Episodic in nature, the sci-fi walking simulator is currently sitting at a “Mixed” Rating on its Steam page. Most of Elea's praise is in regards to its breath-taking visuals. However, its story-telling seems a bit broken and forced and times, causing the plot to move forward unnaturally. Game-breaking bugs and annoying mechanics (such as the slow walk speed) also drew ire from early buyers.
But Elea, like many other titles before it, seems to have removed all its kinks for its move to consoles. Along with this move comes a large update including bug fixes and quality of life improvements. New assets, lighting, and graphical enhancements will also be rolled out once it’s on console. PlayStation 4 Pro enhancements are also included, such as increased resolution, Dynamic 4K, high-quality reflections, and anisotropic filtering.
For those who are fans of space and story driven games, this is worth a try. For those who’ve enjoyed another story-driven space adventure game, Deliver Us the Moon, Elea provides familiarity without being too similar. I don't think it's going to beat Observation, or my personal game of the year so far, Outer Wilds, but for those looking for a narrative-driven space adventure, this may scratch that itch.
Elea will be available on July 25 on the PlayStation Store.
