SpaceStationSim

The Good
Well, it starts out new and interesting. You want to see how the astronauts and cosmonauts do things that we take for granted, like eating, sleeping, and exercising, as well as learn about the basics of the game.

The AI is OK, and the sims are smart enough that if they're hungry, they'll go eat, and if they need to go to the bathroom, they'll go. Plus, if you have plans for them, it's set up like The Sims, where you just click on an object for them to interact with and select what you want them to do, and it makes a task queue.

The graphics are alright, and the interface is rather good, after you learn how to use it, with zooming in and out working well. The introductory movie is pretty nice, though even that song's rather boring.

Finally, it shouldn't be overstated that this is very, very deserving of its E +10 rating. There is pretty much nothing in the entire game that could offend a parent. The package lists alcohol and tobacco references, but I didn't hear any, it lists mild violence but I never saw so much as a slap, and it says crude humor but the worst I heard were some poop jokes.

The Bad
It got real old real fast. Like The Sims on which this is based, there are no set goals, and the game is what you make of it. But unlike The Sims, it lacks that je ne sais quoi that made The Sims so fun to play, which made you want to come back to that game day after day, often for some self-ascribed goal like getting to the top of your job or getting that huge mansion at the end of the street. The game lacks that. Perhaps it's too complicated, with its modules and components that are often poorly described for what they do, and the many little things you have to micromanage like oxygen and CO2 levels, supplies, and crew happiness. Perhaps it's too tedious, watching people float around, eat their food, and perform their experiments. Or maybe it's that it's difficult to relate to, because people tend to know what they'd want to do living on Earth, but wouldn't really know what they're supposed to do on a space station. Whatever it is, it just lacks that special something that made The Sims fun.

In addition, the graphics for the space launches were terrible, and looked like they were made 10 years ago. The in-game music had a small selection, and since there wasn't much to do, it also got old fast. There are probably more things that are bad about it, but frankly, even reviewing it is sort of boring.

The Bottom Line
In a word, dull.

Two years ago for Christmas, Mom wanted to buy me a computer game for Christmas, but didn't want anything violent (not sure why; I was 16 years old and had played plenty before). That pretty much cut away more than half of the computer games in store, more if you're very liberal with your definition of "violent", so this was one of the few games that was to her taste. I installed it, and played it for about 2 days before tiring of it. Recently while cleaning up my desktop, I noticed the icon for it, and since the internet was down for the time being, I decided to try it out again, but quickly realized why I'd abandoned it in the first place.

This is a game about modern space work. The terms "space flight" and "space exploration" don't even work, because all you're doing is building a station in Earth orbit. So, take something that's already boring, modern space flight, which has no aliens, no space guns, no hyperspace of interstellar travel, and little conflict even, and make it even more boring. Instead of at least doing something vaguely exciting (though somewhat impractical) like launching probes or flying manned missions to planets, instead your task in space is the most boring, practical, and cost-effective task in space: to build a space laboratory in orbit and use it to conduct experiments in low gravity (and not even anything suspenseful happens, like in Tess Gerritsen's book Gravity). That is SpaceStationSim. It's not so much a bad game, and I think generally the designers tried their best, but the very concept of it was inherently boring.

So, there are only two people I'd recommend this game to: 1. People who are actually truly interested in modern space programs, and really care about NASA and the ISS and all that jazz and 2. Overprotective parents who would rather give their kids an "edutainment" game than something fun they might like. For everyone else, get a copy of The Sims or The Sims 2, or play one of the hundreds or thousands of other games set in space that are more fun than this.