32 | New Scientist | 24 August 2019
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SPACE stations have been in the air
a lot recently – literally in the case
of China’s Tiangong-2, which
ended its mission by crashing
through the atmosphere last
month. Plans for new stations are
also afoot. NASA aims to build an
outpost orbiting the moon, while
billionaire Amazon boss Jeff Bezos
has the wild idea of moving all of
humanity to Earth orbit.
It got me thinking about some
of my favourite space stations in
video games. They make ideal
settings: being self-contained,
you can roam without running
into artificial barriers that mark
the limits of some game worlds;
the cold vacuum of space provides
developers with a handy excuse
not to build an entire world.
Space stations also lend
themselves to horror. Take Alien:
Isolation, which is set aboard the
vast Sevastopol station and has
you playing as Amanda Ripley, the
daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s
character from Alien. It oozes
retro-futuristic style, aping the
pre-digital designs of the 1979 film,
but there is little time to take in
the sights – you spend most of thegame hiding under tables as an
alien stalks you.
Prey, released in 2017, also
features a space station with
a retro aesthetic. The game’s
backstory involves US president
John F. Kennedy surviving the
assassination that in reality killed
him, then teaming up with the
Soviets Union in a massivelyexpanded space programme to
combat a mysterious alien threat.
The station is Talos I, which looks
like an art deco skyscraper, in orbit
near the moon. You can explore,
crawl through vents, hack open
locked doors or take a trip through
an airlock for a spacewalk shortcut.
Both titles owe a heavy debt to
the System Shock games, a pair of
1990s releases that are some of the
first examples of the “immersive
sim” genre, in which players get a
wide range of choices and tools,Alien meets 2001 Space stations make ideal settings for games: they are self-
contained worlds where you can explore every nook and cranny without running
into artificial barriers. They can also be completely terrifying, finds Jacob Aron“ Playing as an AI may
be a bit passive, but it
is the closest I’ll ever
get to being on a real
space station”Games
Alien: Isolation
Creative Assembly
On PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox
One and Nintendo SwitchPrey
Arkane Studios
On PC, PlayStation 4
and Xbox OneObservation
No Code
On PC and PlayStation 4making you feel like you are really
present and have agency in the
game world. By today’s standards
those earlier versions are a little
rough, but a modern, third System
Shock is coming. I can’t wait.
I also have to give a shout-out
to BioShock, the spiritual sequel
to the System Shock games. It is set
in an underwater city rather than
a space station, and is possibly one
of the best games ever.
And while it isn’t immersive
sim, Observation, which came
out earlier this year and is made
by some of the same people who
made Alien: Isolation, puts its own
twist on System Shock. It features
an artificial intelligence, in the
style of HAL from the story 2001:
A Space Odyssey, called SAM
(Systems, Administration and
Maintenance), but flips things by
having you play as the AI. You can
explore the Observation station
by inhabiting video cameras and
spherical robots capable of jetting
through its cramped modules.
It is like being on a more advanced
version of the International Space
Station: the robots are seemingly
inspired by Cimon, a mobile
platform on the ISS.
At first, things seem ordinary, or
as ordinary as they can be in orbit.
But the station is in trouble and
you have to help astronaut Emma
Fisher (think Sandra Bullock’s
Ryan Stone in the film Gravity) get
systems back online. Then an early
twist (and a great reveal) push the
story into 2001 territory.
Playing as an AI does make the
experience a bit passive, taking
orders from Fisher, but as a space
nerd, for me the game’s grounding
in science is a real thrill. It is the
closest I’ll ever get to being on a
real space station, Bezos or no. ❚ARKANE STUDIOS, BETHESDA SOFTWORKSExploring Talos I, the
skyscraper-like space
station from PreyThe games column
Jacob Aron is New Scientist’s
deputy news editor. He has
been playing video games
for 25 years, but still isn’t
very good at them. Follow
him on Twitter @jjaron