Outpost Kaloki X
December 12,2005 -

Xbox Live Arcade games provide a unique and amusing diversion from the normal rigors of retail gaming, and most of them are available at a nominal price point. The phenomenon has also helped developers of smaller, casual titles to bring their appealing entertainment to the masses. Outpost Kaloki X is one such distraction, and is charming enough to merit a recommendation, even if it isn’t likely to satisfy the average strategy gamer for long. Still, it’s unique enough to stand on its own and its timed missions can be fun and surprisingly challenging—although some successful strategies feel more like cheating than they do a successful bid at economic superiority. In the end, any lack of depth is offset by a charming cast of characters and delightful presentation.

Outpost Kaloki X features two campaigns: an adventure story, which focuses purely on economic goals; and a military story, which adds the additional element of defenses to the mix. Either way, each mission begins with a free-floating space station and tasks you with outfitting it to best suit your customer base. The station has a number of expansion slots, and you must choose from a tech tree that includes such categories as social, scientific research, trade, nature, and more. As the mission progresses, you must not only meet the needs of the extraterrestrials zipping around your station, but you must balance your financial goals with the electrical power needed to keep your miniature Deep Space Nine running smoothly.

Deciding which expansion to build is as simple as gauging the celestial neighborhood’s needs, conveniently represented by a small graph on the right side of the screen. And if you build it, they will come, parking their crafts in the bay and emptying their pockets into your coffers. Each expansion costs you a periodic fee, and also requires a certain amount of power to run. Expansions can also be adjusted based on the amount of profit you wish to gain, so if your guests complain that your trade locations lack appeal, you can increase the quality of the lemonade sold at the stand, or sell your drinks for less in the hope that sheer quantity of sales will override the price point. As time passes and you fill more expansion bays, new businesses will become available, so you may wish to add a pawn shop to please your wannabe day traders—or replace it with a trading post, once it’s available.

You need to get the juice flowing if you want to build, though, and a progressive number of generator types will keep your beacons lit. Each generator can be set to deliver more electricity, but at the expense of its safety—and at a higher periodic cost. None of your generators or bays stays in tip-top shape forever: you must perform periodic maintenance to keep them from turning into smoke-emitting messes, so a maintenance shop is a must. The worse condition your business is in, the fewer customers it pleases and the less money you make. Lest you get the idea of simply selling them off and building anew, the condition also affects your sell price, so a roller rink in ruins isn’t apt to earn you much dough. Instead, it’s better to repair it and see if you can still make a profit, or at least sell it off once it’s worth something.

An imposed time limit offers the main challenge to each mission, and a faster completion time earns you a better medal, giving you impetus to try again once you have a good idea of what strategy works best. Unfortunately, trial and error is a little too common, and some missions aren’t as strategic as they are invitations to cheat. For example, an early Adventure mode mission required us to meet a power goal that was tough to complete in the allotted time—at least, using traditional gameplay methods. Instead, we waited until the time was ripe and simply sold off every expansion and raised the amount of power each generator produced to meet both goals in one fell swoop. It worked, but it didn’t feel very strategic. Instead, it just felt like we were cheating. The War story makes things more interesting by adding the additional need of defense systems, although without direct control of those defenses, both campaigns end up being a little too similar for our tastes.

Thankfully, a colorful presentation and uncommon wit keep the tasks fresh. Much of this has to do with the oddball characters and humorous writing—such as the description for the Nanotechnology facility, which informs us that “The tiny robots are coming! The tiny robots are coming!” The inhabitants of this eccentric universe don’t speak English, so whenever they have something to say, they’ll warble incomprehensibly to the accompanying translation. The bubbly zips of Jetson’s-era spaceships and quirky dialogue keep everything moving along pleasantly, as do the variety of station designs and general air of cosmos-trekkers going about their hectic day. There is nothing next-gen about the production values, but that doesn’t make any of these pleasantries less appealing, particularly in light of the jazzy soundtrack, which lends the perfect air to the kooky old-school vision of the distant future.

If you’re flipping through the available choices on the Xbox Live arcade and happen to come across Outpost Kaloki X, you should give it more than just a passing glance if you want a simple economic strategy game with plenty of pick-up-and-play appeal. It isn’t all that complex, but it’s enjoyable in short bursts and offers plenty of reasons to return from time to time. Besides, who knew that space travelers were so into malt shops and herb gardens? You learn something new every day.

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