Review of "Nebula"

Review by David Welbourn (originally posted at IFDB)

Once upon a time, NASA sent you off to explore three planets. Your mission: collect an animal, a vegetable (or any plant, really), and a mineral (space metals preferred) from each of them. Oh, and if you could also bag a sentient creature and drag it back to Earth, that would be super. It's a scavenger hunt in outer space!

So, off you head in your StarProbe [SFX: tweedle-eedle-eedle-eep!] and give 'em a looksee. One planet is too hot. Another planet is too cold. But the third planet is just right! It even has a monkey!

Nebula is rated as "Novice" level by the author, and it is an appropriately easy adventure. Some puzzles are even repeated, so what works on one planet may well work again on another.

The overall experience is somewhat childlike. Part of it is the simplicity of the setup, but there's also the odd choice of names that the author gave things. Some names like the backward-y "Yekrut Trid", "Nahtan Fponk", and "Divad Nottub" are obviously some sort of in-joke. The space metals are called Aurum, Ferrum, and Argentum (which are almost like gold, iron, and silver, but not quite since it's like, y'know, outer space and stuff). I won't spoil the names of the various plants and animals, but some had me rolling my eyes.

It's all a bit silly and a harmless way to burn up a Sunday, but I think I'm ready for more adult adventures now.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️