As promised, my translated preview.
Perry Rhodan is a famous name in the sci-fi world - especially so in Germany where (since 1961) every week a new story is released. These so-called magazine-books (not sure of English word) have 64 pages each and they're up to number 2405 now! There are also audio-books, boardgames and a couple of strategy-computer games for the large group of fans. Perry Rhodan has some international fame, too.
Perry Rhodan was born in the United States in a family of German immigrant-descent. When he is nine, the superintelligent being ES contacts him. Although the creature wipes his memory, Perry has an irresistable longing for the stars from that day onwards. This results, amongst others, to Perry quitting his education for becoming a pilot at the US Air Force and switching to US Space Force in stead. He is the first pilot to fly around the moon, and together with the crew of the Stardust he is the first man on the moon on June 14, 1971. There he finds the remains of a crashed space ship, belonging to the Arkonides. With the technology on board that ship he succeeds in making true space travel possible.
He has also found a way to survive for centuries without ageing. The game will take place in 4934 (or 1346 in the New Galactic Time). Perry suddenly awakes when there is a loud explosion. When he invsetigates, he discovers his girlfriend Mondra Diamond has been kidnapped by battle robots. In her office he finds some notes about the alien race Illochim. Do they have anything to do with her disappearance? And does that in turn have any connections with the explosion?
To ensure the game fits into the existing world of Perry Rhodan seamlessly, some of the writers of the magazinebooks have been asked to write the story for the game. It is not necessary to know anything about Perry Rhodan to understand the game, but for those who do lots of trivia have been added. For instance if you order a drink at the bar all the choices are drinks that have been mentioned in the books.
The developers use all kinds of modern techniques to ensure the graphics are better than anything you have seen in adventures so far. There's a lot of movement on the screen - aliens walk around, robots whizz by, space ships fly around behind the windows, doors open and close if someone walks through. Light and shadow effects are impressive and characters talk lip synchronized.
Walking around and interacting is easy. When you open the inventory at the bottom of the screen you will see a row of icons. These represent not only the items you carry, but also portraits of the people you have met or want to know about. These icons can be dragged to anyone you want to talk to - all the NPC's can be talked to, even if they may not have anything relevant to the case to tell you. They also each have their own life and tasks and will not be frozen in place waiting for you to come talk to them. The game has many optional actions so that you will always have something to do, but not everything is necessary to complete the game. This ensures the game doesn't feel very linear.
A nice feature is showing a small image of the room beyond a door when you hover the mouse over it. This simplifies navigation through large complicated locations.
The game will have a lot of reading material. A lot of it serves as background story for those who are not familiar with Perry Rhodan yet. You can skip it if you are not interested. The manual will also contain a summary of the 'Perryversum'.
In total the game contains five large chapters, each in their own location. The developers estimate the game will take 25 to 30 hours to finish. There is no release date yet.
I hope there will be an English language version at some point!