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Superluminal Vagrant Twin

by C.E.J. Pacian profile

Science Fiction
2016

Web Site

(based on 115 ratings)
13 reviews

About the Story

A text-only space sim.

Ply the spaceways. Make five million credits. Buy back your twin.

(Superluminal Vagrant Twin is a shallow but broad exploration game.)


Game Details


Awards

Winner, Best Game; Winner, Best Implementation; Nominee, Best Use of Innovation - 2016 XYZZY Awards

9th Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2019 edition)

15th Place - Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time (2023 edition)

Editorial Reviews

Chris Klimas
What I especially liked, and I think distinguishes it from other, shorter Pacian games I’ve played (and would also recommend — especially Castle of the Red Prince), is the sense of depth to the world. Where Red Prince feels allusive, SVT is expository. For example, there are some characters who exist only to point the player to other locations to visit, from a mechanical point of view. And yet, the few sentences they’re given often give a sense not only of the politics and culture of the world, but also of the characters themselves. It’s pretty masterful to be able to do so much with so few words.
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Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
Meanwhile, Superluminal does as good a job as I’ve seen at a trade-and-exploration parser game, even including a little light grinding but without becoming too dull or frustrating.
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ferkung
Superluminal Vagrant Twin (2016) - Full Playthrough
jay___ram introduces ferkung to C.E.J. Pacian's space trading sim Superluminal Vagrant Twin from 2016. A fascinating use of parser to replace the typically point-and-click interface of those games, it's also a favorite genre of ferkung.
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Member Reviews

5 star:
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Number of Reviews: 13
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Most Helpful Member Reviews


11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
The joy of discovery, April 10, 2016
by Sobol (Russia)

Currently the biggest, most complex and most polished game by the author, Superluminal Vagrant Twin is a space trading simulator - an old and noble genre including such classics as Elite, but tragically underrepresented in IF until now. There's a huge universe waiting for you to explore with lots of different planets to visit, people to meet, goods to buy and sell, side quests to complete.

You can rush through the main plot fairly quickly, but there are many other things to discover (even after getting all the achievements) - which I naturally won't spoil here. And, of course, rushing through this game would be completely missing the point, because the best part of it is not making the money but savoring the wonderful descriptions - terse and colorful, poetic without being pretentious; closing your eyes and trying to visualize all the various worlds you travel to (Spoiler - click to show) (there were 53 of them in the beta version I played).

My favorite character was the deep space explorer on Splinter. I instantly imagined Ursula K. Le Guin.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Jump to Conclusion, July 29, 2018
by Victor Gijsbers (The Netherlands)

In Superluminal Vagrant Twin, you explore the galaxy as you attempt to collect enough cash to rescue your twin. The game's main selling point is the sheer size of the galaxy: by the end of the game, I had visited no fewer than 44 planets, and I think I may have missed out on a few, since I didn't seem to have the necessary objects to complete absolutely every side quest. In order to make this size manageable, the planets are implemented very lightly: there's just a few things you can interact with, and those interactions are mostly restricted to "talk", "take", "buy", and "sell". Even the "examine" verb has been disabled. This gives the game its strange feel of being both extremely limited (at any location you can just do a few things) and extremely expansive (from each planet, you can jump to every single planet you have discovered, and you keep discovering more).

We have, then, a game that is sharply focused on a few activities, but gives us a lot of freedom in when and whether we engage in them. First, we explore. Exploration is simple -- you just "jump" to a planet, although you'll have to learn the name of the planet first. Or you have to guess the name, something that is by no means impossible and got me to quite a number of planets I would not otherwise have encountered. (A nice reward for out-of-the-box thinking that the game's restricted verb list otherwise cannot provide for. Unfortunately, you cannot "jump to Conclusion", although the game does acknowledge the command.) At those planets, you buy or sell exotic goods, upgrade yourself and your ship, restock on fuel, arrest some criminals, deliver some packages, and perhaps learn about one or two other planets. As you proceed, you get a good understanding of the universe around you, although the complicated social and political arrangements never become entirely clear. Great fun; and I suspect the game has the exact right length to maintain a sense of wonder without becoming tedious.

The game this reminded me of most is Sunless Sea, which also features journeys from port to port and very limited, text-based interactions when you arrive. But Superluminal Vagrant Twin is smaller, faster, less impenetrable, and a lot friendlier. Highly recommended.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Space is the Place, March 30, 2016

First impressions are of a text-based Elite, but it's only a superficial resemblance. Sure, you're travelling from planet to planet buying and selling, but there is no economy to speak of, only fetch quests - which is perfectly fitting, given the text adventure format, fetch quests being the atomic unit of adventure game puzzles.

Money is used as a gating mechanism, your limited resources only granting access to a few planets and low-paid activities at first, you will need to use your ingenuity and wits to gain the big bucks - opening up more and more untold vistas for your delectation.

The writing is ultra-sparse but extremely evocative. A whole galaxy of strangeness. There is humour, creepiness, sadness, awe, sometimes all at once. It touches on themes of humanism and racism whilst delivering a rollicking science-fantasy adventure. Brilliant stuff. I recommend the hell out of this game.

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Superluminal Vagrant Twin:

Must-play games by Jeff Sonas
I am looking for the games that, in your opinion, you simply must have played in order to really call yourself an IF aficionado. Or if someone wanted to play N number of IF games in order to get as good an overview of the IF classics...

Kid-Appropriate Games by Princessthe1st
I'm looking for games for middle-schoolers, that are hard and fun but still appropriate.

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Puzzles of 2016 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2016 which you think might be worth considering for Best Puzzles in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not mentioned here...

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