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About the StoryThe most important discovery in history. And then, the whole world goes crumbling down. Armed with but a computer and an expired railway ticket, how can one expect to save the day when the doomsday clock has begun ticking...?Game Details
Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: October 1, 2011 Current Version: 3 License: Creative Commons Development System: Inform 7 IFID: 32FC6F62-5EF9-4BA5-B055-7CB5497785A7 TUID: ajzw6jutat2aeqa Followed by sequel Andromeda Apocalypse — Extended Edition, by Marco Innocenti |
Awards
17th Place - 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2011)
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| Average Rating: ![]() Number of Reviews: 5 Write a review |
Most Helpful Member Reviews

The original IFComp 2011 incarnation of the ambitious sci-fi adventure Andromeda Awakening attracted a lot of what felt like controversy at the time. It was self-proclaimedly verbose, probably too big for the competition context, definitely not accessible enough in general, too difficult due to that inaccessibility and thus polarising overall. These difficulties were distracting spikes on the outer surface of a game with an extremely developed and immersive mythology, a weird and novel atmosphere to match and a powerful ultimate effect. Andromeda's remarkable qualities didn't go unnoticed, but having to handle a valuable thing is still offputting if that thing is spiky, and a lot of players were put off.
Author Marco Innocenti absorbed the considerable volume of feedback the game generated, generated feedback on the feedback in his expansive way, then revised Andromeda and released the new incarnation as Andromeda Awakening - The Final Cut, neatly using movie director parlance to emphasise the degree of change between the versions of the game most people played during IFComp and this new one.
Your role in the adventure is that of a scientist who has put together a doom-predicting report on the state of the planet Monarch. As you rush by train to deliver it to folks who might be able to do something about the impending disaster, the disaster strikes, leaving you in a crumbling underground of magma and strange technology. Mysteries and revelations lie ahead. The imagery and construction of the underground world is fascinating, and feels very real. Many objects and entities you encounter can be researched on your E-Pad, Andromeda's answer to the Hitchhiker's Guide, and this mechanism allows the game to significantly increase the amount of information it delivers while remaining interactive and also motivating you to investigate that information. The overall atmosphere and behaviour of Andromeda is not unlike some of the explorative stretches in the first-person incarnations of the Metroid games, all cavernous areas, natural features and unexplained alien technology.
As a fan of the original Andromeda Awakening I can say that The Final Cut makes good on its promise to fundamentally smooth out the experience. The original was studded with moments where it was broadly clear what needed to be done but difficult to do it. Tricky implementation, casually mentioned but crucial props and unnecessarily fiddly interactions kept tripping up a great story. In almost every case, these problem props have now been fixed up or clued with infinitely more grace, or just made automatic and removed altogether.
Other improvements include the addition of a quality help menu and a 'go to' command for immediately returning to previously visited locations. Some of the prose's weirder expressions have been excised, though I was glad to find that the 'cyanotic lights' were still present.
There are also a couple of significant structural changes/additions made in the Final Cut. A sequence near the end allows for some new third person perspectives on the game's backstory, and the basic 'leave your house to go on your mission' intro has been replaced with something more dramatic.
Even as a returning player, I still found it difficult to work out what to do with a lot of the alien machinery down in the underground, but at least those puzzles are now challenging for valid reasons, and not attended by the general querulousness that hovered over the original game. Andromeda's effect is not spoiled by heading to the walkthrough now and then; its outcomes feel too big for that. If the game's high quality was originally obscured, The Final Cut makes it much more apparent.

You start off as a scientist, determined to publish your findings after your colleague was murdered. I won't give it away, but things go wrong and you're literally fighting for life.
You get to explore underground facilities and caves, and the puzzles were quite nice. I had to use the walkthrough a couple times, and the game could've benefitted from an in-game map, but overall the puzzles were straightforward and on the right difficulty.
The ending touched me, and I was one of those who hadn't linked "The Event" to us, and I left this game somber and sad. But don't let that stop you, the ending is truly moving and it is a magnificent game. Any game that makes you ponder your existence is truly great and deserving of your time. One of the best I've played on here.
BRAVO!!!

But then it all pulled together. This is a great exploration/adventure sci-fi game. The focus is on understanding the mystery, with the occasional computer log and a fun electronic encyclopedia called the e-Pad.
A short-to-mid length game, right on the upper end of most IF comp entries. The game is very polished except for annoying 'guess the noun' issues (you must say 'windows' not 'window''; a 'large strange object' is 'object', etc.)
Overall, a great feel. Reminded me of Eric Eve's nightfall, and a bit like Scavenger. Definitely worth playing.
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Recommended Lists
Andromeda Awakening - The Final Cut appears in the following Recommended Lists:Andromeda Series by Infinite999
This is a list for all of the games in the Andromeda Series in this recommended playing order: 1. Andromeda Awakening - The Final Cut 2. Andromeda Dreaming 3. Andromeda Apocalypse - Extended Edition 4. Andromeda Ascending
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A few months ago, I thought, "There really aren't that many sci-fi IF games". Then I started going through old games I had played, and downlaoded TADS, and was shocked at how many great sci-fi games there are. This is a list of my...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Andromeda Awakening - The Final Cut:Games much improved in later versions by Karl Ove Hufthammer
Most IF works are only available in ‘version 1’, but some are released in updated versions. And a few see a large amount of bug fixing, rewriting and polish. This is a poll for highlighting these games, games that the authors have taken...
Best Post-Comp Releases by Anya Johanna DeNiro
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Best cover art by MathBrush
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