Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is definitely how the developers over at Sundae Month describe it – An Anti-Adventure Game! Now I’m not going to waste any time, and instead I’m going to jump straight in and say this game is not for everyone – Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is part of a very niche market, so if you want action packed, challenging and fast paced gameplay, leave now because this game is not for you. However, if you are curious, stick around! You never know…You just might of found your new time-killer game.
Well, for the first time in my history of gaming, I have finally came across a game which has two graphical settings that astonish me; these being simply named “Bad” or “Worse”! Now, I know the game is not designed to be amazing graphically, but who is the worse setting made for?! Are there seriously people still using systems that cannot run games like this at bad? My mind is boggled by the sheer existence of this preset. However, on that note, the artistic styling of the game is very pleasing as it merges old school sidescrolling 2D sprites with a semi 3D world, creating a majestic blend of 2.5D graphics.
The main goal to the game is to pick up trash and incinerate it for cold hard cash; Cash for Trash – Simple right? Well, I say hard cash…It’s more like scraps of pennies.
You play as an Alaensee Girlbeast (What ever the hell that is…) who is a janitor on a space port just getting by picking up trash and finding food, and has dreams of leaving the planet “Xabran’s Rock”, when one day you wander where you shouldn’t…And get cursed as a result. Now, due to your curiosity, you have to deal with a floating skeletal head that every now and then screeches at you similar to a Banshee or demon…Fun.
Throughout the city, there are a large amount of NPC’s that will give you extensive information about dungeons that run across the planet; you will also meet wizards and adventurers along your trash burning travels, and vendors that sell all manor of goods and wares. Interestingly enough, some also sell weapons, armour and spells, whilst unusable right now, suggest that this game will adopt some more complex gameplay later on – Alas, however, the game is purely about burning trash and trying to make enough money to buy food and survive to do it all again the next day.
At first, you think there is not really much story to be had in a game about picking up trash, but you’d be surprised! If you choose to find it and piece it together, you’ll eventually uncover the underlying plot threads from talking to NPCs, to locating new areas, to even the gameplay itself… I like how this is done, as thrusting a story in your face can sometimes be very boring and confusing for new players, and lets players digest the information and story as it comes.
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is simple at it’s core, but can be very confusing at times, which does give it charm, however the map is all over the place! This means I’m constantly getting lost, and since not much is explained about what trash is good to eat, and which isn’t when you’re starving and in a tough spot is a pain in the backside!
In all honestly not much is explained at all, unless you actively seek the information you want.
Overall, Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is more of a zen-like gaming experience, meant to wash over you and drain hours away in a calming, soothing wave…The whole process becomes kind of like muscle memory; sell this, incinerate that, you become more efficient at it over time to the point you are not even thinking about it any more, and are just enjoying the colourful visuals on your screen.
I’m going to give this game 7/10 as I enjoyed the visual styles of this game, and it was just so relaxing to play.
Check out the Steam Page here >> Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor Steam page