Navpoint Demo

Maps and directions are still a critical part of transportation around the world, even if most of these have been implemented directly into computers. People are still used when it comes to air traffic controls, because computers are not yet trusted with the lives of all those passengers. In the future, the machines would either drive themselves or at least navigate without help, so guidance from the ground may not be needed.

Navpoint is quite a simple game at a glance, because it doesn’t take a long time to figure out how to play and what the main idea is. In essence, your role is to guide spaceships to their destinations, while avoiding accidents and trying to counter inertia where possible. On the other hand, once you start playing and you have to deal with all those things at once, the situation is far more challenging than it looks on paper.

As such, there are multiple types of ships you have to keep an eye on, each one of which transports a different cargo. Whether it’s celebrities going to a party or a shipment of fuel, each spaceship needs to be kept on route, and you have to do this in real time for every unit on the map. After a while, the task can become too difficult, so you’ll have to concentrate on saving the most important ships.

Every once in awhile, a special event can be triggered, which are actually missions or challenges. As an example, space pirates can give you a lot of headaches, not to mention the cunning saboteurs, that can rig one of your ships to explore if it drops below a certain speed. However, it is also possible to build refueling stations and consolidate a variety of other structures, so that’s one more thing you have to keep an eye on.

Visually, the game is not exactly impressive, but it’s not too bad either. The graphics are minimalistic and simple, but the view you witness sometimes is quite breathtaking. The ships and the buildings are too small to be very detailed, but the planets and the asteroids are not. Obviously, you shouldn’t expect too much in this regard, especially when you look at the game’s size on disk.

While Navpoint still has a decent number of flaws, especially optimization-wise, there are some elements that have the power to keep players glued to the screen for hours on end. Not only that, but there are plenty of maps and random missions to enjoy along the way.