Insomnia Tech Demo

The RPG genre is one of the most malleable and versatile out there, since it can be integrated into basically any kind of universe and story, regardless of theme and the characters that are part of the action. Hence, whether it's a classic D&D adventure through the Forgotten Realms, or a deep space saga somewhere in another galaxy, you can always stick the RPG tag on it and no one would think about it twice.

Insomnia is a retro-futuristic RPG that takes place in a dieselpunk universe and revolves around a huge, yet rudimentary space station, which was supposed to colonize another world somewhere. As your character wakes up from the mandatory cryogenic sleep and begins to be aware of his surroundings, it becomes quite clear that something went wrong in the meantime and the fate of the entire human race resides with you.

The term 'dieselpunk', in case you are unclear about its meaning, refers at something that's similar with steampunk technology, only it is based on diesel fuel, rather than steam. Thus, using nothing but diesel and various other primitive technology, humans have managed to leave the planet and go search for another one, although many dangers await along the way and not every race out there stopped trying to evolve after striking oil.

In order for the game to resemble a classical RPG even more, the developers opted for a top-down perspective, even if the graphics engine is completely in 3D and it allows for very high-quality special effects. This decision also has a great impact on the actual gameplay, since the combat is much more tactical-oriented and a lot of emphasis is put on choosing the appropriate skills whenever the character gains a level.

As previously mentioned, the game truly does not disappoint from a visual point of view, especially since it supports very high-resolution textures, real-time dynamic shadows and plenty of pretty special effects to improve the overall atmosphere. Co-op play is also possible, which means that you will be able to go through the missions along side a friend.

In the end, Insomnia may not have an original title, but its ideas are pretty daring and the universe created for the story is quite intriguing. However, you should not judge the game by this tech demo, since the title is still in development and many of the mistakes found in it will not be present in the final product.