Ixion

I first played this game when my first child was in need of sleep training. I needed something super engaging to get me through some rough times of listening to a baby cry, and Ixion was a lifesaver. My second child was just born, so I figured I’d run through Ixion again and see how it held up.

Overall, I still think this game is wonderfully designed. It’s a base building survival game inside of a spaceship, where you need to accomplish certain tasks before your ship falls apart. The base building is complicated enough to merit a few replays on my part. It feels like building a tower of blocks – If you just start putting the pieces you need wherever they fit, it will make fitting everything you want in your ship more difficult down the line. Similarly, if you don’t plan well in the early few stages, the later ones become significantly tougher. I often play games to relax and have fun, but with Ixion I was totally fine scrapping a play through after a dozen hours to build my game all over again. On a second play through, it has a completely different feel, and I miss the difficulty of figuring everything out for myself.

The research tree adds a lot to the experience. You can choose a ton of different viable upgrade paths based on your preferences. As this was my second full time going through the game, I enjoyed messing with the research tree more than anything else.

The story is interesting enough for me to notice, which is rare for a video game. Other than Bioshock, I can’t remember another game that I paid attention to the story much at all.

Bottom line, if you liked Sim City as a kid but want a higher stress level and some Sci Fi thrown in, Ixion is the game for you.