Creatures: Raised in Space (2002)

Platforms: PlayStation
Genres: Simulator

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

a quiet, hands-off pet-raising sim where you patiently guide and watch over small creatures as they slowly learn, grow, and sometimes fade away.

nurturingslow-pacedcaretakinglow-keygentlepatience-testingobservationalcalm

About

Creatures: Raised in Space is essentially a Playstation port of the pet simulator game Creatures 3, with modified gameplay mechanics. As in the previous titles, the player controls a fairy named Scrubby, who acts through the cursor issuing orders to the Norns when used over interactive portions of the scenery. Like in other life simulation games with artificial intelligence, the creatures can't be commanded directly and must learn behavior patterns through repeated actions. The Norns can get sick or exhausted and eventually die, and one of the main tasks is to manage the colony to avoid their demise, ensuring that all its inhabitants are well-fed and healthy by eating fruits and consuming medicinal herbs. A series of meters at the bottom of the screen show the population status. The game takes place in space, inside a giant station with a domed ceiling protecting a closed ecosystem. The main objective is to open all the rooms, by ordering a Norn to carry a key to unlock a door or passage. Deeper levels have aggressive enemies and poisonous plants that have to be avoided by the Norns. There are blue stars scattered throughout the scenery, and the creatures can be trained to fetch and store them inside a machine, generating a new key after twenty-five stars. Norns can breed and lay eggs, producing offspring that takes some minutes to reach maturity.

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This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.