Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager

Very much a puzzle game. Always think about how one part helps with another! Don't try to skip too big a gap in rockets/equipment. Big Gemini FTW!

I find generally, that even on 'easy' I will have four rocket launches rated at 80%+ safety blow up in a row, destroying my prestige (and thus budget) and killing most of my cosmonauts. Also when I get to launching manned rockets I usually only have the budget for half the mission controllers that I need. I feel that to successfully play this game I need to take down all of the rocket and vehicle specs, including staff numbers, and use a spreadsheet to plan a critical mission path. All of which is quite odd, because years ago I used to play this game with no problem. Maybe my mind is getting weak in my old age. Because I am sure that the developer hasn't touched the game in over a decade, so it shouldn't be harder.

As someone that didn't play the old Race Into Space, because when I was growing up computers no longer used floppy disks and Pinball was a huge deal, this game is interesting. I actually went to look up some of the mission varieties like Gemini Direct Ascent, and it inspired me to look into some of the more overlooked things in various space race materials like the differences between direct ascent and the lunar rendezvous missions. Unfortunately to properly beat the game it is a very specific path as spending too much time will lock you out of certain achievements or even lose to the opposing space program. It's also a very simplified visual experience with 2d slide shows and basic animations when the missions are underway. You will experience glitches in your missions and with properly trained space and ground crews you can mitigate most of them.

Game is a bit old and runs perfectly smooth. But it is not fun at all, so I cannot recommend it. I do like Mars Horizon (have played through it twice) and similar games. But this is rng fest, and when you fail you get punished severely with degraded rocket reliability and load reliability. It seems AI follows "historical" dates and never fails, which just adds frustration because what is the point with competing with infallible AI. Interface is another nightmare, and you have to *know* which guys can do training and which skills will be used in next launch, because it is shown nowhere. I once forgot and sent launch coordinator to training and then second best had like 50% needed skill. Only way to fix it was to take my main guy off training and lose a lot of money, or roll back to previous save. So yea, weakest of competitors. Pick Mars Horizon, where AI can fail their tasks properly and gameplay is more fun.

This is a 14 year old remake of the 33 year old game, Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space, bearing the name of the once respected but now disgraced (due to political affiliations) second guy to walk on the moon. As far as games go this isn't a winner... you might expect with a name like "Space Program Manager" you'll be doing some space simulation, or base building... well, you'd be wrong. This is a game for people who like menus. Lots of menus. In fact, the entirety of the game is just static 2D windows... might as well have been a browser game. This isn't a simulator game or anything remotely like that, interaction is a bare minimum. This is basically a tycoon game where you manage staff, funding and projects by clicking through menus then ticking along until you see the outcome. This core game design is incredibly flawed and your runs will be hammered by RNG... and as soon as you get a failure, it sets you on the same popular trajectory as Buzz Aldrin... endorsing utter failure and collapse, with disastrous results. Since the game is 100% menus, you'd think they'd have to be pretty damned good menus, wouldn't you? Well, again, you're wrong. This is from Slitherine, and th…

A great game for Space Geeks everywhere.