Imagine that you control a small ship trying to enter orbit. You leave Earth behind, accelerate, and… boom: you crash into a piece of space debris. You try again, and this time you hit another ship. Third attempt, you don't accelerate enough, and you end up fried like an egg on the planet's surface. You think the fourth time is the charm, you accelerate too much, and you explode in the asteroid belt. The strangest part? You always come back for more. That's the offer of Orbity. Its "fly-die-repeat" mechanic is cruel, but you'll be hooked immediately.
Some games are not known for offering mercy. One of the first that comes to mind is Dark Souls, and the same extends to its sequels. Personally, I have suffered with FTL, RimWorld, and basically every roguelike determined to ruin my life (and my game) with a bad roll of dice. But then there are those games that are very difficult to control. Many simulators require several hours of preparation before allowing a certain "comfort" in the games (Elite: Dangerous), and others throw you into the frying pan without tutorials or basic instructions (Cultist Simulator). With that in mind, I received the link to an online game called Orbity. The mission? Place a small ship in orbit. If I could do that in Kerbal Space Program I guess it shouldn't be that hard, right…?
Well… yes. It's a real nightmare. First of all, the controls of our ship are very limited, as is the physical integrity and available fuel. That means that in addition to entering orbit with maximum efficiency, we must save enough to slow down and return to Earth in one piece. As if that weren't enough, Earth's orbit is chaos. Ships, rocks, more ships, more rocks… navigation in Orbity is one of the purest expressions of chaos we've seen. With each flight (and each explosion) we accumulate experience that will then be used to unlock additional functions, such as greater maneuverability, more health and fuel, regeneration, and rotation speed, among other things.
In short, Orbity combines the essence of QWOP and Cookie Clicker under the context of space exploration. Controlling that little ship is very difficult, but before you know it you'll have invested a frightening amount of time, only to celebrate a couple of laps around Earth and die. Two recommendations: Create an account to unlock all controls, and use Chrome, because it doesn't work very well in Firefox.
