14 DAY TRIAL // What’s the best way to prioritize patients in a space station hospital that’s also trying to find a way to cure a massive floating space creature? The Artificial Intelligence currently assisting with my healthcare adventure does not have an answer, while the interface suggests that it’s easy to make the four canisters associated with the space creature move to the front of the line.
But it feels unfair to the many others, humans and aliens, who are waiting in line. I decide not to intervene, allowing patient flow to develop organically. But I do use my funds to acquire a new deck on the space station and then create two new diagnostics rooms and staff them with doctors. My hospital is performing pretty well already but the extra capacity will help.
I check the various overlays to get a better idea of how my employees are doing. A few extra benches for patients to spend time on between treatments are needed and, given that I have solid currency reserves, I also spend on more vending machines, extra toilets, and waste bins. Futuristic treatments aren’t as good if the space station hospital is not welcoming.
Galacticare is developed by Brightrock Games, with publishing handled by CULT Games. I played a preview version on Steam. The game is also coming to the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S in late 2023. The name makes clear that this is a management experience with a science fiction theme.
The title is created by developers who love the classics of the genre. Rooms are at the center of all mechanics. Everything starts with Diagnostics, which should be as large as possible and well-staffed. Once they get scanned, humans and aliens will move to various treatment options. It’s not always pleasant to go to the doctor, so the space station needs to provide a variety of creature comforts.
All personnel in Galacticare has specific traits that will affect their needs and their job performance. At first, it’s easy to simply hire and plop a doctor in a room. But soon the game encourages players to check their various overlays and find where the system can be improved.
The game’s campaign will introduce unique characters that will require strategy tweaks. Scenarios will involve working for a deep space prison and for an intergalactic music festival. Each situation, depending on the patient race and care needs, will require different approaches when it comes to rooms and doctors.
At any time, players can click on a character to get a full breakdown of their problems and their treatment path, for patients, or general performance, for employees. I hope that the campaign will also offer more ways for characters to interact with one another and create new kinds of crises for players to solve.
Galacticare looks good and, more importantly, uses its science-fiction theme in interesting ways. The equipment and alien races add variety but the idea of treating increasingly weird space creatures is especially attractive. The title’s interface is designed to be familiar to genre veterans and makes it easy to put down rooms and items. The main characters are voiced and the soundtrack is a little generic.
Conclusion
The campaign is more directed, gradually introducing new challenges and options, but a sandbox mode gives gamers the freedom to simply create their ideal space-based healthcare facility. Galacticare will be a hit with anyone who’s into both science fiction and efficiency tweaking.
A preview key was provided by the publisher
