Tin Can – Review

Floating in the void of space, there’s not much chance of tech support answering your cries for help, so when stranded in an old tin-can escape pod if things start to go wrong, you’re going to have to find a solution by yourself.

Tin Can simulates this experience as you’re trapped in a small escape pod floating around space and while help is on the way, you’ll need to keep your trusty Medusa class escape pod, functioning well enough to keep you alive for the remaining minutes.

When you first jump in to Tin Can, you’ll want to head into the tutorial, not only does this set the background for the game, as you’re assisting a colleague with some simple repairs, it does a great job of introducing you to the various systems inside the escape pod as well as a few ideas as to what you’ll need to do when things go wrong.

After this brief introduction you’re greeted with a variety of modes to choose from back in the main menu. The main game mode is “Rescue” where you start off having to survive and keep a beacon active for 6 minutes for rescuers to find you, complete this scenario and you’ll face longer challenges for 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes.
Events are pre-determined so with enough practice you’ll slowly work through them, but there’s also a scenario editor which gives you in depth control over time, damaged components and events you’ll face allowing you to make things as challenging as you might desire.

Also on the main menu you’ll find challenges, which offers 8 custom challenges to test your survival skills, the first “One button to rule them all” is a fine example as it gives you a single button that you’ll need to switch between different parts of the escape pod to keep everything functioning.
There’s also a ranking mode, which is classed as Hardcore difficulty where you survive as long as possible to place on the community leaderboard, at the time of review leaderboards weren’t active, but ranking mode looks to be the main “end-game” content.

Finally Sandbox mode gives you the freedom to explore and get used to aspects of repairs, such as where spare parts are stored and the time to see each individual component and work out what might be needed more.

The internals of the escape pod look might pretty complicated, but as you start to get to grips with the game, you’ll start to get familiar with your surroundings, there’s a main generator above you which generates power as it heats up, and then the hexagon shaped pod provides six walls full of components and systems you’ll need to keep running. the most important opposite the entrance is the atmospherics, with three panels controlling Oxygen, Carbon dioxide and pressure, you’ll need to keep oxygen close to 20% and run the CO2 scrubber to clear any carbon dioxide that builds up, while attempting to keep the pressure at around 1bar.
each of these panels can be opened to reveal a selection of components such as switches, pumps, fuses and transformers, which can be switched around, so you might choose to borrow the battery from the Co” scrubber, to keep the Oxygen systems working for a few minutes.

To the left of this wall you’ll find the beacon and lights on one wall, with the temperature reading and a large store cupboard next to that. On the right, the CO2 recycler which converts your full CO2 canisters to a full Oxygen canister, as well as a leak-repair tool just incase your tin can springs a leak. Finally the repair station houses the fire extinguisher below the pod technical manual which you’ll need to check for repair codes, as well as a repair cupboard where you can dismantle unused components to create spare parts which can then be used to repair other components onboard the pod.

That might all sounds pretty daunting, but from the 60 second rush at the start of rescue missions to grab a few spare parts and lock yourself in the escape pod, things get intense pretty quickly when you’re floating through space with various alarms and warnings pinging in your ear every few seconds.

Your main enemy while on board are pre-set events, which will wreak havoc with the pods components, and asteroid field will cause leaks and damaged components, while other events might trigger power-surges thorugh equipment or start fires that you’ll need to put out.

You’ll nearly always be battling with the all important atmosphere panels as you can function fine without the main computer active, or working just by the red emergency lights, but if there’s a leak you’ll need to stabilise the atmosphere as soon as possible and any damage to the oxygen system, can leave you gasping for air as you rush to try and get things functioning.

Whichever mode you play through, there’s always an air of familiarity, there’s about half a dozen (maybe less) individual events I encountered, and there’s an element of “computer repair shop” about switching and repairing components, especially against such a strict time limit.

On your first few games you’re likely to die quite quickly as you get to grips with what each component does, how it’s repairs and whether to try and fix or just replace, progressing further into the game you start to get the micromanagement of intentionally disabling certain systems to give yourself more room for error with the critical equipment,

I did find after the first 5-6 hours, things started to feel a little too familiar, and while engaging enough, having the events pre-defined in rescue mode, does mean with a pen and paper, you can easily note and be prepared for each obstacle thrown at your trusty tin can.

Tin Can does fall in a funny position, it’s far more challenging than most simulation games, but affords much less freedom than most survival games. I feel the appeal is more towards the simulation crowd, but those looking for something a little more relaxed might be best floating around the freedom of Hardspace Shipbreaker, rather than confining themself to the 6 walls of an escape pod.

Because of this, it’s pretty challenging, with enough reward for staying alive, but especially in rescue mode, knowing what’s going to happen ultimately makes it feel like a rogue-lite, without the ongoing progression.
The steep learning curve might be a bit of a hurdle as while I’m familiar with simulation style games, I found Tin Can a little too much of a challenge to be enjoyable and resorting to taking note of what events, components and challenges where in order made the game a little less enjoyable than it could have been.

Pretty basic in presentation, as there’s not much to cover when it’s a small escape pod with a tiny view of the outside space, and the beeps and boops of various systems.
but it still does a great job of presenting itself well enough. Controls can feel a little cumbersome at times, especially in low-gravity when you have to use one hand to hold a handle and then use the bumper buttons to raise or lower yourself, while using the other hand (triggers) to pick items up.

The familiarity of using the triggers per hand is fine eventually but when you’re pressing A to open a drawer, I’d constantly find myself accidentally removing a button or monitor rather than opening the drawer to access the components that actually needed my attention.

There’s no doubt Tin Can is a unique survival-sim experience which with plenty of appeal for those looking for a frantic challenge, but it does feel like quite a steep learning curve for anyone wanting more of a relaxed simulation.

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