History VideoGame / TheStation

''The Station'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame, developed by a Canadian team also calling themselves The Station. It was [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thestation/the-station-a-first-person-exploration-story-drive funded]] on Website/{{Kickstarter}} in December 2016, and released on UsefulNotes/Playstation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne and [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} on February 19th, 2018.

It is set far enough into the future for FasterThanLight travel to have become commonplace, which eventually led to the discovery of an exoplanet with clear evidence of sentient alien life on it. Unfortunately, that evidence consisted of unmistakable signs of a large war, large enough to be detected from afar, which tempered hopes of a peaceful first contact. The titular research station, The Espial, was sent into their planet's orbit with a three-man crew in order to covertly observe the events on the surface. However, all contact was lost soon after The Espial reached its destination; worse is that the stealth systems onboard malfunctioned as well, exposing the station to the planet's inhabitants. Thus, the unnamed recon officer is sent to the station to establish what's going on and hopefully rescue the crew before the alien leaders on the planet get the time to react and down the station, or worse.

** Then, bioluminescent fish found in one of The Espial's aquaria (and apparently discovered in the northern hemisphere reefs sometime in the future) is named Ignis Somnia, which is Latin for sleeping fire.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Downplayed. On one hand, it's definitely common, and you were able to jump from whenever you were right towards the station in a few seconds with no issues. On the other hand, this doesn't work too well on larger vessels like The Espial - a note on the Maintenance Line's terminal states that the electromagnetic radiation leak fried most of their spare parts.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Elias Volante, the Axiom's supervisor of the Espial mission, is an archetypal example. In particular, he's been the one who pushed the crew to [[spoiler: kidnap and dissect a member of Psy Prime's sentient species]], as the only way to recoup the apparently exorbitant cost of the mission was to "exceed the expectations of stakeholders" by "demonstrating a degree of control".

* DysfunctionJunction: The Espial is crewed by three people, two of whom are going through a bad break-up, with one also struggling with her father's legacy to boot. The remaining person behaves like the biggest jerk of the three, but does so to conceal the all-consuming concerns over his strapped finances and the expensive treatment needed for his daughter, due to the [=C-SAD=] condition that he also carries.
* EscapePod: The Espial has several. [[spoiler: The three crewmembers all try and fail to get there as the onslaught takes their toll. Mila making it the closest, dying in front of you right as she opened its door, letting you get inside and escape back to your planet, right before the station self-destructs.]]
* EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture: The power overrides on The Espial are large touchscreen panels where you just need to slide in a certain manner.

* ForScience: The first augmented reality audio log you discover is of The Espial's crew leader, Silas Haze, voicing this very sentiment to bat away any criticism.
--> '''Silas Haze''': ''To the critics of this mission, I say it's not sufficient you voice your concerns of danger or ethics. If you are against progress in this moment, you must acknowledge that our very understandings of biology, chemistry, physics even religion are thrown into question. And you stand in our way.''

--> ''A mentor once told me that within every great leader is a person of strength. But what is strength without honor? And what is honor without glory?''
* GoldenMeanFallacy: After the alien species' planet was first discovered, the main political debate was between either finally contacting them, or staying well away because they are engaged in a world war that can even be detected with telescopes, and so are unlikely to treat them any better than their own species. The compromise of sending the titular station, however, both failed to be stealthy after the Espial got damaged in a collision (possibly with a rogue satellite), and made for a very poor first contact impression as well.
--> ''Narrator: Proof that we were spying on a potentially hostile alien civilization now floats helplessly above them.''

--> '''Silas Haze''': ''Most of the systems in the science wing can't start until we are in lower orbit - are the calculations complete?''
--> '''Aiden Vyse''': ''Orbital mechanics is one of the more unforgiving types of engineering, Silas. It's not as simple as playing with the test tubes and dirt.''

* HumanAliens: Silas' notes eventually reveal that the species on Psy Prime is very similar, to the point he contemplates the two species being "planted" on their respective planets by the same creator, or even that they are the same species that had undergone divergent evolution. [[spoiler: Then, it's revealed "Psy Prime" is Earth, and it's the protagonist, the Espial crewmembers and the rest of their species that are aliens, with purple skin being practically the only difference between them and humans.]]
* HumansAreBastards: The true goals of the Espial mission fall into this, once you get through the [=PR=] speak. When you find a print-out of the message sent to the mission's Axiom supervisor from the senate chairmen, all of his talking points have his clarifications written over them in pen. Thus "Observe the language, cultural and social structures of the Psy Prime's dominant species" is boiled down to "How can we kill them?", and "Study the geological and biochemical composition of the planet Psy Prime" to "What's of value on their planet?", while "Research the technological capabilities of the dominant species of Psy Prime with the specific focus on the ability to reach and detect our planet" is simply the salient "Can we fight back?"
** The flawed people on board the Espial are also hardly paragons of virtue when it comes to their attitude towards the species they are researching. While Silas is the most sympathetic, telling Aiden that they might stop being "savage" the way humans once did (which Aiden receives with skepticism), Mila just doesn't care. A workplace injury report written by her about Silas cutting his hand is so completely focused on showing him in the worst possible light out of spite that you may even miss what preceded it - Silas dissecting a "sample" they retrieved from the surface, with the materials around confirming that they had somehow kidnapped and dissected a living, sentient being from that planet.
** Then, [[spoiler: The ending inverts this, as it's revealed that the planet studied was the Earth all along, while you and the crewmembers were members of the alien species. Nevertheless, the trope still applies, as the humans in this world have already irreparably screwed up the Earth through World War III, to the point that Silas describes the planet's civilization as being in its death spiral.]]

--> '''Mia Lexa''': ''Aiden, in an ideal world doors would open. It seems both you and this station don't work as well as expected.''
--> '''Aiden Vyse''': ''It's an old station. I doubt you'll age as gracefully, Captain. If the door won't open, just turn off the power override.''

* ManualOverride: The Lounge door that won't open at first is eventually opened by overriding its power source. To be fair, the override was on the inside of the lounge, and The Espial was always designed as a civilian rather than military or police ship.
* MegaCorp: The Espial belongs to Axiom Space Agency, which is either this or an NGOSuperpower. Either way, it's implied it was rich enough to bribe enough senators to swing the vote get their mission approved. However, it didn't design the ship - that was the work of Saito Industries, which is also mentioned very frequently. Other entities are mentioned in passing, such as the Caedmon Consortium, whose only role in the story is to turn down a loan requested by Aiden, due to his lack of stable employment.

* {{Retirony}}: You can find Aiden's calendar in the Maintenance Line that crosses off days till Daddy's home. He had only 4 days left before the incident. [[spoiler: He was also the first one to die.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: You were the aliens all along, and the "Psy Prime" is actually Earth, and the "civil war" that drew The Espial's attention in the first place was World War 3.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: First, Aiden stayed behind in the hangar to hold off the human boarding party, and eventually depressurized the airlock when it failed. Then, Mila activated the self-destruct sequence on the Espial when all else failed, dying just before reaching the escape pod, but still giving you enough time to use it, and to hear her final message.]]

-->[[spoiler:'''Mila Lexa''': ''We're not compatible. Forget the humans. Forget the Earth. You can't let them find us.'']]
* WhamShot: The end of the game brings to in quick succession, before and after the WhamLine. First, [[spoiler: you finally see the face of Mila Lexa, which is clearly alien, and reveals that both you, the other two characters, and the species you are part of and work for are all alien as well.]] Then, [[spoiler: The final shot of the planet as your escape pod blasts is very clearly Earth, with The Espial in particular clearly hovering right above Central America, letting us see both South America, and the North, which is pockmarked with enormous nuclear craters.]]

* WhereTheresAWillTheresAStickyNote: Downplayed. [[spoiler: Right before he got killed fighting off the aliens in the Espial's hangar, Aiden wrote his updated will in a message on the terminal there, leaving all of his possessions to his daughter Keyna with Thera as her guardian, directed to use their value to pay for her [=C-SAD=] treatments.]]
* WithThisHerring: Apparently, the Espial was already an old station that already suffered from issues like malfunctioning doors, which raises the question as to why possibly the most important expedition in the history of mankind couldn't get something newer.
** Mila Lexa, the captain, brings this up in a personal log herself. "Seldom acknowledged is how much a captain's fate is tied to the success or failure of their ship. With a vessel as [[BlackHumor wonderfully maintained]] as The Espial, you might almost believe this mission wasn't that important."
* WorldWarThree: [[spoiler: The ending reveals that the "Psy Prime" is actually Earth, and as your escape pod zooms out, it becomes clear that the ship was parked over the Americas. The only notable difference is that North America is scorched with enormous burn marks all over it. Combined with Silas' earlier speech about "the Swan Song of their civilization", it becomes clear that a nuclear war had just occurred.]]

* IllGirl: A message sent to Aiden Vyse's computer from his ex-wife Thera reveals that they have a daughter, Keyna, whose treatment they still can't pay for. One would expect that if Axiom went to the trouble of drafting such a crucial mission then they would also shower those close to the crew with care, if only to keep their minds focused on the mission. Unfortunately, they were too much of the cost-cutting bastards for that. [[spoiler: In the end, he dies but leaves behind a will leaving everything he owns to Keyna and making Thera her guardian, along with instructing her to pay for Keyna's treatment first and foremost. Since your protagonist saw the will and survived to make it back in the escape pod, it's safe to say that this will be carried out.]]

[[spoiler:'''Mila Lexa''': ''We're not compatible. Forget the humans. Forget the Earth. You can't let them find us.'']]
* WhamShot: The end of the game brings to in quick succession, before and after the WhamLine. First, [[spoiler: you finally see the face of Mila Lexa, which is clearly alien, and reveals that both you, the other two characters, and the species you are part of and work for are all alien as well.]] Then, [[spoiler: The final shot of the planet as your escape pod blasts is very clearly Earth, with The Espial in particular clearly hovering right above Central America, leting us see both South America, and the North, which is pockmarked with enormous nuclear craters.]]

''It's the disconnected and fragmented nature of the species that I find myself drawn to understanding. We can identify geographically based super clans formed in all quadrants of the planet, and the species fights viciously to defend their cultural identity. They almost look to create arbitrary division between themselves, despite the fact that from my preliminary tests, they are 100% identical in nearly every way. It's sibling rivalry on a planet-wide scale.''

* FeaturelessProtagonist: The unbroken first person perspective means you never see the player character, as they are meant an audience insert with no story of their own to distract from that of the ship and its crew.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: [[spoiler: Mila Lexa dies right as you finally reach her, just as she opened the escape pod door. When looking at her face you finally get the glimpse of your own species - you essentially have the same as of a human, but possess a purple skin.]]
* HardOnSoftScience: Being a mechanic, Aiden invokes this to biology, of all things. Though it's intended to complement his JerkWithAHeartOfGold characterization rather than be taken seriously.

* HumansAreBastards: The true goals of the Espial mission fall into this, once you get through the [=PR=] speak. When you find a print-out of the message sent to the mission's Axiom supervisor from the senate chairmen, all of his talking points have his clarifications written over them in pen. Thus "Observe the language, cultural and social structures of the Psy Prime's dominant species" is boiled down to "How can we kill them?", and "Study the geological and biochemical of the planet Psy Prime" to "What's of value on their planet?", while "Research the technological capabilities of the dominant species of Psy Prime with the specific focus to reach and detect our planet" is simply the salient "Can we fight back?"

** Then, [[spoiler: The ending inverts this, as it's revealed that the planet studied was the Earth all along, while you and the crewmembers were members of the alien species. Nevertheless, the trope still applies, as the humans in this world have already irrepairably screwed up the Earth through World War III, to the point that Silas writes the civilization as being in the death spiral.]]

* InsecurityCamera: Invoked in a recorded conversation between Silas and Aiden, where the former asks him to build ..., and when the latter asks where he could possibly hide such construction efforts, he tells him of a blind spot in their coverage in the upper deck hallway. [[spoiler: This was simply a nest of beds and pillows for them to get together once she had forgiven him.]]

--> ''Aiden Vyse''': ''It's an old station. I doubt you'll age as gracefully, Captain. If the door won't open, just turn off the power override.''

* GoldenMeanFallacy: After the alien species' planet was first discovered, the main political debate was between either finally contacting them, or staying well away because they are engaged in a world war that can even be detected with telescopes, and so are unlikely to treat humans any better than their own species. The compromise of sending the titular station, however, both failed to be stealthy after the Espial got hit in a crash, and made for a very poor first contact impression as well.

* HardOnSoftScience: Being a mechanic, Aiden invokes this to biology, of all things. Though it's not intended to complement his JerkWithAHeartOfGold characterization rather than be taken seriously.

[[spoiler: --> '''Mila Lexa''': ''We're not compatible. Forget the humans. Forget the Earth. You can't let them find us.'']]

It is set some time in the future, when the humanity became advanced enough to master FasterThanLight travel. As the humans began spreading around the cosmos, an exoplanet with clear evidence of sentient alien life on it was found. Unfortunately, that evidence consisted of unmistakable signs of a large war, large enough to be detected from afar, which tempered hopes of a peaceful first contact. The titular research station, The Espial, was sent into their planet's orbit with a three-man crew in order to covertly observe the events on the surface. Unfortunately, all contact was lost soon after The Espial reached its destination; worse is that the stealth systems onboard malfunctioned as well, exposing the station to the planet's inhabitants. Thus, the unnamed recon officer is sent to the station to establish what's going on and hopefully rescue the crew before the alien leaders on the planet get the time to react and down the station, or worse.

* ArtificialLimbs: You find the schematics for one, with a focus on the "linear actuator" "reinforced shoulder" and "augmented tricep".

** And then, there's an example that's already TruthInTelevision for many. Approaching her will bring up the [=AR=] prompt asking "Mila" if everything's OK, since she missed yesterday's scheduled workout.

* CatScare: Getting into the Engineering control room has the rotating chair suddenly move towards you fast, complete with a ScareChord...only to turn out to be a static maintenance robot once the chair turns out. A nearby [=AR=] message reveals that this was a prank set up by Aiden and that already frightened Silas to the point of ruining his shirt.

* GeniusBonus: A late hint that [[spoiler: all the named characters and yourself are aliens]] is found in the Upper Lab, where Specimen Number 258 is described as [[spoiler: too acidic for consumption at 4,7, which is said to be likely to impair reproductive functions when injested. The thing is, 4,7 is barely acidic at all, being way below the 3 acidity of lemons and other citrus fruits, let alone that of the proper acids. For the people who understand this, it's a dead giveaway that the characters you have been observing, and the one you are playing as, are not human.]]

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: [[spoiler: Mila Lexa dies right as you finally reach her, just as she opened the escape pod door. When looking at her face you finally get the glimpse of your own species - essentially the same as of a human, except with a purple skin.]]
* HardOnSoftScience: Being a mechanic, Aiden invokes this to biology, of all things. Though it's not intended to complement his JerkAss characterization rather than be taken seriously.

* HumanAliens: Silas' notes eventually reveal that the species on Psy Prime is very similar, to the point he contemplates the two species being "planted" on their respective planets by the same creator, or even that they are the same species that had undergone divergent evolution. [[spoiler: Then, it's revealed "Psy Prime" is Earth, and it's the protagonists, the Espial crewmembers and the rest of their species that are aliens, with purple skin being practically the only difference.]]

''The Station'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame, developed by a team also calling themselves The Station, and released on UsefulNotes/Playstation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne and [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} on February 19th, 2018.

* GeniusBonus: A late hint that is found in the Upper Lab, where Specimen Number 258 is described as [[spoiler: too acidic for consumption at 4,7, which is said to be likely to impair reproductive functions when injested. The thing is, 4,7 is barely acidic at all, being way below the 3 acidity of lemons and other citrus fruits, let alone that of the proper acids. For the people who understand this, it's a dead giveaway that the characters you have been observing, and the one you are playing as, are not human.]]

* IllGirl: A message sent to Aiden Vyse's computer from his ex-wife Thera reveals that they have a daughter, Keyna, whose treatment they still can't pay for. One would expect that if Axiom went to the trouble of drafting such a crucial mission then they would also shower those close to the crew with care, if only to keep their minds focused on the mission. Unfortunately, they were too much of the cost-cutting bastards for that.