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Review
This is what you trained for all your life. This is what your squadron died for. The expeior queen, helpless, at your feet.
Helpless, she is not.
The Selfish Gene is a sci-fi game about dealing the final blow, only for victory to remain out of reach. Perhaps violence isn’t the answer. But what alternative do you have when Earth and the human race is on the line?
It’s a submission to inkJam 2025, though made with Unity instead of Ink.
Overview
Earth has been taken over by the expeior alien race, aka “expys.” Meanwhile, humanity has taken refuge on Earth’s moon. You are Captain Aster on a mission for the Human Resistance. Your task is to infiltrate the alien mothership and slay the expeior Queen, Queen Ismin. By your side is your squadron and Lieutenant Latif, your friend and military engineer.
Gameplay
The gameplay uses a cyclic trial-and-error structure. It kicks off with the characters breaking into the mothership’s hanger. You then choose which of the ship’s six locations to explore. However, locations can only be visited once.
The Queen is camped out somewhere onboard. She’s able to control time locally, allowing her to escape death, as shown in the opening scene. The protagonist kills her, only to find himself outside the ship with his crew, moments before the infiltration begins (they are at least vaguely aware of this).
Same deal with the gameplay. If your showdown with the Queen ends in failure, you are sent back to the beginning.
THE LANDING - AGAIN
Therefore, the objective in the gameplay is to experiment in the order in which you explore the ship’s locations to maximize your chances of success against the Queen. Each failure informs the next “loop.”
Mechanics
Choices are made by selecting a card from a spread shown at the bottom of the screen. Cards determine how you approach a task, and include things like “Violence” and “Smarts.” The cards you receive at the start of each cycle will also change.
Nothing fancy, but streamlined and quite easy to learn.
Story
The human vs. expeior war is an intriguing one that we know little about.
We learn that expeior genetic material can mutate human DNA. The Queen’s plan is for all humans to mutate into expeior subjects. It’s referred to as the “Great Switch” or as Haplo more accurately puts it, the “Great Erasure.”
Speaking of Haplo, the expeiors we meet prior to the Queen are surprisingly reasonable. Rather than hostility, they share a we’re-just-following-orders-but-we’re-also-sorry-that-your-species-is-going-to-be-wiped-out-all-hail-Queen-Ismin attitude that makes you think, you know, maybe we can reason with this alien race…
The Queen, too, proves to be fairly reasonable as well. If you manage to start a conversation, that is.
I do wish there were more backstory. Not only is this a war, it’s an interplanetary one. However, its coverage in the game feels one-sided.
(Spoiler - click to show)It appears that humanity has a valid reason to be angry: Earth has been claimed by aliens who want to mutate every human to eliminate them as a threat. Surely, humanity deserves to reclaim their home world, right? I have a feeling that the truth is more complicated than this, that both sides have done questionable things.
But this still leaves a key question: why do the expeiors have Earth while humanity hides out on the Moon? Is this war solely to liberate Earth from the expeiors, or is it something broader? ‘Cause at this rate, human leadership intends to bombard Earth so no one can have it.
Despite coming off as the default “bad guys,” the more you examine the expeiors, the more complex they seem in their motives. For example, (Spoiler - click to show)Queen Ismin says, "I do want to preserve the Earth," and agrees that its preservation is of greater value than trying to win at all costs. Her concern feels genuine. If the player succeeds in their negotiations, the situation becomes a matter of “I’ll put my weapon down if you put down yours.” So, maybe there’s some hidden depths there.
As for the title, I interpret it as considering the other side rather than merely focusing on what you have to lose or gain. The game has four endings. I found all of them except Ending 2.
Visuals
The visuals are awesome. When I first played The Selfish Gene, I kept thinking, wow, this game looks really professional. The characters look cool, and while we only get a glimpse of expeior biology, it seems that they can come in variety of physical forms. (Spoiler - click to show)Poor Vicky looks like a dehydrated stalk of celery. I would love to see more.
The screen is divided into three columns. The middle one is for text. To the left is Captain Aster and his allies, while everyone else is displayed to the right. If you gain a new ally, they move to the left side of the screen. Cards are colour-coded with neat symbols. Even the clickable map of the ship was impressive!
Final thoughts
The Selfish Gene offers a gameplay experience that felt new and innovative. A good use of Unity’s visual abilities. Arguably, the game is an equal mix of combat and diplomacy, and the character art and card mechanic are notable features. And while it’s not a “time travel game,” it does borrow the looping structure used in games like Vicious Cycles where you repeat the gameplay and learn from failure. If you like choice-based sci-fi games that rely on visuals, definitely give The Selfish Gene a try.
There are parts that could use refinement. I noticed more than a few spelling errors. Additional context on the interplanetary war would also give the story needed perspective and make it less one-sided, but that fortunately (Spoiler - click to show)doesn’t stop successful negotiation from feeling satisfying. As the game puts it: It’s a start.
