Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog is a classic sci-fi tale wrapped up in a visual novel. With warring factions in the Solar System, conspiracies, and relationships between crewmates aboard a small confined space of the Swift class ship known as The Gun-Dog, tensions can rise very quickly.

Stories From Sol: The Gun=Dog’s events take place after a war that rocked the Solar System. The forces of Earth, known as the Solar Federation, have been beaten by the combined forces of the Martian Territories and the Jovian Unified Colony Fleet. Your character, whose name and gender you assign, was a cadet pilot in the war and was meant to fight in the final battle piloting a Frame – essentially a mech. However, your Frame failed to launch and the rest of your squadron, bar one other pilot, were lost in the battle. A few years post-war, you find yourself as the security officer of The Gun-Dog, a ship for screw ups and others that are to be kept out of the way.

The Gun-Dog is a small ship, which means it has a small crew. However, among this crew your character already knows two people. The first is Cassandra, aka Cassie, the second in command and the game’s love interest. The second is Hansen, the other survivor from your former squadron, who has blamed you for the deaths of the squad mates lost in the war as you were not there when they needed you. Other characters include Captain Barthlomews, Lieutenant Vanessa Lord, Chief Engineer Cathays, Cadet Dalton, Ensign Haru, Weapons Officer Dylan, and Doctor Rosarium, the ship’s physician.

Some of these stand out more than others. Cassie is the strongest of the bunch, as you spend a lot of time with her as the plot unfolds, but there is also a lot of interaction and friction with Hansen and Lieutenant Lord. In fact, the developers have to be commended on Lieutenant Lord, because I have not felt such visceral hate towards a character in such a long time. The epitome of self-serving who would step on anyone to get ahead and save their own skin.