Notrium facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Notrium |
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|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Ville Mönkkönen |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release date(s) | September 9, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Survival |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Notrium is a free video game you can play on your computer. It was made by a Finnish game creator named Ville Mönkkönen and came out in 2003. Even though it's free, it was so good that it won second place in the 'Adventure Game of the Year' contest on a website called GameTunnel!
Contents
Discovering Notrium's World
Exploring the Planet Notrium
The game takes place on a made-up planet called Notrium. This planet is divided into many different areas, like squares on a map. Each area has its own type of weather, land, and things to do. You can move between these areas, but some can only be reached using special vehicles or by teleportation.
Notrium has many different climates, like hot jungles, dry deserts, and cold tundra. Most outdoor areas change as day turns into night, just like on Earth. However, areas that are inside buildings stay the same.
The game's look and feel are created randomly each time you start a new game. This means that items and plants will be in different spots. But don't worry, the main parts of each area, like the type of trees in a jungle, will always stay the same. For example, a tree in the Jungle zone will be in a new spot each time you play, but your character will always start in the same place.
The Story: Surviving on Notrium
The story of Notrium begins with a team of four characters: an Alien, a Human, an Android (which is a robot), and a Psionic creature. They have left Earth in a spacecraft because Earth was about to be destroyed.
After you pick which character you want to play, the game starts. Their spacecraft is suddenly attacked by missiles from the planet Notrium, which is nearby. Your character quickly jumps into an escape pod and crashes onto the planet's surface. From that moment on, your main goal is to survive and find a way to escape Notrium!
As you play, you'll find journal entries that appear every game day for two weeks. These entries are different for each character and tell you more about what happened on the spacecraft. For example, the Human's journal explains that he was the ship's captain. The Android's journal shows that he was the ship's mechanic. You can also learn more about the story by visiting special places or completing certain goals in the game.
Notrium has more than one ending. The ending you get can depend on which character you play and the choices you make. Some endings are only for one specific character, while others can be achieved by different characters.
How to Play Notrium
Gameplay Basics
When you play Notrium, you see the game world from a top-down view, like looking down from above. You can move your character in any direction while aiming in a different one. This is similar to how you control characters in many modern shooting games.
As you explore, you'll find many different items and objects. These include plants, weapons, and useful machines. Many important items, like a force field to protect your character, aren't found in one piece. Instead, you'll need to find two or three different parts and then build them together.
The main goal of the game is to collect parts, build items, defend yourself from enemies, and then work towards one of the game's endings. How you play can change a lot depending on the character you choose. For example, the fast-moving Alien starts with a very strong attack and gets more attacks as the game goes on, but it can't use any weapons. The Human starts with a weaker attack, but they can create many different weapons and armor to become more powerful.
Weather Challenges
The game also has different types of weather. If you play Notrium on a difficulty setting harder than 'easy', the weather will affect your character. Standing near a fire will make your character warmer, and standing under a tree will make them cooler. In some areas of the game, you might face dangerous weather like sandstorms, blizzards, or even acid rain!
Game Modifications (Mods)
Notrium was designed to be easy to mod. This means players can change or add new things to the game. There's even a guide on Ville Mönkkönen's website that explains how to do it!
When you start a new game after adding a mod, you can choose which mod you want to play with. Mods can make many changes, like adding new items or goals to the game. They can also change or create new environment squares. Some mods even let you play as a brand-new character, like the 'Werivar' mod.
