The War of Genesis III Part 2: Emails of doom

This is more than a simple sequel, this game positions itself as a direct continuation of the first, to the point of labelling its pair of (eventually) interconnected scenarios episodes four and five: the “what happens next” after The War of Genesis III‘s one, two, and three. It’s an exciting way to start a game, especially when, as it does here, it’s quickly revealed that something’s gone wrong between the ending of the previous game and the start of this one; Saladin, Joan, and Chrystian awakening on somebody else’s (non-time travelling) spaceship after an unexplained mishap. Although this is assuming I have any idea who these people are as Part 2 makes absolutely no effort to explain itself to curious newcomers (not even in the manual—and if that sounds unfair, consider how many famous RPG series don’t expect players to be familiar with what happened in another game) or even give huge fans a quick refresh of the basics. This leaves the emotional impact of what should be key early…