Red Matter 2
In many ways the game feels a lot like a film you switched on halfway through if you haven't played the first one. The red matter, for example, that gives this its name, is never explained and it's only when it starts doing stuff that you realise 'Oh, it's magic space goop' - some sort of a nuclear, biologically infectious, spacetime warping, transcendentally cosmic McGuffin driving the Russian, sorry, Volgravian, arms race.
Red Matter 2
A studio delivering a tech upgrade so quickly is no small matter. Since Meta Quest Pro costs many times more than Meta Quest 2 (review), the target audience is many times smaller. This, in turn, makes it less worthwhile for studios to deliver app updates for Meta Quest Pro alone. Kudos to Vertical Robot for the quick turnaround!
We follow the trail of a familiar face from the first game as we continue our search of the "red matter" and the connected science experiments conducted on far-away cosmic bases. Retracing their footsteps slowly unveils their fate and the intent of the connected science experiments. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems, and as we descend deeper into the thick metal walls of communist space stations, we will find plenty of new hurdles to overcome.
If you want to unravel the mystery from part 1 yourself, you should not read any further. The story picks up directly from the predecessor. Therefore, spoilers are unavoidable. Of course, the plot still revolves around the mysteriously proliferating red matter, which brings all kinds of mysterious and apparently dangerous effects with it.
Families can talk about diversity. Red Matter 2 may impress players with its gender neutral protagonist, Sasha, but how is this game with diversity overall? Why are all human characters Caucasian? Does representation matter? Even in a sci-fi game with mostly robotic NPCs? Do players care?
In 2387, the Romulan sun went supernova, threatening to destroy Romulus, the Romulan people, and the galaxy. Ambassador Spock piloted what he described as "our fastest ship" equipped with red matter in an effort to create a black hole to absorb the exploding star. Although his plan succeeded and the supernova was eliminated, Spock was too late to save Romulus, which was destroyed.
Twenty-five years later in 2258, in the alternate reality, Spock, who had entered the black hole only seconds after the Narada, emerged, and both he and his ship were captured by Nero. Upon obtaining the red matter aboard Spock's ship, Nero mounted an attack on Vulcan, drilling into the planet and launching a small amount of the red matter into the core, forming a singularity within which consumed the entire planet. Nero later attempted to perform the same action on Earth, but was stopped by the intervention of Spock's alternate reality-counterpart and James T. Kirk. Spock's counterpart was able to appropriate Spock's ship from the Narada, and piloted it on a collision course with the Romulan vessel. When the ship collided, the red matter stored aboard ignited, generating a black hole within the Narada itself, destroying the ship. (Star Trek)
In 2401, "red matter" was among the search results Raffi Musiker encountered using while working with Starfleet Intelligence to track down stolen quantum tunneling technology and identify the meaning of the "Red Lady". (PIC: "The Next Generation")
In Star Trek Magazine issue 144, Scott Chambliss, production designer on Star Trek, noted that the appearance of red matter as a "big red ball" was a reference to other productions that he had worked on with J.J. Abrams, including Alias and Mission: Impossible III. [1]
According to the Star Trek: Countdown prequel comic book, which details the events leading up to the destruction of Romulus, red matter is an artificial substance created by the Vulcan Science Academy. It is manufactured from decalithium, a rare isotope that the Narada was equipped to mine.
The Path to 2409 (β) on the Star Trek Online website states that the Vulcans had created red matter without the consultation or approval of Federation authorities, earning criticism from the board investigating the destruction of Romulus. In response the Vulcans promised to not conduct any more red matter experiments and stated that the entire supply was on Spock's ship when it vanished. Despite this, the game has a device called a "Red Matter Capacitor." This device is equipped to a player's ship and acts as an auxiliary power source. 041b061a72