Agent Sylvia Valdez of the Swan Police attacked after I'd covered for a crew member who murdered a diplomat. I helped him hide the body. Shortly thereafter, Agent Valdez showed up with the Swan Police. After destroying her fleet, I ended up with Roach Armor, with reduces damage to the rear of my ship. I didn't plan on letting anyone get behind my ship anyway, so I went to the Flamingo Trading Outpost at Gonzagama and swapped the Roach Armor and a fire control module for the Jamal Auto Doc, which heals damage during battle.

But then a reindeer colonel in some sort of bad-ass battlecruiser (pictured) detected infection from a derelict I'd found at the outset of my adventure. He opened fire. I didn't survive that battle. I later found out he was flipping his battlecruiser upside down so that when I thought I was hitting his bottom armor, I was actually bouncing shots off the top of his ship. You can't trust reindeer. They're sneaky.

After the jump, I'll explain all this nonsense. Also, the reindeer returns.

Flotilla is a creatively unhinged sci-fi adventure from Brendon Chung, the creator of the creatively unhinged short adventure Gravity Bone. Like Gravity Bone, Flotilla isn't much of a game. It's simple, through and through. The graphics are basic and flat, with bare polygons adrift in untextured space. It's more like an experiment that resembles a game. It's the videogame equivalent of a no-budget short indie film.

You zip around among a randomly generated universe, making choices based not so much on information as some sort of wacky nonsense Alice in Wonderland in space. How do you feel about space lizards? Do you fear the reindeer? Are pigs worth rescuing? Do you bribe the Swan Police? Sometimes you get treasure. Sometimes you have to fight battles.

These battles are slow, stately, and confusing until you get used to the camera, which shouldn't be too hard for anyone who's played, say, Homeworld. You give thirty seconds worth of orders and then watch them unfold in real time. Ships don't fly so much as drift and twist. They shrug off head-on or overhead fire, so you have to swing around behind a target, or duck underneath it. It's all about flanking, which is why there's a good bit of cat-and-mouse when it comes to the trade-off between speed and firepower. Do you risk dashing around to one side instead of shooting for the next turn? 3D flanking puzzles, with just enough space junk to sometimes get in the way.

This isn't a well-paced game, but I suspect that's the point. It's laid back and measured. Hence the relaxing piano sonatas in the background. Like Strange Advntures in Infinite Space, another experiment resembling a game, Flotilla is built to be played over and over, each session its own voyage in pursuit of a higher score. Think of it as a lunch-hour game, but with fairly drawn out battles that mean you're never going to finish a voyage during your lunch hour.

As for that reindeer, I ran into him again at the beginning of my next adventure. That same reindeer colonel in his bad-ass battlecruiser attacked me for appropriating a derelict ship. What is it with him and derelict ships? This time I was able to park right behind him and empty missiles into his tailpipes. So long, Colonel Airam Atnas and the Fourteen Hammer Paw. For my troubles I get a Keshia Sublight Engine that boosts my speed by 30%, which will make it easier to park behind a ship and unload rear hits onto it. Unfortunately, my adventure meets an untimely end at the next planet when I'm confronted by a pair of missile destroyers as nimble as I am. I'll get those guy on my next adventure.

Get Flotilla here for ten bucks and go on your own adventures. If you see that reindeer, give him my regards and then blow him up.