Can someone explain to me how the gameplay actually works? I watched a couple of lets plays last night but I couldn't really figure it out.
I had the same problem. The gameplay only started to make sense to me after dying twice.
You begin with two characters that start off in the escape pod with the power crystal. The crystal has x amount of energy and is further powered by discovering dust. The possibility of finding the dust comes from opening rooms. Power allows you to light up rooms and keep generators (industry, science, and food) running (note: rooms can be unpowered to reclaim power points). The benefit of lighting/powering a room prevents it from spawning monsters. Opening a new door can cause a wave of monsters to appear.
The goal is to find the elevator shaft and bring the power crystal from the escape pod with you to the next floor, and so on until you reach the surface.
You don't control the fighting directly as the characters are on auto-attack. You can only tell them which room to go to, and when to use their special ability. This confused me at first because I was trying to get the characters to stand in specific places in a room which is impossible. They can open doors, go to a specific room, or carry the crystal. Attacking will come automatically for them.
The most difficult part for me in the game has been balancing the resources since upon entering the new floor, you must start all over with the building of generators. Industry generators produce Industry points which allow you to build things. Science creators produce Science points that allow you to research new technology (whether it's improved generation of a resource or a new pod that decreases monster movement in the room). Lastly, Food replicators produce Food points which can be used to Level Up, Heal or recruit characters, and purchase items from merchants.
The game becomes Tower Defense once monster waves occur and you must protect the Crystal, or the character carring the Crystal to the elevator.
The mechanics of the game's entirety is hard to describe since it has so many. The simplest way for me to describe it is Sci-Fi D&D with Tower Defense and Resource Management.
