A new sci-fi RPG starring The Last of Us 2's Laura Bailey and Nathan Fillion is playable now, only on Alexa.
Amazon is calling Starfinder a "multi-part interactive audio game" for Alexa-enabled devices, and the first three episodes went live today. The pilot episode, which debuted back in December, is free-to-play, while the following episodes cost $1.99 / £1.99 each. The next three episodes have a planned release date of October and you can get them all bundled together for $9.99 / £9.99.
Starfinder may already be familiar to you if you're a tabletop RPG fan. It's a sci-fi game from Paizo, the far-future counterpart to its Pathfinder franchise which has itself spawned video games such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker. While it has the usual sci-fi staples such as spaceships and blaster guns, it also incorporates more traditional fantasy elements such as elves and goblins. In space!
All that said, the Alexa version of Starfinder requires no polyhedral dice or previous knowledge of the system to play. It's meant to be an ideal entry point to the series that you can start on your Echo, continue on your Fire TV, and finish on your Alexa mobile app, all without losing your place.
The choices you make in the course of playing Starfinder will shape your path through the game, and Amazon says a full playthrough will last an upwards of 13 hours. That sounds like a fun way to while away the hours in quarantine; just think of it like a narrative podcast where you occasionally tell Laura Bailey whether she should shoot a goblin (which is probably also a good reason not to play on the bus).
Starfinder's source material currently ranks on our list of the best tabletop RPGs.
