Not a Hack and Slash Game (part 5)

There are a few more deterrents to playing Solar Echoes with a “hack and slash, blow everything up” approach. There are XP penalties incurred by outright going against mission parameters. For instance, some XP will be deducted at the end of a mission if the team of characters needlessly killed everyone in cold blood, or needlessly destroyed everything when they could have been more discreet. After all, the characters do play as agents in an interstellar special ops/CIA type of outfit called the Union Guard, so even though they can operate above the law, flagrant disregard for it and outright lawlessness can result in a loss of XP, a loss of Karma and Fame, and might even land them in jail if they go too far. Karma and Fame are also measured in Solar Echoes, and earning negative amounts of either can hurt the characters' reputation, though sometimes, having a really bad reputation might be useful when seeking to infiltrate criminal organizations. Generally, though, players are encouraged by all these aspects of Solar Echoes to conduct themselves in at least a somewhat civil manner to achieve their mission objectives, and because there are so many options, hack 'n slash often seems to be the last choice on the list.