The Riftbreaker

This game is pretty special. Imagine Diablo 2 with screens of monsters mixed with Starcraft style monsters and command and conquer style base building all mixed into one game? Thats about the best way I can describe it. The research trees are huge, there are tons of different buildings+weapons and so much content you'll be busy for a long time. The game has been optimized so beautifully too which is nice. So far I'm blown away by everything about this game. I was planning on buying this from GOG but my friend rather nicely gifted me the steam version (but I suspect I'll still buy the GOG version anyway. So far, the only complaint about this game I've seen is people using unsupported and antique operating systems and that this game won't run for them.

Very interesting genre Mix. You have to play to experience it firsthand. You "are" a mech, building a base, defending the base against "ecologist"-bug-monsters (looking at you factorio). At first the base building doesn't seem that complex but you'll get there very fast with the higher tier tech builds and other resources. Interesting part is the "recon" of other landscapes and building outposts with completely other biomes/monsters/problems. i'm giving it 4 Stars, the fifth Star got taken because some elements i'd love to see (more rpgish-elements with xp or "repeatable upgrades) and i'm not too keen with the controls, seems sorta sluggish... i'd love ti give 4,5 but thats impossible so 4 it is. The Release is stable as fuck, some minor bugs (i.e. translation in english - not in localized german) but that's more than i ever expected from a releaseday candidate.

TLDR: The Good -Good combat -Runs well except for late game (probably a bug) -Looks great -Fun to build a base and zap hundreds of enemies The Bad -Hundreds of enemies rarely show up (In campaign) -Boring campaign with no challenge at all on "Brutal" Difficulty -Tedious research system -Main character could have been left out of the game and I wouldn't have noticed -Missing text from some missions leaving you lost on how to continue -Some crashing/performance issues -No multiplayer for "6 to 12 months" If someone told you this game is "basically factorio with better combat" they were wrong. It's much closer to Mindustry but without conveyor belts. I finished the campaign on brutal difficulty and was pretty disappointed overall. The start of the game is pretty great with the combat being smooth and the game running well until you start to get to research. Research in the game is slow and tedious with some technologies taking 20~30 minutes to finish. You can upgrade your base and research speed but there's a cap on how many times you can do this. Most technologies needed to beat the game are gated behind missions that usually consist of "Mine 500 of this ore" or " Scan 10 of these flowers" before letting you go onto the NEXT mission which is usually "Mine this resource" Well before the time I finished the last mandatory mission I had unlocked all of the final tier equipment and was basically facerolling my way through combat. It feels good to fire 20 mininukes at a horde of enemies and watch them get vaporized. Unfortunately these hordes of enemies would only show up maybe once or twice a mission. In the end I constructed the final mission objective (crashing twice during the mission) and saved the day I guess. The main character was annoying and the robot wasn't programmed with much of a personality. If/when multiplayer is added in I'll probably end up changing my review. The survival mode would b e perfect to play with others.

Lets address the title first: Yes, this game forced me to cheat AND IT IS A KNOWN "ISSUE". Well a bit further into the game, you (SPOILERS) unlock more biomes. One of which being the acid wastes, where you get Palladium, an important ressource. This is done through a questline, where you investigate a lifeform named "acidic yeast". What you have to do is, research acid-resistant flooring and then get close t a so called "acidic yeast root" and here lies the issue, or issues: 1.) You could mistake some objects for said root, but they're not! They're just branches! 2.) The root only spawns a couple times! 3.) The root can be destroyed, WHICH INCLUDES YOUR DEFENSE! This basically softlocked me, as my defenses killed the root (i apparently only had one). What does the game offer to get around this? Well restarting the game and cheats! I wasn't in the mood for the former, so i tried the latter. Tried a bunch of them actually, so i would interfere as little as possible with the game, but in the end, only the "unlock all research" cheat "solved" the problem and introduced a new one: I now effectively have played through the game :/ Only solution for me is to restard...for a KNOWN issue -seriously, there are people complaining about this exact thing happening to them-, that COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED! Not a great showing, if you softlock yourself after hours of gameplay, just because you do not know better. Aside that: The game is fun! Basically a watered down and much prettier version of Factorio, which isn't a complaint. If you are overwhelmed with the complexity of Factorio -like i am-, give this game a try and beware the mentioned issue. It has a little bit of Factorio, Starcraft and a Tower Defense mixed in. A rare blend, which is fun. I am just really shaking my head at the mentioned issue, as this should not be!