The most important point first of all: the game is super fun, but it depends on your own frustration tolerance whether you stick with it. Now that that's out of the way... The game manages the balancing act of appearing simple, but hiding much more (and I mean MUCH more) beneath the surface. Let's assume you can find a direct path straight down and kill the boss without dying in the meantime (laughable, I know, but stay tuned). Then you haven't even seen a fraction of the actual game world. Because this extends far in all directions away from the obvious way down. All of it is randomly generated. If you really want to see everything in the game, you have to start several runs because not all secrets always spawn in your current world. And since its release several years ago the community still hasn't figured out some of the mysteries. And I haven't even mentioned the really funny (and dangerous) simulated physics in the game. Yes, the world is destructible and different materials react with each other in a reasonably realistic way. But as soon as the sometimes ludicrously absurd spells (which can of course be combined with each other) of the different wands come into play, things get really interesting. Killing yourself while trying them out is of course part of the fun. That's why you need perseverance if you want to have lasting fun with Noita. There is definitely enough content. But the game is simply not for everyone.
You realize relatively quickly that this game comes from a small indie team and was only recently released from Early Access. There are still small rough edges everywhere. Nevertheless, the developers' vision is visible the whole time: to develop a game that really gives you the feeling of changing a world. The highlight is therefore undoubtedly the terraforming - and here the game shows absolutely no weakness. It is incredibly impressive what the developers have achieved here! Watching the changes everywhere - it's all incredibly satisfying. The world is crammed full of secrets and invites you to explore at every turn. Here, however, I find the narrative style of titles such as Subnautica much more captivating. The map is hand-built and therefore limited. This is good because the world doesn't feel so generic. On the other hand, however, it is finite and feels relatively small. However, the developer is reportedly planning to expand it further in the future. Of course, this type of game also contains a certain amount of grind. And this leads me to the biggest weakness (in my opinion): As with any game of this type, you spend a huge amount of time in your inventory. Its capacity is in short supply, especially at the beginning, as items cannot be stacked. In most cases, some of the valuable space is also blocked by supplies such as oxygen and water. As a player, you therefore have to be prepared to spend a lot of time in your inventory. Some automation is introduced in the late game to alleviate this a bit. I wish that the developers (in general, not just those of Planet Crafter) would finally find the courage to try something new here. The technical framework is very solid: In over 50 hours of playing time, I have actually had NOT A SINGLE crash! TL;DR: Very entertaining creative base building and extremely satisfying planetary terraforming, all wrapped up in a very charming game with a reliable technical foundation.
It doesn't take long to get to the credits, but I was well entertained during this time. The gameplay is pretty casual and the enemy AI is hardly worth mentioning. You slowly fight your way across a small map with your drone and gradually take out the Russian units and soldiers by dropping explosives on them. When you finish the game, you also unlock a New Game+ mode. Thanks to the Unreal Engine, the graphics are also quite respectable, but rather functional and not a highlight. In total, I needed about 2.5 hours for my first playthrough. Some would say that's too little for the price. But I see it as a donation to the Ukraine with this nice little game from a small team as a bonus. You have to decide for yourself.
If you liked Wall World, then you won't go wrong with this DLC. You just get more: more biomes, more blueprints, more resources, etc. Unfortunately, you're also a bit more limited with the DLC, since you can only find and use the new weapons from the DLC. Here I would have liked a better integration of the previous content. The highlight, however, is of course the expanded story. There are more log entries to find and of course a new antagonist is introduced with Zeus (another spider pilot). However, this is where the DLC falls a little bit short in my opinion. There could have been much more story. As before, many aspects are only hinted at. And that is somewhat unsatisfactory for such an interesting scenario and world. For the price, however, you really can't complain. Recommended!
This DLC adds a short additional storyline to the game. It is quite entertaining, though nothing earth-shattering. New technologies, biomes, enemies, etc. are also included, of course. And you'll meet some old friends from one of the studio's previous games. Overall, the DLC is recommendable in my opinion, even if I wouldn't pay the full price of EUR 10 for it.
Alawar has already managed to combine beautiful pixel look with a good gameplay loop and an interesting premise with the game Necrosmith. For me, as a sci-fi fan, Wall World is naturally more appealing. One element that makes these games so great is progression. You start from a very inferior position but with each playthrough there is noticeable progress due to the interesting upgrades (I'll just say Mole Torpedo). And towards the end, you're so superior that you simply wipe away entire waves of enemies. The price called for this game is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. You easily get 10 to 15 hours of gameplay for what? Five euros? Alawar should really rethink its pricing policy. I think even 15 Euros would be justified. The only real criticisms are the controls and the story. Sometimes keystrokes are simply not registered when they overlap with animations. But that was already improved in the last patch. The story, on the other hand, is a completely different issue. It's only lightly sprinkled over the game in small amounts anyway, but still keeps the player somewhat engaged. The ending, on the other hand, is unfortunately unsatisfying in my opinion. Here, another small cutscene would have made a lot of difference. Conclusion: Absolutely recommended! A wonderful game without extreme challenge and a great progression system. More of this please, Alawar!
At first, I dismissed the game as a casual tidbit. Well, now I've unlocked everything in the game after probably 15 hours, have a big grin on my face and am very pleasantly surprised. Classic case of "easy to learn, hard to master". For making the game seem so simple, there's actually a decent bit of tactics hiding under the hood. And the variety of parts you can find keeps you hooked for much longer than I would have thought. The gameplay is actually somewhat reminiscent of games like Vampire Survivors. All in all, a super investment for the few paltry bucks. I'm already looking forward to the next game from this developer!
