I've been playing the tutorial and there's depth to the systems. I'll add to this review once I play more.
A 21st century choose your own adventure book.
The mobile kitchen and the abilty to cryofreeze a companion make this DLC a quality-of-life must-have.
I have the game and the three DLCs. I've finished the Campaign and the Director Mode Campaign. It took about 25 hours total. I think the Robots of Lux DLC is a must-have, because of the quality of life improvements it adds to the game. This is a solid roguelite. The core gameplay loop is great. The art is beautiful, and the writing is interesting and sometimes funny and cute. However, there's no way to share your progress with a new character, so experimenting with different playstyles is a pain. Even moreannoying, max level comes too early, and yet you can't level up a new character without losing all your unlocks. The game is missing simple features like that, which would keep me motivated to play. I'm probably done until another DLC comes out. I hope the devs make the endgame more friendly.
This is an interesting take on city building. It reminded me of Against the Storm; if you like that game, you'll probably like this. The Campaign feels like investigating a murder mystery, and the Default difficulty level provides some challenge but feels fair. The tech tree is pleasantly different from that of most space games. On the whole, I recommend you buy it. The big negative is that Campaign mode is the only mode. There's no sandbox, no creative mode, no ability to just create some star systems and build a base. The game feels like playing an RPG with no branching. Really what you're doing is leveling up your hero (the space station) so it can fight the big bad at the end. If the devs released a DLC (should probably be a free DLC tbh) that included a sandbox mode, this would be a 5 star game.
Three-fourths of this game is one of my favorite Spiderweb titles. The fortress reconstruction system is great, and a big improvement on earlier games. But I found the last act boring, and dropped the difficulty to casual so I could just get it done. I got more than 40 hours of great entertainment out of the game, so I'll recommend it. Just be aware that parts are really clever, and other parts feel like work.
I bought this a year ago and played for 2 hours, said meh, didn't look at it again. Then I tried it again at the start of November because I was in the mood for a city builder. And it's a work of genius. The art style is beautiful, the mechanics are simple, your effect on the world is complex, the lore is interesting. And it is still in early access! I'd be happy if this were the full game. I really like this.
