Since I'm a bit into computer hardware myself I had to give this a try. I'm surprised in how the game keeps me motivated to go on, so here's why! You start off your business with a bad reputation, so the jobs you get for the first days are pretty basic. You slowly build reputation to get more elaborate (and lucrative) your jobs. These can vary between simple virus scans, or finding and replacing defective parts, to even building a rig from scratch, based on given requirements. You gradually unlock better components and other useful tools to fulfil your customers needs. Take an extra close look to your customers emails (not too hard to get) and you'll be awarded with the best ratings! Someone mentioned it's rather tedious at some point to keep track of components and guessing which ones bring a high enough score to match a customer's requirements. While it's true that you can easily lose track of your orders and all the different parts (a custom note feature would be very useful here!), there are tools you can unlock that'll help you find out what CPU/GPU scores how many points to make your life easier and less of a guesswork. It's not unlike real life, where you just have to do a little research to see how well some components do and which don't. With time you'll get a better understanding for it and you can handle jobs faster and with more certainty. The emails you get are also kinda funny at times. You also can listen to either some of the game's own tracks, or your own music, or a large selection of online radios through your computers music player! In general there's quite a lot of attention to detail and even if some aspects are not the most accurate or realistic, it comes close enough to be still fun! Boot times or installing software is rather quick which totally helps the gameplay not to make it boring or tedious. All in all I can recommend this to people who are either into hardware or like to manage a small one man business, or better yet, both.
This game is clearly inspired by "Banished", as it shares it's basic game mechanics. If you liked Banished, you'll feel right at home. Endzone's post-apocalypse setting really sets it apart though and makes it a rather unique city builder/survival strategy game. For those of you who thought that Banish got quite dull rather quickly, this game introduces some more mechanics that'll keep you busy and entertained for longer. You'll have to deal with radiation and humidity, be prepared for droughts and sandstorms, keep your settlers happy and healthy as your settlement slowly grows. As the game is still in development, a lot of things have yet to be introduced, like expeditions or scenarios. It'll surely receive a great deal of bug fixes and overall improvements during development. So far it's fairly solid, totally playable and definitely challenging. I'll gladly support the developers, even for this price, which is imho not too high at all. Banished is just a little cheaper, where Endzone already brings more mechanics (and again, more to come as it not yet finished).
Even if it had bit of a rough start, this game is definitely worth checking out. Especially when you're familiar with games like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, you'll find yourself at home. Even if not, this is a good one to jump into the genre. It sure does involve lots of grinding at some point, but it's still fun. And of course there's more to it than just chopping down wood and crafting things. The world and the characters are interesting and the relationship system is solid, making it fun and rewarding. RPG elements round off the whole experience. TL;DR: Ignore the 1 star reviews about the update delays. The essential updates are now live anyway, so there's no point in that. Just buy this lovely game and get started!
