The Europa Wager plays totally different from the base game & my 2 favorite DLCs. Problem is that not all of the raw materials that the factions need are on Europa. You have to trade with Earth to get a good many of them. After 22 minutes, had enough & returned this. My OTC game playing time is better spent on Mars, Io, or Ceres. Screenshots from this DLC is what attracted me to Offworld Trading Company, to begin with. Finally bought the base game, after GOG offered it. Jupiter's Forge & Ceres Initiative are the DLCs to get for this game, if you want to play somewhere other than Mars.
No wind or geothermal power, but like the Ceres Initiative DLC, you get Nuclear Reactors & Uranium Mines. You also get Basalt Platforms, which mine Silicon, Iron, and Uranium simultaneously. Like the Ceres Initiative, mines & quarries deplete over time, Io is more of a challenge than Mars, and it's nice have a little variety. Besides playing on Jupiter's volcanic moon, you get 2 new HQs; Nomadic & Elite. It also adds an Io tutorial, and Io as a location option for skirmishes & campaigns. Would have bought it, if I didn't receive it as a gift. My only gripe is no indicator that this DLC is installed.
If you have, or plan on getting Jupiter's Forge, you are not gaining much with this DLC. * - Removes geothermal & wind power, but you get Uranium mines & nuclear reactors. * - Less flat terain, so the player will have difficulty finding a decent location to build his/her HQ. * - Ceres becomes a location choice in the skirmish games. * - Campaign: There is no Ceres-specific location choice, but you can include it if playing a Mars campaign. (Haven't tried this yet, so speculating that Ceres would be the location for 1 or more weeks.) * - No issues with Windows 11. * - Still on the fence? Google Pravus' video about this DLC. * - Bought it after getting the base game & the Jupiter's Forge DLC, so I'm not sure if the Nomadic & Elite HQ types were added with that DLC, or as part of the Ceres Initiative. * - If you don't like the base game, this won't change your mind; it's more of the same. Bought this DLC when it was 2/3 off, and have been very happy with it. It's different enough from playing on Mars & Io, that it makes a nice change-of-pace.
Was expecting maps with more detail, and visually attractive. Nope! They don't look any diferent than the Mars maps that come the base game. Played on 3 so far, all Large size. (If there are any with a size other than 'Large', haven't played on them yet. Why buy this DLC? 1) It's at least 50% off; got it when it was 2/3 off, and 2) Starved for new maps. Was hoping for better, but at that price point no big waste.
If you are looking for RR game like Railroad Tycoon, Transport Fever 2, or Railroad Empire, look elsewhere ... this isn't the game for you. This is a timed puzzle, you use railroads to move EVERYHING (including power produced by power plants). Even if two buildings are adjacent, you need to set up a railroad to move material between them. Personally, I despise any kind of time constraint in my games, and wrote this game after watching Nilaus' video. But the timer isn't that bad. First, for each puzzle, the timer doesn't start until you build your first train. So the player can build factories, track, mines, train stations, etc., etc., assuming he/she has enough yen. Once the first train is built, the timer starts. Even saving & exiting the game doesn't doesn't allow the player to view the current state of the map. The faster that you complete a puzzle, the better your letter rank (S, A, B, C). Objective: Most puzzles involve exporting off the map, or supplying a city, with a certain amount of some item. But some involve achieving an export rate (e.g export 20 appliances per minute). Suspect that I haven't played half the map yet, The puzzle start becoming tediuous, and for that reason, I've put this game away for while. Good graphics & tutorial. And the UI is intuitive; laying track & dealing with signals is easier than Transport Fever 2.
Playing one of the later campaign games, hit a 300 building limit, and that was the final straw, that allowed the game to die with my previous computer. Constant crisis management became annoying, but the most annoying the frequently voices of the characters telling about problems that I was already aware of. (Would have been nice to have an option to shut them up, or at least filter them out.) Graphics were gorgous; one of the best, but not the best on GTX 1660 graphics card. And the developers did a great job with the tutorial; very helpful early on, but they slowly weaned the player off. Was concerned when it was released a few years ago, was concerned that it might not have enough content. Bought it heavily discounted on GOG, so easily got my money's worth, after playing it for 33 hours. Bottom Line: 20-20 hindsight, would have been worth it full price. But definitely worth it, if deeply discounted it. Closest game, game play wise, was the city builder, Cliff Empire.
Help tutorials, great music, and nice visuals. Was expecting 10's of hours of chill time from this space explorer. Problem #1: ANY attempt to change the camera from the Xbox game controller, made the screen spin uncontrollably. (If I don't plan on using a game controller, you won't see this problem.) Whenever this happened, my best recourse was to press & go back to the object that I was looking at. Problem #2: Missing feature ==> Ability to orbit an object (star, moon, planet, etc., etc.). This would include selecting a) Camera angle from orbit, b) Orbit velocity, & c) Orbital angle (equatorial, polar, or anything in between. These were the deal-breakers for me, and ended up getting a refund of SpaceEngine. Some nit-picky issues (i.e. annoyances), 1) Some (most?) of the tutorial doesn't play nice with a game controller connected. If you have one, disconnect it. Specifically, this has to do with the precision needed free flight mode. (Wasted lots of time, before I realized that the Xbox was the culprit.) 2) One of the tutorials requires that the middle button of your mouse not be mapped some mapped to anything unconventional (e.g. right click). Forget which tutorial, but the middle button mapping problem appeared to be toward the end. 3) Installed some of the DLCs, such as Jupiter HD, but never saw any difference. (Did I miss something during installation?) 4) Would be nice to have a central menu, that could access features of the game, from a hierarchy, and be access from a single key press. SpaceEngine has lots of offer for those interested in astronomy. But I think I bought it early in its development.
