This is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. The sound, visuals, writing, and difficulty bring this brutal alternative history to life. I normally don't discuss sound design, but I truly love the soundscape in this game. The music, ui, and environment all sound delightful. The game is about managing resources while maintaining your morality in an unforgiving environment. Many times when I play I feel like I'm just holding on, much like the people in my settlement. There are moments, especially if you're not experienced, where the only way to save your city is to become a monster. I appreciate that in the game, much like in life, the easy choice isn't always the right one. In order to be a good person, you have to be very intentional with every choice and not make many missteps. The city-building mechanics are solid, but not especially innovative. What makes this game unique is how the setting adds additional challenges. Your livable area is constrained by how far your heating extends from the generator. If you want to increase this, then you need to research it (which costs resources and time), but the range increase will also increase your coal consumption. And the temperature generally trends downward, so you need to increase the level of heating, which requires more research and also consumes more coal. So now you need more coal, but to build the better coal mine you need more wood and steel, and maybe a steam core. Also you have to keep the mine heated or your people will fall ill and die. If I had to give one piece of advice for new players, it would be to pay attention to your wood economy.
As someone else said, this game feels like combining the stories of FTL and Star Trek, and I would highly recommend it to Star Trek fans. You can tell the creators of this game love sci-fi. I don't normally play point-and-click games, but this was a massive blast. Puzzles were interesting, but as advertised there's no pixel-hunting or absurd moon logic. The biggest strength of this game is its mission design. Each world serves as a unique mission zone that has multiple possible endings that provide different rewards and narrative. The narratives are fun and there are a few that truly enthralled me. Every time you complete a different ending to a world, you get an end card, and this is maybe the best feature of this game. When you come back to the planet on future runs, it allows you the option to skip that mission and continue onward as though you completed exactly the same way you did when you earned the end card. This prevents your successive runs from dragging in the parts you're done with, while allowing you to replay whatever parts you want to. I found the game enjoyable enough that I completed every possible ending and unlocked all achievements.
