The base games is it is today is very solid. The game feels very tactile and it gives you plenty of control over your old world civilization without becoming too tedious. The battles feel meaningful with more room for growth. I would highly recommend it today, but it is just as good a choice to wait until this early access game is in a more complete state.
To put it simply, too many things happen in this game without any good indication of why they happen. It makes this game feel like things are random even though there is probably a reason for it. This game does not do a good job showing the player why xyz is happening, and what one can do to influence it.
Is is so difficult to get anything done in this game because the UI, and overall feel of this game is so bad. Paradox has some of the worst UI amongst every developer I have ever witnessed. This game is so hard to follow, it is not worth playing for me. This could be a good game, if they completely reworked the UI from scratch. Space Haven does this type of game far better than Paradox. That is where I am going. If you like this genre, go elesewhere.
Is is so difficult to get anything done in this game because the UI, and overall feel of this game is so bad. Paradox has some of the worst UI amongst every developer I have ever witnessed. This game is so hard to follow, it is not worth playing for me. This could be a good game, if they completely reworked the UI from scratch. Space Haven does this type of game far better than Paradox. That is where I am going.
The game seems like a pretty good concept, but when something doesn't work you are royally screwed. I play A LOT of these games and though they may have their nuances, the game shines when it makes it clear what they are and how to deal with them. This game does a horrible job of that. The tutorial is pretty good, but once you start the game if you get stuck on something you have to search it up on forums and blogs. You should never have to go on a full college research tangent just to play a game. If you want to know advance tips that's one thing, but when the game doesn't make it crystal clear why multiple things are not working that is a huge problem. The game is simply unintutive. Here is an example, you click everything to get an interaction menu to edit and delete stuff. That makes sense. But certain items you have to go into the menu, under a certain section, and get a special salvage tool to get rid of them. Why not just make it a double click? Why make it complicated? That is the simplest example. The UI is horrrrrriiiibbbbblllleeeee. Managing colonists should be two clicks. There is too many complications just to manage colonists amongst other things. There is too much micromanaging just to get your transport drone to keep bringing you material across the map. No I don't want to have to keep telling my drone to keep getting material every ten minutes. JUST GO DO IT. Same with the explorer. Just let me click a button and have him go explore. I setup a tranport network for my colonist to get around, why isn't it working? Just tell me. I shouldn't have to look up a reddit guide just to figure it out. This should be apart of the UI. Compound these issues across entire game and you have something that takes too many small things you have to keep learning just to enjoy it. I don't have time to get a degree in learning bad UI flow to enjoy some downtime. Improve the UI, improve the selection flow, and make playing this game intuitive as it should be.
Cons: - The NPCs walking around the world only give one-liners and act like zombies. - The police don't have cars and therefore can't chase you even if they wanted to. - Police spawn directly in front of you giving you zero chance to survive them and disappear when you drive 50 meters away - The controller sensitivity is really bad, even for an RPG. - The controller layout often leads to actions you don't intend to such as skipping dialogue when you need to crouch, going to the main menu instead of the in-game menu. - There is little to do outside of missions. - The AI is really bad, worse than most games of the last decade and more. - There is too much uninteresting loot to pick up. - Buying cars is a hassle. - Weapons seem repetitive after a while with little variety. - Lack of variety in weapon attachments and customization. - Clothing shops are too expensive and lack a variety. - NPCs drive like complete idiots. They can't switch lanes to go around cars. - This game feels way too perverted with little variety in themes open world. - But somehow there is only one male and female joytoy (prostitute) in the entire world. (Makes no sense) - The open world does not seems to reactive to the story as you go along. Major things happen and not much usually changes in the world itself. - All the streets are named, but you can barely see 95% of the street names. - Did I mention bugs on PC. I have had to reinstall the game three times, restart the game over 5 times, and reload saves a few dozen times. - The vast majority of things in this game is fake and non-interactable. - Food is practically useless. - etc. Pros: - Good story - A variety of side missions that all feel worth doing. - A variety of ways to build your character. - The graphics are gorgeous. - A city LAYOUT so lifelike that I never fast travel. - The cars all feel different. - Currency in this game feels like you actually have to earn it. - Likeable characters. - Plenty of skills to acquire and upgrade.
Story Firstly, the story is the absolute worst. Majority of the story is literally reading a black and white wall of text. Then, at one point, it literally force you to quit the game and return to your desktop. There is no simple level select, but you have to keep following this generic sci-fi hacker story dialogue that outstandingly annoying. It should have just had a level select like good games do. Controls It is really difficult to know if you are close enough to pick up a gun or melee a target. So you are often found grabbing at stuff you can't actually reach. It is incredibly frustrating. Especially when you combine it with the next problem, then those fickle controls cause you to get shot in the back while you are reaching for a gun. False Stopped Time The game will constantly tell you how time only moves when you do, but that is not true. Time is always moving just slower when you are not moving. This makes it very difficult to actually plan what to do, you sort of just have to react. NPCs The NPCs are actually pretty good, but they have a few too many advantages that the player just doesn't have. For example, your guns only get three shots, but the NPCs guns have unlimited ammo. Therefore, if you miss a shot and you are facing four NPCs firing non-stop, you are royally screwed. Especially when they will surround you and time is always moving. Then, you can't look around and try to map out a plan. You end up just running around shooting like any other FPS game. Time Then of course it the time problem. The game is really short and lacks a lot of replayability. Once you beat a level there is no real challenge in doing it again. Design The design is way to 1980s. It is cringe worthy. It doesn't feel like the developers were trying to be retro, it feels like they were just too cheap to hire an actual UI/UX designer.
The game has an amazing story, in-depth combat system, and loads of varied enemy types. Even in 2020 this game is still one of the best RPGs period. If you have not played this game before and like RPGs you HAVE to play this game. After playing this game I fell in love with adventure games. I didn't even like Dragon Age, but this game's mechanics just works so fluidly that I don't mind sinking hours into playing it. Plus, unlike games like many other RPGs, all the quests feel varied and very unique. I really love how much freedom you have to effect the story and choose your outcomes. Even in side quests you can choose the type of player you want to be. For example, you may run into someone being beat up and then interrupt it to see what is going on. It is only then you find out that the person being jumped is actually a mage hunter who burns mages. Then, you can choose to help or let them continue pounding them into the sand. These type of choices are littered throughout the world giving you hours of in-dpeth gameplay. The game does have a few minor bugs, but those are overshadowed by good varied gameplay. Also, CD Projekt Red is the company behind this game. It feels good to support a well worthy company. I hope they open a second studio and make more games with their gamers first philosophy. Plus, if you get this game on GOG, you know you own this game forever no matter what.
Why should you buy this game? It is a fully simulated city building strategy game. The villagers actually go to the market to eat. The material is acutally mined and move across the map by actual villagers. Villagers actually go to work, take breaks, go home, go to buy clothes, etc. Your job is to place the buildings, assign the villagers jobs, buy terriority, manage your military, manage trade relations, customize your city, etc. The game has actual supply chains from the raw material to the finished products. Plus, this game keep it fun without heavy micromanaging Recently (update 3.6 on July, 14, 2020) this game has become much more fun to play and in-depth. Some features are still in their early works like the military system. Although, the primary features such as the actual village building and the supply chains are well fleshed out. The UI is still scheduled for it's major overhaul, but it is defintely useable today. This game has a very bright future. Even in its current state, this game is definitely my favorite city building strategy game. The supply chains are realistic and acually make sense. You must build your village from just a village center to a sprawling metropolis. It gives you plenty of freedom to build how you like. How It Plays: First you start by choosing your starting terriority, then you place your village center. Next you must place buildings, assign villagers jobs, and begin harvesting your local resources. Next, you build more building to convert those raw material to useful material such as stone to polished stone and wood into plankets. Then, you begin taking those finished material into working products like swords, clothes, churches, and everything your villagers need to thrive. Eventually you will look at your village and see a metropolis that expands across the entire map and realize you have sunken dozens of hours building your perfect village.
Got this game a few days ago and already clocked in 38hrs+. It is a good game if you enjoy problem solving, base building, and puzzles. Plenty of creative ways to win any level and plenty of replayability. EDIT: The way conveyor belts and inserts (roboot arms) work is gaming breakingly unrealistic and limiting. The fact that there is no simple way to decide which side of a conveyor belt inserters place and pick up items is incredibly annoying from the very beginning of the game. It forces you to make these weird unrealistic belt paths that are annoying as hell to manage. It may seem like a small thing until you realize this game is 75% conveyor belts. It's like an FPS game having bad weapons, it just ruins the game. As someone who's profession revolves around manufacturing, I though I could create some realistic and fun factories. Although, once I realized that you can't control and use the robot arms like real ones, this game just became a huge disappointment. For this reason I cannot recommend this game. This game could have been fun if they actually took the time to make inserters (robot arms) realistic and flexible to adapt to how you want to manage your factory flow from the very beginning of the game. Flexibility is the major reason for robot arms in manufacturing in the first place. Instead this game just feels very limiting and becomes this micromanaging nightmare of a puzzle. Half the game becomes "how can I get these resources to this side of the belt?". Also, note that this game has been around for multiple years and this will probably never be fixed unless you want to search around for a possible mod (Reminder: you should never need a mod to fix a game, only add to it). It is mind blowing that no one told me this before I wasted thirty dollars.
