I bought this game without any foreknowledge of the now well-known controversies over the game's depictions of gender, sexuality, and relationships. But the problems started to present themselves to me pretty quickly, and I wasn't surprised by the time I read about them on Polygon, RockPaperShotgun, and in the developer's own account. I'm chill enough to ignore the old-person attitudes to gender and sexuality if they're just left out, though I think it's a loss to a game if it fails to reflect the real world in ways that add depth. I was disappointed that Rimworld already lacks representation regarding gender: this is a big daft, as there's no functional difference in how 'pawns' can behave outside of relationships based on gender, but ok. It's outdated, but It's no different from Starbound, Stardew Valley, etcetera, in this regard. But then I note some really.. incel? tropes in the pawns' relationships. It's always the male pawns who hit on the female ones, and they get upset if they're 'rebuffed', a factor that can lead to violent outbursts or fights. Relationships can only be represented monogamously in double-beds, but due to the one-way dynamic of relationships and some old-person ideas about male/female attractiveness, older male pawns are more likely to attract overlapping 'harems' of younger female partners. Female pawns are largely there to just be 'collected' into dysfunctional dynamics where one gets to sleep with the male and the others get jealous and depressed. Females are also all bisexual, though they rarely proposition relationships anyway. The rare trait 'gay' only applies to males, and is essentially a disadvantage as it tends to lead to constant rebuffal from 'straight' males. Learning that this was deliberate, to reflect the biases of the developer, makes it kinda sad. The sex and relationship dynamic doesn't add much to the game and it could have been left out. Bigotry isn't fun or funny, even when OTT, and it made the game gross. Refund!
Creatures 1, 2, and 3 were staples of my early interest in AI, AL, and Genetics. Creatures 2 in particular had a beautiful mix of authenticity (Creatures 3 Norns were able to survive without food long enough to breed, which made their Artificial Life credentials..questionable), community (huge involvement from community members help to create additional and often incompatible genomes, brains, and behaviours), and atmosphere (the music, the rich backgrounds, the stable but dynamic-seeming ecosystems of independent agents and organisms). Sadly, this re-release fails at that first hurdle for me, because try though I might (including every forum 'hack' I could find on GoG and elsewhere) I could not get Creatures 2 to launch successfully, so I was denied that decades-delayed dopamine hit. :) Not sure where the funds from this are going because no future development seems to be planned, and it's a real shame that the current owners of the IP, whoever they are, don't consider releasing the source code and helping to restore the community feeling this game had back when it was new. No serious Artificial Life games have really happened since the Creatures series, which is a real loss.
Have bought this game for multiple platforms and as a gift for a family member, so I consider myself a fan. I've played through once and started several other farms/characters to explore playing differently. Stardew Valley is a great game, and I've enjoyed playing it alone a lot. I was very eager to start playing Multiplayer when it came out and I think the MP gameplay was delivered very nicely in the 1.3.x updates, so that running a multiplayer farm with family or friends worked well and offered everyone good chances to explore independently and work together. Sadly, DRM-free multiplayer was since removed, and multiplayer now only works using DRM platforms from GOG or Steam, so I won't be buying as a gift for anyone else and will probably revert my install to 1.3 and stay there so I can continue playing with my kids. Very disappointed with this development, which accounts for the missing two stars in this assessment. This was developing into a great multi-platform, mostly-respectful option for play between friends and family, but the requirement for DRM has taken it off the list for me. I don't want my kids to grow up feeling like fun must be sanctioned by strangers. Starbound makes a better option with more scope for different play-styles, but the aesthetics of community and country living were a big draw to Stardew Valley. Thanks for a great gaming experience, nevertheless. Stardew Valley has given lots of relaxing and fun playtime and has a nice long game progression with a good mix of challenge, grind, and creativity.
