Started fresh with this game (and all DLCs) in late 2023. I was a little leery, having read complaints about worker drone idiocy, resource balance, and slooooow gameplay. I needn't have worried. The game gives you all the tools you need to succeed, even at the hardest level (I am currently in Terraforming Stage 5 playing at "Aspera" or whatever it is the highest difficulty is called). If you don't take the time to understand those tools -- all of which are well explained in-game -- you may fail, as many reviewers obviously did. The only time I felt I had to google something was to figure out how to "merge" districts, which ended up being a single click. The choice to have the player take the role of an AI was genius -- you can't ever really trust your senses (sensors?) or even your own mind. The events that unfold throughout the game and your exploration of the planet I would consider "sci-fi" lite, but they are well crafted, voiced nicely, and integrate nicely with the story. The graphics, UI, and overall game performance were quite good. I'm running a pretty beefy rig (RTX 4070) so YMMV, but for me the transition between orbital view, zoomed in view, and the various (very helpful!) overlays is 100% seamless. I never feel like I am fighting the UI. Finally, I never once found the game tedious or felt the need to kick the speed up past 2x. Once I had several colonies going (which takes very little time), there was enough going on at all times to keep me engaged. The terraforming model is nowhere even close to a "real-world" simulation, but it's one of the higher fidelity ones out there. It means you are soon paying attention to several interconnected variables and trying to make sure they're all moving in the right direction. TL;DR this is a unique gem of a game that every fan of the genre should try out.
4 stars for an excellent indie puzzle builder with a lot of different scenarios, maps, and ways to win. -1 star for developer who treats gog.com as 2nd class storefront, with two DLCs on Steam that cannot be found here. Developer will not answer any questions about gog.com release. -1 star for developer who can't fix bugs the whole community is reporting. Worst being a case where buildings will not upgrade and you just see the message "no 1x2 model found" or "no 2x1 model found" over and over, preventing you from continuing on some paths. TL;DR -- you'll get a lot of mileage out of this title if you buy it on Steam and don't mind the odd game-breaking bug that the dev has declared that they will not fix.
Fantastic narration, artistic style, and immersion in this gothic horror roguelike/hero management masterpiece. It is, as others have pointed out, quite punishing (every action is permanent) -- but also very rewarding when you start to get a feel for it and start skirting around the edges of disaster instead of blundering headfirst into it. Resources are scarce and there are meaningful decisions to make every game turn even before you decide who to send into the dark. The UI is quite pleasant, which quite a few nice little touches like "unequip all trinkets". Stability-wise, I've experienced exactly one crash in about twenty hours of gameplay. Just picked up where I left off, no progress lost. Five out of five, fantastic game at a great price (I got it on the intro sale).
