I was expecting a lot more for the full release of this game. All of the issues I read in reviews from EA are still issues; escape doesn't close windows (in fact it does something weird for me), you can't access the hotbar when accessing storage inventories, something which you're taught to fix as a baby dev on baby's first game on baby dev how-to courses. The game is timegated, and drags forever when you accomplish the ridiculously easy and fast tasks because you have to wait until whatever day the next colonist shows up so they can unlock whatever you're missing be it a blueprint or access to another area. The game will often say "make or do x y and z" but then fail to tell you when you get x y and z accessible. Graveyard Keeper did that a bit but at the LEAST it wasn't timelocked like this, with stretches of time oozing out before you with nothing to do once you water crops (easy and not at all once you get sprinklers) and before you access the mine. Graveyard Keeper's roadblocks were other paths you would have to go down before getting whatever you're missing and then unlock where you're stuck, so you never not have something to do. The tutorials STILL explain what you have to do, while not telling you anything, which is a weird accomplishment. It would be much better if certain steps of quests didn't unlock until the timegate passed so at least you aren't wasting your time going over the map trying to find something you missed. I really wanted to like this game because I've been waiting for it for a while. This game is one of those that have an amazing artistic team while the gameplay mechanics are lackluster or underdeveloped. It's a shame that this still hasn't gotten an update from March when it was released (2025) to fix these issues and improve on the product. As it is, I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere, I'm halfway into Vernal season, and I'm growing increasingly bored because I have quests I can't complete, with practically nothing to do.
To start off with, yes it's fairly short (I clocked 5 1/2 hours) but I think that's in its favor. In a era of AAA devs padding out their games with grindy mechanics in super long stretches between dribbles of story because they think longer playing time = better game + better profits, this is a breath of fresh air. It was more like an interactive movie but also not really because you're the one looking around and doing the thinking. Every decision you make is pleasantly weighed and valid, it doesn't steamroll you into "fake choices" like some games do by presenting a dialogue choice where the unacceptable answer just leads into the choice again, but it does give you the chance to change your mind. Some questions will actually lock out others, and create a more dynamic and natural conversations with other characters. There's also actual investigating and YOU, the player, have to figure out exactly what the right answer is but there's always that degree of uncertainty until the results of the investigation pay off and confirm you were right or wrong. Depending on what you choose you can uncover more clues or miss them entirely which might affect your decisions in what to submit in investigation reports (sheets, in game). If you don't get all of the information you need it will handicap you in your investigation, so you have to employ some real thought into it and be very thorough. The only con I can think of is the walking speed is pretty slow, which can be kind of annoying in spots but also lets you get into the moody noir vibe better as well and take in those pretty amazing pixel environments. So it's a good-thing-bad-thing in the end. And the story is actually well thought out. It doesn't have a whole jumble of disperate things, everything leads back to the main root and is part of each other with small, personal actions at the bottom, and large, interplanetary complications.
