The longer I play the game, the more it feels like an unfinished beta (V. 1 24661) It is a 'Settlers'-Clone with decent graphics and somewhat simplified gameplay (no population management - you just print your robots). The goal is to gather and convert various resources, research new technologies and either build a monument or vanquish your enemy. There is an exploration part involved which is entertaining, and it is fun to become bigger and better. It also is cute to look at your robots doing your bidding - BUT: A big part of 'settlers' is to optimize your resource tree - placing buildings in a most efficient manner. The problem with 'The Colonists' is the pathfinding: the game doesn't fetch the nearest / most convenient resource, instead it can happen that the log is being fetched from the other end of the map, while the one being manufactured right next door goes - you guess right - where the first one came from. That leads to some peculiar transportation stuff - bot delivers energy to waypoint, just to fetch some right back. Equally annoying are the (resulting) roadblocks. Each roadpost (waypoint) can accomodate 4 resources, so your roads get easily jammed. If the block is from both ways (yes, that can happen), it never dissolves - bye bye resources. When you alter a trade route or unplan a building, those cute white bots ditch the cargo. Furthermore (just one more for now) your bots don't look for alternative ways - always picking the shortest pathway. So having an intricate network of paths hurts more than it helps. There is more: graphical glitches, bots ignoring storage (unlike settlers you don't have a castle / warehouse but have to manage output / storage, which is a fun aspect, when it works), a not ending mission 6 and so on (i found a page full) leading me to believe I played a beta. TL,DR: cute little game, could be more fun if it wasn't so frustrating. I'd wait for a patch or a sale.
I wanted to try it because i love The Ur-Quan Masters, and even an okay "sequel" is better than nothing, right? Wrong. Having read Gorboth's review and what's up at https://dogarandkazon.squarespace.com/, I would never support this game even if it was awesome. Which it isn't. Without franchise goggles, it is imho bad to average at best. This game is a bland reboot of Star Control II / The Ur-Quan Masters with mordern graphics, but it is badly optimized, stutters even on lowest settings, and has long loading times. The gameplay is a dumbed down rip-off off the Star Control formula. You explore planets, encounter alien races, do quests, discover the bigger picture and, ultimately (, I presume,) save the part of the galaxy. But the alien races are mostly uninspired and unfunny, the gameplay is pretty linear and the lander minigame tedious, frustrating and grindy. Plus there is no purpose anymore to gather alien material, and the landing costs are the same for every planet. At first there is a whole lot of star constellations and systems to explore, but, a bit further into the game, about half of the map seems to be irrelevant. The soundtrack is by no means memorable - especially compared to UQM, again. I played The Ur-Quan Masters beside this one for comparison, and, even now, it more than holds up! If anyone gives 'Star Control: Origins' 4 Stars, UQM should have 7. TL:DR: GOG should remove this game. Don't buy it, play UQM instead!
I am of two minds concerning this game: the general idea is awesome, and i really enjoy tinkering my ship down to the parts of the modules i buy. The flying and 'submarining in space' with stealth mechanic is also appealing to me. BUT there are the bugs, glitches, UI-errors etc. 45 on my list and counting. Most are just weird, annoying or immersion-breaking. But it adds up. And now I'm being chased (in-game) by military and police without them giving reason, and being fined for trying to flee or shooting (insert guess I'll die meme). I think I'll Reboot Space Rangers instead...
Barony is an entertaining little time waster. It plays very intuitively, I haven't found, read or needed a manual. And it's fun to get the basics. In the beginning the game is quite challenging, but when you get to know the rules, proceed carefully and survive a few levelups, you become strong enough to get to poke the troll back and even survive those nasty traps. The game's graphics and audio are fully sufficient imho, as I prefer gameplay to flashy stuff. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, but still think it was a well-invested 10 bucks!
As it is now, it's a funny "little" game you can waste a couple of days on. Some reasons why you can't spend more time are: 1. There is only one way of playing / beating the game. There are a few ships to choose from, but you end with a similar setup. PCs are not randomized: you hire the same person, it has the same traits (every game). 2. I had the best ship and all the research before leaving the first system... Something new needs to be added there, like improving existing room's efficiency further. 3. Then there are the bugs. They can be worked with, but some are quite annoying: - rooms are not used, crew starves and leaves (reload helps?) - when picking the third skill during promotion, the game allocates 0 skill on the SECOND task -> have to reload - the game crashes frequently, tries to access the internet (before or because of crash) without asking - ship's pathfinding during system flight and especially combat needs overhauling. Ramming almost impossible (even with fried enemy engines) There is promise in this game, the crew management and interaction is entertaining (just 'oh, we like the same food! you are a great guy!' is way too easy, come on!), but there is not enough 'meat', concerning exploration and research, different ship setups in the game (yet).
I bought this game because of the good reviews and because I like space opera. But the game is mediocre at best, it has good graphics but lousy, repetitive gameplay. For instance, you deal out damage via broadside gun batteries and turrets. The turrets fire automatically, and deal way more damage than the gun batteries. You can control the turrets manually, but then you can't steer the vessel. Further, as mentioned in other reviews, the game is semi-3d, and you are only able to "drive", not to "fly". The great soundtrack mentioned in other reviews, is apparently missing in my game, there seems to be only one repetitive southern rock song. I played about 4 hours, two ships which feel the same to me, and the first galaxy, and am now erasing the game from my hard drive. You should try Space Rangers (tactical game with great missions), I-War 2 or Schleichfahrt for Simulators instead.
