This is a pretty early review...I've played maybe 20-30mins so far but here are my list of complaints First, the control is just terrible. First thing you will notice is that the controls are only bindable outside of the game which sucks. Then you will find out you cannot use mouse buttons for anything. Then you will try to change the keys to something else on the keyboard and it will tell you that that key is not supported. This is already pretty terrible but it's not until you finally get into the game that you're going to find out just how far into the septic tank things have fallen. The aiming is messed up beyond anything you can imagine. Not only is aiming all kinds of just screwed up with the camera only moving as you get to the edges of the screen, but when you shoot your mouse locks into place so you can't adjust your aim. If your combat is garbage it's best to not have much, or any in the game but no, this game goes all out with infinitely respawning enemies. I don't know what they were thinking. Second, there are no graphics options.....at all. Not even for resolution. Be prepared for some seriously awful graphics. Third, and this really annoys me when I am trying to configure things to feel good, is the starting logos cannot be skipped. I just want to start the game, I don't want to watch this trash every time. Fourth, and this is like some kind of joke, they're trying to sell this broken mess for almost $35. I picked it up for $3.40 and I still feel like I may have been ripped off. Anyways maybe there is a good story here, but it's like trying to read of a book that's been buried under a mountain of turds. It's just not worth digging it out.
As a hardcore player I found this game to be too easy and I had essentially mastered it within an hour. This pretty much completely destroyed replayability for me. If you're looking for a game like banished with the difficulty turned up this is not it, though I don't know which one is harder as I find it impossible to lose in either. Anyways here is the short and sweet of how I felt: Pro: Random maps Survival theme reasonably well put together/interesting no encountered bugs as of the version I played(june 2016) Neutral: music and graphics aren't terrible but nothing great either Cons: Way too easy Everything is the same*more about this below* Building placement is almost irrelevant so you don't need to plan well *Everything in planetbase is the same. When growing food you have a choice between high maintenance and high production foods like tomatoes and low maintenance and production foods like mushrooms. The way the game works is you have a bar for maintenance and a bar for production. As the production bar goes up the maintenance bar goes down and the lower the maintenance bar the slower production goes until it finally stops. Sounds good until you realise that a full maintenance bar is worth 67% of the production bar regardless of the food choice. Considering the production speed is almost identical as well it simply means it's a fake choice and there may as well have been a single "food" pod. This doesn't just stop at food, it extends to power storage and I assume many other things as well. For power storage you can spend two metal to hold 5000 energy, three metal to hold 7500, and five metal to hold 12500. That's right, 2500 energy storage per metal. There are a few minor differences here, like building the 5000 storage ones will give you more redundancy and the 12500 ones will give you better density but since density and redundancy aren't things you need to worry about what is the point in even having a choice? Anyways out of space to write more stuff
I read up on this game before getting it and read quite a lot about bugs, crashes, and a few reviews saying they were disappointed with the game. Nobody was saying what version they were using or any other information and I saw that a new version, 2.0, was released recently so I remained hopeful and got it based on some ingame play on youtube. GoG has version 1.4 as of december 2015, probably the one that came before what is out now. 11-bit studios don't seem to care much about sending GoG their latest version it seems just like a review on here already said. However I encountered no bugs, no crashes, and I very much enjoyed this game. I am not going to go on into a text wall so I will just say that I think people who enjoy survival games will find this fun. Also gave me the feels when I was not expecting it to at all, so big plus there.
This is a good game with a lot of stuff to love, but it so obviously could have benefited from having more time in development. First thing you will notice is the graphics options. Not being able to select your proper resolution immediately puts up warning flags for me and if you're on the fence about trying this game that might be enough to get you to walk away. If you're a strategy/tactical fan like myself then you can click that start game button. The first thing you will see is the geoscape and they did an amazing job with this. The territories are always the same, but the resources in each area and starting area of the enemy will change every game. The buildings you construct in areas will have an effect on resources as well, and since different research/construction projects take different types of resources you are always going to be able to make a more efficient system for your current needs. You can do this through replanning your bases, building more efficient lines, trade, or conquering territory. This makes this part of the game dynamic and enjoyable for(me) hundreds of hours of gameplay. The research tree and soldier progression system is fun and has a huge amount of stuff. While this is great in an RPG in a game like this is might actually hurt it. Your soldiers start off weaker than the aliens and it's up to you not to get them all killed. About maybe 1/4th through the game they start becoming doomsday weapons and only get stronger. By the end you will be able to solo any mission, including the final one, with a single soldier charging down the front line in a blaze of invincible glory. Which doesn't help the tactical maps. They are not randomly generated and there are not a lot. Soon enough you will know exactly how every mission you do will play out and this gets tedious. Worse than that this game encourages blobing. There are new things thoughout the game, but this is where it really could have used more work. Worth checking out despite flaws.
This game has horrible, horrible controls. I am sure they worked better on a console, but on PC they are just total trash. Putting that aside, this is one of the best games I have ever played. It left an impact on me that has lasted to this day. The story is so emotional as you journey through the interesting world. I don't really want to say anything else to avoid any sort of spoilage, so I will wrap this up saying that if you haven't played this game yet do yourself a favour and get it now.
