The graphics are great, the music is amazing, the exploration is fun, and the characters are enjoyable. Why only 3 out of 5. Jumping puzzles. If you don't like jumping puzzles this game isn't for you. You can't even save the game mid-way through, as you will start again at the start. The early ones are fine, the later ones are too much, for me. If there was a way to simply go around them then this would be a 5/5 game. However with the puzzles, I can not complete the game, so 3/5.
Windows 7, i7-3770k CPU, Nvidia 1070 video card - game does not run. Perhaps this is not a Windows 7-64 game. I have a dual monitor setup. First time the game removed the main monitor from the system, it wasn't available when I tried to re-setup dual monitors. Rebooting the PC fixed the problem. Updated graphics driver. Second time the game just froze the PC. Could not ctrl-alt-delete to reboot PC, PC appeared frozen, cap-locks didn't work on the keyboard. Had to hard reboot the PC. Third time I actually got a few seconds of game play. I set my broken nose and when the bar tender asked how I was doing the game again froze the PC, had to do a hard reboot, which fixed the PC. Every other game I have tried has worked, but not this one. Yes this is an old system, waiting on availability of parts to build a new one (new AMD 5xxx CPU, new video card).
I find this a fun game that has withstood the test of time. The newer patches have increased the AI's ability to play well (it now uses the same sneaky tricks I use). There are a lot of mods available which can greatly increase the games replay value.
Well paying $60 for what turns out to be a pre-release alpha is annoying. It doesn’t even run well. My initial issues are as follows: 1) The game crashes to desktop every 15-35 minutes. No idea why, the window just closes. 2) The user interface is obtuse and cumbersome. For example when the game loads for the first time there is a white screen with a circle around the letter E, the circle is changing in intensity in a circular manner. Usually this means (in almost every other piece of software) that the system is doing something and you should wait. Somehow in this game you are supposed to know to press the letter E and hold it down until the intensity makes a complete circle, about one second. The user interface gets worse from here. 3) Often when I lift off from the planet with my spaceship I go directly to space, something I don’t want to do and have no idea how to stop it. 4) The HUD which displays temperature, health, etc. does not stay on if you are at full health. So if the weather changes or you are swimming you need to keep hitting the h key to see your air supply, temperature, etc. 5) In combat with your spaceship (which flies like Tubby the Tugboat) the view of your cockpit gets closer to the front screen, which means you can no longer see your control panel, so you don’t know your speed, etc. Outside of combat everything is visible. 6) It is impossible to point overhead, you can only point your weapon at an 80 degree angle or so. 7) The spaceship has an “auto land” feature. This means it will happily land you on the top of a tree, or cactus, or at the edge of a cliff and then pop you out of the ship (you have no choice) upon completion of the landing. If you don’t die from the fall sometimes you can get back via jet pack, sometimes not. 8) If this game is part crafting, there is little to no room to store the materials and do crafting, since the item crafted takes the same slots that the resources take. Moving everything around and dumping resources you will need later because there is no space is not fun, it is tedious. Something which seems to have escaped the designers of this game. On the positive side I do like bouncing around and visiting all the planets, it is just all the other factors detract greatly from the enjoyment of and the ability to play this game.
