tl;r: Buy on discount and only if you've got no other space games left to play. I bought this game a long time ago on a whim, just to support an indie dev. The game was in a rough shape 2 years ago and, unfortunately, not much has changed since then. This is the work of one person (which is amazing, don't get me wrong) but from what I've seen from some coding streams he did 2 years ago, he was an amateur. And that's not really a problem - people learn. But this game is very ambitious and hasn't evolved or improved. It's very, very rough around the edges. Also, looking at steam reviews, this game may be abandoned (but that's just steam, so take it with a grain of salt) Honestly, I wouldn't recommend, no matter how much of a space sim fan you are. 1 star + 1 bonus for the effort.
tl;dr : Fun game but not enough diversity between each run. Get on discount I'm going to be honest - I've got some serious buyers remorse for this game. The premise is simple - you have a dome that you need to protect. You mine resources to build upgrades that help you fend off waves of enemies. There are two modes so far: 1) Relic : You win when you find a specific artifact 2) Prestige : Play until you lose and try to get a high score My problem with this game is that I've played for around 5 hours and I don't feel like there's much else to do. Sure I can try to get a higher score in prestige, but the problem is that the runs are all pretty much the same. I've honestly have no motivation to try again because it's too repetitive. You can change the dome weapon (2 options) and your player (again 2 options) but I personally found the alternatives (Sword Dome and Gravity miner) more tedious than fun/challenging. My rule-of-thumb is that if I get 1 hour of fun for each $ I spent then the game is worth it but I can't see myself playing for another 12 hours - especially since there are so many other indy games that cost less. There's not much else to add - the game is very simple and you can just check some gameplay online. Don't get me wrong - it's not a bad game. But after 5 hours I feel like I've seen everything the game has to offer. I'm not sure if the game is actively being developed, some of the above might change depending on when you read this review. 3.5/5 stars or 4+ depending on discount
tl;dr - Decent game with various issues but great potential. Amazing art though. I won't get into details on what type of game this is since you can try the demo (it's also available here), just keep in mind that some bugs and broken mechanics from the demo have been fixed in the final version. WRT the game length: I've done a complete playthrough of the story with one class on hard and it took me around 20 hours. You can do it faster but I did grind a bit and tried a few things. There is a possibility of a new game+ and also the other classes. This game has its issues. For example - A lot of the skill are borderline useless or extremely situational, some of those are straight up duplicates. As a result you'll end up using the same bread-and-butter skills all the time - Minor annoyances and nitpicks in the inventory management - Combat can get tedious and repetitive (especially due to point one) - The 'stealth' mechanic seems counter intuitive since you want/need to fight in order to get stronger - It's very linear (not necessarily a bad thing) - Some mechanics are simply useless - the 'stances' and the one with the scrolls (??). I've never changed stance or bothered with scrolls at all - Other bugs (items not giving the stats in their description) - This is a personal issue of mine, but switching between trade/craft is needlessly loud! I still think it's worth it though. The art is amazing and (if you get it on discount) you'll probably get your money's worth. The dev looks determined to fix a lot of the issues I mentioned above, so check Steam reviews (since the gog review system is a joke) to see if he's done so. This is a solid attempt from a solo (I think) dev. If nothing else, the maps can easily be used for a DnD campaign :) I give it 4 stars for the potential. In it's current state, it's closed to 3 stars.
tl;dr : I don't believe it's worth it at this price This is written in 2022 and with the fact this game has been out for 3+ years already. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, I just don't believe it's worth all this hype, and definitely not at this price (especially if you consider the DLCs which add very little content). First and foremost, more mods are pretty much required. I thought I'd give it a go with with vanilla at first and I generally always use "lore friendly" mods, but before long I ended up with close to 100 mods - and a lot of those really are QOL mods. Seriously, this game is old and most updates nowadays are minor fixes and changes. The majority of the new content is from mods, and they are almost exclusively on Steam. I don't blame anybody for this, it's just the current state of affairs. The game itself is decent, but a LOT of the mechanics are not explained in game and you have to go through wikies and forum/reddit posts to figure out what's going on. I always compare games like this with AI War, which had the best context help I've seen in a game. Also, there are some design choices I simply don't get. In a game where the goal is to leave the planet, why the hell are my pawns frustrated if their room isn't a damn penthouse? By the time you launch our ship, you already have a fully-functioning, well defended colony. Why even bother? Also, they will sit on the floor and eat raw meat and complain about it - even if there's an oven and a table nearby. A lot of these are solved with mods, but this gets be back to my original argument. In general, you can probably find a lot of enjoyment in this game, but you'll actually have to work to get it. I get it that some of the things I mentioned are memes these days and that they are part of the game's "charm", so if you're into that, you will probably enjoy this game. But please don't fall for the hype. Check online gameplay videos and see how many mods the average player uses.
