This game is great to relax.
You go out mine some rocks come back and use the money you made to upgrade your ship maybe hire some crew. I like how it is a somewhat realistic take on space mining with inertia and such. The mining routine is broken up by some small events like other ships making contact, finding something or pirates. One thing I like is that single mining runs do not take such a long time, for me maybe 20 minutes. So it is possible to play this game in short bits.
Also there is a anthro/furry DLC which I find cool.
The controls can be a bit clunky at first but I can definitely recommend this game.
A chill way to spend a few hours just workin on the grind. This game is what I expect the old arcade Asteroids would be like with a modern remake.
The game has you going around shooting space rocks to break them up and catch ore chunks that pop off. The ships can be upgraded, each of which change your play style a little, as does having different ships. It's not a tycoon-style game where you can own a fleet of ships and have them run autonomously (you can own multiple ships, but only as options for you to fly). Since saves are limited to the main station, it's much like a rogue-lite.
Controls can be weird but they behave very consistently and are easy to get used to. Commanding the autopilot based on references is probably the best way to go. Most of the controls are remappable, but some are not (like enabling hardpoint subsystems). Autopilot upgrades make a huge difference as to how controllable the ship is in manual mode (cargo weight distribution is simulated). What's more, the gamepad controls play much, much differently than kb/m because where it's easy to left/right offset the autopilot relative approach vectors in gamepad, it's very difficult with the keyboard; this makes capturing much easier in kb/m mode, but avoiding and maneuvering around obstacles much harder than in gamepad mode (unless you are quite good at maneuvering with the mouse).
There's not a lot of info/help on what the crew does. Suffice it to say that even cheap crew will pay for themselves. Astrogators remember POIs for a certain amount of time, Pilots provide "adrenaline surge" slowdowns when nearing collisions, Mechanics increase the repair % cap, Geologists identify minerals, estimate value, and highlight them. They also give you conversation interactions with other spacers.
Play the demo. If your PC cannot lock the simulation speed, you're going to have a bad time (autopilot stability goes mad).
Overall, I'm very satisfied.
I am very partial to indie games. In particular those who support Linux nativly. If they also belong to the science fiction genre I get really happy.
In this case we have a very small but also extremly well focused game title.
I have had very little problems with it. It installed well and runs equally good (on Linux in my case).
You take on the roll as a "space miner" in the rings of Saturn. This means taking control of your own old spaceship and going out to the rings and finding asteroids worth breaking down for profit. Various raw materials and minerals including water.
There are friends and foes in the shape of fellow miners, pirates and much more. There are known and unknown places if interest. Dive deeper to get more profitable rocks. But it costs fuel (reactor mass) and should something happen the way home can be very dangerous, not to mention long.
You can upgrade your ship and if the money are plentiful even buy a new one. There are also skilled people to hire. The ship equipment can be tweaked in order to eek out maximum performance from your invested money.
On the surface the game loop can be somewhat repetative. But you soon learn new skills and go deeper which will get the blood pumping when you least of all expect it. But in the end the worst enemy is your own greed and inability to do the right thing at the right moment.
I like this game alot. It ticks all the boxes: Indie, Linux, GOG, portable, sci-fi and semi-open world with alot of freedom. I find my self coming back to it often. The fact that it is very well presented is an extra plus in my book. I play it with an extra layer of immersion. This comes in the form of an soundscape from background radio chatter noise (I play an MP3 in VLC).
If I were to ask for anything it would be a bit more content: more equipment, a bit more to do, alot clearer raw materials market and a bit more depth. Oh, and a better tutorial for sure.
Not perfect but close...
I admit that game catch my curiosity when I saw the Anthro' DLC haha but actually I really like the game, it's usually not my type of game but I gradually love to go in space collect ressources. The game is not simple but I gradually learn to control the ship and gradually update and progress in my exploration. I just found the dialogues between ships kind of repetitive sometimes.
I think the game could have more information and a better tutorial too, I gradually learn to progress and control my ship but it's the result of many 'hit or miss' on how to work on my ship and I progress carefully for now.
Not for everybody for sure, but still a game I like.
I didn't know about Breaking Bad until a friend recommended it, years after the series had originally aired. I started watching it and didn't like the first season so I was going to drop it but my friend insisted that I keep watching and now I'm glad I did because otherwise I would have missed one of the greatest TV series of all time.
This game is kind of the same. For the first few hours you'll stumble around trying to make sense of the game mechanics and the UI and this is where most will get frustrated and go play something else. I crossed that line many, many hours ago and what I found on the other side is a very rich, immersive and fun game, full of small surprises and easter eggs. This game goes far and wide beyond what a "Hard sci-fi, top-down physics based space mining simulator" is supposed to be. Had I stopped playing I would have missed all the fun I've had and that is why this game reminded me of Breaking Bad.
The game isn't perfect and you shouldn't expect it to be so I suggest you check out the demo to see for yourself. The demo is severly lacking in "not available in the demo" placeholders that you see in other titles and what you get instead is the full game with a "Demo" tag attached to it. There's a video of the dev explaining the reasons behind it, look it up if you're interested. Regardless, you don't have to worry about not being able to request a refund if you don't like the game because the demo takes care of that. And if you find a bug or have a suggestion or a question or just want to hang out you can do that in the Discord server. The links are in the game's menu.
To sum it up: this game is not for everyone and you won't get it by playing a couple of hours or watching a video about it. Take advantage of the free demo and then decide. Personally, I'm having a blast. The fact that the game is getting better with every update is just the cherry on top. Dave the Diver, Dredge and this game are my top-3 recommendations of the year, so far.
