I've struggled with whether this should be thumbs up/down (yet another time someone in a review wishes Steam had a middle-ground or neutral option for a review here). But ultimately my answer of "do you recommend this game" is no, sadly. I really wish I could recommend it.

The game has so much going for it. It's an interesting premise and story (what I've experienced so far). It has style for days. You can tell the devs put some heart and soul into it. The need for the grimoire/manual is pretty neat. The puzzles are pretty well thought-out, on the whole.

I think my issue with this game is it's repetitive nature being too linear, and the rougelite nature being more of a slog than something exciting or challenging or varied for each new run. There's obviously only a set number of different puzzles that can be in the game (they can't be procedural like how a roguelike/lite can make a level procedural). Over the course of doing run after run, the repetitive-ness of those puzzles really detracted my enjoyment. Risk of Rain 2 or Project Zomboid make me excited to start a new run after failing/dying. This game made me just want to close it and play something else instead of doing the same things again for another hour or two to get back to where I was. The few upgrades didn't seem to make much of a difference, so the runs all started to feel *really* the same after a while.

I absolutely love this title's style and music and vibe, and wish that I wanted to play it more. If it weren't a straight roguelite, I think this game would be a huge hit. Or maybe, if the roguelite elements were actually cranked up a little to somehow make a bigger difference to the upgrades or choices ... so runs didn't feel the same. But I get that this game is how it is. It's a roguelite with a limited number of puzzles. It's also finished (i.e. not Early Access), so there's no expectation that's going to change.

That's okay - it's just not a game for me. It's super cool, and I think it's fairly priced. So, thumbs up for those aspects even if I don't recommend the game to my past or future self.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a charming yet stressful spaceship repair sim where you play as Wilbur, a mechanic trying to survive on a lonely asteroid. Every day, you juggle fixing ships, dealing with quirky customers, and scraping together enough cash to pay the ever-looming R.E.N.T. The mix of hands-on problem-solving, dark humor, and a touch of dystopian pressure makes it both engaging and oddly relatable—perfect for anyone who loves a good challenge with a sci-fi twist

Get repetative and annoying after a few runs. Meta progression doesn't give you much and there are too many ways to die from things you cannot avoid. I ended up only doing non-fatal tasks to mkae sure I could progress, and that got boring quickly. Also, some parts of the manual really made me question my ability to read.