Taki » Reviews » Signs of Life
View Store Page
View Community Hub
Find More Like This
2 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 18.1 hrs on record (7.2 hrs at review time)
Posted: 28 Nov, 2021 @ 12:53am

Early Access Review
At the time of this post, cybernetics were just released. At this time, I can not recommend this game unless you are interested in betatesting and like terrarria-starbound esque games. The reasons why are currently poor storyline navigation, occasional messy controls, rare irritating UI popups and lack of content.

I am certain game will be good with time. The infrastructure in which the game functions has solid design, gear progression has been comfortable but I forsee it being difficult alongside story progression for casual players. I liked the plot, the enemies, the exploration and loved hoarding literally every item in the game. This would be a nightmare if I couldn't have infinite inventory and several storage units IN my inventory, which was an awesome feature.

Right now I would judge the game to have 4-5 hours of gameplay in it. As a completionist I got 7 hours and quite enjoyed it.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
15 Comments
< >
Signs of Life  [developer] 28 Nov, 2021 @ 9:20am 
Ok thanks a bunch for the detailed feedback!
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
Keep it up, seriously. I'm really looking forward to having a reason to build a base on this game. Right now there are a ton of facilities that I built right next to my go-to spawn point and the rest of my furniture and property is in my nightmare of a backpack, lol.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
I liked the carrier but forsee a lot of minor confusions. I've switched it on and off, crystals all red and all blue, noticed no difference. Post game forum scrolling is where I found that it supposedly stops spawning on planet, I'm still not sure what configuration of switch/crystal matters to make that happen. The door on the right has 1 of 2 ball key things. I never found the second one which may be underground in a POI.

I now know this is the conclusion of current content but I would recommend announcing that ingame when your testers reach dead end and mid development content so they don't endlessly run in circles in the area for no reason.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
The mecha chicken was an annoying boss which I didn't really mind other than the third form. At any point, the boss hitting me would either do 1/3 of my hp or kill me. I hadn't found a need to manufacture ammunitions yet so I was switching through whatever I had ammo for to break the hotspots. The third hotspot had me at a loss as it isn't visible except for brief moments. I wiped over and over without seeing the chest open once which left me thinking the boss was invulnerable and the surrounding is what needs to be interacted with next. After a few days of trial and error, the chest opened up and that got a "WHAT THE HELL, IT NEVER DID THAT BEFORE" response out of me. I would recommend making it glow green under the armor plating to signify that the new hotspot is protected but there actually IS one left.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
While trying to retrieve a head, I attempted to use the lazer tool which did nothing. I was questioning maybe this isn't the wrong body or maybe because he shot himself in the teeth, it won't work? Eventually the nearby drone things that I routinely skip past caught up and I blew the corpse up with a sword while defending myself which resulted in the required head. I found this to be an awesome progression checkpoint but could see casual players getting lost and unsure what to do about the optical security.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
After reading everything, I was left wondering where the scientist was experimenting on the chickens. Eventually I reached a point where I was all "I guess that's the end of the outpost..." and headed west to BLINDLY explore the rest of the map. This is where I found the garage exit and eventually the first giant which I responded the same as the character, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT. Was a fun surprise but there was no affordance to send the player out this way. I'd expect a casual player to give up and quit the game.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:01am 
The artifacts that you receive and purple power leaves you confused trying to figure out how they work with no guidance. This wouldn't be that bad of a thing if it actually did something. I spent quite a while messing with everything trying to find an interaction and eventually concluding "I guess that's all from the mining outpost?" and headed west.

I loved the labrynth of an outpost but I don't expect the same from casual players with map difficulties. Top side is mostly unlocked, bottom side needs powered and then has a few high access points. Eventually you gain "hacking" with no affordance on how to hack. While scanning literally everything, I got the popup, something along the lines of "you hacked a thing" and I was all ...WUT? I'd never have proactively figured that out.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 7:00am 
Upon landing you are informed that there is a mining outpost to the right and settlement to the left. I got lucky and chose mining outpost first, but casual players that choose settlement first will get turned back due to not having explosives yet. There is no reason to go to the settlement before the mining outpost which the player is unaware of unless they learn the hard way. I'd recommend using "the mining outpost is closest so lets go there first" as a way to convince the player to head right upon landing.

You receive 2 explosives in the mining outpost. When one was needed, I unknowingly dropped the stack of two and wasted one requiring me to make one later to breach the window. I recommend making those barrels a non-stackable item as splitting items currently isn't a pleasant task.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 6:59am 
After landing on the planet, the little spiky plant thing that explodes killed me several times which left me confused. If you pull it and let go of the pull, it collides instead of collects which is a KO early game. I liked that it is like a rigged trap but the learning curve to NEVER LET GO OF PULL until all items are received was inconvenient. Small tugs on items could lead to death.

In regards to storyline navigation from start to finish, I expect newbie players to get lost on the ship. I stole literally everything not anchored down which gave me exposure to the map but I don't expect the same of casual players.
Taki 28 Nov, 2021 @ 6:59am 
Early to mid game progression before the player manufactures ammunition, you use what you find but this also involves scrolling through a ton of ranged weapons with no ammo to find the ones with ammo. This was bad against the mecha chicken and armory mech. Perhaps allowing the player to hide from hotbar specific weapons such as egg launcher and punchy glove that they will never use, nor get rid of, would alleviate this hassle. lol.

In the pink biome, there are littly spiky growths that deal a bit of damage and knockback. A few whiffed jumps and I'd be bouncing on one while fumbling through tools/weapons trying to destroy it before death. I never succeeded. XD