Recent reviews by iefan

Been playing this game for way too long and I think it's an excellent simulator. Progression, as it is in these types of games, doesn't have many guard rails or direction and the controls, particularly on Steam Deck, aren't perfect but overall I continue to play this and will like log 100s of more hours on it over time. In addition, the developer continues to put out refinements and more content.

Starting of with problems, there are a few calculations that it would be great if it was easier to at least reason about within the game. For example, how much food does each duplicant need vs how much you are producing on a regular basis? Or Oxygen? What about water? The inputs/outputs to your machine of a colony would be great to understand a bit better on a cycle-by-cycle basis. Airlocks are another problem, there are a ton of community ways to manage airlocks, but can we just have a building that does the job? Finding liquids, managing temperature, making sure you have it setup exactly correct is an ongoing challenge, just to keep your colony mostly isolated from the deadly/abusive gases or temperature of the asteroid. Ranching is another area where I want more automation options, takes too much intervention or you basically finish the tech tree to build some super complex automation to do it. Lastly, progression -- I played for a long time prior to the expansion coming out, and got it right away because it's awesome. But getting into rockets and figuring out the right tech to successfully do that has taken me a ton of trial an error. A bit more on the line of guardrails to help there. For example, the loading system to get into the rocket took me many attempts to figure out how to use it properly. It has inputs/outputs, but I couldn't see to line it up right where it actually did the right thing. It took a number of failed colonies before I figured out the basics of spaceflight. And even now, I don't feel like I have it mastered, I'm just able to do it enough to progress down the tech tree a bit more. There's a few workshop add-ons I think are critical (such as saving schedules, disabling popups for research, queueing research, and clearing sand that falls) which I feel like should be part of the core experience.

I complained about the game, but let's be honest. I continue to play, I've sunk hundreds of hours into it. Even when I screw up a colony and start over, I don't feel bad about it. It's fun from start to finish, even when I'm just exploring different ways to get enough Oxygen for my base (water, almost always water). I would love to be able to simplify some of the complex buildings down the road after more tech is researched, but I feel like I just make them *more* complex to optimize at that point. Though optimization is part of the point. If you like simulations games, do give it a try.

The gameplay loop is good, the Steam Deck controls are a bit janky, and the story is so-so. Given all that, I've enjoyed the time with the game.

If you've played Fire Emblem, the gameplay is very similar to classic Fire Emblem games. Your unit attacks another unit, there are rock-paper-scissors styles strengths and weaknesses against other types/weapons. Though each character has four weapon types based upon their class that have slightly different properties. You can take other actions when it makes sense (heal, command actions on the battle field, swap characters around, lock enemies in places, etc). Instead of character death, it seems you might lose a stat. Reasonable trade-off between character being gone and no real impact, though not sure I love it. Between fights is basically just a camp/menu where you can upgrade weapons, view party members talking to each other, and save.

I used the Steam Deck to play, though I imagine the controller input is the same for all devices. Navigating menus can be tricky, I would often over navigate even when using the d-pad. The on screen button help only appears approx 2/3rds of the time, and there were a few areas I could never figure out how to navigate without using the touch screen. None of this is a deal breaker, but it sure feels like controller input was tacked on and not something from the start. Mostly it wasn't a big deal, a couple times it did end up causing some real pain though, so do be careful.

The story however lacks much that really pulled me in. It started alright, but the motivations of different players in the story were totally lost and they seemed inconsistent, mostly just driving the plot forward. I struggled to really care about the story, just looking for the next fight.

Overall, I don't regret my time with this game but I do say it's not a super polished, brilliant experience. If Fire Emblem style tactical games are your thing though? Absolutely.

After spending a year or so playing the board game, I have to say this feels like the board game without question. A group on the board game who knows what they are doing can play a bit faster, there's a number of interface bits that can slow the flow of the game, but it's generally so easy to play and set up that it's much easier to sit down and do this than to play the physical board game.

Yes, RTS style gameplay without direct combat. This game is amazing.

There's enough interrupting the play that it got distracting. I just want to build a city and exploit some resources.

I really struggle with getting snuck up on by some sea creature from the depths. There are some cool things about this game though, if you can handle that.

Fun go at exploring planets and crafting your way to success.

Challenging but fun attempt at rogue-likes in space.

Just silly rogue-like fun.

It feels like there could be more depth to this game and you're just left hanging.