Recent reviews by Jace

A great little survivor game with loads of options and surprising depth. I keep coming back to it, especially after updates which have thus far been relatively common and comprehensive. With more coming soon, this is one to get now and play whenever you have a few minutes to complete a dive.

===[GRAPHICS]===
☐ Horrible
☐ Bad
☐ Good
☑ Beautiful
☐ Magnificent!

A great-looking game overall. Not hyper-realistic, but fits perfectly within the style it intends to convey. It won't blow your socks off, but will give you that satisfying oomph when you cast a big spell or hit that critical role.

===[FRAMERATE]===
☐ Oh God my Eyes!
☐ Meh
☑ Smooth
☐ Excellent!

A smooth experience overall, with the occasional bit of delay when the AI is trying to figure out what to do on a turn.

===[PRICING]===
☐ Forget it
☐ Refund it
☐ Wait for Sale
☐ Full Price
☑ Buy it yesterday!

An instant classic, and an elevation of the RPG genre. Worth full price and then some, no money grubbing microtransactions or other hidden costs unless you want to. The playtime and replayability alone make it worth it, and the exceptional story completes the pictures.

===[PC REQUIREMENTS]===
☐ Potato
☑ Medium
☑ High End
☐ Quantum Computer

Medium to high-end demand, mainly dependent on how pretty you want your epic adventure to be. Note for the Steam Deck users: This will be difficult to play and will drain your battery Fast…

===[DIFFICULTY]===
☑ Easy
☐ Medium
☐ Hard
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Why do you hate me?!
☐ WARNING: Peripherals will die!

Easy to learn and control and, if you like to play that way, no genuine challenge. However, the tactician mode and other difficulty options allow for great customizability.

===[PLAYTIME]===
☐ Really short ( 0 - 4 hours)
☐ Short ( 4 - 12 hours)
☐ Few Hours ( 12 - 24 hours)
☐ Long ( 24+ hours)
☑ Stop living and do this instead…

Go on your epic adventure and leave this world of ours behind. Like its tabletop counterpart this game has loads of playtime hiding in the many elements, and the replayability adds several hundreds of hours to enjoy this gem.

===[STORY] ===
☐ Nothing to see here, move along.
☐ Define “Story”
☐ Good
☑ Fantastic

From a genuinely great main story to detailed side quests, companion stories and quests, a living world with genuine choices, and even in-game book sections, this game elevates the RPG genre to new levels.

===[BUGS]===
☐ None
☑ A few
☐ A lot
☐ Infested
☐ KILL IT WITH FIRE!

A good number of bug fixing patches in the game is great to play and experience. Some few bugs remain, but the developers actively seek to clear these as much as possible and updates are common.

===[FINAL SCORE]===
★★★★★
Single player: YES
Multiplayer: YES (And highly recommended)

*Edited for spelling and formatting.

===[ Graphics: ]===
☐ Horrible
☐ Bad
☐ Good
☑ Beautiful
☐ Magnificent!

Deep Sky Derelicts is a good-looking game, unless you hate the gritty cartoony style it's presented in. Effort has clearly been put into making the characters stand out, with special attention spent on the game's player characters and their gear. A sizable portion of this is locked behind progress though, so you'll have to be patient if you want to see all the options available.

A slightly less-detailed aspect of the game's looks are the backgrounds. These tend to repeat a lot, even throughout a single playthrough. Similarly, non-combat encounters use the same art with an occasional recolor as well.

===[ Animations: ]===
☐ Oh God my Eyes!
☑ Meh
☐ Smooth
☐ Excellent!

Due to its chosen style, animations are simple and not extremely diverse. The comic book style attacks do stand out and make the lack of overall animation less noticeable. Simple but effective.

===[ Price/Quality: ]===
☐ Forget it
☐ Refund it
☑ Wait for Sale
☐ Full Price
☐ Buy it yesterday!

I've enjoyed my playthroughs so far, but the content does not warrant its basic €20,- price tag (locally of course). I advise waiting for a sale of around 50% to buy the core game. The same applies to the content of the DLC in my view seeing their content, though I have only played the base game.

===[ Requirements: ]===
☑ Potato
☐ Medium
☐ High End
☐ Quantum Computer

Almost any computer can run this game due to its low graphical demands. The game does slow down slightly when nearing the end of the campaign as more and more variables need to be calculated.

===[ Difficulty: ]===
☐ Easy
☐ Medium
☐ Hard
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Why do you hate me?!
☐ WARNING: Peripherals will die!

The difficulty is up to you to an extent. As long as you play at your level (the derelicts you visit have an indication of their danger) you should be fine. There are several ways to make your life more difficult though, as you can dive into higher-level derelicts from the get go and the game offers a Hardcore mode where choices are final and occasionally lethal.

===[ Game Time/Length ]===
☐ Really short ( 0 - 4 hours)
☐ Short ( 4 - 12 hours)
☐ Few Hours ( 12 - 24 hours)
☑ Long ( 24+ hours)
☐ Stop living and do this instead…

Technically these is a semi-unlimited amount of playtime to the game, since you can simply restart the game after completing a playthrough, which will in turn give you some new items and outfits for the classes you finished you previous game with.

Personally I will wait with another playthrough until I get my hands on the DLC packages, so there is more to experience. The base game's gameplay loop tends to get a tad repetitive in my experience.

===[ Story ] ===
☐ Nothing to see here, move along.
☑ Define “Story”
☐ Good
☐ Fantastic

There is a story to Deep Sky Derelicts, but don't expect an expertly written piece of literature as a basis for the game. The most interesting elements of the story are in the encounters on the various derelicts, where I can advise you to explore everything. Good or bad results, you won't regret it.

===[ Bugs ]===
☑ None
☐ A few
☐ A lot
☐ Infested
☐ KILL IT WITH FIRE!

I have not encountered a single bug in my playthroughs, awesome work from the developers.

===[ Overall ]===
★★★★☆

A great game if you can get it for a decent discount. You can spend a lot more time than I have with this game, and barring any dissatisfaction from its repetitiveness, you will have a great time playing this.

Single player: YES
Multiplayer: NO

===[ Graphics: ]===
☐ Horrible
☐ Bad
☑ Good
☐ Beautiful
☐ Magnificent!

Though dated, Stellaris still looks good and with the help of the modding community it can look like an absolute gem.

===[ Animations: ]===
☐ Oh God my Eyes!
☐ Meh
☑ Smooth
☐ Excellent!

Smooth overall, though ship movement isn't always like this especially at higher game speeds.

===[ Price/Quality: ]===
☐ Forget it
☐ Refund it
☐ Wait for Sale
☑ Full Price
☐ Buy it yesterday!

Since it's been around for a while, Stellaris can become expensive because of its many, many, MANY expansions. The base game, however, is reasonably priced and more than worth the buy since general game updates that come with DLC also apply to the base game.

===[ Requirements: ]===
☐ Potato
☑ Medium
☐ High End
☐ Quantum Computer

Medium on average, but even the toughest processor will struggle in bigger galaxies in the late game. It all depends on how grand you want your grand scale tactics game.

===[ Difficulty: ]===
☐ Easy
☐ Medium
☐ Hard
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Why do you hate me?!
☐ WARNING: Peripherals will die!

The game certainly has a steeper learning curve than most, though this has lessened over time with updates to the base game and several game play elements. Overall the game is decent when taken at a slower pace and practiced against AI empires. There is enough depth to last a lifetime...

===[ Game Time/Length ]===
☐ Really short ( 0 - 4 hours)
☐ Short ( 4 - 12 hours)
☐ Few Hours ( 12 - 24 hours)
☐ Long ( 24+ hours)
☑ Stop living and do this instead…

A single playthrough can last anywhere from a few hours to several days or even weeks. It all depends on the size of the galaxy, number of opponents, difficulty, and other related settings. Overall there is no real end to the game since there are so many different ways to play and literal galaxies to discover.

===[ Story ] ===
☐ Nothing to see here, move along.
☑ Define “Story”
☐ Good
☐ Fantastic

The story depends heavily on the chosen empire you start with and the choices you make as you play. Stellaris works well as a roleplaying game where you make the choices for your empire. Several DLC expansions add to the story is various ways, and modders have provided many more hours on top of that.

===[ Bugs ]===
☐ None
☑ A few
☐ A lot
☐ Infested
☐ KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Stellaris has never been free of bugs, but most are small or non-intrusive and quickly fixed by the amazing developers that still actively support and develop for the game.

===[ Overall ]===
★★★★☆
Single player: YES
Multiplayer: YES

*Edited for spelling

===[ Graphics: ]===
☐ Horrible
☐ Bad
☐ Good
☑ Beautiful
☐ Magnificent!

===[ Animations: ]===
☐ Oh God my Eyes!
☐ Meh
☑ Smooth
☐ Excellent!

===[ Price/Quality: ]===
☐ Forget it
☐ Refund it
☑ Wait for Sale
☐ Full Price
☐ Buy it yesterday!

===[ Requirements: ]===
☐ Potato
☑ Medium
☐ High End
☐ Quantum Computer

===[ Difficulty: ]===
☐ Easy
☐ Medium
☐ Hard
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Why do you hate me?!
☐ WARNING: Peripherals will die!

===[ Game Time/Length ]===
☐ Really short ( 0 - 4 hours)
☐ Short ( 4 - 12 hours)
☑ Few Hours ( 12 - 24 hours)
☐ Long ( 24+ hours)
☐ Stop living and do this instead…

===[ Story ] ===
☐ Nothing to see here, move along.
☐ Define “Story”
☑ Good
☐ Fantastic

===[ Bugs ]===
☐ None
☑ A few
☐ A lot
☐ Infested
☐ KILL IT WITH FIRE!

===[ Overall ]===
★★★★☆
Single player: YES
Multiplayer: LIMITED (Online leaderboards for challenges)

So ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, awesome! Had to keep playing (really had no choice actually, thanks Monika)