Recent reviews by Mark Skarr

I realize this is an EA game. And, as an EA game, it should know that it's an EA game. I just suffered a death because my weapon wouldn't fire. It had a full battery, it just bugged out, I get that things like that can happen in an EA title. However, my death was more than 2km away from my base. No new materials are currently spawning around my base (other than Iron, but that doesn't help--I have so much iron). Now, all of my stuff is in a cave more than 2km away. I don't have the relevant resources to rebuild to go after my stuff, you only get one save, so, I can't go back to a previous save. There is no death-penalty turn-off for the game, so if you die and can't recover your stuff, it's just too bad. Maybe I could completely dismantle my base to get enough resources to try to get back out to where I died, but, if not . . .. And anyway, how is that fun?

So, the issue is, to progress the game, you have to risk being unable to continue. One bad bug and you're back at square one. This game isn't billed as a rogue-like, and if it was, I wouldn't have purchased it. If I wasn't 7+ hours in, I would have requested a refund because it's not ready to be played.

As the Steam rules for Early Access go, if work on this game ended right now, I could not recommend it. So, right now, it gets a thumbs down because, right now, in my experience, it's too buggy to play effectively: one bad bug and you have to restart from the beginning, no matter how far along you are.

Okay, so, I tried this. First of all, the controls were utterly incomprehensible, and unchangeable. Why do I pull back on my movement stick to move forward? Why can I not correct this?

So, I figured maybe I had to update my controls on the main menu--but I couldn't exit to the main menu. I couldn't exit the bloody game! I mean, I guess that's true-to-story with SAO, but, it's bad game design. I had to Alt-F4 to get out.

Refund requested. Sorry.

Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite settings.

It is so emotional. Such torment for the young heroes.

May your heart be your guiding key.

I really wanted to like this game. And, for the first two acts, I did--I loved it. It reminded me how amazing the Warhammer 40k universe could be. Then . . . Act III came about and it was so bad it killed my enthusiasm for completing the game.

Wake up, horribly debuffed, no gear, no companions, and if you didn't make your character as a Jack-of-all-Trades, you may not even be able to continue the story because you lack the skills needed to continue alone.

Act III is so awful I cannot recommend anyone play this game. I have not completed the game because Act III killed my desire to play it ever again.

--
ETA
Just as an alert to anyone who is thinking about getting this. The game has been out for seven months, and, instead of focusing on bug-fixing, the developer is focused on nerfing abilities and classes because, apparently, we're weren't having the right kind of fun with their game.

My friends and I played Freelancer for years. I bought multiple copies so we could lan-play it.

This game isn't Freelancer. It's obviously inspired by it, but it's not Freelancer. It does, however, scratch the itch that Freelancer scratched.

It's decidedly janky, but, that's not an insult. Freelancer was janky. It was a little tighter, but still janky. Walking around the stations is janky, which wasn't something you could do in Freelancer, but I love it. Wish the stations looked more lived in, but, hey, it's Early Access.

A couple of issues I've had in the few hours I've played:
Getting ganked immediately upon leaving a station. Right as I get control, I asplode. Not sure if that's a bug, or just an enemy was so close they lit me up during my exiting animation. And it might be related to my 2nd point:

Just suddenly take damage and asplode with no indication what's causing it. I hope that's a bug and not working-as-intended.

Some times, items disappear from my inventory, only to re-appear next time I land. Strange, annoying, but, probably just a bug.

Slamming into the structure of the trade lanes. I watch my ship drift more and more to the side and then . . . WHAM! Ow.

Janky, yes. Fun, yes. Annoying, yeah, but still fun.

This game is borderline unplayable. I backed this on Kickstarter, so, a long, long time ago.

The "tutorial" assumes you already know how to play the game, and there just isn't enough information to actually play the game. There isn't any useful feedback to tell you when you can do something. Need to drop something, the game doesn't tell you how. It doesn't show that you can do anything. It's so bad. Want to save the game? Too bad, that's greyed out, and doesn't come up. Maybe it comes up once you get out of the "tutorial" (which doesn't do anything but give you missions and no instructions) but I guess I couldn't get that far because I couldn't put down the medical kit to pick up a gun to defend myself.

It's too bad. The art is actually really cute and neat, and I wish the game wasn't hot garbage. But, it is. Don't waste your money.

I'm adding this from the discussions:
Have I given it up for good? Yeah. Probably. If the "game" can't respect my time enough to teach me how to play it, why should I give it any more of my time.

I backed this game on Kickstarter (December 2014), so, it's been sitting for a decade. In that decade, they haven't been able to include a useful tutorial. They haven't created a fun game. If I have to do all the work to figure it out, I'll play a game that I'm more interested in. I'm well past the sunk-cost level.

I never got my exclusive in-game room. I never got my exclusive in-game pet.

If you're having fun, if you've stuck with it this long, and you enjoy it, by all means, play it. But, for me, I lost that money a decade ago. I've learned my lesson. Warballoon isn't a company that I'll support ever again. The "game" is, functionally, unplayable from my recent experience.

Like several others, I got this game, thinking it might be a fun, mindless zombie romp.

It wasn't. It was kinda mindless, but, then it seemed to be more work than fun to play. I'm sure there are people having a great time with it. I wasn't one.

My biggest problems were the movement and fixed field of view. It felt like I needed to zoom out to see better, and was just too close. Additionally, combat wasn't fun, it was a chore. If you're having fun, by all means, keep playing. But, for me, it's just time for a refund.

I really wanted to like this game. It seemed like something I'd like. But . . . it was too clunky. Pod movement was completely different from on-foot movement, and ridiculously over-sensitive. Yeah, I only gave it about 30 minutes, but, it wasn't fun during that time, so, refunding. I'll keep an eye on it, and see in the future, if it's better.

I've only used it for a few minutes, but, it doesn't support hexes, so it's not useful to me.

A soft "maybe, in the future" answer for hexes doesn't help, as, if I don't return it now, I'm out $30+ and may never get a ROI. So, if you're looking at this for games that aren't D&D you might want to look somewhere else. Like Talespire before it, it's (currently) married to the square grid, which means it's only good for those games.

Okay, I love this game.

Does it do anything new? Well, not really, no. But, the mashup is awesome. Nothing individually new, but, the idea of slapping a minigun in the hands of a maniacally-grinning Pokemon clone is awesome. Years ago, I ran a GURPS Pokemon game that wound up with a Geodude holding an MP5 and the game was remembered for that: A Geodude mowing down a group of terrorists with an SMG. Good times.

This game lets me live that out.

But, first, it's not Pokemon + Ark, it's Ark with Pokemon-adjacent monsters in place of dinosaurs. This isn't a Pokemon game. This is a survival crafting game with extensive automation and exploration gameplay. If you don't like games like Ark, you won't like this game. If you're just in it for the Pokemon-adjacent Pals, they're pretty awesome (some are pretty stupid, but most are cool), but you won't get the full experience.

If you easily get bent out of shape, this probably isn't for you. But, if you've ever wanted to fire missiles from the back of a hungry-hungry-hippo looking monster, get thee Palworld.