Recent reviews by SDIR

I am genuinely unsure if I'll make it to Happy Bay. As of right now, I'm at latitude 33 and that's about all I know about my position.
This game genuinely makes me question if I have overshot the destination in my sleep.

Update: I lost my quadrant and ran out of water. Would buy again.

It's a great game, the mechanics are all there, and the ship builds are overall very balanced. It has an extremely tactical play style, and scratches the itch for anyone familiar with EVE Online. Overall, I greatly recommend this game if you like a space game with a very high skill ceiling. All the included ship systems work very well and allow for many play styles from jammers, missile ships and recon ships.

That being said, there is only one drawback, and it is a big one. Currently, there is no implementation for dedicated servers, meaning at times hosts may leave and end the game prematurely. I still give it a thumbs up but this is probably the biggest weakness, and what may be giving some current players reservations.

To start, this game is NOT finished. There will be plenty of bugs, and to be honest, you're not really going to get more than 10 hours of non-grinding gameplay out of this game. Building bases is fine, but the main attraction is the terraforming. Short of consuming the entire planet, there is no limit to what you can do with the terrain tool. If you've ever played KSP and wanted to dig an underground base, you can do that here. This is one of the few games that gives you so much control over your surroundings.

Now, onto the recommendations. Would I recommend it? Well, depends on how you view early access. If you're expecting a product which you can download and launch, and it will operate perfectly, Astroneer is not there yet. It's gotten much better, but it is still in pre-alpha for a reason.

However, if you want to invest in a game, watch it grow, and really get your money's worth over the span of a few years, Astroneer just might be the game for you. Recently Astroneer has been expanding on the fundamental mechanics, mainly the terrain tool and research, and it's been doing a lot of bug crushing to make the game playable. All in all, if you don't mind the wait, then Astroneer is a good buy.

Very fun and intense gameplay, you don't need to spend any money to get started with a decent mech. Games are quick and to the point, and comebacks aren't impossible, though they are usually hard-earned.

This game is great. From a simulation stand point, it is realistic but not so much so that the game is no longer entertaining. It requires a basic knowledge of racing, but still preserves a lot of the fun in many other arcade games. And if the right difficulty is chosen, being in the pack is not frustrating at all but rather challenging and entertaining.

There is one major concern I find though, that that is that the game crashes after a short while (15 minutes around), so until that is fixed it might be worthwhile holding off on a full price purchase.

Overall, good game, definitely worth playing, just careful of the bugs.