Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Silky Rough

Note: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ comments will be killed. Read the fn review first.

In a world of knee-jerk, downvote mentality displayed by so many bad-tempered morons it's unfortunate that any genuine review has to be prefaced with an explanation. I'm not sure why I'm bothering really because the aforementioned morons will neither read nor care for the preface, and this will get downed purely because I recommend this game - and I do, PROVIDED the points I raise are heeded.

This review is for those that want a serious (albeit tongue-in-cheek) "I played this for 200+ hours" synopsis so you can balance the silliness of the review system to what you can actually expect.

..oo00oo..

Silky: Art. Exploration. Potential.
Rough: Purpose.

It must be said that this game attempted to launch into "mainstream" (whoever that is) and landed in "niche". There's enough said about the original launch and subsequent crash and burn to fill 2 universes... However, the 2 updates and a rather intriguing bit of hype for another significant update (which may be old news by the time you read this), has made an attempt to re-enter the void we call "space games".


With that said...

On my very first "normal" play, I was completely and utterly lost as to what to do on a bloody cold miserable planet that was somehere in the middle of somewhere, one among millions of possible planets (apparently). I had up to this point annoyed the hell out of some botty-droney things, got killed lots, froze to death and filled my inventory with lots of unknown purpose goodies. After dying for the 10th time, I simply respawned again, replete with a nice little "grave" to collect my stuff. So far so good. This is not terminal.

(note there is "permadeath" mode - do NOT start there. Do NOT start in "survival" mode - 1 save, twice the difficulty. Suggest you don't start in "creative" mode either unless you're Bob the Builder, you won't learn what you need to know... Be "normal", like the rest of us.)

Without too much in the way of handholding, I managed to repair my ship and launched victoriously into the void. I could now see a "station" and it was obvious I had to go there. I pressed the combo of keys I was expected to press and whizzed across the gap to be snapped up nicely by the "docking beam" before being guided (on auto) to a shiney obsidian like flight deck. (nope, NOT like Elite Dangerous at all.)

Having already jumped out (where auto save kicked in) I ran up the ramp (wheelchair access? Wow!) to the control centre. I opened the door and hello? Theres 2 or 3 ugly looking frog like dudes called "Geks", an ugly SOB called a "Vy'keen" and some glittery droid like dude from the "Korvax". They're all sitting around with their faces buried in their comms' devices (iPads?) like teenagers at a coffee shop.

(Have you ever come across a group of teens at a Cafe' Bar, nothing in front of them, taking up the seating, "talking" to each other across the table... using their freakin' phones? Yup, that's what it looks like.)

Anyway, after having a chat and realising they couldn't help me (yet) and I couldn't give them what they wanted (yet) I sauntered over to this "Galactic Trading" thingie. Saw 2 buttons called "Sell some stuff" and "Buy some stuff". So I sold some stuff and bought some stuff. (and the list of "stuff" in NMS can best be described by saying... think Sheldon Cooper. There's more "iums" in NMS than English... as you will find out).

Since everything looked done, (well, no-one had anything more to divulge) I ran back down to my ship and promptly launched back out into space.. and got nailed by some pirate in 20 seconds because I had "valuable cargo". I don't know what I bought that was valuable but I'm guessing he needed it more than I didn't. While I was dying I'm getting all kinds of messages about recharging this and that (with, ironically, the stuff I sold to buy the shiney thing the pirate wanted so I suppose I only had myself to blame). After respawning back on the flight deck, I popped my head out again, sans everything, and hello? A grave. By now, I knew what I had to do so I flew over and got my stuff back.

This btw is in the first 30 minutes.. BUT... within this 30 minutes I had learned to survive, learned what not to do with those drones around, learned to fix my ship, fly my ship, get to and land at some places, talk to people (people?) and that none of this was going to be as simple as I thought. That's not a bad tutorial really.

And here begins the gist of it.....

200 hours later I'm sitting here in my base, I just left my freighter (that cost $15m) in space. (I only just found an awesome S class fighter that had crashed and had to get it back to the freighter for repair. Didn't need that shuttle I left behind anyway.).

Anyway... my base is growing stuff to make explosives (so I can dig a tunnel to get to the emeril deposits) with a combination of "feverium" (another "ium") and "coprite" (cough.... animal poo). I'm only now able to do this after I finished meeting Polo & Nada (at the Atlas Anomaly in the system I am in which was pointed out to me after visiting my 3rd Atlas Interface 5 systems ago) and getting the TAU class blueprint (it goes well with the SIGMA upgrade for red systems don't you think?) I needed to travel to a green system, where I got veridium to give to my agricultural assistant (or was that my scientist?) so I could grow feverium in my biospheres, that is made of glass, which I make with coryzagen, whcih I get from the same planet I get my rigogen, which I get under the sea using my exocraft, no, not the Colossus or Nomad exocraft, the other one.

My list of things to do include finding (or buying) the materials I need to add the 3 upgrades (on my 24 slot multitool) I now have the blueprints for, the latest having been secured from a Korvak that was sitting in an outpost that I scanned with my Signal Booster in between getting shot by drones who are really annoyed at me for landing on their green and fluorescent pink planet, replete with 12 different animals, some really big ones wanting to eat me (or sometimes really little ones who want to chew my ankles).

(Excuse me a minute... I just saw the cutest little bear. Or I think it was a bear... it was maybe 2 feet tall, pointy little ears, bear face, Mc'Donalds physique... Oh wait. That coyote looking cat/dinosaur thing just killed it. nvm)

Anyway, where was I? Ohhh... look. Tell you what. Just play it.

8/10 - if they keep adding updates... even slowly.


At $60, I would WAIT. At $24, which was my buy trigger, pretty easy to justify. Damn that bear was cute.....

PS: In my 2 line tl;dr analysis under the heading "Rough", the "purpose" of NMS is non-existent. It's just not there. The long and the short is there is NO reason to play unless you enjoy exploring, building and discovering for the sake of it. There's certainly underpinning "lore" but nothing really matters if you don't bother with any of it. Did Hello Game leave this incomplete? Is there more to come? If you're looking for an eye watering storyline to follow, to guide your path through the cosmos, the answer has to be a plain, unequivocable no.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=974555890
http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=974557199
http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=965484023

Silky: Lots to do.
Rough: So little time.

No silly, not me... Them.

I gave them cake. Lot's of cake and like good little sims they smiled a lot and went on their way. It was far too easy.

I made a pretty little zone replete with stadiums and entertainment, shiny lights. I gave them free public transport. I gave them police and firemen and cemetaries and saunas, tall buildings, buses and trams.

I gave them trees and parks and swings and recycling centres. I gave them fresh water, I removed their waste. I gave them all the green they wanted with solar power and pretty windmills. I gave them ferries and boats and visitors and roads and highways and statues.

I gave them everything. They rejoiced. I was their hero. The cake was delicious.

Then I accidently torched the joint. I had to put the fire out with a big wave because blowing on it didn't work.

9/10 would accidently again.

Silky: Initial terror at getting my choices wrong.
Rough: Finding out second time around that it doesn't really matter.

- I like the simplicity of this game.
- I like the educational aspect it brings, particularly in First Aid. I'm certified but still learned a couple of things (which I validated as correct procedure).
- I like how I sometimes needed to make difficult choices under stressful conditions.
- I like how some callers left me wondering who needed EMT more.

- I don't like the lack of knowledge about my deployed vehicles (Why can't I call my heavy rescue truck "Heavy Rescue Truck"?).
- I don't like the repetition of answering the phone to the same calls after 1 playthrough. Voice acting is pretty cheap guys. Variety for the sake of longevity is a thing.
- I particularly don't like having to click every damn item for every damn character in every damn vehicle.

6/10 - if it's cheap makes for a fun casual game. No rush to buy, so you can leave the lights and sirens off.

Silky: My political prowess is amazing.
Rough: Not really.

Hey, this is fun. There's lots of cause and effect policies to work with, and true to life, most of it works best when not formulated on the run. It's also really good fun annoying the hell out of the Conservatives and religious zealots, as it would be for any atheistic social democrat.

But, you know... uggh... Look, I'm not really much into the machinations of politics per se but I have views about my expectations, as we all do about what constitutes a functional society.

I just don't think utopian socialism is the only way to go about it. And that's pretty much the only way you can "win"... or die trying.

Good if cheap otherwise sub to Twitter and read all about how not to be "that guy".

6/10

UPDATE: The review below reflects the singleplayer game only. Some additional testing in multiplayer since this review was written, even after patch 1.91, has multiplayer as a broken mess. At least 2 critical errors showed immediately. No phone appears for new players and this makes tracking etc. impossible. The second fault was being unable to claim outposts/towers/lookouts essentially made the game unplayable without first going into singleplayer to unlock them.


If you only want to play singleplayer then read on because it remains a fair and honest appraisal.

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Silky: Oh, the view. This is gorgeous. Many have said they spend more time shooting photos than animals. Weather effects are very special.

Rough: Bugs. Ugghh. Some of the AI is also just plain silly. But... they're polishing so with that said....

222 hours and despite enduring multiple bugs, some very serious ones at release, and with many still left unfixed (they vary in severity), EW has certainly shown they're prepared to make this title one of the best hunting pseudo-sims out there.

Now I say pseudo-sim because it's not strictly a knock-down, drag-me-around simulation. In order to appeal to a more casual audience, this title leaps over a few of the "realities" of hunting to allow the fun factor to stand out. (For those wanting more serious, if you have the coin, try theHunter Classic, EW's flagship).

The number of animals and the area to work in is quite staggering when you consider what we see. There are other sims out there with more animals and reserves but sorry, the environment quality is just not there. If EW add more reserves and animals to the core of what they have, then this will surpass the competition for a long time yet.

The shooting is pretty darn good. If I can put a projectile into the back of a head at 400m, exactly where I expected it to go, and repeatedly, then no-one can argue the accuracy of the weapons. There's a reasonable variety of them, graded to match species, and utlising a low calibre weapon on a large beast will leave you tracking a wounded beast for an inordinate amount of time. Some might say that we should be able to kill a moose with a .223 but you know, despite the game essentially making sure you wouldn't, we wouldn't in RL either. The converse is also true. You could use a 7mm to shoot a roe deer but unless you like your meat tenderised before it goes under the knife.... you wouldn't.

And the bonus system ensures you won't either.

- We have a "quick kill bonus" tied to downing the animals cleanly and quickly.
- We have the "integrity bonus" to make sure we select the appropriate weapon for the size of the prey.
- Lastly we have the "consecutive harvest bonus" which ensures that you don't leave your bad shot left hobbling around wounded. You need to initially shoot 5 beasts for the 100% but you then need to follow up on all shootings to maintain it.

(The other 2 are independent bonuses tied to weapon selection and the quality of the shot so are essentially redeemable at every shoot).

Sure, you can ignore all the bonuses and just blaze away for the payout but I guarantee, the minute you realise you missed a "Diamond" trophy red deer due to the cowboy in you, you'll change your practices.

Tracking can be difficult but it is a case of practice. The tracking directions and visual clues like broken foliage (a later skill), droppings etc. prior to the shoot and during wounded tracking (if you should mess up your shot) are predictable and intuitive - once you're used to it.

Perks and skills are acquired during play to a skill maximum of 60. Some are passive, meaning you have them at all times, some are active and you may chose to deploy your one skill/perk depending on the shoot. (eg: I use the scope zeroing skill mostly because I do a lot of long range shooting, while others might prefer windage detection for bow shooting... etc.)

Among those skills and perks are ambush and stalker specialities as well as skills that improve your visibility, noise and scent, all of which are monitored and displayed in the lower right, along with compass, wind and any active skill.

At the time of writing there a couple of cosmetic free DLC's, the shooting range DLC, 2 paid DLC's (tents and an ATV) and a willing bunch of devs listening to our requests for more.

As I mentioned earlier, the view is divine in the 2 supplied maps and the weather effects are special. It can also be quite frustrating if you get a thunderstorm, replete with strong winds, driving rain and thunder when you're desperately trying to listen to a fox in the undergrowth you've been calling in for the perfect bow shot.

I could go on about the goodness this title brings and I could even spend some more time on the bugs but there's a list of them on the forum already, they are working on it and well, many of them are cosmetic and more inconvenient than actually game breaking.

Overall, it's just a great hunting game. Play singleplayer, and I think you'll find, apart from the occassional hiccup, some most likely self-generated, you'll enjoy this title immensely, if only to go walking around in.

An easy 9/10 and if they get some real polish on it... it'll go 10.

Silky - Vehicle modelling. The mod community. Different economy model.
Rough - Performance in the late game. Different economy model.

Modelled on the successful Train Fever, this title tries to be more generic in the "transport simulation" genre but makes some interesting changes in the format.

What I like

The modelling in this is sublime and the visuals are pretty good. I take great delight setting up complex routes and riding many of the transport options in first person.

The progression and quantity of transport and train tech from early 1850 to late 21st century is fantastic. Speed matched rolling stock, passenger wagons, multi unit locos and lots of steam, electric and diesel locos make up the offerings. Shipping options come up short and only mods can provide decent late era passenger transport - something many big cities still use so a lost opportunity here perhaps.

The economy is different, make no mistake. This is not a "make stuff and find a buyer" type sim, it's "find a buyer who wants stuff, get it made and deliver it" type sim. I explain more in "gripes" below because it's a double edged sword. It makes for interesting gameplay but it's a dogs' breakfast for early gamers (which is who reviews are for really).

Gripes

Track laying is none too difficult but even on strong systems, long line creation creates terrible lag. It's surmountable but makes trying to get that perfect long run pretty annoying. It's often easier to build in sections, take a run along it and iron out the dips, rises and falls you invariably create by doing so.

The train control options work out of the box but first timers, perhaps used to point-to-point dynamic train control, might struggle with the forced mechanic where trains run on rails - no, not figuratively, actually. A "line" (more like a route) will afix itself to a specific platform, regardless of how many platforms you put on a station, and only trickery (such as waypoints) will alllow you to stack trains at a platform if they're set on the same line. Even if you split the route, your goods are also split and one train might get it all and the other none. One product, one line and one station platform pretty much sums it up - with only workrounds (and experience) allowing for alternatives.

The economy is often stated as a demand economy, I'm more inclined to call it a "courier" economy because the demand is inherently there as soon as you cast a net over commercial and industrial areas and all you really need to do is create the network to deliver the goods that have been demanded. This is not a "create product and generate the demand" type simulation, you just deliver to the demand generated. You can't actually increase supply, you can only meet demand better and "increased supply" is a consequence of it.

Once you're in the know, this is an easy mechanic to get used to and could be called a positive so being in "gripes" is maybe not completely fair but you know, the number of people unfamiliar to this format get in trouble. Which leads me to my next point.

Nothing is well documented. There are some campaigns, attached to medals and achievements etc., some silly, some quite challenging, that teach the fundamentals but it won't teach the economics very well.

Performance. OMG. I understand why and how, but late game cities of 1500 or more, even on high end systems will bring the game to it's knees. After a while you start to understand why many custom maps, created by the modding community, limit the number of cities. Even 5 or 6 large cities and a reasonably complex transport network will bring my i5-6600, 1070, SSD, 32Gb DDR4 to 25fps.

In summary

This is a good game that will service the transport sim itch somewhat and when the base game isn't enough, you can mod it up and stretch it out. Regardless, this will unleash that OCD in you, for more than the value of the game anyway.

+10 for modelling and options, +6 for the economic model and +2 for performance. A +12 for the modding community, without which this would be shelved already.

8/10.

Silky: Hours of content if you follow it all the way through.
Rough: A bit grindy in places. Some continuity issues with storyline.


When I first put this in my wishlist I was put off by the graphical style. As I watched it develop I was intrigued by the sales it was gaining and it had to be in my inventory just so I could find out what I was missing.

It was quick to see what it's charm was. Gradual skills building, equipment improvement, building upgrades etc. It had that simplified farming feel. Clear ground. Dig ground. Plant seed. Water seed. Harvest. 4 seasons. Multiple crops. Accumulate. Sell. Grow some more. Easy stuff. Casual and fulfilling

Then I started to walk around town and meet the locals. The game took off in a completely different direction. I not only had my farm to tend (the sim side), now I had to be somebody (the rpg side). I had multiple storylines to unfold and to some extents they intertwine. There is some depth in the storylines and the characters develop personalities and histories; and because of the diversity there is bound to be the character you are.

My character "Bob" ultimately plays a bartenderesque role, listening to the stories, interjecting when appropriate (scripted of course) and generally being an all round good guy. There's a lot of people and lot of travel to get through. As you talk and gift the characters you gain their confidence and hear more of their lives. It's quite intriguing the first few times around. It's not dynamic though so it's pretty much one use scripts if you win the confidence of all - which is quite a feat.

And with still my farm to tend and with only the use of a watering can in the early days you start getting busy, real busy.

And then you can go mining. And foraging. All the while accumulating cash, completing numerous quests, some of which are also intertwined. There's a witch, a wizard, Junimos (???) and the ominous JoJa Mart which appears to have destroyed the community spirit - something we need to repair. Or not. There isn't any real time dependent rush to complete anything, even the blessing you'll get (replete with a much sought after piece of equipment) can be retriggered if you fail first time around.

Quite simply, there's lots of depth, it's very simple to play and hellishly addictive. I love the sfx, the natural ambience and the music - although I wish the music were a little more continuous.

If I had one complaint it is that the understanding of any storyline impacts is not particularly intuitive and knowing what, when or how to get things done is bloody near impossible to determine. In some cases it can take you literally years of in game play to pick up something you missed to complete an achievement or two. Use the wiki or be prepared to do a few starts to pick up all the content.

Whatever you do, don't start playing this just before exams, a large work promotion or anything time critical, like life for example. It will simply not happen. With a save only at the end of each day, disconnect willingly or you'll be forever be going "just one more day".

(And don't forget to avail yourself of the many nexus based mods to enhance the game once you played through your first few times - they can breath a whole new life into it.)

An easy 9.5/10 if you can forgive the one man dev anomalies that pop up from time to time.

Great game.

Silky: The little things.
Rough: Performance.

I can't remember who said "it's the little things that count" but when I play this game I'm reminded so often of it. Each character in my amusement park have their own peculiarities, desires and opinions. The fun is in finding out what they are and attending to them.

From that sweet little girl with the icecream giggling at my hired entertainers to the hip teen prancing around acting all mucho after surviving one my custom made coasters (but I've got him scared now - he won't ride my 15+ fear factor SiKotic... But then, no-one will).

Of course, you need to look at the overall demographic when you make your decisions about your park because while Billy Bunting hates the length of the queue, the costs of the ride and the waiting times, Sarah Bearer is more than happy to stand in the queue looking at my carefully positioned trees and shrubbery and happily pays more on the rides for my efforts.

This is one heck of a coaster sandbox, quite pretty to watch and whilst the rides aren't limitless the customisation on most of them are. There are almost countless ways to use the additions and ambience you can add to your park and it's easy to create entire "themed" areas with suitable rides nicely.

Managing research, marketing and staff is fairly straightforward and easy to pick up (after a while anyway). "hard" and "easy" modes are seperated only by amounts of money and maintaining satisfaction but the balance seems tough enough to make you work at it on hard mode... or not if you prefer to build everything yesterday and hang the cost.

When I say "the little things" pick out and watch 1 or 2 characters for awhile. Make a real effort to do so. The actions and little nuances that indivdualise them are quite good. There are even some quite funny "quips" which you may take the wrong way depending on how you're going. eg: "I like a park that has lots of space" or "This place is not overcrowded."... (or at least words to that effect). On face value you might feel proud but I'm guessing it may bring a little guilt if you look around and realise what they actually mean.

I like it.

Performance might be an issue for some players. Do your research before committing if your systems is marginal. When recommended specs' suggest a 980 you bet it's going to make your PC chug on a big park and lot's of people - as it does on my 1070 on ultra.


Overall a good game and an easy recommend. Modders may make it even more exciting.

GG
9/10

Silky: Sublime story. Great music.
Rough: Dying. Often.

..oo00oo..

I've seen the term alternate used to describe this title but what I discovered was... well... absurd. Assuming that alternate is a reasonable adjective for longer term players and absurd was my first, then we could say I stumbled upon an "alterurd" or an "absurdnate" title.

For the sake of some (any?) kind of adjective to describe... this... let's go with absurdnate. And why the hell not? Absurdnate? It's fitting. Perfectly fitting. If only I could explain how.


It's called Sunless Sea. That means it's probably Dark. Check. There's Boats. Check. A "base" (London). Check. Map. Check. Sea creatures. Check. Characters. Check. Story. Check. Exploration. Check. Bats. Check. Wait, what? Bats?? Ermmm... OK... let's just go with that.

So I find myself with a small vessel equipped with a tiny deck gun, a strange crew - who are always hungry - and always scared. I have a ship cat. I have rats. The cat eats rats. Everything is normal right?

Yes, yes indeed... Right up until bats something something London, something something water and the map fills with something something glowing, fighting, weird sea creatures that want to eat my boat. I was once an urchin and I'm now a captain. Some guy wants to give me things, someone wants a ride on my boat and someone wants me to take something somewhere. The island I just visited had some weird priest (among other things), the next island had some dark mystery (I have yet to discover what it is and when I do, it won't be - there's always that).

The harbour master wants my port reports, the university wants specimens of the sea creatures I encounter. And of course, I need fuel, supplies and a way and a place to repair my boat. Presumably, doing all these things will give me that thing that I need the most - an income.. income.. income. (is there an echo in here?)

(There's also something about keeping the lights on, which uses up fuel of course, because my crew suffers "Terror". How... normal can it get?)

Of several quests, I selected what seems the most, I don't know.. appropriate? I have to find my fathers bones (since I'm an urchin my history is probably important to me right?). To find out where they are all I have to do is stumble unknowingly around dark unexplored seas with my aforementioned boat, my dysfunctional crew. And my cat.

Did I mention that everything starts with Z? No? And this is all done with absurdnate storytelling in text based format - with entirely fitting and immersive music... replete with rippling water ambience as you might expect when you have "zee".

This totally makes sense. Totally. What more do you need? A swimthrough?

Absurdnate? Just buy it already.

EDIT: Typos/clarity.

Silky: Complexity, depth, longevity of games, replayability.
Rough: Learning curve, documentation.

..oo00oo..

This is a good game IF you're the right kind of audience. That's probably not the most of endearing statements to make but there's a reason for it.

The learning curve, given it's development state and expected evolving documentation, is steep. It took several starts to actually work out what I had to do and I'll be honest, several times I nearly wtfragequit and many times I was heard muttering "ffs" when the game just did not comply or didn't make sense - and I'm the gentle type. It was downright frustrating - having said that, most of the issues seemed to stem (in hindsight) from lack of good documentation for something that is not simple to play.

By perservering (and you should), every new start revealed a little more and what keeps you playing is the complexity - no, it's not overwhelming but it's not a casual game either. This is an intriguing title - parroting much of the sim/build/upgrade genre - but there are some clever tech/progress gates that appear a bit blunt (almost traumatic) until you identify the "right" way to do it - well at least until you're ready to *really* upgrade with extra rings to increase the size of your colony.

(I sincerely hope that's not too cryptic but it's the closest I could get to the inherent beauty of this title - it just sucks you into "just one more build/fix/adjustment" well past midnight).

It will take you hours to identify those nuances embedded that make your colony shine and respond the way you hope and I found the LESS I tried to force the pace (a legacy of devs developing for the time-poor and casual audience these days) the better the game became.

I mentioned the type of audience you need to be here. Let me just say you need to be borderline anal-retentive, analytical, patient, forgiving and self-deprecating (it's probably not the games fault, it's YOU) and it's really helpful if you like the type of game that encapsulates intriguing gameplay, complete with probable lore to explain your situation.

As an EA title at time of writing, the active and listening devs are working on the documentation - among the frequent updates and bug report responses they address almost immediately. There are no faults in this department.

For the price - an easy buy. The test to whether you will like it or not is by considering whether what I wrote made sense to you. If it did, buy it.

If it didn't..... :)