Senaste recensioner av Silky Rough

Silky : You know so much about your targets...
Rough: ...but are you allowed to do anything about it?

I love considering our future and wondering how we might become no more than parts of some evolving socially obedient organism, devoid of personal privacy and with it, control of our own lives... and our truth. For the greater good as it were. It's pure Orwell which probably explains the title.

For mine though, with some retrospect.... this is less about any "Big Brother" surveillance reference that some might have infered by some of the comments I've seen. I think it's much more than that. It's about our inability to recognise a social evolution far more insidious and far more pervasive to society that we're all an unwitting party too. Ourselves. But then... George didn't say what "Big Brother" really was either.

What gets me with this? Hmmm.... The concept is great. It's a scarey thought, possibly not too far removed from what might already be happening. This game attempts to highlight the manipulation of data, of people and of truth to reach a more palatable "truth". A kind of guaranteed "to the victor go the spoils" by first ensuring we're the victor.

The premise is sound. The execution seems to be not so good - you ultimately click mostly what you're meant to click, read what you're meant to read and do essentially what you're lead, by the nose, towards.

But I do wonder here. I found I had my own path I wanted to follow, making assumptions from data and threads I had gathered, some quite... spurious although quite compelling. However, either the game forced decisions I would NOT make given same circumstances or would not even allow me to make them at all. Which was annoyingly disconcerting but oddly enough, might actually be very clever and intentional gameplay. I still can't get a fix on it tbh.

Perhaps the lesson here is that we don't REALLY want disinterested, independent, non affected 3rd parties from doing surveillance or making any kinds of decisions - even controlled ones - on our behalf do we? Nor would we want those disinterested, independent, non affected 3rd party decisions made to appear like objective reasoning and thus proving there is a need to act against people or states... or truth... Are these actions now to be deemed as not only justified but an social imperative... for the owners of the data, oops, sorry, truth?

It'll never happen. Right? RIGHT?

8.5/10 GG.

Leaves you thinking. If it doesn't then I suggest a trip to Oceania sometime... as a lamp post. You'll fit right in.

Silky: Living the life you dream of...
Rough: My life is playing video games!

It's certainly fun enough (initially) to work towards being a wealthy security business owner, a lawyer or heck, even a plumber but... to be honest, if being successful in life was really like this, we'd need Suicide Prevention Simulator™ thrown in as a bonus.

Yup. Get house, get job, get educated. Stay happy. "Work" towards your life goals which, when all is said and done, is completion of achievements because well, heck, you don't even die.

Not a bad game. You might even go around twice.

6/10. If it's cheap and you can spare a few hours for a no pressure, no brainer game...

Silky: Visuals. Music. Initial play.
Rough: Ridiculous non-optional ironman - because people might actually play it that way.

tl;dr - TaB is not some amazingly clever RTS game requiring intelligence to beat it as some claim so let's not think it is because a few gushing RTS noobs say so. Game requires brute force reroll and lots of hours before you get the right RNG map. Simple as that. My 7 year old beat game 2 @100% - eventually :0

Welcome to a hardcore, locked down, ironman tower defense clone with a timed mass attack finish. Sound OK? Problem is you get 2 choices here. Play each map over and over... and over... until you win... or quit in frustration. Whichever comes first.

It's brutal, which I don't have a problem with, but it's made worse by the devs insistence that no save or seeds are allowed and nor is there any way to reroll a map quickly. Now while some might decry this is a wonderful thing (not realising of course that they don't need to use them if they were included) - it gets old fast.


And when you DO win.... it's just more of the same anyway - with minor, if any, variance. There's no new units at each map, no new tech, no new bulidngs. Just newly painted tiles, a tweak of the map RNG and an arbitrary increased difficulty.

So, we're left with a single game taking 4-5 hours (with pausing) to complete and through either a single oversight or indeed, from lack of knowledge, (or any one of a multitude of delayed, misplaced or completely lost clicks) you'll be stuck trying to win on each map for as long as it takes. (Nor is there any provision for modders to fix the lack of seed or saves yet either).

Yeah, I'm playing ocassionally (gotta beat it right?) - and perhaps that's it's appeal - but I'm not enjoying it.

I would not rush in expecting a freeplaying RTS because this is NOT that game so unless you're a masochist or No Lifer, or both, hold off until it's done. Campaign mode might be the saviour of frustration... or the creator of more.

5/10 - not recommended while it's in EA and if devs don't use this time to listen to their community - without thread deletion and threats of post deletion when they don't like what they hear - then the product should NOT be in EA.

Put simply, the forum BS, muttered by the typically low IQ gushing fanboy who has just discovered RTS as a genre - supported and nurtured by inattentive and arrogant devs/mods - will make TaB, and yet another EA title, all the poorer for it.

..oo00oo..

Disclaimer: A lot of my hours on this title are AFK so it's not an indication of good value or game longevity. I play a bit, pause, get some work done etc. and come back. This is often left running all day for 10 minutes of play.

EA CAVEAT - mode being discussed is Survival mode, the only mode available at time of writing.

Silky: Being on the water.
Rough: Too simple.


I thought Fishing: Barents Sea would fill a nice sim niche and I was hooked on the idea of progressing to ever bigger boats in ever expanding seas. I was hooked on the concept of finding my way from a rowing boat to a factory ship, gathering my knowledge, my marks, my crew and my gear.

But... it didn't turn out like that. Somewhere between what the devs clearly wanted and what the publisher allowed, this thing fell into a shallow puddle.

I started with "Grandpa's" old wooden ketch and an undiscovered sea, a few dollars in my pocket and ready to do the hard yards. I putt out of the bay and I'm met with a blue/purple circles which are supposed to be where the fish are. This was my first disappointment and it remained throughout the game. There's no need to talk to anyone, to gain knowledge, to look, to learn, to record. None of that. They're right there, the fish.

Just drive around until you see the patches. Put fishing gear on patch. Catch fish.

Catching the fish was interesting enough. You set your longlines (or later, gill nets), wait 20 something hours and haul them in with a quite fun mechanic that grows on you when you get used to it. Unfortunately, the waiting period literally requires sitting it out or driving back to port (you can "fast travel"), docking and running a clock timer to jump to a time ahead. You can't do this at sea, you have to drive home first. This got terribly annoying after a while and you literally start playing click fest just to get back to the lines/nets. Horribly implemented.

After catching the fish, a quirky "Octodad" like mechanic is needed to gut the fish. Fortunately it didn't seem to make THAT much difference to the price. You only have to do 1 or 2 cuts per species (even if you have 5 tonne of fish) and after a while you can have a crewmen and he'll do it for you anyway.

Missions. Early game these are valuable to earning easy money, finding more "fishing circles" and generally discovering the map, sometimes at an excrutiating sub 10 knots. Presumably to prevent cheesing of missions, there is no fast travel on missions and if you make the mistake of getting 2 ports miles and miles apart, get ready for a lengthy period of drivng in a straight line, doing... nothing. If you can manage to lay or bring in some nets along the way then good luck to you.

Crew. Interesting dynamic here. 9 different skills that accumulate over time and they become important from early on all the way to end game. They're bought initially and catch percentage is the required pay method. Which is neat. Due to some horrid, as yet unexplained bug though, I lost 3 very highly skilled crew right before my big trawler purchase and this really set me back on fish processing time. If you change back to a boat with a lower crew requirement, you have to "fire" your guys and hire them back later - which would be OK if you could get the same trained crew back.

(But remember the 3 highly skilled guys I lost? Never found them again, in any town on the map.)

The boats. Again, interesting early game making the progression up but with only 3 boats using line/net and ultimately the 2 big trawlers, the variety is limited. The "upgrades" for the first 3 boats are storage space, engine size and "radar" (gotta' find those purple circles people). But it's essentially grind up your fish, get the upgrades, grind a little less. Rinse and repeat until you get the trawlers.

Now I was really hanging out for the trawlers and to some extent they looked like they were going to do amazing things but failed in pursuit of casuality (or budget constraints). Initially trawling might be confusing but after a while, driving out to the marked area called "open sea" (why!?) setting the trawl net and essentially chasing the fish with left and right and up and down gets same old' quickly too. Fill boat, drive home, drive back, fill boat. Again, no knowledge of location, timing, depth, season etc. is worth bothering with.

The biggest boat, the mighty endgame Hermes, is doing the exact same thing but adds the machine gutting, freezing and stacking you had earlier on the longline/gill net boats (rememeber that crew training?) so it doesn't ADD anything to the game, just more of the same. No new skills, nothing harder, no new fish... nothing.

tbh, pretty disappointed with the lack of depth (pun intended). With the mechanics seemingly in place for a much fuller game, I get the impression some great guys had a great idea and in reaching out for developing/publishing help, got it dumbed down to make budget/time constraints.

6/10.

For the price, good fun initially but too short and lacking some much needed - obvious - features. Has to be called a casual title, not a simulation. A real pity. It's there but it's not. Know what I'm saying?

Silky: Fun, casual, simple enough, plays well on modern system.
Rough: Lacks mandatory "railway" features. Games are fun enough to start but shortlived. Fast bored.

As a "railroad game" with scenarios/campaigns and a lazy AI it's good, casual, repetitive fun. There are the inevitable unobtainables due to bugs/oversight/lack of testing but all-in-all it will suit the casual train buff for quite a few hours.

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of THAT railroad game, this type of casual gameplay doesn't interest me so I moved on from it soon enough. Publishers/devs need to stop making "simulations" with trite little completion checkpoints - especially when your game is $50. I expected way more for the price tbh...


- The track laying is simple enough, although it's difficult getting a track built "just right" along low fidelity landscape (such as you can in Transport Fever). "Planning" is essentially building before you confirm, the track positioning options are limited. I constantly found myself trying to pick up track laying markers, messing up a good line and simply trashing it. There are no bridge options, tunnel options, high speed lines, nothing. You draw line, tinker a few curves, raise/lower, confirm.

- The economic game of raw produce to industry and onwards to (limited) value adding is there, and reasonably purposed. It's not complicated and while it does lack some depth, it's not an industry management sim' so I have no problems with this.

- A serious gripe that requires immediate attention is the lack of an X crossing (devs, really?!?). The current method to cross lines is a Y crossing to single and back to an "inverse" Y crossing. If this seriously bad omission needs to be explained then these guys really need to stop making train games.

- Train modelling is OK, historically correct but there isn't really a lot of difference in their use quite possibly because it doesn't take long to get so bored due to lack of depots, proper signalling, 4 track station maximums, no crossover and so on. After a while you push fast play, tick of the tasks and quit.

- Camera options are there for ride-along, follow etc. so no issues there. Graphics are OK but what you see when *building* your track and what you see when *riding* your track do not correlate well. Indeed, that line you tried desperately to get level through these hills, minimising the climb ratios will absolutely look like an A grade roller coaster. I was tempted many a time to put my hands up.

- RNG should ask questions devs. Have I got a maintenance building BOTH ends? Have I got well positioned servicing towers? Is my engineer and his stoker of high quality? Is my train well maintained with low levels of maintenance as part of its design? Do I have all my maintenance perks? So why the hell do I break down with "random breakdown" regardless of how hard I try to diligently prevent "random breakdowns".

- "Blackmail" in freeplay is just a silly little annoyance. I've paid and not paid and didn't notice anything. Once you get past 10 trains and pushed fast forward it really doesn't matter.

- Warehouses. The limitations here are awful. Devs, guys, if I need to forward and store all the raw materials for 2 industries, take them into the city and bring them back to a warehouse for distribution I need more than 4 lines and I definitely need more slots. Using warehouses to get return loads and/or manage production levelling is just awful. Add the line limitations including crossovers mentioned earlier and it makes trying to setup good freight infrastructure horrid.

- Sandbox is infinite money so unless building is your only reason to play, there's no imperative to play. This leaves you with "freeplay"" which is what sandbox should be, except it has "tasks" and the tech tree is limited so the game effectively finishes once said tasks are done or your time runs out. Sure, you can continue but why? Nothing worth pursuing.

....oo00oo....

As a casual game for a bit of fun this is OK. As a sim', forget it. Even if devs added/modified some of the things mentioned above, it's obvious the "core" isn't going to change much.

Modders (if something worth modding was possible) might value add this title but as it stands, there's not even a way to make a challenge/freeplay map so don't hold out for this.

At $50 US, this is a definite NO. I would suggest wait until it goes on special. 6/10

Silky: An enchanting experience, second to none.
Rough: Watching it end.

I sit here now having just finished "What Remains of Edith Finch" and I'm still, I don't know... touched by what I just witnessed.

This is a charming story. And it is a story. This is not a game and It can't be a game for reasons that are apparent when you play this not game.

Edith Finch "plays" linearly, predictably and simply but your emotions, guided by an almost absurd tale about Ediths' rather unlucky family, are taken on a fascinating journey, into nonsensical directions that will one minute leave you grinning with utter delight and the next, anticipating some dreadful outcome. And yet, somehow, it all made sense.. as any good story might

Very few games will leave you watching even the credits with eyes wide open, an enchanted smile and a feeling of sheer and utter delight. This is short but deliciously so. A glimpse of brilliance in a world of mediocrity. Bravo dev team. Bravo...

9.5/10

PS: If you lack the ability to wonder, don't bother, you'd never hope to understand.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1101180644

Silky: Easy casual fun for free.
Rough: It won't be free if you're a fool with your money.

A free game meant to entice you to cough up some hard-earned to get it finished. Devs know this, you should too. This is proof of the effects of reward focused game design. The first time you part with any amount of money beyond a thank you dividend for devs is the day you need to get some financial management help.

An easy thumbs up if you keep it as nothing more than a casual clicker. Give your money to a worthwhile charity if you MUST throw it away.

Silky: Keeps you busy.
Rough: Keeps you busy.

I typically play a game for many hours before I review but I've read many of the negative reviews of this game and I'm finding it very hard to reconcile what they're saying with what I am seeing. If you look at the hours (or in some cases minutes) of these reviews ( typically just under the refund window), you've got to wonder just how hard they actually tried or indeed whether they even got past the unlocks that push the game along - as you'd expect in this genre.

So with that in mind, I thought a dynamic review based on actually playing might be worthwhile for those who need a bit more than "I gotted board an refudned" to make up their mind. I'll update this with my thoughts as I move more into the game.

This is an easy game to pickup and play with a simple but easy to follow pseudo-playthrough to get you started.

Like all games of this genre there is a fair amount of balancing that needs to be done to get your colony up and happy. You're essentially managing a colony on a planet with limited resources and in some cases limited space. You have some assistance and access to trade via the original colony ship and obviously the game is wrapped around building your colony to self-sustainable levels.

You need to balance power needs, food quantities, quality and variety, water, air quality in addition to the more underpinning task of keeping people at high morale levels - so you can keep your job as the colony boss, an annual event to remind you you're never really the boss anyway.

The water, air and food mechanics are simple enough with enough variety to turn (for example) wheat into flour and then into bread using things like farms and mills. To grow the wheat you need power, water and potentially potash (fertiliser), an area to build these structures (which by itself can be tricky) and of course the workers (your colonists) to operate the facilities. Where some of the balance comes in is the distance to work (they hate commuting), the quality and quantity of their air, food and water, their habitat, entertainment all the way down to medical facilities.

The morale mechanics are simple enough too but you'll need time to understand what crop makes what "enhancer" (morale boosting drugs for want of a better phrase). You need to prevent crime, provide retail facilities and products and so on and so on.

In addition to all this you need to keep your colony safe from "lightning", "creep", "shards" and "plague" using a combination of basic weaponary, drones (repair and others) plus some plain old medical assistance. At "normal" levels it's none too difficult IF, and I say IF, you're proactive instead of waiting for something to happen and then try to fix it. You can't play this kind of game, under perpetual crisis, at warp speed, simple as that.

(You hear me Fraser? You lost your popularity from 90 to 30 because YOU messed up... among other things... Crisis is avoided by NOT letting it, not sitting there waiting for it. L2P before you review buddy. Hell man, there's even a wiki, so RTFM as well maybe. To wit: "a break from repairs"... try guns, policies and drones there bud... "bla bla power issues" - zorium generators?)

Listen, it's got to be said that this is a 4 person indie team, the game runs smooth and I've not been bumped out or hit on any bugs. Put simply, moaning about content less than 2 hours into the game is an OBVIOUS self-prophecy. Even if you stayed the course, this can't be measured against AAA with that size team or for that price anyway.

Fact is, marketing was true, game does what it says it does and I for one credit the devs for a neat, intriguing enough game to while away quite a few hours of my time yet. It's an easy recommend BUT make sure you are the type that understands the requirements of patience and effort in this genre to succeed.

8/10

A little explanation is needed it seems:
My comments regarding players leaving "game is shallow" reviews is merely pointing out that this might be particularly true with THIS game because much of the difficulty comes a long time after that horrible Steam refund window. It is not a reflection on the reviewer, merely a point that must be considered when taking reviews - positive AND negative - into account.

I don't take sides in the "must be positive or negative" fights and arguments some find essential to life, these are simply MY thoughts about the game... a game *I* happen to enjoy. I'm not under any compunction to defend my comments here and I won't be. Write your own review.

Silky: Simple to play.
Rough: A bit... short.


If Passpartout taught me anything it's that

- I can't paint using a mouse for love nor money.
- My squiggly house masterpieces from kindergarten days should have been kept.
- Art is more about the personality of the critic than the painter.
- No-one understood my Jackson Pollack knock-offs. (But then, who does?)
- Picasso is easy to copy and worth a fortune.
- Circles are a girls best friend. (She bought nearly every circle painting I did!)
- Perspective is worth the effort. Even without any way to keep it straight.
- There are 127 ways to paint a sunset. (Remember those circles?)
- 24 colours and 3 techniques is not enough... for my "style".

Hey look, easy to play, will fill a few hours, might even elicit a replay every now and again. Quirky, quaint but quick. It would be much nicer to expand ever slower to more "affluent lodgings" and make the progression less about painting your way to the next level by sheer force of numbers.

7/10

As a footnote, I wondered about the "art detection" algorithms for quite some time and probed and tested for the "winning formula". All I managed to prove is that beauty is and will always remain in the eye of the beholder... even my 'puter.

Silky: Story, gfx, soundtrack.
Rough: Hungry at times.

I usually wait until I finish a game before reviewing but with this, the finish can't be important, not because I have finished at time of writing (and so I have no idea what the "finish" is), but because if I do talk about what the finish is or might be, it would spoil the journey. (EDIT: Finally finished and I have to say, the ending is pretty special.)

For the price, an enchanting soundtrack, incredible lighting effects, intriguing story and an impressive amount of artwork and effort, it's a simple choice to make.

Know only that "Myst" and "Obduction" would be comparable. The puzzles don't appear to be very difficult... yet.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1082858268

EDIT: Who the HELL are you?! This relaxing, scenic tour of a game just got.... serious.
http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1084396710