Recent reviews by WhaleOne

Just no... stop.... staaahp.... I need my time, please. I need my time to do things in the real world.

Damn you for EU4, CK2, HOI3, VIC2 and now, damn you for STEL.

Paradox, Hate you and love you.

Downloaded on a whim. Love grand strategy, love investing hours into Paradox games.

Somehow though, I keep coming back to this bloody little single battle sandbox. Simple and deep, amazing little game. Can't wait to see what comes next for the Ultimate General games. Well done, 10/10, if you're even mildly interested get this game and there will be no dissapointments to be had.

OK so there's plenty of bad and good for this game. Let me lay my opinion on the line here from a couple of hours of initial gameplay (Which I have no doubt will grow to a few more [albeit modest] hours in the future)

This is a casual game by far. In that sense I've personally found it rather zen. You've no doubt gotten a fair idea of what the gameplay is. You manage a crew in a basic sense aboard your vessel. You travel around, first, one solar system trading, smuggling and fighting to accrue money. This cash goes towards bigger vessels and more capability to extend your activities further abroad. Beyond that overall premise, you have to manage the crew you use to staff said craft and their relationships and needs. As they become more skilled they require more effort to keep them satisfied (A feature which, thanks to a recent addition of bonuses, you can come close to bypassing to an extent early on if the money is flowing),

If you are someone like me that's happy to provide a narrative (Other Dwarf Fortress and Paradox Grand Strategy players will understand) for the game you'll enjoy this, but superficially. There's plenty of capacity to do so but it is provided with a quite limited depth.

There's a comedic element to the game which works quite well, but I personally don't take that in too much as (as mentioned above) I enjoy supplying my own narrative to the game. That being said it provides a level of enjoyment to the game even if it can be found to reduce the 'immersion' factor.

To give a TL;DR overview though, if you are looking for a relaxing game set around Captaining a ship and crew while jaunting around getting into whatever adventures you see fit, this is a great game to destress to. If you want more complexity in your zero-G adventuring, check out the X series or EVE online.

All being said and done, with the above caveats, I will recommend this title as a simple, enjoyable and satisfying experience. Additionally, the devs seem to be taking comments on board and working to adjust gameplay in an ongoing fashion.

PS. A couple of things that I think this game requires:
- The ability to speed up time to a greater extent
- More intricate and involved crew requirements and procedural command events (There are some, I hope there will be more as I go on)

Overall, once again, I've found this a relaxing and satisfying game. It will likely get repetative in the future (And I will update my review accordingly) however that's the lot of a ship captain in reality isn't it? Haul cargo, wash rinse and repeat with a dash of combat and smuggling to make it interesting. If the devs continue to update accordingly, it will continue to satisfy unless you're looking for an ultra-deep and complex experience. In that case, look elsewhere.

Despite what is being said about this game, there is a bit of depth. Yeah, it's a short game but I like it for that. I don't always need to spend the hours at Civ 5 or the Paradox Games (Though it is one of my favourite things to do).

It's not a five course meal, but it's a quick run to the drive through and it's filling for what it is.

The singlularly greatest thing to happen to cinema since the invention of the moving image camera.

Infinite/10

Sat down for a quick game before bed. Doesn't happen, never happens. This has to be one of the most satisfying war game experiences I've ever played and the fact that it's a quite simple top down shooter makes it all the more satisfying. The replayability of it is huge with three factions and what are rather expansive maps. In the campaign mode the maps are linked and the free form nature of it means I know I'll be coming back to it time and time again. One of those games that when you're looking at your game library unsure of what you want to be playing, you'll always just say "What the hell" and jump into RWR.

I've only had a little time in multiplayer though it was also just as satisfying. I don't normally bother with the review process but I think this crowd is on to a winner, as it stands right now the game is practically perfect. The back and forth, the grinding battles for city blocks culminating in an immensely satisfying experience when you finally take the win or cede a hard fought loss gives me good feels all over.

10/10 Feels