Recent reviews by Catmander

In Brief:
If you hunger for space you may buy it. But be aware its nowhere near the asking price.
Basegame + 2 expansions for min. 50% off or more. Honestly, don't pay more! It has it's moment but it can't compete with x3. At least it's not a rubbish sexist ♥♥♥♥ like rebirth was.

Longer lamenting:

Yea it leans more to the x we had but its exactly what the title says: a foundation. I fear its one for x5 or 6.

Space feels railroaded. Thats because of the limited sectors but also the the fast paced travel tools like highways and accellerators. I don't see the need for them.. unless your ai is so broken that you have to railroad shiptraffic somehow.

While some visuals are nice eg. solar winds.. space mostly looks way to clean. I miss the carnage of the roid belt or the thick nebulars in argon space + the dreamy soundtrack. Yea it was cheesy but it worked for me. Here the belts are no danger. It feels like there is almost none collision damage.
When letting your pilot fly, there might be really none... the moment i wanted to say "oh the autopilot works" was the moment in which she glitched though a roid. Later on through a station wall. An yes, when autoattacking close to a gate we still have the issue of ai not knowing what to do.

What about the UI?
Horrid! X's ai has always been like "Hey we need to test our coding, how can we setup a testenvironment very fast for experts only?" The outcome is the menu we had in x3. It was a mess but you could do all settings there. Tedious but it worked somehow.

NNow its is more complicated cause its not longer a menu thing eg settings for combat and trade. Now you have Npc's which are not that easy to supervise. You have unlogic menu structure left and top and in the case of the map you can click on stuff there too.

You want to give and abord orders? Or eject just 1 tiny parcel from your cargo? Good luck! 1st of all you need to select your ship! And be damns sure it is selected or you falsly order any other vessel to do a stupid task! Or you are in combat lets hope you manage to cancel your orders to intercept or disengage the foes.
You want to compare ships in the wharf? Sory you need to go into the personal menu select a ship, configure the ship and do the same with the 2nd one. It would be too easy to do this where you buy the ships with stock stats.

Then you have the map - damn for got to select my ship... - give orders ... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mission overlay, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ goods overlay... i just wanna dock! Oh it dropped 5475 loot crates close to each other how i gonna select what i want to salvage?

I could go on for hours about the menu... grrr

X4 is cinematic and i enjoy some parts eg. the look of the ships and the turret animation. It fells a bit like The Expanse when the bolts flying around. But thats it coz the weapons and their balance are garbage, not to mention shields. Oh i for got to mention when you have docked ships on your cerberus and you try to select the cerb... you get the picture...
Oh yea weapons. You have also no real flavour texts its an extra encyclopedia now. Some entries are still missing after 2 dlc's!!! And you get only vage infos about what these guns and turrets do. Missiles are so crap, not even the ai seems to use them lol literally i got no missile lock so far.

You can't just flyby with your s class like in x3. Here you rlly need to figure our the blindspot. But then it feels like ok i sit here and wait till i have made enough dps. I miss the speedy dodging. Somehow with the new booster system these things seem very limited.

At least ship types have a purpose, so ore is for miners and not for tankers like in x3, yay! I also like the drones for transferring freight. They get stuck now and then but they add flavour.

Stations? Dead. And npcs look horrid. No idea why they had no budget for ui and character design. The moment you see npc's on the landingpad performing arm movements like a stewardess... you rlly have to fight to not deinstall. Clicking on different traders in the elevator always ports you to the same location. It just changes the npc's. You also get the same workbenches everywhere. You craft drugs as well as hughe ship components on them... errr ok, why not.

Everything is so expansive and locked behind high tier npc's. Yes there are workarounds but its not like the freedom you had in x3. You just grind a bit, then trade with the teladis and you are good to go. Here a hq is mandatory for your trade empire and 3 star pilots... it feels like some strategies won't work anymore and i don't see propper replacements eg. doing missions or salvaging ships. Most missions are the same dull stuff like in x3.

They put a bit more cinematics into the story eg using scence from the stations. In the end it doesnt work coz npc's look braindead and 20 years old or even more. I had a cutscene where the camera was partly behind a wall.. that looked so odd and killed the whole scene - which wasn't well written too.

In the end, look and feel are decent in the sense you can call it a more "modern" game eg ships fly curves too^^ look better, etc. Sadly when it comes to depth and fun it cannot challenge Litcubes mod or the old Xtended mods... Even the ui was better in its tediousness. While you didnt find smth special during exploration it was still fun to explore the systems. Here in x4 i know lootboxes spawn and thats boring. You got a minigame looting them but inn the end it even robbes the false imagination "there might be smth special somewher". - Nope just generic drops sorry!
Hell did u never mapped Mealstrom just to be sure there isnt a hidden treasure? Or shredded those pirates to dust just for the sake of it? I miss that!

I'll play some more hours and hope to grab a capship. Lets see if there is actually some fun in carrier management... I fear vanilla is no fun at all and i gotta check how vivid the modding community is since there will be at least 1 more dlc with changes.

I played all the x titles from the very beginning. I even payed extra for AP to fund the next game... which i preordered and got slaped in the face... Then years of boykott and now it's a bit sad to see they don't evolve. Ehen the "more of the same" would actually be ok when it actually would work... hell so sad.

We all hunger for a space opera but all the stuff that came out last decade was very limited or straight rubbish. Now i have to cross fingers for Bethesda to produce smth cool... how far have we come?!

Oh and the loading and save times... even on a ssd, are unusual long. We're talking about 1-2 min early game. Other than that it runs quite stable so far, no error or cdt's at least it seems to have a propper foundation in code^^

You've waited long enough, you think? - Nope, wait more or actually spend your cash on something worthy

You enter the training grounds. - Just to find bling bling highlighted weapons and x-ray vision. The trainers suck and you've learned the same stuff by reading a short manual or already owning Warbands. Go to Kingdom Come to see how a challenging training pit looks like! Not that it's not buggy but hey its at least something. This is a joke.

1st impressions are not good, weapon handling feels too arcady and unbalanced for ranged weapons. Too many immersion breaking visual markers. gfx wise not great and too blurry - gotta tweak it a lot. Sounds are substandard.

TaleWorlds - WTF?!

Seriously, i need a drink before i continue playing. I'm already realizing that i have burned money.

TaleWorlds!!! I WILL DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL & THE SKULLS OF YOUR CHILDRENS CHILDREN!!!

It's like you wanna play smth serious like an Arma game and you realise the thing you've bought feels like a CoD. After the 1st impression i'm not sure they are able to fix this design mess without making a new game. Menu navigation reminds me of console games with some artifacts of pc ledger menus. Puh... its 2020... Some new stuff is great like direcly meeting important figures in the vilages but overall its a clumsy system and should be remade asap.

Number presentation eg. after battles feel odd too. layout reminds me of Battlefield games. They have the spirit of achievment hunting but i would not say they fit into this setting the way they are presented and the usefulness of the presented data is also questionable.

Basically you have an alpha here but the ui is more complicated than the original. Instead of a simple this is my inventory box i get a fallout style ledger... good luck when you look for an item in this mess.

But hey, a few more drinks and slashing looters... who knows... i can always return to Pendor! But the money is burned, so don't burn yours! DON'T!

P.S. Whats better than in Warbands?
The biggest improvements are in the area of battlefields:
a) decent landscapes and no more retardedly steep hills (at least i havent found em yet). But there are still corners where eg cav rides into rock and you can back shot em 24/7.
b) sieges look good and you have a few more options with siege engines
unfortunately you have a retarded mini games while you build em and they may get shot by caste defence. The other thing is, ai is still retared going back and forth and won't find a way. Another prob is the battering ram. It breaks the outer door but the inner door of the gate house has to be smashed with swords... meh totally immersion breaking. Why do i use the ram anyway?!
c) Archers collect ammo, yay nice feature for better or for worse ;)
You still have ladders as last resort. Climbing animation looks good but you still get blocked or pushed aside by troops there or you have to wait for ages if other siege engines got destroyed... the game needs a lot of work.

I mean not just bug fixinng, i mean an overhaul of their concepts and how they should work.

Speaking of immersion breaking... there are some notable things:
Smithing & unlock system. Why exactly do you need to unlock weapon forms and play a slider game for values? Especially since the variety of useful values is very small? Wouldnt learning from smith, aquiring weapons or practicing fit better than unlock in an medieval scenario?

Also: Armors. I aquired a decent one for me and for my horse. But why i get pierced by simple bandit arrows?! It feels a bit like in movies. Armor is just for the look, not for the function... -.-

Last but not least: Formations. Nice variety but cav breaks them all. Corcle works a bit better thou it's visual looks more loose than a shield wall. And why does ai circle when both armies oppose each other in lines... eww...

If you like MMO's like Eve you may like this one too. The Dev seems also like a guy who doesn't abandon his stuff + listens to feedback.

Unfortunately i didn't like the game so its a down vote.

Basically my issues after 30m gametime are:

- visually outdated (has to beat old X titles but doesn't)
- Hell of a grind = currently its just grind for better stuff to grind more... lacks complexity
- Lots of stuff might become a time sink like skill training and mining without having a decent interaction, its just waiting.
- UI feels weird = too much stuff in single windows like in x3 :P or even worse
- Not much steering involved so far, a bit wasd and autopilot; i feel detached from steering/doesnt give me the feel i need
- same goes for turrets: You slot em, click em to warm up and they auto fire on target. It feels too basic for me in 2020.
- Limited time in space via lifesupport which ticks down. I want to be in space not to play against a timer. 1st mission is like 30min time in space. easy but ... i wanna explore ...
- ah yea exploring. Currently it feels like the whole map is revealed in a sector , so that lacks the fun of discoveries.

While i think the basic idea of the game could've been a decent version of the old x-feeling when it comes to mining/trading.
It just isnt. In fact these old games are still superior to many newer games and Imperium is no exception. I watched some vids to see if there is more stuff worth grinding but i haven't seen any gameplay footage that caught my attention.

I think if you wanna spend hours and hours in front of your number sheets and if you are used to MMO's simplicity then give it a shot, its still on sale! For everyone else i'd say: give it a pass and continiue scanning the release page for 2020.

Update: Vers 1.034 - I tried a new playthrough. Overall Stability seems better but it still crashes. A common crash is while saving... and exiting the game... downside is, the inventory got slower somehow. it takes ages to click on stuff. No idea what is wrong with the game.



In Brief:

While it has interesting elements, and its a one man project for over a decade...
one also has to judge the so called "finished" product. It lacks in many parts and the asking price of 26.99 Eur is by no means justified. I payed 19 and i still feel robbed. Looks old, plays like the fast forward button is your best friend. If your still interested, do yourself a favour and don't pay more than 10 in its current state! Community mods have to keep it alive.

Why thumb down?

It says released but has so many issues...
If you prefer gameplay > gfx than you can overlook the outdatedness. But even then there are issues:

- game crashes often the longer you play. Even when exiting you have to frequently use str + alt + del to finish the hung up process.
- clipping issues eg you walk up a hill and you glitch through the hill instead of walking over terrain
- clipping with terrain and buildings eg sometimes you see the field where a house is placed up on instead of the lvl 0 floor of the house
- the world is brown in brown -> fair enough for post apocalypse but your char doesnt scale well when zooming in and out. Means you have a hard time scanning the area around you for dangers.
- text is super small and doesnt scale well too which lead to issues reading flavour texts of gear
- pathfinding issues averywhere which sux when building your own base and npc's just can't enter a door unless you move em manually....

You get the picture.

It says open world put this world loads all the time when you move along the roads. Maybe its the Ogre engine and/or the coding skills of the dev... i have no idea what but this sux. Constant loading the world, popping up rubble when zooming in and out and everything feels slow and laggish no matter what NASA computer you're using. Cleary a deep lying problem.
Its one of the games you hug the fast forward button aka bad designed gameplay loops. Its part of the game to be beaten up and get stronger. But srsly you have to spend hours and hours to train your stats - and just do that - to mop up a single hobo. And they come in groups so you have to have a large group too no matter how awesome you train.

I like the unarmed option and the animations give a glipms of what might be possible with this game but sadly its no fist of the north star simulator. A bit splatter and gore and 18+ speech. Sorry but Fallout did that better and if the Banished dev ever ads combat and rpg elements to his game it will be way better.

Work and crafting uses up even more time than training. It burns time for the sake of time burning. I see no reason why the current gameplay uses up hours and hours. Which is also because automation and the use of ai helpers is very rudimentary. At start you end up with running back and forth emptying you pockets - QoL Hell.

Fortunately the range detection is so bugged or doesnt work you can buy a house, mine your a.. off, go to the shop and click sell then also open your chests a few houses away and sell all the stuff with shift click move mouse - yay!

Exploring and basebuilding is kinda fun. But the building parts are very limited and need unlocking through research. Then there are issues with terrain and placement and way finding. Building on a plateau is usually an easy def spot and theres also no stuff clipping around - usually.

Trade and patrol routes would be great too but here you also have to use mods and you feel the limitations. At some point you just start beating up everyone and playing tower defence with your base archers. Darn! The suad management is so limited that you loose track if you have too many squads/ppl.

Which is super annoying since you get no msg when enemies are spotted or you take dmg. Just a short visual blink in the squad tab. Thats easy to overlook when your busy micromanaging the game. There are also annoying events like the prayer day. I mean i like this thing but i don't get a notification - or lets say its so short before the event happens i rlly have to plan to be there. There is an event timer but under the factions tab... also no mini map. The ui needs a redesign. At the end - even with 256 members mod - you won't have too many ppl because its just a pain in the ass to manage.

For instance, i have 2 ppl mining copper but somehow they dont fetch food from the base, so i always have to keep an eye on their tab and manually move them back to base. No idea why but these things just happen or jobs just stop without a reason.

Sound is almost non existant. Sometimes it fades in and suddenly stops. The tracks themselves arent too bad but overall its clear that no pro implemented the sound. I have studio speakers so i hear a lot of sound errors -.- fortunately the game is mostely quiet. A shame such a theme needs propper sound design.

The dev said he's working on kenshi 2 and will bring the ogre engine update to kenshi too. Nice! But seriously if all the issues are related to ogre and/or being solo dev... wouldnt it be better to team up with others and use a propper engine?
I also don't see the price point justified. Even if i overlook gfx issues it just feels like a half broken and abandoned game with stability issues. And i doubt kenshi 2 will be anything more than kenshi 1.

Life is Feudal looks a bit more professional but has the same gameplay issues along with cash grab stuff going on. Its 1st person, while kenshi is 3rd. But both are games about loading screens and loading bars instead of Fist of the North Star.

So if your life is f...... and you have to avoid a breakdown with games that keep you busy 24/7 then go buy it. OR play literally every other game and avoid spending tens of hours just to find out that there's no deeper gameplay in this one. Sad, sooo sad!

But still a nice game. Basically the main mechanic is known from coop board games. Every player has limited information and you need to combine these individual data and tasks to fulfill your missions. The other big part is communication. You need to describe what you are seeing and decide what to do next.

So every station has its own sliders and graphs and usually the captains job is to get view about the status of the ship and decides how to min/max the systems. That would be like your pilot needs to turn the ship in a way that allows the redshirt to focus lock the main guns 24/7 on the target while the engineer has to divert engine power to the shield and guns.

Thats surprisingly fun! And may lead to hilarious adventures in Space. - Given you'll find the right crew.
Which can be a downside. You may find helpful and dedicated players but also morons. Now and then its hard to find a crew at all.

Its possible to put some AI guys on some or all stations - which allows solo play. It kinda works but since the captain has not all data available in his hud like a real single player mode would have, so the experience is limited. But is manageable and that is what counts.

Visually its indy through and through. Nontheless the ships and stations are quite well designed but don't expect a firework or super highres textures and animations. Space feels a bit empty and is comparable to the old X games. Its like you just have a nice background and a station or roids where you may find a missionobjective. Ground missions have also a more or less small and linear design. Sometimes i whish it would be larger but at the end its the better design decision when you work with a human team and someone might hopp off after a short mission.

You earn credits while doing mission or getting random debris through fighting. With these things you upgrade your ship or even buy a new one. There are a couple of ships to buy but its quite expensive. Same goes for the upgrades so high tier stuff is not right at your disposal. There are also tools and guns for missions on planets and stations.

But don't expect too much here. The animations are barebone and the tool variety is still quite small. Even the space ships you can fly have just different stats like hull, energy shields... beside the look, some don't differ that much.

There is a variety of missions you can do and some are more fun than others. Being a bit enthusiastic about sci-fy roleplay helps to make them more fun. I had stupid find and scan missions but also others where i really liked to explore old underground complexes - even when not mission related. So there is stuff for everyone. Ground combat is a bit limited because its no shooter with shooter mechanics. If you put the roleplay experience first you still like it. If you prefer fps precision its rather meh. Sometimes you have a lot of pointless running back and forth in the same area and in other places you're enjoying running through an area.

Currently there's not much customization in terms of your avatar and they have a half baken system to unlock more cosmetics. But yea since the models are limited it doesnt matter much anyway. But free customization would be nice.

The game is rouge like in the sense that there is only one save (host). If you die right at start its a try again. And yea there are enemies you'd better avoid. Your jumprange is limited and it might happen you run into other ships after a jump when the drive is recharging. You need to do some recherche and play quite a few session to get a feeling what your are up against. Despite being face raped in some situations its quite hilarious being borded and you try to get rid of aliens while you try to protect the pilot and get the hell outta here.

Is a small game and not perfect at all. But i have to say its one of the few games which deserve to get support in EA. Out of dozends of titles i own - most of them have been abandoned or went down the drain. Here, i like to come back every once in a while and i enjoy it. While there is no patch every week. there are updates and the devs seem to work on making things better mechanic or mission wise.

While i have this game for quite a while now i write the review in 2019. As PC gamer its sad to see ♥♥♥♥♥ releases and crappy company behaviour for years now. Pulsar is one of the very few games at the moment i like. And while i decided for myself to not invest in EA again because of the swamp here on steam and elsewhere - Pulsar might be worth an exception. But thats up to you to decide. In its current state 20 bucks is too expensive because there are bugs and stuff is missing. You also have to do a lot of work arounds with the bots. So get it on sale or wait till they've fixed these issues.

The game could and should have been way further in its developement. A reason why its not is the VR priority the devs had for a while. Despite some critic voices they continiued to put their time into this and we've ended up with a half baken result. But yea it still can be a good game if they focus on the core things that make Pulsar fun and worthwhile.

Another promising EA title which has been released way to early. The game looks decent and has potential but
it's no longer in EA and its unlikely it will ever be polished.

Biggest let down is the combat. Its just spam your mouse button and dodge a bit... they would have been better off with a Chivalry like system or even simple Skyrim stuff. Other than that - the world feels quite empty and not much npc interaction is going on. I felt quite bored running through the desert.

By no means its worth the full price of 40 bucks. It smells like indy everywhere and despite some fun pvp stuff the overall experience isnt that good. There are better survival titles out there. I think i'll play a bit more but i doubt i will invest in a half baken product.

Sad but Mechcommander still tops most top down mech games today. Battletech is no exception.

Main complain is the presentation. You have a wonky camera and a map which doesn't look that well. They've been better off doing highres retro gfx. Nice to see that a game has voice acting. Unfortunately the writing is aweful and some voice actors are just not good. Other parts are just not voiced at all.

What makes it even worse is the mission design. Super boring with less freedom than i expected, eg can't use the terrain to my advantage since some places are restricted and i have to follow a route. Mechs are super fragile like in the board game - would have been better to make longer lasting encounters. Buildings are destructible but the sctipted explosions don't look well.

Instead of the damn hit notifications like CT crit, RT +1, etc. they've better put a visual feedback in - based on visible damage and/or sensor data. Wonky camera and turn phases always pulls you out of the fight - mentally. It doesnt feel like your piloting / commanding a lance. More like you move a token on a board game. UI is decent but why not build it like a mech hud?! Some info's are cryptic or missing like a terrain map or weapon ranges.

I haven't tried MP. Some youtubers didnt like that we don't have larger encounters there.

I'm glad i didn't buy it. I guess i gotta wait for a non license mech game which will hopefully be better than 2001 standards. Paradox DLC policy also sux. If the game were at least good and mesmerizing. But i've just played the 1st mission and i'm already bored and insta deinstalled since i don't think its worth to waste more time on it.

If you're desperate - buy on sale, but imo you're better off getting some of the 2D mech games out there or play the modded classics on dos box.

honeymoon period is over
I can't recommend at this point. Communication is super bad on steam. Last patch 10 days ago and no word whats going on. It feels like a pre-alpha launch and the first patch caused more troubles than it solved. Overpriced EA. Overall the projectmanagement - especially communication - feels super amateurish. Servers are already empty and i suggest to only come back if they actually pull smth out of their hat.

12.02.2019
Patch is out. Your base doesn't seem to diasappear - as long you don't build around reboot time. But most of the issues are still there like empty corpses and getting stuck or the market exploits. Now and then also server crashes. With a couple hours runtime, servers are almost unplayable. Especially when lots of ppl are on which is a sign that not all mem leaks are fixed. Also fellow faction members are able to glitch through doors and steal your stuff since everybody can loot your containers.


I'd usually thumb this up for the benefit of a potentially cool mech game....

But we're around launch day and there are stability issues. Devs are working on some patches but for those who prefer a smoother experience i'd say wait for the next few patches. Game is barebone (unity) which is not a prob but stability is. I had to start on several servers till i've found a decent one and then it disappeared from the server list :/

Its only MP and in the current state progression is too slow. So don't expect to see to much if you think you'll try the 2h refund test. Wait for a couple patches then you hopefully have better servers up. Currently its unlikely to get a mech fast. Its rather you'll run around with da good old pike axe for quite a while. Id strongly suggest to join a team right away to share the grind.

Update
We hope and prey for a patch today. Its almost unplayable due to billions of memory leaks. Base parts are missing and you loose stuff randomly. Corpses don't drop loot which means you cant progress well or at all in the research tree. Bummer!

It has potential but...
Needs a ton of work. I think 2-3 more Years at least and since we know Steam EA already it might be 4-5 Years if they don't manage to grow.

If I had to launch with stability issues i'd put away with material costs and let ppl try everything out. That would be also a good stress test.

But no we got an unnecessary grindy start. You need 2 kinds of resources: a) ore to build things and b) research pads to unlock the techtree.

Currently due to all the issues the Techtree is the most annoying part and your progression is super slow.

There are different guns but mostly high tier so no way to test all the stuff untill game is fixed.
Balancing issues (yea listen you fool who claims balancing is ok). With my legendary pike axe i get more ore out of a node then i get with an EPIC mining laser on me scout mech. The only advantage is that i can run way faster with the mech and have extra cargo holds. Same goes for the needler gun. It kills wuite fast while my mech laser takes ages to bring animals down. Have a gues! Legendary pike axe kills some animals faster than the needler.

Basebuilding is like everything barebone. Simple snap system with just a few parts like foundation, wall, roof. It seems to have an decay system but i have no clue if or how it works. And if stuff gets damages if its just mem leakes else where or if the decay system going wild.
Techtree unlocks a few more options for stairs etc. and stuff like storage boxes - a thing that would be great to have instantly.

Basic ores can be found around your HQ bur for other suff you need a) higer tier drills and b) move to more dangerous areas to farm them. You get also auto miners later on which help a lot. But they have also bugs eg. currently i cant switch the drillhead to mine other ores... Like all stuff you have built in your base you cant pick it up. You just can repair or discard your items with a loss :/ Its note even possible to move things.

Sound
Sometimes you hear music or super silent noises but most of the time it feels like there is none. The effects are basic but i fear the whole sound system isnt implemented well. No biggy but at least some stock sounds would have been nice for the flavour.

Mechs
they work decent. Minor issue is you get stuck in small plants and trees. Other than that you can walk quite fluently over most terrain and on water :P
You don't have the torso wisting like in MW. No idea if that will come or not. Most of the time your legs will follow and center into your gun/hud direction. Hitboxes are legs and all 4 torso sides. I can't tell how accurate these things work.

Installing upgrades and guns works via slot system. Super easy and no rocket science <3
Ammo Based guns suffer a bit from the current cost of crafting ammo. And T1 energy weaponst hardly outgun higher quality infantry weapons.

It seems you can't actually build mechs its just you unlock different models. There are also drop ships and a few birds/drones you can use.

Multiplayer half baken
Too many features are missing eg a simple team or group chat its just global. You fight over map control. Most buildings are super easy to take, just smash the door, avoid the sentry while doing this and rush the stairs, hold button and sector is yours. I have also no idea if you gain smth yet beside your faction colour on the map. Documentation is not really there beside a simple 1st step manual. I havent seen a group or formation window.
You can place 1 marker on the map but its unclear if thats just private or if you can place ralley points. Basically most needed communication stuff for teams is missing.

There are a few placeholder which might become smth cool but its not there yet. Like a blackboard where missions and bounties can be posted (potentially!). Offline protection is also not there or doesnt work - who knows. Currently you have just 2 factions. Good old blue vs red. You have also an inventory which shows your mechs and bases. Unfortunately it doesnt work all the time. For instance you can't see much and if your base is too far away you just see that you have a base, not what the status is eg the power consumption.
Also, it doesn show you mech when you are too far away. Today i crashed when exiting my cockpit. I didnt know the exact locationbecause when you rejoin you usually get eaten alife by some random animal. Then you cant't join where you dies its your faction HQ or your Base only. Then you realise no mech in the inventory list and no way to mark it. So its good old green barret style go out there and search throu the quadrants you've been. Didnt work for me so i had to build a 2nd mech and searched it that way because for a short time it displays a green mech symbol when you come close. Took me another hour but at least it was no total loss.

Thats just an example of the probs players are facing. So unless you are a masochist i'd scan the current patchnotes till the worst is sorted out. And we finally get some teamplay out there.

Potential is high since we have no real good mech game out there. It looks indy and will never look AAA but its possible to craft a gem. Thing is, the road looks long and winded till we see that gem.

p.s. there are also no admin tools to unstuck you and doing helpful things... its just suicide. Fortunately you just loose your belt for now. And the savest place on earth is your backpack. so if you've made lots of ore put it in your body inventory and log out. Don't leave it in the base since its raidable and it may vanish due to current stability issues.

Until then, a suggestion for the devs:
- nighttime should be a nice ambient mood not a black screen simulator. My eyes aren't getting better and i see no benefit in such dark nights. You see anyway the enemy symbol above other players.

P.S. Discussions are welcome. Illiterates and morons will enter the blacklist instantly.

The dev is known for his X Mods, so i guess he will develope a decent game too.

Nontheless, i requested a refund because the game is very barebone with a clunky ui. No biggy since its pre-aplha but i had enough EA games and i prefer a more flashed out stage to join.

Another thing that drives me away is that the game is a night simulator. If you have no lights, the screen is very dark and that sux. I like nighttime, i'm comfortable with having a special mood or when certain traits are reduced eg perception/visibility. But i promised myself never to by a back screen simulator again and i will fulfill this one ;)

A 2nd big aspect i don't like is having traits like depression. I think these mental states are represented way too shallow in games. And here again, fight boredom and depression with entertainment buildings. I know it can change a lot but in the barebone state it is its rather a no go for me. Perhaps i just played too much of these games in the 1990's because we didn't have better gfx :P I mean u see whats going on on the screen and its decent for the current state but to get me hooked it has to deliver more in terms of society building and more meaningful mechanism for the traits your ppl have. The ui needs an overhaul at some point too.

I'll certainly follow the development but i'd say its not very enjoyable in the current state unless you really like to mod and play around with the files and see how the mechanics evolve. After x-mas sale there might be a bigger update which adresses some issues. Meanwhile you got some decent Youtube footage so i suggest to check these streams for gameplay footage.

Update: I really need to revisit the game. Despite being very negative in my 1st thoughts about the game, i have to admit the dev seem very active and is flushing out a lot of patches with QoL updates. So a couple of things i have criticised, have been adressed. I just need to find the time to play again.



Review is WIP. I'm a couple of hours in and there are major flaws for such a type of game. Perhaps i will thumb it up later on if the gameplay shows more potential than at start. So this thumb down is rather a neutral at this point.

major flaws

a) its super slow. The intro into the story is also a kind of tutorial. Running around and clearind decks takes ages if you're new to the game. That has been better done in classics like Xenonauts/xcom or the shadowrun games. For me its so slow, that i feel bored already. The story isnt driving me and the movement/exploration speed isnt either. The 1st tasks arent helping too because its the good old go there, unlock the next area, fetch x and kill y. Sure you can break every game down like this. The prob here is that you really feel these tasks in the way i descibed it. So if the iso dungeons, the story and the ui wont change, i already feel that i'm having a hard time in this game.

b) the slowness is imo also related to input design flaws. The game starts with a no go: it rebinds a common key pattern for movement so you have to learn a new one. Usually you right click somewhere or left click hold to move. Alternatively you might use wasd. Here, wasd scrolles the map and you move with a left click. If you want to face your group into a certain direction, you have to left click and move the mouse into the desired direction. Thats a small change but for me it feels super unintuitive and results in multiple clicks to get what i want. And i always have the feeling that it's not me moving with my team through the corridors.

In larger layouts i feel quite lost in some stations. The hallways look generic and thats why the NWSE compass doesnt help much because you cant visually differ your environment anless you memorize it. But as said elsewhere the campera might spin and move and you're without orientation again.

Doors should open when you approach them but sometime you really have to touch them with your nose^^ or approch them several times. Its also not clear which one is in use in which just deco and it sux running over the map just to find it out.

In the same direction goes the warp drive. Since you lock and activate it in 2D space you just cant travel to a station if its on the other side of the planet. Means the planet will pull you out of warp and you have to use the afterburners to get to the station on the other side. Meh! What did i gain from that? Another time it happens the station is perfectly lined up and you can jump directly to it. I haven't seen any task / ambush while i was flying to stations so its rather pointless since nothing happens. So better save time and pop out directly in front of a hub.


c) at least with your starting team there are UI issues too. It seems i can't swap between the chars like you are used to in other games via a cycle. But you can select them via F1-4. You also have to do a lot of extra clicks, like your portraits shows a lvl up symbol but you can't reach the skill tab by clicking on this symbol. You have to go into the inventory/skilltab via keys to do so. Also, if you move away from your keyboard ynd you touch your mouse it might happen the screen will move miles away. You can center back with Q but why has it to be that way anyway. I mean usually you have a map to see the general layout an then you might move mayb 1/2-1 screens further in your iso view. So you don't get lost on the screen.

The UI is ok but like in the character screen its overburden with numbers and stats. Its also not clear what all these numbers do for you. Guns on lvl 100 is neat but when min maxing... what exactly is the sweetspot for a skill and how do i find it?

d) not really a flaw, but the game runs on a ssd and the load time for the levels (eg swapping decks via elevator) takes quite a while. No biggy but i haven seen a game for quite a while with such loading times. Same goes for the transit planet/station to space. Meanwhile i got a freez/ctd there too.

e) 2h in and 1 CDT (crash to desktop). I've seen worse but its super annoying in an iso fight when you've almost cleared an area which took you several minutes... Let's hope stability will get better.

f) Hacking mini game: You can auto hack if your skill is high enough. If not, you are left with a reaction based timer game. Some ppl just can't handle such a speed. It would be also great to have a logic puzzle option.

Story
Um well, since i didnt finish it, i cant tell how well it will play out. For the 1st part its definately nothing new and the few twists are also known and feel rather strange. I gotta see if the story will make more sense later on. Currently I don't feel very immersed. It feels also a bit like Fallout 4: You have a pressing issue going on but all the time in the world to do sidequests and lvl up. That somehow doesnt fit well.

Visuals & Sound
It looks definately like an old game. So don't expect fancy highres gfx. I also noticed some of the assets which are also used by Empyrion :P

There aer just a few generic pictures. Which is a bit disappointing for you char creeation. But also for the combat turns since its hard to determine which enemy comes next when all have the same face. As said elsewhere, stations look generic which might result in disorientation.

While some music pieces are very nice, the soundeffects are aweful at this point. The guns sound very basic and fit for multiple models. Then you have repetitive hit sounds when you hit the enemy. Doesnt matter if creeps, humans or phages... sounds like generic zombies. Which is a bit annoying when gaming and talking with your relatives sitting on the couch... The story doesnt seem to be voiced - just a few comments when you deal crit. hits, etc.

guns
I havent seen a large variety yet but the standard stuff is there, like pistol, smg, shotgun, rifle, etc. But i really wonder why we need battle hammers and axes in a scifi setting?! I'd say ok if it were just some stuff for unarmed roleplay but hell its not undersandable for me why some burst rounds with an assoult rifle should be equal to one or two handed hammers... meh!

As stated above, the review is still WIP. These lines are just a small warning about issues you might find important if you like iso games, since you'll hardly find propper pro/con reviews on this one. I definately got to do some space fights to see how that will turn out but atm i got blown off so i gotta wait till i can upgrade my ship or leran how to determine how dangerous an enemy is.

P.S. i thought that would be easier to do. But the game gets boring fast and i decided to play other stuff during holiday. Cant refund anymore unfortunately :/ Currently i'm doing some missions to buy a FTL. But meh its always go there and kill everything in that station. The only difference is how large the level is. It lacks flavour. I hope it gets better later on but i'm really struggeling to play. I dont feel its fun atm.