Recent reviews by Vi-El

Can I recommend this game to Survival Basebuilding enthusiasts?
Yes
Can I recommend this game as of right now to anyone else?

No

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This game so far is enjoyable to say the least if you do not mind the general repetition of what you are going to do for hours upon hours upon hours. I have just spent 5-6 hours playing the game and while it was enjoyable the grind and building and unlocking new things, the issue comes down to this being gameplay I personally enjoy.

Whats the issue with that? I dont get bored of tedium. I dont get bored of repetition when it has a point. But as time goes by that point slowly fades into the background as you get better and dont have enough to justify the repetition any longer.

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What do you do in this game? You run back and forth and make sure you got enough stuff in your inventory (that meaning your own, chests and workstations) to be able to progress. No thats practically all you do. There are minor segments in which you send out a drone to do a few OK minigames but otherwise thats pretty much it.

During the night you have to defend your base from critters. Which is honestly fairly easy to do and also once again tedious more than being terrible or exhausting. The issue with the defense isnt that the enemies are too strong or too fast. Its the fact that you cannot get there on time as you havent unlocked part X yet to destroy Y object. So if you wanna make sure you can destroy the critters on time you gotta become a speedrunner. You can build stuff to slow them down tho.

In the late game portion.

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Overall the game itself is aesthetically pleasing thats for sure. But at this point in time for as much work and obvious love got poured into it, the price is entirely unjustified. For the most part and I say this with the above considered: You pay to be able to run around on a graphically pleasing rooftop to be able to build a base on it. Thats all. Its practically, as other people called it, a version of a mobile idle game just that you are more involved.

BTW, I dont find that specicially negative for the game. I dont mind idling. I dont mind waiting for stuff. The problem with waiting for it is that you dont have enough to do in the meantime that isnt the same repetition you already went through hours prior. I dont want to sit down and do the same fishing minigame over and over again just cause Im waiting for the press to make the ressources I need for the bridge for about an hour. And sure, I can sleep to skip the time. But that also means im just skipping the time.

If that point doesnt make sense, lemme explain it as if you are five: You need to create something that takes an hour. You dont want to. So you can press Skip.

Then, pardon my french, why the ♥♥♥♥ does it take an hour to begin with? If I can hit the skip button, why do I need to sit through an hour of crafting time for the items I need NOW? I have a dedicated skip button in form of a bed. I can lie down, sleep. Wait roughly 5 minutes over 1 hour that way and jobs done. Why the ♥♥♥♥ is this a thing? It makes me actually mad as I write about it. This mechanic makes no sense. You invent a problem and then invent a solution for said problem. Why did you invent the problem?? A problem which serves only to waste the players time.

And I know this wasnt done to make people play beyond 2 hours. Because you aint getting to actually use the damn thing thats wasting your time before 2 hours are already over!

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Devs. I like your game. But right now there is... there are things that just genuinely need a touch of love and a rework. This isnt me speaking out of frustration over the last part. This is me speaking out over having still enjoyed what I played through, but seeing stuff that just feels very... boring to the average person. This would work perfectly as an idle game. But since you added the bonus of us being able to immersively walk around, your average Boomer (sorry) wont play this. This is a game that is marketed entirely towards Millenials and Zoomers. You aint getting anyone else.

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Please let me repair the holes in the roof. For the love of god please. Like with a plank or idk, I got thousands of them after dismantling EVERYTHING.

Disclaimer: This is an updated review. I have previously given it a bad review in which I mistakingly told people not to give me awards for negative reviews not knowing that trolls would obviously do it anyhow. I really dont like the usage of awards in general as they are used as a replacement of conversation. My comment section is always open, so if you got thoughts and are reasonable, Im always up for a chat.

That being said, onto the review. Its now been 19 hours total. Have my views changed? Not really but also I would say that at this stage its hard to say as to wether or not to recommend the game. I think right now my biggest problem is determining if I am getting my moneys worth here. The issue is that this game is practically as if Factorio and Satisfactory had a baby that was super into space industrialism. I love that. But 30 bucks is also fairly steep for what is an early access game that is for all intent and purpose: In its baby steps.

I bought it cause I was hyped for the game. I love factory games. I may have not finished Factorio once but I love playing it. Same goes for Satisfactory although that game does go over my head sometimes. Techtonica is also a great example for a game I play next to both. These games are my jam and so is this. So for me, I got my moneys worth already. Hell let me reach 30 hours and I got exactly what I paid for, its gonna happen.

So what are the current issues that I see with the game? Well lets go over them a bit more concise unlike last time shall we?

- Floaty Movement and Momentum
Right now the movement in this game is very floaty and momentum heavy. Meaning if you are walking or running even if you are up against a block you will fling yourself forward like you were on a catapult. Same applies to moving off of structures or surfaces as a whole. This is no problem if you are already moving in a certain direction you wanna keep walking towards but becomes an issue when you dont do that. Jumping onto blocks or belts can be more than a hassle.

- Step up is... terrible. Enabled or disabled doesnt matter.
Enabled, step allows you to... step up. Onto any block that is not taller than 1. This is ok. Until its not. Cause the step up function steps you up onto the main block surface, not the edge. And sometimes you wanna be more precise which is impossible using the feature. So why is turning it off bad in turn? Cause you get caught on every minor surface. Yes, even belts.

- The Factory must grow but holy crap not this much.
So this is a bit of a joke but at the same time the amount of foundations one must lay early game before getting to powerpoles which you have to also connect to a transformer gets a little out of hand very easily. You can easily do it small scale on smaller circuits and min max the experience but that too isnt very fun when you spend half the time you should be building the factory, digging away so you dont just ruin the landscape with explosives (which you also only get later on).

- Explosives... explode.
Yea this is a relative no brainer. If you throw something at your stuff and it goes "kaboom" its gonna break stuff. The issue is, you dont know how large the impact is gonna end up being. So lets say you build something next to an orenode and you need to do more mining than right now but you got lots of hard rock in the way. You wanna blow that stuff up. Easier, faster, yay. Well the way it works is by throwing the explosive and then hoping to god it isnt close enough to your machines. And if it is, lol have fun rebuilding.

- Tedium is very present.
With how clunky the movement controls are and with how often you must grab the drill or build the things without making use of blueprints, the game right now feels VERY tedious. It gets to the point where I would rather play Factorio over how simple it is to set things up. Once you get landfill the only thing in your way are cliffs. Which are easily taken care off using explosives. You dig lots, you mine lots, you build lots, you have a ton of stuff to do early game and no way to understand the rates even. Hell I blasted through all my xenoferrite and need to make a new mine deep below the earth right now. I got a freight elevator but that thing is SLOW AS BALLS to the point where I consider just making a long af line of belts all the way to the surface. Yea its gonna take longer but the output is gonna end up far more consistant. So now Im waiting for ressources to trickle in while all my machines are basically in a standstill.

- All in all, its a good game in the making. It shows lots of promise. But would I recommend the game at the moment at full price? No. I would not. Wait until more updates and balance patches got pushed. But 30 bucks right now is not worth the experience. And yes, I enjoy said experience, I do not regret having paid the money even at the minor release discount we got. But I would not say that after playing it for this long that anyone else should buy it for this price as of right now. I got the money to waste. Many others do not.

It is worth your money and then some. If you ever wanted to turn Rimworld, basegame that is, into a general cluster*uck of "idk whats going on, everyone is dying, why are there zombies, omg whats that, can I just have a MINUTE to not be in pain all the fricking time and why did that just duplicate????" then this is the Expansion pack for you.

This is... I cant really describe how I feel about this other than what I wrote above. Cause thats been my experience. This is... good. Really really good. Its challenging, its fun, its interesting to find out what to do with the entities it adds. Its just... Fun.

Pure and unadulterated fun. This is what Rimworld would be like if it had any ties to the SCP foundation. And by god I cant wait for what modders are gonna do with this concept as a whole.

Updated Review since 21.04.2024

I am now after a few updates a little bit on the fence. The game has seen improvements, most certainly but there are still some issues with it. For now, I will keep the review the way it is, that being negative.

In case Updated Reviews arent seen by the devs I will also post about this on the Forums, specifically the text right underneath.

Here are my current findings compared to what I have experienced before:

First of the good.

1. Basebuilding and exploration no longer feels like a chore! Fantastic! Thank you devs!
1.1. Turning up the speed and handing more than one squad tho is still a bit of a pain. This might be honestly something that the devs cant fix. But that being said, the game on slow or even higher speeds from 1-3 can vary in how well the game plays.

Normal Speed: Very slow
Speed 1: Ok this is good
Speed 2: A lil too fast?
Speed 3: ZOOM

If Speed 2 and 3 would be tuned down a lil I feel it would work better for gameplay purposes or else its literally just a "Do a drive with a big car and one unit and just grab what you can while you build your base at Speed 3. You aint gonna be going anywhere anyhow, the base needs food so get it chump."

2. Closing Windows. Still an issue. Escape is not closing all external windows on the screen that you no longer need open. This is a minor issue. But its still there and could definitely use a QOL improvement.

3. RNG has largely speaking been improved but I also noticed that there is some form of grace period now? Or maybe its the location I used. Im not sure. But so far I have not come across overwhelming hordes 2 days in so I am happy with how that goes!

4. Camera control is still iffy. Not sure if anything was changed but still iffy. It might just be something the devs want to keep that way so hey if thats the case Im willing to dig into it while playing.

5. Controls in general have largely speaking changed for the better, definitely more enjoyable now however the main issue of placements persists. It is mostly a bit buggy for what I noticed. Being able to rotate it with buttons does rotate it but with a delay almost. If you hit it once it does it once but then doesnt immediately come to a stop so you wont really get a good feel for how to have it placed down.
5.1. Ressources gathering is now fun. Its "fast" and its effecient. I am no longer waiting those "20 years for dad to come back" and instead just 2 weeks. Ok even that is an exageration but you get what I mean. Its no longer an eternity to play through so thats just lovely. However I still place multiple markers instead of expanding the old one. Thats a weird one.

So closing thoughts: Devs? Ya are on a good track. Keep it up. This feels good so far, this is more enjoyable than before. Love what you guys are doing!

Aight so I am enjoying the game but from what I have seen so far, despite having bought it on a heavy discount, really displeases me to say the least. This is a 60 buck, original price, game. If you dont buy it on sale, you will have to pay this and put up with this as well.

So first of the good. Gameplay is fun although a tiny bit confusing. But its on purpose, thats no biggie. The graphics options have a vram usage comparison to what you have! Cool stuff considering it actually lets you understand what works and what doesnt! Here is the problem with that part tho. You can almost top it out and if you go over the game says "Hey, maybe dont or you will have graphical and gameplay problems."

Why is this on its own a problem? Honestly, the reason will surprise you. Cause as someone who has played many different video games I usually play them with a browser open on the side. Which doesnt matter here. What matters however is that I also got videos open. Then there is discord and other programs. All of which take Vram space. This on its own is NOT the issue however. But more so that depending on how my vram fluctuates I may actually end up going over the recommended amount being used.

NOW WHY WOULD THAT BE AN ISSUE you wonder?

WELL, into the bad.

First of I wanna mention the issues I found that dont have anything to do with the above. Youll get your sweets first and the cake at the end, deal with it Timmy.

1. Enemy AI is ok-ish but also very odd to work with. Sometimes they see you, sometimes they dont. Sometimes they spot you from a mile away, sometimes they dont. Sometimes they hear the action and come running, other times they dont. Sometimes they notice you stabbing a mfer next to them, and other times they are blind as a bat. The AI is far less superior than the AI from Dishonored which actually makes me sad considering point 2.

2. Reused assets and very obviously so. There are a LOT of reused assets from the Dishonored games. On its own this isnt a problem but when you can tell that this is that and that is this and you KNOW where it came from (being a fully fictional steampunk medieval fantasyworld) seeing the objects themself in a 1900s storyline, feels more than jarring. You go around a corner and there it is in full display. The 4 door cabinet. From Dishonored 1 and 2. Its one of the many I found in the 4 hours I played.

3. The writing is... I get what kinda story they are going for alright? Lighthearted, funny and goofy at times and overall not too serious while still delivering a serious tone when neccesary. Thats alright by me. I do like stories like this. What I dont like is when the goofy tone takes the frontseat over when the game should be serious. This isnt to say that I dont enjoy the banter of Colt and Juliana. The two clearly have chemistry. But when you get to the point of wanting them to STOP the banter, thats a big problem.

3.1. Here is part of the issue. The character of Colt is fun. Interesting. He isnt a too serious man but serious enough to be of importance to everything and everyone in the project. So why in the crap is this man, who happened to also have become a bit of a dunkard by the end, absolutely goofy to no ends only to catch himself being goofy and saying "Wtf I need to stop".

It feels like someone really wanted to write a "Funny" Colt moment and another writer stepped in but didnt wanna ruin the idea cause yea it was funny. Or maybe it was intended, I dont know. I cant tell. All I can tell is that it felt very jarring. (Not to speak of the literal intro cutscene and the voiceacting of it. Oh boy Ima get into that in a moment.)

4. Voiceacting is pretty good. Cant complain. The VAs are doing a great job overall. Sometimes however it feels like it lacks direction. Take the intro cutscene for instance. I never played the game, I never saw the games story so this was my first ever experience. And considering what was being said, it was Colts first experience that this was happening as well. Or at least the first he remembers. And yet despite this happening, his attitude was very relaxed. Ima spoil it cause lets be real, its the first few seconds of the game and if you are still reading this, you wouldnt have bought this game in the first place.

- Guy literally gets stabbed. And yea he is in pain but he doesnt really sound concerned whatsoever. He is more confused as to whats happening. Not even why. He doesnt scream, he doesnt sound in any way shape or form worried or anything. And sure, part of that CAN BE EXPLAINED AWAY through stuff you learn of later. BUT here is a problem with that. Setup. Colt is supposed to be a character but at the same time the stand-in for the player. Guy who doesnt remember who he was and pieces it back together as the player does. A player should feel what the character they play feels especially if its a stand-in. But I looked at the cutscene and I was more disturbed by him being so casual about it than actually getting stabbed to death. THATS A PROBLEM.

5. UI and gameplay in combination is... honestly bad. The gameplay less so in general but in combination with the two mentioned. First of, the button layout. WHO in their right mind uses Delete and Enter? Yea ok, there are a few people who use the arrowkeys, thats fine. Then I have a question for you. Why can I use WASD by default without remapping? The game requires you to use the keyboard and mouse. But if I play with WASD I HAVE TO use my right hand to hit the other buttons at times. Yes, I can indeed remap them. That isnt the problem. The problem is: WHO USES THESE BUTTONS?? Why couldnt it have been E? Q? R? T? Why do the arrowkeys have alternatives but those buttons dont by default?

The UI itself in combination with the above is also more than confusing at times. It feels both lackluster and too complex at the same time. It feels like they brought in a guy who designs those fancy designer houses that also doesnt really care about who has to live in them. What was wrong with Dishonoreds UI? And also use its functionality for gameplay purposes? You could cycle through gadgets and abilities with specific keys and use the scrollwheel or numbers for weapons. Why does it need to be more complex than that? Why do I have like 4-7 different buttons i NEED to press in order to actually use the entire UI?

NOW we get to 6. The cake. The Graphics. Well more so how the game handles them.

- The game almost crashed twice because of fluctuating Vram. As I said, I usually have a browser open. I usually play with a video playing, This is in any video game I play. I wanna let loose, enjoy some content and have a good time. I turn it off when I wanna immerse myself more. All is fine and dandy. Well but in this game I cant do that. Playing on Medium I made sure I am not just under the limit, I was roughly 400mb below. Nothing much changed. But every time I got into a bigger firefight (twice) the game at pure and utter random had two respective lagspikes that made me think its about to crash.

- Not only that, but my entire PC started lagging because of it as well. After a short time it caught back up as things either died down or I dont even know really. But the fact that this can happen in the first place is a big issue. A game shouldnt lock up like this because of this. Nor should it lock up your PC either. Apparently, as I read a few moments back, the game has a vram leak issue. So thats just great to know.

But I guess this does somewhat makes sense considering who the company was that made this game. And before you think I mean Arkane, I mean Bethesda. "But the game was only published by them". Wrong. Games published by Bethesda are showing the Bethesda Softworks Logo. They never show the Bethesda Softworks Logo. This game shows the Bethesda Logo.

So all in all, its all in a days work for the mighty Todd Howard again. How is this acceptable by any means for a 60 buck title? Tho I guess Starfield exists with even lower standards.

"You played for 333 hours. You think you would recommend this game to other players?"

Nah, is trash clearly.

But all memes aside, there is not much to truly say about this game that isnt already apparent. This is Factorio, in 3D and in Space. If you love Factorio, you will love this game.

First of all, Im very reminded of Etrian Odyssey with this game and I love that.
Second of, this game has an english version. Its a machine translated version but while a lil clunky in translation sometimes, it works well enough for you to get the general idea of whats going on. To understand the game, its more than enough and I am honestly happy to see that the dev has thought to include it until they can get proper help with translation. Props to you dev for that 100%

As for the game itself, Only played 30 minutes of it. But in total brutal honesty, I know I will play more and if any of you ever played any of the Etrian Odyssey games, I know you will too. The way the game plays tho, well tbf the trailer shows it very well. Unlike Etrian Odyssey, this is very much real time combat. You are able to pause the game and make sure to pick the right attack or skill but otherwise, its a no pause action system that keeps going no matter what.

It is fairly stressful for all that matters too which I most certainly enjoy. There is a lot to figure out and a lot to still kinda get into but largely speaking this game is more than worth the asking price right now.

Like, seriously. This game is wearing its influence on its sleeve, provides genuine amazing artwork, has a really fun and unique battle system and the exploration aspect nailed down. The Etrian Odyssey games had cost 40 euroes. This game costs not even 10. Buy it. Give the dev some support. This game is gonna be a passionproject more than it already is, I can tell.

Take the creative and interconnected Spaghetti Factory Building from Factorio.
Combnine it with the Building aspects of Satisfactory.
Add a spide of Dysonsphere Program towards its general aesthetics.
And make the world bend to the players will ala Minecraft (but less blocky).

And you will get exactly what you see here today. Techtonica takes from the best and creates a genuine perfect combination of mechanics that feels just right to play.

I am someone who loves to go over the top. And usually I would say the following in jest with a very obvious sarcastic bit to follow. But in total genuine thought and claim: This game might be able to actually beat both Factorio and Satisfactory for what its trying to accomplish in popularity.

I am not saying it will kill the two. All three games are unique in their own way. Factorio is about an ever expanding factory. Satisfactory is about... well satisfying builds, a beautiful world and a general high tier and fun creation process of how to make your factory look beautiful and suck less di-

But Techtonica, well, its fairly different. While it combines aspects of both, it gives you free reign over everything in the world (with very minor exceptions such as the general hubs and specific rocks, which are often mostly present to prevent you from just running through the story without having to unlock things or to prevent immersion breaking issues. Such as very likely the water not spilling over into another area as I highly doubt the game has actual waterphyisics yet lol)

This game is very much already worth the wait and worth the money. I havent gotten through to the current endgame which is the basebuilding aspect and yet Im already hard at it, manipulating the terrain to make my factory more effecient. Cant wait to get to the basebuilding tho to make it also look pretty on top.

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I dont often mention negatives in positive reviews. If you love a thing, it can be easy to overlook them. So I will simply mention what I experienced so far to be more so nitpicks but certainly requiring some love for quality of life.

- Controls feel a little janky and clunky at times.
- Playerspeed is sometimes a lil buggy or hard to understand of how its supposed to work.
- Early game poweroptions, while present, dont offer enough of a reason apart from very specific structures.
- They also require LOTS OF SPACE
- Research is done in a unique way which I can appreciate, however also takes up a TON of space and it isnt directly obvious, despite the game telling you, how to handle it midgame. A few touchups here would be neet and that in form of more direct or obvious voiceover hints.

- One point Id like to note is that the game does have a lot of information you can read through. A whole databank which is great. But, and this goes to the devs directly, it is something that should always be considered to be highly optional to read. Tooltips, especially on items in your inventory, go a long way to help players who dont wish to read or are too impatient as the gameplay is more exciting, to keep up the momentum.

I must admit that I do really enjoy this game. I like it being grindy, I like it being long. i like that you can try the various different kinda playstyles and also how to beat the bosses. I enjoy trying out different tiles, setting a challenge for myself and eventually building the settlement up from scratch to completion.

And yet despite all this, despite all the stuff that I just said, I cannot recommend this game. Its not because the game isnt good. The game is good. All the above stands true. The issue is that for a price tag of 15 bucks, the game delivers you primarily great artwork but otherwise pure and utter repetition.

There are other games which do similar things as a roguelike. Enter the Gungeon, Deadcells, Slay the Spire.

All generally speaking go into the same kinda loop of repetition. So why is it a problem here? Well mainly because that loop is all the game is about. There is no real engaging gameplay. Its all about how you play and what you get out of it. Overall there isnt much of a problem with it. The problem is mostly that this is all there is to it.

In Enter the Gungeon you have a top down roguelike in which you need to shoot and evade. Get stronger and beat the end boss. Its fun and frustrating.

In Dead Cells you have a 2D Castlevania type view in which you practically do the same as above but now it becomes more challenging as you keep on playing. Because you actually need to play on higher difficulties to reach the true ending.

And in Slay the Spire, its about your choices and deck. Will you heal here or get an upgrade. Will you choose to lose your money to possibly gain a good artifact or spend it on the trader? Will you go for glory and collect the keys or will you just... not do that and just beat the game regularily?

So what do you do in Loop Hero? You hit space to unpause, gain gear as if its a idle game, hit space (or dont) to equip it, place some tiles to slowly progress on the map and then hope to god you are strong enough to beat the boss.

There is indeed a certain strategy to it. But after 10 runs it starts to sink in that this is all the gameplay the game truly has to offer. Apart from the outside of loop settlement building which overall doesnt really add much to the experience apart from small upgrades to your character and tiles overall.

For as much as I enjoy this game. For as much as it is fun as I like the repetition, I just cant recommend this game at a full price. This is what you are buying. A game. And most of what you spend your money on is basically artwork to look at while the game to 95% plays itself.

Its not bad. Its just not worth the full asking price.

Project Zomboid. 10 years in development by devs who do it all on the side. And every update brings to game to new and exciting heights for its ever growing community even if during the update phase things slow down over time as all wait for the next.

There is a reason why I respect "The Indie Stone" Team a TON and why I make fun of "The FunPimps".

The first reason being that the devs are actually competent people who listen to the community and also know whats best for the community. The new update is now being segmented. They wanted to deliver on a big new amazing crafting overhaul but things are taking a long time. So they give us the finished parts, test and bugfix those so they can apply the level of polish they are hoping for to the next part.

So we dont get it all in one go. Sadge but in brutal honesty: Id rather wait instead of getting jank. I take half and half thats working over full and crashing.

The second reason partially into the above but mostly to take a jab at another developer for a game that is not too dissimilar to Project Zomboid. The FunPimps and 7Days2Die. Both games came out in early access roughly around the same time with PZ being just a few days olders. And yet despite the game graphically and mechanically improving the devs of PZ have never deluded themself into thinking that they are triple A developers but stood humble.

You pay 20 bucks for a game that will bring you hundreds of hours of fun and engaging as well as anxiety driving gameplay. Its amazing. In just a few days from now you will pay 45 bucks for 7Days2Die which is a practically less functioning and less fun version of Project Zomboid in a First Person 3D environment. And why yes, they actually justify it by going into 1.0 finally and step out of early access.

Meanwhile PZ stays where it is and where it knows it is. Improving and being better than what it was before. Still under 20 bucks (in germany). Do not buy this game on sale. The roughly 20 bucks you spend are justified. Hell at this stage this game should cost 30 at the very least. The game has drastically improved with every single fricking update.