My Review - Just MEH

[The Kraken]

Good morning, everyone, and good morning dev team. After playing this game during the demo to completion, and playing it now since "full release", I'd like to leave you with my thoughts.

I would like to preface a few things for the reader to consider prior to reading through the remainder of this review:

Frist, this review is subjective, of course, and I respect the developers have their own vision for the game whether or not it aligns with my own independent wants.

Second, I assume some of what I mentioned will be addressed in development and is already on the road-map, I only write this review in the hopes of providing constructive feedback to the devs.

Finally, most of what I write below I feel is very important in reference to the core game-play loop and type of game.

Anyways, after many hours driving through space, here are my thoughts:

6DOF & Controls
----------------
I get it, I get the truck in space experience, you're hitching trailers, attempting to manoeuvre kinda like you do in a real trailer in the real world... however, the implementation of controlling the truck is very frustrating. We are in space, and I somehow have to use my keyboard (WASD) to fly the truck (rather than my mouse or HOTAS), and in addition I get no 6DOF (aka Strafing) in order to best manoeuvre my truck, which, if I don't do exceedingly well with the overly frustrating non-intuitive (to a space simulation gamer) controls, I will continually damage my truck and burn through so much money and resources and time just repairing things that are only there because of things that are overly frustrating to begin with. This is NOT the fun side of the game play. The lack of re-mapping of key binds (apparently coming) is also ridiculous.

The literally fun of "driving" through space feels more like "we designed a horrible space truck, most of your time is gonna be spent yelling at the controls rather than enjoying the ride"

PERK TREE
------------------------
The perk tree is actually a licenses unlock system. Or rather... there is no perk tree. I level up, and now I get to do more challenging missions, which is nifty on it's own, but in a game that has SUCH an open-ended ability to add actual perks, and not to provide those to upgrade my truck, add cool bobbles to my cab, or increase it's abilities, is a huge wasted opportunity and honestly when I realised that NOTHING that I do will let me get BETTER equipment over time, and instead just have to transport even MORE frustrating freight... well that's more or less where I stopped enjoying any aspect of the game.

I roughly expected to level up so I can buy perks for things like:
- Increase handling
- Increase resource efficiency
- Customise the trucks systems to better suit my individual play style
- etc

So yeah, really the perk tree is more like "wanna have an even HARDER time driving your truck?" Most games add a balance. You earn the right to do harder more challenging missions, and in trade you get to spend points to upgrade specific things on your vessel to help you succeed at those. This is missing. This is huge.

NAVIGATION
----------------------
This is so hard to describe, because there is a beautiful map, with superb iconography... and yet it's readability as UI/UX is so bad. Finding way-points outside my windows is frustrating, using the map to understand where I need to go does nothing for me when I am in a system, it only barely let's me understand what route (gates) I need to take to get from A, to B, to C. I get NO help in-system. Trying to find where all the docks and other POIs in a system around stations with no map and a barely functional HUD is aggravating. By barely functional I mean I can't tell if a way-point is behind a solid object, what it is until I hover over it, or how difficult the path is that I think I need to take to get to it without bumping into everything or crossing every other vehicles path. There's an idea for a skill upgrade, some sort of digital flight corridor to help navigate to a POI in a system.


THE GOOD
----------------------
The only really great thing is the visuals in the game and the actual interior of the rig. The game-play of controlling your dashboard and all the various buttons is incredibly immersive and one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. Getting out and working through power cells, filters, etc, is great. The economy of it all ABSOLUTELY needs a re-balance (prices, drain rates, etc are way too steep in the common difficulties), but the game-play is great.

Lean into this, add more consumables and things to do around the interior, get a proper perk tree in that actually gives you features that HELP you succeed at your space trucking job, fix the controls (dear god, give us a damn 6DOF and at minimum as an upgrade perk!), and tweak the maps/navigation so we don't get so lost and confused all the time, and you'll have a fantastic game with FUN not FRUSTRATING game-play.

Also, this got boring FAST because I had absolutely NOTHING to work towards but more frustrating freight to haul.


Thanks for listening.

[halljrb290]

That was very well expressed.

[Snarky_Wombat]

For me it was the design decision to have non-reusable power cells at all and then having to constantly find a shop in a system to replace said batteries. Given the terrible UI and HUD design is a chore and beyond boring.
A special shout out to only having one cell slot for the gravity generator, so when you change the battery everything goes everywhere. God sake what happened to redundancy and high availability?

But my biggest gripe is the oh-my-fkn-god level of frustration that is the controls in a 6DOF environment. Backing something up out of plane was enough for me to quit and never come back.

[Knottypine]

Snarky_Wombat님이 먼저 게시:

But my biggest gripe is the oh-my-fkn-god level of frustration that is the controls in a 6DOF environment. Backing something up out of plane was enough for me to quit and never come back.

A point on the truck control, the theme of the game is that it's a truck in space. So the controls are meant to feel a bit clunky for space travel.

Also, in what scenario do you feel you have to back in? You said yourself that it's a space environment, so why not manoeuvre in such a way that you just fly forward into every space? Literally, I have not come across one drop off where I needed to back a trailer in.

[Snarky_Wombat]

I don't need your criticism mate, move along.

[Necrotoad]

you expect maneuvering thrusters to shift a 1 million pound asteroid? you have 6dof and have no need of strafing. having 30+ years driving big trucks this actually feels like trucking in space. there is absolutely nothing wrong with the controls.

you realize there is a certification system AND upgrades for fuel economy, system upgrades, etc?

once you go into a system a few times you should be able to remeber dropoff points. For example Edgeburgh usually has you drop on the other side of the factory straight ahead, so you go up and over, through the 3 smoke stacks, and the drop point is immediatley below you. Not hard to remember.

I've never found a single point that needed me to back up but I would like to see a toggle switch on the overhead panel that shortens the mag lock on the trailer to pull it closer and limit the trailer movement. This would limit maneuverability but also reduce the "crack the whip" effect on stopping, at the risk of more load damage during turning. Similar effect to farm wagons that have the locking pins to prevent the steering axle to turn it would allow people, who cannot route plan, the ability to back up easier, even though its completely possible to back up with a trailer as it is.

[jasonbarron]

What's "just meh" is this review.

[Knottypine]

Snarky_Wombat님이 먼저 게시:

I don't need your criticism mate, move along.

It wasn't criticism, I was mentioning that the current way the vehicle is controlled was intentional based on the theme of the game. And you have difficulty backing in so I just asked where you're backing in and suggested an alternative.