Why has this game so bad reviews?

[[JO] Janx]

title.

[MoonlightEmber]

Primarily, the bad reviews come from people who have been frustrated by the Early Access process, and with the bugs, wipes, etc that come along with that. Of course we have our fair share of troll reviews such as "It's not Starbound" or "it's not Terraria", but those we just ignore, and I'm sure most players do as well. Overall, we're seeing more and more remarks from the community saying the game is definitely headed in the right direction and that it's much more fun since the last several major patches.

[[JO] Janx]

Originally posted by LadyAijou:

Primarily, the bad reviews come from people who have been frustrated by the Early Access process, and with the bugs, wipes, etc that come along with that. Of course we have our fair share of troll reviews such as "It's not Starbound" or "it's not Terraria", but those we just ignore, and I'm sure most players do as well. Overall, we're seeing more and more remarks from the community saying the game is definitely headed in the right direction and that it's much more fun since the last several major patches.

All right i was just wondering thanks for your answer :)

[Ersatz Soul]

because people dont bother about looking for game's info - even reading forum's few pinned would give general idea about game.

[PunkMafflez]

Ignore the bad reviews. I have had the game for almost a year now maybe longer compare this video i did and how sorta bare it was then to now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q83MMD01SkA

The game has been improved ten fold since i started playing the game, more enemies (some hostile others non hostile until provoked) , loot chests, npcs, varied arko suits, varied weapons, varied mining picks etc i could go on and on. Too much change to list and not for the worse.

The bad reviews stem from people expecting a finished game within a few months of being on early access and the like, as well as past bad experiences where by devs just up and abandon the game. Trust me in saying that the dev team with EoS will not abandon it.

As LadyAijou said there are people that come to try and compare it to starbound or terarria. The game has had help from the terraria devs themselves and influenced by it but it is its own game thorough and through. There is constant development and that can only be a damned good thing. The one problem again stated by LadyAijou is the wipes, gamers just dont like losing progress especially in a time consuming game such as this, but, it needs to be done because if it werent the game would fail due to incompatabilities etc.

In short i love the game, i did in a few of my videos get agitated by the resets and wipes but, each time there were new things to explore, new biomes, new enemies, new everything. Have fun with the games you like and with a game like this it is best taken in small bits, take some time away and let a few updates roll in and then re enter the world and see the new stuff!

[CraneStyle]

Yea, I think really alot of it also stems from people who leave and come back to review... but don't check out the game currently. It's hard, also I think people who get angry are more likely to review then those who enjoy the game. So if you really enjoy the game, PLEASE positive review. It's one of the easiest, and best things you can do to support us.

[Melt]

I made a comparison thread a long time ago in the Crea forum that can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/280520/discussions/0/619568793749634490/

In it, I marked EoS as the lowest out of all of these other games. If I had to make the same list again today, it would look something like this:

1. Terraria (finished, slow, but HUGE and amazing updates, invented the genre)
(big gap)
2. Crea (unfinished, frequent smaller updates, innovative research and leveling system)
(gap)
3. Signs of Life (unfinished, frequent smaller updates, innovative MEG tool)
4. Starbound (unfinished, very slow updates, innovative use of space travel)
5. Edge of Space (unfinished, very buggy, innovative material usage)
6. Darkout (unfinished, trying to make everyone pay for the same game + DLC *again*)
7. Windforge (game is "complete", no more updates, lacks content, innovative airships)

That's a good thing, although it has some really nasty game breaking bugs that I have experienced, notably my world being corrupted -_-

[maccentris]

It's a great game, but you have to devote a ton of time to re-learn everytime something is changed. Nothing is final so, the process on how to build up your character can change dramatically from update to update. Tutorials are decent but not always, getting killed in the tutorial is very possible if you want to horse around. Last time I did that I lost items and progress from previous tutorial stages and ended up stuck. Worlds are the things that keep getting wiped, so you should always keep your best loot on your characters. Right now I am having problems with an avatar who is not getting XP (Edit: sorted, avatar had maxed her XP). So yeah, the glitches and bugs can be a pain and can make you lose interest sometimes. I keep coming back to it, because I know the final product will kick rear end, but its been a while. I can't wait for it to be finalized.

[lPaladinl]

Originally posted by LordShaggy:

Yea, I think really alot of it also stems from people who leave and come back to review... but don't check out the game currently. It's hard, also I think people who get angry are more likely to review then those who enjoy the game. So if you really enjoy the game, PLEASE positive review. It's one of the easiest, and best things you can do to support us.

You also have a few people like me who are waiting for the release before writing a review. ;)

[Rammur]

Bad reviews also spew forth from the terraria/starbound fan boys who seem to think these games cannont coexist which imo just untrue i love all these games.

[DeadonArrival09]

To be fair, some reviews are from people with legitimate issues. But another reason is that many of them are just old reviews from when the game was just entering early access. If you write a review for a game in early access, the least you can do is update it with relevant information instead of leaving it as is and scaring off potential customers. The game has come a long way and continues to recieve updates. So as far as early access titles go, the devs have done a stellar job of one, engaging the community (as seen here) and keeping the game updated, with an awesome countdown timer no less.

[SuperDrChaku]

I personally couldn't positively review a game that is regularly wiped. I know most game players, even if they liked a game would have a high chance of being extremely frustrated with that process.

It's one thing to suggest to others a game is promising with a lot of potential, but for game play purposes, wipes, are going to infuriate most people, but for me suggesting supporting a game isn't quite the same as a review.

I'm curiuos if there should be another avenue aside from reviews where feedback on the early access process and state of current development could be shared. Reviews based on future potential aren't 'reviewing' something is there (this is closer to a preview), and reviews based on an early access game give an air of unfair finality. So even if a game is otherwise good, if I think there is a high chance players would be frustrated, I don't think it's fair to give them the impression they would not.

[maccentris]

Originally posted by supermrchaku:

I personally couldn't positively review a game that is regularly wiped. I know most game players, even if they liked a game would have a high chance of being extremely frustrated with that process.

It's one thing to suggest to others a game is promising with a lot of potential, but for game play purposes, wipes, are going to infuriate most people, but for me suggesting supporting a game isn't quite the same as a review.

I'm curiuos if there should be another avenue aside from reviews where feedback on the early access process and state of current development could be shared. Reviews based on future potential aren't 'reviewing' something is there (this is closer to a preview), and reviews based on an early access game give an air of unfair finality. So even if a game is otherwise good, if I think there is a high chance players would be frustrated, I don't think it's fair to give them the impression they would not.

Exactly why my son gave up on it, he said he "might" play it again when it is finally released officially.

[DeadonArrival09]

Originally posted by supermrchaku:

I personally couldn't positively review a game that is regularly wiped. I know most game players, even if they liked a game would have a high chance of being extremely frustrated with that process.

It's one thing to suggest to others a game is promising with a lot of potential, but for game play purposes, wipes, are going to infuriate most people, but for me suggesting supporting a game isn't quite the same as a review.

I'm curiuos if there should be another avenue aside from reviews where feedback on the early access process and state of current development could be shared. Reviews based on future potential aren't 'reviewing' something is there (this is closer to a preview), and reviews based on an early access game give an air of unfair finality. So even if a game is otherwise good, if I think there is a high chance players would be frustrated, I don't think it's fair to give them the impression they would not.

I agree, anything written about a game in EA can hardly be called a review. And doing so just diminishes the very definition of the word. Since its uncomplete, it isnt really a review. Early Acces games should have a different system in place as far as reviews go.

[DaetherX]

Originally posted by LordShaggy:

It's hard, also I think people who get angry are more likely to review then those who enjoy the game. So if you really enjoy the game, PLEASE positive review. It's one of the easiest, and best things you can do to support us.

I'm in the camp of not wanting to give a review while in early access as well. My view is currently that I enjoy the game, but overall I'm neutral which means don't review since there's only a positive and negative.

The changing nature of the way we "level up" is still new and odd to me and since I started playing this game one way, and after the changes I don't have the full experience to examine the progression as is, it seems like it would be unfair to rate it now. To be more clear; I really don't have a sense of each armor set tree, and weapons, so with my current confusion I don't really know how I feel. I do love the tool progression, though. Wide versions, or longer beams, direct upgrades. Fantastic!

If there was a third option for early access reviews that was "keep an eye on this, I enjoy it and think it will be good at release" or something I'd definitely click that.

Originally posted by supermrchaku:

but for me suggesting supporting a game isn't quite the same as a review.

I'm curiuos if there should be another avenue aside from reviews where feedback on the early access process and state of current development could be shared

I think there should be a multi-choice checkbox list for EA reviews. Like one would be "is this game updated regularly" which for this game would be checked by anyone who keeps an eye on it at all. The more positives that are checked would determine a score which could be checked in percentages and hard numbers if you click on it tell us what % of people checked "is updated regularly" or how people checked "bugs patched quickly".

But any list of questions would be seen as incomplete by people, and having something similar for full release game could be a nightmare, especially with games often being shoehorned into genres by people or Steam so even if you had a list for different genres it would still cause problems.

[DeadonArrival09]

Yeah , I havent reviewed it either for many of the reasons listed above. For one, the game has changed so much since I actually put some time and effort into progressing past tier 1 weapons, gear and armor. To be honest, I don't care for the crafting interface or the knowledge mechanic. It seems that you should just level up without having to allocate certain knowledge points. If you mine alot, you level up mining equipment. If you kill so many with one weapon, you level up and unlock other weapons. I could go on but I think you see where this is going. As far as the crafting interface, I wish the section last opened and specifically the item that I couldnt craft because of missing materials and/or crafting station, would stay opened so I can just craft it when able. If I am making lots of torches when spelunking, instead of having to find the section, open it, click torches, that it just stay on torches since that is what I need.

I am just gonna hold off and see what happens with the game. When it hits 1.0, I will do a thorough playthrough and review it then. Its just isnt fair to review something that is a work in progress. And reviews on Steam have such an air of finality that it would be unfair to the devs, game and potential buyers to review it as is.