[Review?] Thoughts, Opinions & Suggestions.

[「Luckless」]

Before I start, I just wanted to say that I don't often do reviews of this nature, so please go easy on me. Secondly, I am aware that I currently do not own the game. I did however have the chance to play the game at my friend's house yesterday, for a good few hours, and have concluded that when money is available, I will be purchasing this game.

Also note that my experience is of an older build to what is currently out there, or at the time of reading. It's possible that some of what I say will be incorrect or pointless. Thank you for understanding

First Impressions

Loading into the game, I was greeted by what seemed to be endless space and gloriously-designed Spaceships. I was, for lack of a better word, Starstruck. Graphically, this game amazed me. Drifting around in space, looking off at the distance asteriods, admiring the pre-built ships for me to play with to my heart's content. At this point, I could easily say this game is clearly worth it's money.

Interface / HUD

For the most part, the menu is simple. Not implying that is a bad thing, as I rather like it. A few more options would be nice (Bloom, DoF, etc), however not required. Also, the 'help' screen may appear rather daunting to those with very little experience. I had trouble understanding at first, but in time, I eventually got the hang of what I was doing.

The in-game interface is rather much the same. Simple, but effective with only showing your toolbar down the bottom or more detailed information when in a vehicle. Now, I'm not sure if health or anything will be implemented, but at this point, I haven't noticed any signs of that.

One thing I would like to say about the interface is that I found myself repeatedly trying to scroll through the toolbar. Not saying scrolling items should be implemented, but in first person, the scroll doesn't do much, so maybe that is a possibility. Ease of access, if you will.

Some more detailed information to each item would be wonderful too. Whilst most are self-explainatory, having a more detailed tool-tip would prove handing for the new-comers. Also, with a lot of the pieces, such as the refinery, medical station and turrets not working, some sort of hint, or red text to let people know should be considered too. I found myself playing around for a good while trying to connect conveyors and refinerys, only to search wikipedia out of slight-frustration only to realise that their current mechanics were yet to be implemented.

All in all however, the interface runs smoothly and is easy enough to understand or adapt to.

Movement & Controls

Controlling more or less like a standard FPS, movement and vehicle control was easy enough to pick up. Placing and removing blocks felt reminiscent of Minecraft to an extent. Click to place, ctrl+drag to place a line of blocks. Simple. My only real issue with this, would have to be the block rotation. I found myself often spamming the 6 directional keys trying to get something to line up the way I wanted. Sadly there aren't many ways to overcome this problem, if you see it as one. I personally do, however other's might disagree. In time, one could easily adapt to it, however I am yet to do so. I often felt some sort of rotation button was in order, much like in Half-life/Source Engine, where holding one key and rotating the mouse would rotate the object. That, or holding a key and pressing WASDQE instead of the default keys. For example, holding Shift and pressing A would rotate the object to the left relative to your direction, regardless of your orientation.

Also, another slight personal bug is with the jetpacks. I felt rather slow using these. I understand it is how it is, but a slight speed increase via the shift key would come in handy. I found myself crashing into a asteroid, and having no way back other than making a ship, or using my slow jetpack. All I can say is that it was one hell of a long journey.

On this topic, a slight bug did come to my attention, and that is the combination of running and strafing. I'm not too sure what to say about it really. Your character retains his forward-like sprinting animation, yet he slides to the side as he runs forward. I left this down to just being a lack of animations at this point, and assumed there would be the chance that would change in the future, so that doesn't bother me all too much.

Relativity is another point I want to get across too. I'm not too sure what the developers intend on doing at this point with motion, but it's something I felt rather lacking in this game. Upon exiting a ship's terminal, whilst the ship is in motion, that motion doesn't transfer over to my character, leaving him fly / fall into the back of the ship. I feel that when a ship is moving, the player should retain such motion. Understandable if the gravity control is turned on.

Which brings me to ships movement. I personally would love to see some sort of movement in which the thrusters do not automatically counter my velocity. What I mean is, if I travel in one direction, and release the forward thruster, the ship doesn't suddenly start to slow down. I guess what I'm saying is that I would love to control the engines manually, without them always being on. There is some terminology for this, but it is currently skipping over my mind.

Construction

I came into a few problems with building my first space station. Yet again, this is more of a personal preference or personal gripe, so I understand for those who do not agree. One of these is the walkways (I believe they are called that?), which is a simple, thin platform, with a half wall on one side. I loved using these, but when coming to an end, I couldn't block it off with another one, simply because there was already one placed there. Being able to place more than one of these on top of a block would be lovely.

If you don't understand what I mean, imagine building a 1-block wide bridge. Using the walkways, you can only block off one side. I personally would love to be able to place another ontop of that, facing the other direction.

Another way to go about that is to introduce several walkway types. A corner piece, double walled and a triple-walled one. This would be an easier solution on the development part I believe, however I'm not entirely sure whether the blocks we currently have are all we're going to get, or if they intend on adding a larger variation later on.

Block sizes was another thing that got to me. I understand different sizes for different building types, but being able to use different sizes on a larger ship / station would be amazing. I often found myself feeling restricted, only having bigger blocks to work with. However, like I said before, I'm sure there is a chance this will change in the future.

Suggestions

Being a space-based game, my mind is running endlessly with ideas and suggestions. From Airlocks to Oxygen, Planets to other species/creatures. For now however, I'll just list a few that come to the top of my mind;

Oxygen
Wouldn't be much of a space-type game without it, would it? Understandable, not all players would like this, but I feel it would be rather fun to have an oxygen system, then suddenly your station has a leak and you, the engineer has to go and find it.

Airlocks
This leads me to my second suggestion, Airlocks. No space station would be complete without them. Coming in through the outside door, closing it behind you, feeling the room pressurize before you can enter the station would have such an amazing feel to it.

Customization
This one is more of a last second idea, coming to my as I write this. Would be a nice addition if there was such a thing as...

Multiplayer
You didn't expect me to not include this, did you? Whilst I enjoyed playing this with my friend over my shoulder, being able to play and build together would be amazing. However, I have heard that this will be implemented at some point, so I won't push the issue any futher.

Gamemodes/GameTypes
Okay, so this one is on my friend here, and I can't say I don't agree with him. Imagine a gamemode, such as 'Capture the Space Station,' where two teams start out, having to build themselves spaceships, to fly to and defend the space station. Whoever controls it, gains resources, and whoever has the most by the end wins. Obviously there are endless other gametypes that can be thought of.

Planets / Extended Space
In my time flying around, I was slightly disappointed to come to the realization that after 10 minutes of flying that those asteroids in the distance were nothing more than a skybox. I would honestly love to see this extended upon. Maybe not so much more planets (however, that would be lovely too!), but more asteroids and even abandoned space stations and ship wrecks. It would make playing feel much more lively. Drifting through space, only to find an old and slightly damaged space station. You go to investigate, to only find it has been abandoned and the reactors have since shut down, leaving you with pitch-black hallways, drifting objects, floating bodies (okay, fine, maybe not so much bodies.. but come on)

AI, Creatures, & People!
In space, no one can hear you scream. That's most likely because there is no one there to hear you. This is also something I'm not so worried about, but would love to see make it into the game at some point. Going back to that abandon space station scenario - imagine floating around, not knowing whether something was lurking in the dark, watching you. Next thing you know, you hear some clicking from behind. You turn around, but it's too late. A creature has torn open your space suit, and your oxygen rushes out. The last thing you saw was your light, reflecting in the eyes of your killer. An alien, scavenging for food. Possibly what drove the people away from the space station in the first place.

Space Pirates - who doesn't like the sound of that? Merchants, where you can purchase more blueprints, so you can build more. Obviously these would all be available in creative mode, but in survival, I'd love to see this. Which then leads on to the next suggestion...

Currency
Obviously this would only be effective if there was some reason to have money. As said previously, merchants, fuel, possibly food, blueprints. How would you get money? Mining of course. You have the basics to build a drilling machine - get to it, man!

Conclusion

Anyways, this ends my little rant. I don't often write much, so excuse my bad grammar and spelling, if I haven't already noticed it. I also have a tendency to ramble, so hopefully you didn't expect much of a structure to what I've written. With that being said, I thank you all for reading.

To The Developers...

I went into this game blank-minded, knowing only that it was 'minecraft in space,' as my friend had described it moments before me playing it. Honestly, I enjoyed the time I spend with the game. I want to thank you, for providing me with such entertainment. This has been a game I've been longing for, for a while now. I don't care, nor know what you made in the past, but I will say that so far, you've done a great job with this game. I expect a great future for this game, and I will be supporting it whole-heartedly.

Is it worth your money?

Need you honestly ask? Yes. Yes it is. However, with the state it's currently in, I'd recommend this to those who strongly enjoy Minecraft and games of similar type. If you're expecting a Space Simulator, this might not be for you. Not yet anyways. I still highly recommend at least trying this game and seeing for yourself. I will be buying this when I get out of my financial troubles.

Thanks again, everyone!

My name is BradPhusion, good day to you!~
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[Maverick00053]

Solid review. Also a few of the things are definately on the developers list, including making the jetpack a bit faster.

[SoDank]

Amazing...

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di Maverick00053:

Solid review. Also a few of the things are definately on the developers list, including making the jetpack a bit faster.

Ah, thanks man :) This is pretty much my first written review, if I'd even call it that. I still like to consider it 'my ramblings', so thanks for the feedback.

Messaggio originale di MuniTion:

Amazing...

Thank you :)

[Professor]

I think this needs to be pinned or something. most of the things on the front page of the hub can be negative or misleading to people. This review has every thing I would have wanted to know before buying the game.

[Zerdath]

Well done. I absolutely agree with the point about needing more detailed tooltips. Knowing power output of the generators and power consumption of each item springs to mind. Inertia dampening is the term that you were thinking of. (Cancellation of forward momentum) You can do this yourself by manually disabling the power to your forward thrusters, but I agree that there should be an option to disable it. As to your suggestions, may I point you to this page?

http://www.spaceengineersgame.com/features.html

[Zerdath]

And also keep in mind, the game is in Alpha. I own both this and the StarForge Alpha, they have similar aspirations, but have started at the oposing sides of the equation.

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di Zerdath:

Well done. I absolutely agree with the point about needing more detailed tooltips. Knowing power output of the generators and power consumption of each item springs to mind. Inertia dampening is the term that you were thinking of. (Cancellation of forward momentum) You can do this yourself by disabling the power to your forward thrusters, bu I agree that there should be an option to disable it. As to your suggestions, may I point you to this page?
http://www.spaceengineersgame.com/features.html

Ah, thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I didn't even think to look at the website *facepalm* Thanks again. And yes, I believe it was Inertia Dampening :) As for disabling power to them, it's a rather difficult task, having to open up console, scroll down to however many forward thrusters you have, then disabling all of them. A simple toggle or something would be great. Evochron Mercenary had this toggle ability.

[Zerdath]

Funny thing, the lack of sound effects makes it feel MORE realistic to me. There is no sound in space; the only sound I expect to hear is my footfalls and breathing.

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di Zerdath:

Funny thing, the lack of sound effects makes it feel MORE realistic to me. There is no sound in space; the only sound I expect to hear is my footfalls and breathing.

Don't think I actually mentioned sound, did I? Apart from the alien clicking sound haha. But I too didn't mind the silence in the game. Then again, I was listening to other music, so.

[Zerdath]

Messaggio originale di BradPhusion:

Ah, thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I didn't even think to look at the website *facepalm* Thanks again. And yes, I believe it was Inertia Dampening :) As for disabling power to them, it's a rather difficult task, having to open up console, scroll down to however many forward thrusters you have, then disabling all of them. A simple toggle or something would be great. Evochron Mercenary had this toggle ability.

I agree completely. Miner Wars had this feature as well. I've been killing my generator in midflight to conserve inerita; the only issue I encountered was accidentally leaving the pilot's chair on my large ship, and getting tossed to the back of the ship by the G force. Had to reload from the last save. Which you covered very well in the review. :)

[Zerdath]

Sorry, I was reading the Features page and just wanted to mention the sound thing. :)

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di Zerdath:

I agree completely. Miner Wars had this feature as well. I've been killing my generator in midflight to conserve inerita; the only issue I encountered was accidentally leaving the pilot's chair on my large ship, and getting tossed to the back of the ship by the G force. Had to reload from the last save. Which you covered very well in the review. :)

I did that too, countless times. At least I could check how the back of my reactor was looking. :P

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di LANPaGOGKozjek:

I think this needs to be pinned or something. most of the things on the front page of the hub can be negative or misleading to people. This review has every thing I would have wanted to know before buying the game.

I honeslty didn't see your comment there. Thank you for your positive feedback. As this is my first time writing anything of this nature, comments such as yours mean a lot :)

Not too sure about it being pinned, but I'm glad you think it should be! I admit, I have seen my fair share of negative posts too, but I wanted to keep this as unbiased as possible.

[Zerdath]

I agree with the thought that it should be pinned. Clearly a well thought out review.

[「Luckless」]

Messaggio originale di Zerdath:

I agree with the thought that it should be pinned. Clearly a well thought out review.

All this positive feedback. I always hated writing, I barely passed English at school, yet apparently people like what I write. Maybe I should start doing more reviews. I mean, I already make videos, so why not mix the two?