Difficulty

[EightEs]

I heard from several reviewers and gameplay videos that the game might be a bit complex and difficult in some areas. The trailer always looked cute and since i am currently on spring break i need something to distract me a bit from stress. Would you recommend this game for a relaxing time to time play session or does i get complicated fast?

[Angpaur]

I think this game will give you even more stress. At least untill you learn how to play and it will take hundreds hours.

[Power and Wealth]

Its not a difficult game to grasp, it just looks complicated from the outside. There is more than enough guides on Steam, video tutorials on youtube, people willing to share knowledge and the gameplay rewards experimentation.

[AlexMBrennan]

Playing the game "naively" and getting a colony to survive isn't too difficult if you take it slow.

Mastering the game mechanics (e.g. bead pumps) is going to take a very long time because not of it is documented anywhere in game - you have just to look it up online.

[zverozvero]

Game gives some guidance to start well but if you dont mind looking up wiki or guide it'll smooth things alot. Game can be paused at any time to look around and place orders but loosing some dupes and colonies is not unusuall.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

There's different difficulty settings to make the game easier, as well as different "maps" to play with.

[Bobucles]

ONI is not challenging from a "reflexes" view. Most major events take cycles to progress, and of course you can pause to assess a danger at any time.

ONI is challenging from a "knowledge" view. The main difficulty of the game is learning all the sim mechanics and dangers for your colony. The earliest danger of course is getting your bathrooms set up, as you have one cycle to get them ready before dupes start pissing all over the place. More hazards show up, both short term and long term. It's the player's role to learn how those hazards threaten the colony, how much time you have to fix them, and how to fix them before they start killing dupes.

Many of these experiences are learned through trial and error. You chill out, everything seems fine, and suddenly it's not. Chances are the player had a huge opportunity to save themselves, but didn't recognize the building danger until it started causing damage. Such is ONI life, where losing is its own form of fun!

Edit: A classic example of ONI snafu is this thread here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/457140/discussions/0/5913829825690760146/
A poster calls to complain about his malfunctioning carbon skimmers. Meanwhile he didn't notice his colony is completely out of oxygen and everyone's about to die. Haha, whoops. Gotta be more on top of those things, friend!

[View The Phenom]

I wouldn't recommend it for a relaxing play session, ONI is very complicated. A lot of players have over 100 hours and still struggle with some early game issues; unless you're willing to invest a significant amount of time researching or experimenting I don't think it will be a great fit for you.

[Xuhybrid]

When you first get into it, it's not very relaxing at all. There are a ton of things to watch out for and it's quite the challenge. However once you have survival locked down, it becomes a physics sandbox.

[chaney]

I'll contradict just about everyone ... conditionally. If you have a lot of stress in your life in general but enjoy learning mechanics and how systems work, this will be a great meditation for you to clear out the junk thoughts from the outside world.

In contrast, Don't Starve - having no pause and always presenting something urgent - is pure stress to me, while ONI with pause is relaxing. It does come with its own internal stress with problems to solve, but the urgency is all fixed with pause and planning a well thought out solution. If it fails, you learn. Very satisfying.

[redhongkong]

its very complicated to start with. need to read bunch ingame wiki and watch bunch youtube tutorials.

[Myriad]

I play this game to relax. Is more difficult than any other similar game, like Craft The World? No not really. It's probably easier. You're not forced to race against the clock to defend yourself. And nevermind the difficulty settings, just go with Survival to make it realistic.

The only race you may have, and this is if you choose to start on a difficult asteroid, is to seal your base against heat. But that's not really a problem on Terra, unless you make it one.

Actually this game can be about as easy as it gets. If you provide for your initial three dupes, which is relatively easy, and don't expand, you can pretty well survive indefinitely. It's only when you start thinking bigger that the game can throw a wrench in your gears. But if you take it slow, there's little threat to surviving. Of course when you know what you're doing, you can advance as fast as you're comfortable with.

[LittleBlueDuneBuggy]

Originally posted by DarkEternal:

Originally posted by LittleBlueDuneBuggy:

You just spent the majority of your post trying to justify what a scum bag you are.

I demo'd a game and then bought it instead of just keeping on with a Jack Sparrow'd copy.
I bought the game. That makes me a scumbag?

You stole the game, then later paid for it once it met your expectations. So yes.

I looked at reviews, watched some online gameplay, and decided to buy it. Does that make me some kind of knight in shining armor? Nope, it just makes me not a thief.

[DeathRow]

Originally posted by DarkEternal:

Originally posted by LittleBlueDuneBuggy:

You just spent the majority of your post trying to justify what a scum bag you are.

I demo'd a game and then bought it instead of just keeping on with a Jack Sparrow'd copy.
I bought the game. That makes me a scumbag?

depends, did you return the copy you stole back to the devs? or did they have to make a new one just because of you?

[LittleBlueDuneBuggy]

Originally posted by DeathRow:

Originally posted by DarkEternal:

I demo'd a game and then bought it instead of just keeping on with a Jack Sparrow'd copy.
I bought the game. That makes me a scumbag?

depends, did you return the copy you stole back to the devs? or did they have to make a new one just because of you?

If I steal a TV to "demo" it, but I return it before I buy it, that makes it A-okay?

[LadyK]

Originally posted by DarkEternal:

Originally posted by View The Phenom:

If you're old enough to remember when demos were prevalent, then you should be old enough to understand why pirating software (especially from indie devs) isn't something you freely admit. Or try to pitch as some positive quality; it also doesn't mean you're some clever guy who's figured out how to "game the system".

The idea that stealing can be spun as "mindful spending" is also ridiculous, and makes me think that you're actually some kid still in school.

And what, pray tell, are the devs losing when I try a game, don't like it, and then delete it and never touch it again?
Nothing. Absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NOTHING.
I would have bought it, not liked it, and then refunded it.
Then, they would have another refund on their game, which publishers don't like.
I saved them some grief by finding out that I don't like their game before sticking them with a refund.
It's not pirating if I don't keep it. It's demoing. Playing a game for an hour or two to decide if I want to spend money on it or not is not pirating. Keeping the game, finishing it, and not paying for it would be pirating, son.
If devs won't give us demos, I demo it myself. Does it make me clever? Yeah! I'm not wasting my time and money and their time and money to do an unnecessary transaction.
I'm doing them a favor, in essence. It's not my fault that you're too close-minded to see that.
I tried ONI for a few hours like I've done with hundreds of PC games over the last 20 years or so that demos have gone the way of the dodo.
I like it. I bought it. Nobody lost anything. The devs GAINED a sale. And a happy player. I GAINED a fun ass game.
Finally, I have a few very good reasons for demoing games myself. The latest one being Mortal Kombat X. I was encouraged to try it by a friend. I thought, eh. It's a major release. I've got the extra dough. If I don't like it, I can return it.
Played it for about an hour, didn't like. I shut it down, turned off my monitor so some background stuff could run, and went to a movie. Came back after seeing a movie with that same friend who recommended it, talked to them about what I didn't like, was told maybe I should refund it. After some thought, I decided to do so. I haven't really been a fighting games fan since the early 00's Tekkens. Went to refund and oh! Look at that. The game didn't shut down properly and had been running for almost 4 hours! Tried to refund it, anyway. Explained to Steam what happened. Showed them screens of the game still running despite being shut down and how long the process had been going. DENIED.
A $60 game that I didn't want or like. Haven't touched it since.
I'm not wasting my money on something that I don't like ever again.
I have been and will continue to demo games on my own and if that triggers you poor, fragile, Millennial snowflakes then kindly suck me dry.
You try living on $750/month in Social Security Disability and then tell me that you've got the money to throw around on games you might not like and get denied refunds for because devs can't make their game shut down properly.
Hell ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ no.
And trying to shame me? ♥♥♥♥ you. You don't know me, kid.

As someone mentioned, you're just digging yourself a hole here. Maybe buy the game like a normal person and refund it. Dev's may not like it but they like it more than people playing "Jack Sparrow'd" games. Besides, it supports them either way, yes, even with the "negative" mark of the return.