Lack of Challenge

[Born to Coom]

Interested in checking this game out but hear a lot of reviews saying it's not very challenging and when you're set nothing really keeps pushing u forward and it's just a question of keep managing your colony.

wondering if these are old reviews or if the game really is unchallenging

[Aturchomicz]

Originally posted by Circle Shaped Homosexual:

Interested in checking this game out but hear a lot of reviews saying it's not very challenging and when you're set nothing really keeps pushing u forward and it's just a question of keep managing your colony.

wondering if these are old reviews or if the game really is unchallenging

If you challlenge yourself like this then its hard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0wr4BUFGQ

[Santiak]

I'd liken it to EVE in that regard, actually. You can play the game in a way that means you can just relax and enjoy evolving your colony (e.g. build wonders, rely on breakthroughs, pick spots with minimal disasters and abundant ressources, etc.), or you can play it in a way where you are in charge of the challenge you face (don't build wonders, force yourself to expand to other resources, pick spots with frequent disasters and minimal resources, and so on), heck, you can even do a bit of role-playing and make decisions for Story Bits that aren't necessarily optimal, but rather centred on the kind of colony overseer you want to play. Along the same lines, try to make a niche colony function - be a proverbial slavemaster and try to deal with a bunch of colonists devoid of comfort and sanity, by alleviating it with industry and research. Be isolationist and never interact with rival colonies. Be a mad scientist and forego industry and comfort for research.

One caveat is that difficulty is arguably primarily centred around the early game, but again, if you put down rules for yourself, you can easily face a challenge and still feel rewarded when you make a dictatorship colony function - if barely and with frequent passenger rockets.

All in all, if you can let go of the "optimal" mentality of your standard city builder, yes you can find a challenge with the game. But if your primary focus is on building the optimal colony in all respects, that challenge will only come in getting a foothold, not maintaining it. :)

[Twelvefield]

The DLC adds more challenge, but also adds more features that make the game easier. If you want challenge, you have to cherry-pick your game rules and goals. Then the game will slap you hard unless you've mastered all of the min/max rules. Even then, there are things that are tough to accomplish.

Haemimont are the developers, so it's not Zachtronics. I find Surviving Mars to be an easy game, but I like easy games.

[BLÀde]

set all disasters to max and use this mod with it
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1783321149