Don't be fooled by the fact that this game is a Factorio-like. Hydroneer gives you the freedom to earn money in a variety of ways, gradually easing into the mining aspect if you're a slow learner like me.

The initial gameplay may seem tedious: Use a shovel to dig dirt, put that dirt in a bucket four times, empty that bucket into a pan, fill that pan with water, then use a scrub brush to wash the dirt away and reveal ores and precious gems.

The little bit of coin you get from this effort will allow you to purchase machines, water piping, and conveyor belts that can be used to automate the mining process. I'm not good at those types of layouts, though, so my first purchase was a fishing rod.

I earned a small fortune fishing, which gave me the financial security to start experimenting with the mining machines. At 22 hours, my mining operation is still modest but effective enough to get things done. But if I didn't care to mine at all, it would still be okay because fishing is a viable way to earn some coin.

If fishing and mining aren't your thing, then there's also farming. Plenty of people seem to want soup made of fresh vegetables, so you can turn any plot of land you purchase into a farming paradise. There is a large variety of crops available, though for the majority of them you'll have to earn farmer's guild tokens.

That's something to be aware of with this game. There's multiple currencies and while coin is gotten from selling anything, the other tokens are only acquired through completing villager quests. They can range from really simple to ridiculously complex, though the payout is greater when the quest requires more. Upgrades to your operations are obtained with tokens so you will eventually have to give mining a try. It's much better when you're too rich to care about expenses, though.

I have some personal frustrations with the game. Quests are on scrolls which are physical objects in the game world. You can post them to a bulletin board you can purchase with guild tokens, but the board only holds two at a time, and the scrolls are easy to misplace. Also, quest givers aren't static. They like to wander the admittedly small landscape, which can force you to hunt them down for a long time when trying to turn in a quest.

Honestly, the whole questing system could use some work though for now I've been able to successfully complete several orders. I also find the camera can be very frustrating once you're digging underground, especially with the massive mining machines. But other than that, I find the game to be extremely relaxing. It's something that's easily played while listening to a Podcast or video.

The developer has seen fit to publish a DLC and yet the core game still has extremely serious problems with the physics engine. Every game I've ever played of Hydroneer has ended when a system I created started behaving erratically, causing buildups of resources in unpredictable places that drag down the FPS and eventually crash the game. To be clear, it is not possible to build a stable system above a certain (small) scale in the game, every system with more than a dozen or so miners (any tier) will eventually fail as it enters and leaves render range repeatedly while the player plays the game. This is very, very much a known issue and has been for the game's literal entire existence, and is a problem for me specifically as I do not find the game to be very much fun prior to large-scale automation, meaning that the game is kind of a chore until just before it no longer functions at all.

Previously I gave no recommendation either way on the game, as I was confident the developer was working to fix it and eventually would succeed. Now not only has the developer released a DLC, but they've released a DLC with a map supposedly much larger than that of the main game, which will serve to exacerbate the issues we already have. This is not the behavior of a dev that intends to fix a problem. I no longer believe they're even trying. I cannot recommend anyone else play the game at all.

This game is very much worth the money if you have a lot of time on your hands, a great game, absolutely love it!!! Favourite Game