Recent reviews by ✟Hallowed Knight✟

Please go into the Options > Gameplay and max the slider on:
NAMEPLATE VIEW DISTANCE [TEAM] (500 M)
NAMEPLATE VIEW DISTANCE [UNIT] (500 M)
NAMEPLATE VIEW DISTANCE [VEHICLE] (500 M)
Thank you.

A roguelite that is probably the closest thing to a "real time roguelike" that I know of. As with many in the genre, you will likely die often until you begin the understand the mechanics. Not knowing what potions are or what items do until they are identified is still as entertaining as always. I can't count the number of times I've had impatient friends equip something before identifying it, only to be cursed as a result.
As for the DLC... Extra characters are great.
Would highly recommend giving Barony a shot, especially if you have a few buddies to play with.

PLEASE READ THE EARLY ACCESS NOTES, when the game launches into 1.0 there will be a full wipe that undoes all your progress and it'll switch to a f2p model with paid quality of life which is something I find very untrustworthy, when it comes out I might change this review to positive depending on how that goes, but I don't trust it one bit.

You start as a young guy that proved himself to his mentor and earned the right to take over his company as he retires. It's well balanced, just goofy enough that you don't take it too seriously, but just serious enough that you feel like you're actually doing something. But this isn't a 'Construction' Simulator, it's a 'Heavy Equipment Operator' Simulator. You hardly spend any time out of your vehicle and never once have I swung a hammer, dealt with a crooked safety officer, or been paid late because the boss bought his kids some 4 wheelers....

I will be keeping this game, no returns needed. I will be playing it further as well. Overall, I'd recommend this game, but there is one aspect that is absolutely driving me insane... the controls...

Ok, I'll get to that, but first the good stuff:
-The game is smooth, stable so far, and doesn't strain my machine. (i7-12700k, Z690 MB, 64gb ram, RTX 2080ti)
-Graphics are impressive and attractive, but not overly done or award winning. This is a plus because you are easily able to tell what you need to work on, but the game doesn't feel like the bulk of the budget went to the graphics.
-The game gives you the feeling that there's lots to do. You're going to get your money's worth out of this product.
-There's free movement and you're encouraged to explore (they have collectibles hidden around the map). This leads to feeling like there's a real world around you.
-The equipment is modeled after actual equipment found on the market today. It's not beaten to hell like 95% of what you'd see in the real world is, but I'm sure that's a contractual thing, lol.

Now some of the bad stuff before I get to the controls:
-They clearly have never driven a truck in their lives. Everything goes into an understeer skid around 30mph or so. It's completely unrealistic. I'm a former truck driver, I can assure you these vehicles can safely make those corners at 40-50 without significant issue. Your load might shift, but you won't break traction nor approach roll over. We drivers tend to ere on the side of caution which is why we are usually seen taking such turns below 30, but this game makes it seem like that's all a truck can do.
-Omg why does he run like that? The walk is odd too, but easy to ignore, but that run is just... wow....
-Back to trucks, they don't struggle to climb hills with such little weight on them either. A couple Neon letters on a flatbed and we're barely able to ascend the small hill to get home. It wouldn't exactly be rocketing up a hill, even empty, but the amount of affect such little weight has is ridiculous.
-There are a number of fairly interesting steps skipped in most processes in this game. Such as the introduction of rebar to concrete projects, that would've been a fun activity. I get it though, added development time and cost, as well as more to debug later. Plus, this keeps it streamlined, it just feels like I'm missing small parts when I play. EDIT: After playing a while longer I discovered that there is a feature where you can adjust the 'scope' of the project. This actually adds steps that felt like they were missing, but also adds profit for doing the extra work.

Ok, these controls... They disgust me. Because of one single key. They work well enough, they're a little clunky with backing up and inching forward, but for the love of all that is holy WHY IS ACTION G???? What sicko decided to let it be G? In what other game has interact EVER been anything other than E or F? I don't even like F, but I'd have dealt with it. And believe me, I'd love to have remapped it so I don't feel like hurling every time I go to enter a vehicle, but the game won't let me change it because, get this, 'E is already used by A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CONTROL SCHEME'. Yeah, you can't overlap key bindings. E is used in 'On Track Operation' and therefore cannot be used for it's intended purpose as the interact button. Am I still being petty? This would've been so simple to avoid, just create independent control schemes so they can overlap and you can set interact to E like the gods intended.

TO THEIR CREDIT!!! : The rest of the control scheme, while it takes a little getting used to, does do a great job of making you feel like you're actually operating a machine. By forcing you to take your hand off the mouse and put both on the keyboard they've simulated a feeling of operating a machine. It was pretty slick and I think I was fairly well thought out. Except... again with the remapping problem, if you don't have a number pad you cant play the game. There's not a viable alternative so you pretty much have to have a full keyboard. EDIT: This was not made clear in the early part of the game (or maybe I missed it), but apparently there are actually controls set up for controlling track type machines with Q,E,Z, and C.

There really needs to be a control remapping mod or hotfix or something. This game would be perfect if you could just set the controls the way they're meant to be. Now 3 more hours in (total of 5) and I'm catching a lot of things I missed in the first 2 hours, but I still HATE using G for entering vehicles. I really, really wish it would be let me set it to E but it keeps telling me 'That's already assigned". Feel free to comment if you know a solution.

Still recommend the game though, a few annoyances haven't ruined it for me. I think my natural interest in operating machinery is winning over my disdain for the control scheme.

Fantastic theming and very smooth gameplay. Though it inherits DNA from Rimworld and Factorio, it doesn't yet reach the level of either, but it still excels as an AI overlord simulator, and the potential for engaging storytelling is definitely already in the game in its current state.

This game really sells you on the idea of being a godlike AI. Every time the humans you're in control of get themselves killed, take up arms against you, kill one of your favorite robot workers, or get space diarrhea, you take one step closer to wanting to be an AI ethicist's worst nightmare.

And the game gives you some tools to live out that fantasy. Throughout my 20 hour playthrough, I found myself increasingly concerned with expanding the capabilities of my robots and computer brain, neglecting my humans as an afterthought, despite the objective of the game centering around them. Why expand their living quarters and build furniture when that steel or titanium could go to more memory and disk modules? After all, it's my job to colonize a planet, not run a luxury resort.

And while I put my foot in the door of using humans as living batteries, I never committed to that playstyle; but that's something I could indeed have done, taking care of the humans just enough for them to drive the ship and operate research labs, essentially enslaving them to further my progress to my ultimate goal.

These, of course, are just a couple ways to play the game, and it's far from impossible to play as a totally benevolent AI, protecting your colonists at all costs.

That said, there are shortcomings in the gameplay's feeling of tension, danger, and reward which I don't think are found in the likes of Factorio or Rimworld.

In Factorio, the threat of the alien fauna to your automated factory only ever escalates. You are racing time, lest the bugs' numbers become truly unmanageable, and always hunting for more deposits of resources to fuel your production, a task which forces you out of the comfort of your base's established boundaries, This constant drive forces you to always expand your factory's capabilities, always engage with the dangerous elements of the game, always seek ways to optimize your methods further.

In contrast, in Stardeus resources are almost limitless, once you have access to certain technologies. If you need more ore, just fly to a planet. If producing steel is too slow, just buy some from the merchants. The only pressure to upscale production as you are in the final stages of colonizing a planet is the pressure of time. You could sit there and wait for one of each type of terraforming building to do its thing (if you even build all four at once, since you could just as easily do each terraforming objective one at a time); it would take longer than having multiples would, yes, but there's no rush. And the threats your ship faces come from randomly generated events, such as meteor swarms or pirate invaders, and are disconnected from your reach for more resources except that they seem to scale based on your net worth.

This alone isn't the problem. The size of raids in Rimworld are similarly scaled. But in Rimworld, a raid is not just a punishment for doing well or a challenge to overcome; they are often opportunities. Raids can be a source of new pawns, which are at the center of Rimworld's gameplay. In Stardeus, you might get some new space suits or scrappable corpses, but there is none of the bittersweet excitement of capturing and recruiting (or harvesting) someone who killed your best brawler. Stardeus's raids are, in effect, just materials to be processed, much like the meteor swarms which drop uranium and other ores. A windfall or a nuisance, with little to be excited about in either case. And when you send miners out to extract resources from planets in Stardeus, the only risk you run is that there will be fewer bodies to defend your ship in the case of a pirate raid. In Rimworld, every expedition can fall to ambushes, disease, or starvation, making such endeavors a tense way to engage with more of the game's core systems.

Ultimately, what I think this game is missing is something to do and look forward to outside of the main objective of colonizing a planet. When the credits rolled and I had the opportunity to continue playing, I thought back on my 20 hours and tried to think of something I didn't get to do, or wanted more of, and came away blank. "Explore the universe," it urged, but what would I find? More iron ore on another planet that looked weirder than it actually was?

If exploring the universe is truly the game's core appeal--and I think it can be, given that your goal is to colonize a planet, which usually means finding a planet in the first place--there needs to be more incentive, risk, and structure to planetary exploration than "click here, mine ore, repeat." Tying more events to exploring a planet--ambushes triggered by sending an away party, mysterious illnesses tracked in by your miners, derelicts that give research progress, or marooned colonists happy to join your ship--would add variety and flavor to an otherwise mundane task. Additionally, I think that the telescope, which tells you where to go to colonize a planet, needs to be reexamined. After all, why should you explore space--something which is normally a grand and romantic endeavor--if you already know where you need to go? At best, it should narrow down your search, let you know when you're getting close to a something which might be colonizable (even if it ends up being a false positive), and provide guidance, but not a coordinate.

In conclusion, do I think this game is worth buying for $30 dollars? No. Do I regret buying it for 30 dollars? Also no. Stardeus tells a unique story in a way that epitomizes the phrase "ludonarrative consonance." I don't think there's anything like it out there, and to me, that's worth the price tag. But there are games that are already finished in the genre with more compelling and tense gameplay, capable of telling a wide variety of stories. Compared directly with Rimworld, which is only 5 dollars more expensive (ignoring DLC), this doesn't quite live up to the price. Yet.

Final verdict: Wait a year.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Romans 1:26-32
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who adores the Welsh is to be praised.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

If you are looking for a new job, Lost Ark is for you! Unlike a normal job where the employer pays you, Lost Ark gives you every opportunity to pay them instead. Excited yet? You'll be expected to donate thousands of dollars AND hours of your life to this new job! Wait, there's more! If you don't, nobody will take you seriously enough to let you do the best end-game content. That's right, not only does this job demand your every waking moment and spare cash, you'll also experience gate-keeping and toxicity on scales you've never before dreamt of! Don't wait, apply today!

Snarky sarcasm aside... This is a pay to win game. That is, they do everything possible to make free to play as absolutely miserable as they can. They want to get your cash, and everything about the game is geared for exactly that. However, even if you pay you'll find it's never enough, unless you've spent thousands. I'm serious, it's beyond insanity.

I have over 2k hours of play time in, and let me tell you: it's just a non-stop rat race of the same monotonous content. You will have to do the same content so much and so often, if you make a mistake or aren't over-geared for it, other players will express their great displeasure at having to spend an extra 45 seconds of their life in that miserable place because YOU screwed up. It's a toxic community, made so by a toxic game system, which itself is framed around a toxic and predatory monetization engine.

The only reason to play this game is for the Legion Raids, which is the only content that provides any actual challenge to players. All the other content is just a grind-fest, some of which is mandatory to get your maximum amount of weekly gold, item currencies, and upgrade tokens that will ensure your further progression. Speaking of progression, you have to advance at least 6 characters in this game, or you'll never keep up the gold generation/farming needed to sustain end-game participation on just 1 character. Which means you'll have to spend a lot of time and resources on those extra characters too. The grind-god is never satisfied.

You'll be spending A LOT of time obtaining currencies, and spending A LOT of currency to progress these alts as well as your main characters to ensure you can get gold. What is gold good for? The Auction House. Upgrade items and gear. Perhaps more importantly, you can convert gold into Blue Crystals. That part is important because Blue Cyrstals are the only way you can obtain Pheons.

What the heck are Pheons? They are a required currency when buying gear and upgrades from the Auction House to wear on your characters. The gear you wear is what determines your item level. After you obtain the gear, the chance you'll have to upgrade it will be very low - at the highest levels, less than 1% chance per upgrade attempt, with each attempt costing tens of thousands of gold in materials. Your item level is what determines what raids and other content you can participate in. So, Pheons and Blue Crystals are essentially a pay-to-win currency that severely stifles free-to-play progression.

How do you get Pheons? You have to buy them from the in-game marketplace with blue crystals. How do you get blue crystals? By spending real cash, or sacrificing massive amounts of the gold you made that week to exchange said gold for blue crystals, just to exchange the crystals for pheons. Every time you exchange one currency for another, the game taxes you through horrible conversion rates or artificially inflated pricing directly for cash.

Of course, many players elect to bypass months of grinding altogether by going to 3rd party gold sellers, who operate swarms of bots on every server. These bots have one goal - farm gold. Unfortunately, this has ruined the economy for anyone who doesn't buy gold, and unforgivably, SmileGate / Amazon have been doing the bare minimum necessary to counter the issue. It really seems to me they have zero ability to control their own in-game economy, and if you aren't a long-time player of MMOs/RPGs let me just say that this is A MAJOR red flag. Buying a solid piece of equipment from the auction house will often cost around 100 gold (which is nothing) but it will cost you 25+ pheons, which is worth about $10 USD.

You see the problem yet? Even if you had millions of gold, it's not the gold that is worth anything - it's their cash shop pheon and blue crystal currencies that hold real value. Also, throw away any thoughts of making millions of gold easily because the game caps you to less than 50k gold PER WEEK, that is unless you sell your time (and have a grossly over-geared character) to bus lower level players through raid content they no longer have the patience or brain cells for doing themselves in normal groups. Time, blue crystals, and pheons are the real currencies of this game.

Which is another point of contention - worthless currencies. There are no less than 2 dozen currencies in this game, at the bare minimum. Maybe as many as 60? I'm not sure anyone has counted all of the tokens, coins, and other crap you need to collect to spend at vendors, but it's just stupid. Almost all of them are unnecessary.

There are so many negatives about this game, such as the card collection system, the tedious and monotonous "I'd rather watch paint dry" progression quests and the hellish time-sink of performing those 6 different times on alt characters, the toxic community that gate-keeps every raid or event you'll try to participate in, and so much more.

Avoid this game like its a grizzly bear.

This game is good if you have:
- No money
- Lot's of spare time

This game is bad if you have:
- a job
- a Wife/girlfriend
- children
- bills
- church
- a mortgage loan
- another hobby
- any form of responsibility in your life

>see a guy
>hit every shot
>run out of bullets
>he turns around
>kills me in one shot
>damage dealt: 98 in 7
>exit cs:go

10/10