Recent reviews by blindcoder

This game scared me so much even without the "enemies" that appear later. I had to turn down the volume on my headphones just to keep playing, yet even so I really looked forward to playing again.

The atmosphere is spot on, the story is believable with an unexpected twist at the end.

If I had to put a downside on the game, it would be that at around 2.5-3 hours of playtime, it's rather short if you don't go for all the achievements.

If you want to watch me getting scared by this game, find my YouTube playlist.

tl;dr
Feels like a F2P game where the devs realized halfway through that noone really likes those games, then removed the P and released what was there.

Longer explanation
While definately set in the same universe as H2S1, this is an entirely different game. It has basebuilding, missions, skill leveling (as opposed to skill unlocking) and a worldmap to discover.

Unfortunately, that is also what makes it feel F2Py.
You get missions at certain places in the world, mostly from Kovac and two other places in his bunker. There's also NPCs in the world (who happily watch you get mauled in front of them) that can give you missions. Once you accept a mission, you get teleported onto a separate map to complete the relatively simple tasks (fetch a number of object x, find person y) and then teleport back to receive rewards in the form of material and XP. As far as I am now, there is no way to receive most materials outside of repeatedly grinding missions. Were this a F2P game, this would be where you would be asked to pay to receive materials, and what makes me feel like this game started out as F2P.

You can also not craft during missions, so you need to prepare beforehand. This feels like an arbitrary decision. You can craft arrows in the game without any special building, but you can't do it in a mission. Why?
Edit: You can craft after all, it was a mistake on my part.

All these design decisions would make sense on a F2P (I say F2P a lot in this review...) game on a phone, but not for a PC game.

I have just finished this game and must say I enjoyed it for the most parts.
Making my way through infected stations was by far more enjoyable than the train-micromanagement which is pretty easy and even ignoring your passengers has no real consequence in the game.

Sometimes things happen in the story that totally surprised me and other times it was very predictable, but still solid for the part that you get told.
The games weak part is certainly the things it does NOT tell you. The player does not get told a complete story but only parts of it with gaps large enough to drive a train through.

The weakest part is certainly the very unfulfilling ending which feels kinda tacked on.

Watch me play through the game if you like:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV5ESRXYMGbRKEhqA8Jy45K7N9kCLKihB

Absolutely love this game. The atmosphere is captivating, the story is solid and the game proves that you don't need to stuff calories into your inventory to make a game a survival game.

There's a lot of details both the developers of the game and the writers put into it that makes this so enjoyable. Even the few non-renewable ressources that you really need (kerosene and batteries) are in abundant supply if you keep your eyes open even a little. It never felt like I need to abandon the main story to keep my character alive, as it often happens in some other games.

If I absolutely HAD to put a downside on anything with this game, it's that with 3-4 hours of playtime, it's a bit on the short end, but those 3 hours feel so much more satisfying than 30 hours of picking flowers could ever be.

I like this game a lot. It's a relaxing underwater take on the survival genre.
There's content in the game to keep you going for somewhere between 8-10h on a complete playthrough.

This game is finished, it's not Early Access, it's not "forgotten", it's just finished.

Build an outpost, care for your people, watch them die. All I need to know :D

Since I started this tiny review, the game has evolved leaps and bounds in all directions. The devs are still at it, throwing out regular updates and not showing signs of stopping. Go get it!

Don't be fooled by my playtime, I also have this game on another shop where I'm playing it.

Originally written in 2016, still applicable in 2018 shortly before release. You like challenging spacefaring games? This is the one for you!

I really enjoyed this game for many reasons, but the most important ones are:

- For 5 EUR, there's nothing to lose. I spent more money on WAY worse games
- Awesome storytelling. I totally dig the story in this game and there's a LOT of story in it. You won't see it in the first 15 minutes, though, but that's to be expected, obvs.
- Character progression is really nice and depends on several things like personal skills *how good characters can get at something) and of course training, training, training. The more often you do something, the better you get at it.
- Choices. You have them and they influence how the game progresses. No two playthroughs need to be identical.


Some hints for new players:
Recruit new people early, give them jobs and make sure they can be good at them.
Don't rush everywhere or you won't be able to defend against jumps.
DON'T explore everywhere all ot once or you will trigger too many infected.

My play count is at 343 hours. What more recommendation do you need?

Edit:
2016-10-12: Updated count to 343.