412 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 2.8 hrs on record (2.5 hrs at review time)
Posted: Mar 6, 2014 @ 8:52pm
Updated: Jul 26, 2015 @ 7:35pm

UPDATED - July , 2015

Summary
I've watched this game for over a year now and its still garbage in my opinion. The developers are clearly unable to provide a quality product.

It has improved, but the multiplayer servers are dead and single player is very bland. Don't be fooled by the trailers - they are still not representative of the current play experience.

Overall, the game was a waste of cash and time.

Full Review Below:

Developer Activity
The game is done.. no more updates. Sorry, everyone got shafted.

Multiplayer
1. The game now has multiplayer arena style support - however.. at 7:30pm EST it looks like most servers have less than 4 people in them.. So I don't know how well multiplayer will work - given that it's summer (kids are out of school..) and the servers are dead. It could end up being a very lonely experience.

2. There are two game modes - Creative and Surival - however, the servers seem to only be running survival mode.

3. It's desolate.. I can see some buildings from players, but without people online, it's hard to tell if there is a game here. I was dropped with a drill, some stims (heal?) and a red thingy.. not much to do. Its like a lesser version of minecraft.

Game Engine
Engine has improved, reduced lag, voxel tearing is reduced.

My Specs: i5 @ OC' 4.5ghz, Nvidia 660, 16gb 2400mhz
Graphics Settings - Below are FPS I'm seeing with the above specs.
Fantastic = 20-30 fps
Good = 40 fps

1. The engine has improved, it is far less laggy than it was previously. The fps is much better - they seem to be making headway on the technology and the game engine. It's still based on Unity, and it shows.. the frill will 'appear' at short distances, then disappear - a tale sign of the underlying engine. These are all things that will be tough for the devs to overcome as it's a flaw/feature of the base engine. If your a graphics critic - this is likely to turn you off.

2. Drilling is working far better - though, it's still a bit glitchy with the terrain popping around.

3. Models and textures seem to have been updated. In the 'Fastest' setting, they are plain and flat, while they tend to get reasonable on the higher settings. Tearing and rendering from various view angles is still glitchy - barbed wire appears/disappears at random, etc.. again, if your anal about a pictureque world, you'll be disappointed. While looking at the trailers, they have obviously been touched up as running it on the highest setting, doesn't seem to yield similar results in regards to draw distance/object culling issues.

The terrain has improved in terms of frill.. lots of little trees, and bushes in the plains, but the mountains and caves are still rather bland. Big gray masses with repeating textures - not that appealing.

4. Creatures - There were some creatures, a few smaller ones.. One major improvement, when night fell, I didn't immediately get swarmed by large worms and die. After a bit of running, I did manage to fall into a pit filled with them.. so they are still around.

The creature AI is very sluggish - often taking several seconds to realize that a player is nearby - this sorta ruins the solo survival experience, if the creatures just stand around and die.

Overall
The game has improved, but with multiplayer being dead, crafting being mediocre at best - I still cannot call this a game. It's basically a tech demo with quite a few visual glitches. Certainly not worth the $20 price tag that is being asked for it.

It feels like the developers have not figured out the final direction for this game.. it's a bit of minecraft, a bit of a fps - but it doesn't do either one that well.

On the forums, there seems to be contention over the arena gameplay, numerous posts about pvp removal, and other aspects that hint at a game without a clear direction.

The developers have made strides in the right direction - but it may have been too little too late. I would pass on this one for the time being, give it time to come out of Early Access. This is definately a wild card as to what will end up happening to it in the future.


[REVIEWED - March 6, 2014]
This game is coming along.. but it has been a letdown the entire way.

Main flaws:
1. Collision is terrible and jerky - tough to get a feel for what is actually working.
2. Updates to the game are slow
3. Its pretty much a sandbox, so there is not much to do.. The final design is up in the air. (It's a tech demo right now)
4. Developers seem very misleading.. lots of issues with transparency in the project.
5. Management of Kickstarter/Early Access funding is sketchy at best.. Not alot to show for the cash provided.

The game is written using Unity - which has given the developers alot of freebies (NGUI for the UI - paid version, base physics.. etc..) However, they seem to be failing to leverage alot of those features. It has taken them a very long time to get to where they are at.. The good news is that they seem to be producing 'something' right now, but that something isn't exactly fun.

My suggestion: Watch the game to see where it goes, but don't waste your money at this time. It's 'iffy' as to what the final product will be and previous actions by the developers have shown that they are not likely to deliver a solid product.
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19 Comments
Easelm Aug 31, 2014 @ 7:59pm 
Bought this when it came out, not even surprised to see it is still the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game it was back then.
DigitalLuvin Aug 27, 2014 @ 6:48pm 
You may be talking about Planets^3 (Planets Cubed) - Its basically minecraft in space and looks interesting.. There are several others too.. but this one is a bit like you described.

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/03/new-crafting-rpg-is-like-minecraft-in-space-video
RonFickingSwanson Aug 27, 2014 @ 4:42pm 
There is a new game coming out Im not sure what the title is called but its suposly a open universe game and the creaters of it built a program that will constenly keep building random new worlds to explore. Its a survival syfy and you get to explore the universe with your friends or go solo
RonFickingSwanson Aug 27, 2014 @ 4:38pm 
well untill thin I still have time to upgrade a old desktop I have :-)
DigitalLuvin Aug 21, 2014 @ 9:42am 
I would disgree on both of those - but to each their own..

It's not really full of features, it's full of concepts that are incomplete or poorly done. Hopefully, that will change in the future - but in it's current state, there's just better games out there.
Prosozeb Aug 10, 2014 @ 6:05am 
I only mean youre statement that you have instantly recognised Unity as Starforges Engine as '♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥', nothing else:) I cannot confirm that.
So, can I close the discussion with this conclusion?:
Starforge is full of features, but for that reason it is overloaded and limited in content? I think that's just ok, but thats just my opinion.
DigitalLuvin Aug 9, 2014 @ 6:48pm 
Many gamers base their decisions around Unity being a 'novice' engine - which is often true - star forge being one example. The limiting factor of the engine was one of the reasons they looked at dropping it in favor of other engines.

The reason I used Unity as a reference is that it's the base engine used for both games. Thus, we are comparing apples to apples for the resources available to the development teams.

That being the reason I would not consider it '♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥' - as when reviewing two games, you want to ensure they are as evenly compared as possible.

Both use Unity as the base engine, both are voxel designs, both are planet exploration games.

How you consider that '♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥', I'm not quite sure - but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Prosozeb Aug 9, 2014 @ 6:44am 
So I didn't recognised Starforge as Unity-specific. And I know Unity long before the I knew Starforge is based on it. And I wouldn't even think on that one can 'recognise' it. It could have been every engine, even a selfmade. What you're saying is, apologize, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥;)
Prosozeb Aug 9, 2014 @ 6:40am 
Better than a tree disappearing;)

Starforge isn't finished yet and are working on cave generation, as you may have seen in their posts. Before it was a pain searching for Caves and digging to find Resources. These pillars was a first-hand-Solution.
DigitalLuvin Aug 8, 2014 @ 2:06pm 
One of my largest complaints with Star Forge is the way they have resources distributed. Take oil as an example.. It just sticks up out of the ground in a big black mound.

That just seems wrong in terms of design.. oil is found beneath the surface, even if it was a shale deposit.

You chop down a tree.. it falls in a stiff, lump, then rolls down the hill.

It's differences like that which become the variance between a 'polished' and clean experience versus a 'meh' experience.

I haven't seen alot of voxel engines getting this part right, but Planet Explorers seems to do a good job of seeding their resources, even Landmark (Big budget..) seems to do it in a really unrealistic fashion.