This is one of the rare gems that I have seen in the latest trend of Voxel game engines. If it continues in it's current direction, it will be one of the best games that I have played in the last 20 years.

Machine Specs: i5 OC @ 4.4 Ghz - Nvidia 660 - 16gb 2400 Mhz
FPS (High Settings): 60+

Summary

The game is in an alpha - so the story line is not complete. There is about 20 hours of playable story content, and what I have seen is extremely interesting. They have the potential to weave a great story out of this game and are headed in the right direction.

It is a hybrid of a FPS/BF1942 (Yes, the old one) land, sea, air combat - mixed into the crafty style of minecraft, splashed with colony/base management & building.

The game uses a Voxel engine, written in Unity, and while I am not always a fan of Unity 3D based engines (Mainly due to it having such a low barrier to entry - so you get alot of shotty development teams using it), but this game is written so that you would think it's using CryEngine or some custom engine. It has no signs of Unity slowness.

There is a huge technology / crafting tree.. Its not perfectly balanced, but it is so engrossing, that I think they will have no trouble balancing it. The crafting works well.. the UI is intuitive and makes it a good experience.

They have a unique system for 'scanning' for minerals - which makes finding materials much easier and helps with base/colony planning. A great idea.. and it also looks amazing.

There is a great system for crafting your own items/weapons/aircraft/boats/cars - the system is easy to use, reminds me a bit of Google Sketchup, except with voxels - and is fairly realistic in material usage, weight, and physics (IE.. heavy planes don't fly)
They allow you to import models from other users in ISO format - which is a great feature if you are lazy like me and really don't wan to spend hours painting and building a really cool ship. All of the importing is integrated using Steam Workshop - so its' very seamless.. It reminds me of the model importing from Spore.

The multiplayer is still immature - most servers are lowly populated - but it is an Alpha game, so I suspect that will change in the future. It has a bit of the DayZ appeal in multiplayer, so I think this part will come around as game development progresses. It offers Adventure, Surival, and Coop modes - but there is no Coop for Story mode.


Game Development

The game does not feel like an Alpha at all.. The game is fairly stable. I have seen a few crashes due to array indexing issues, but for the most part, its not bad.

The developers have pushed content on a regular basis and seem to be a very worthy team capable of completing this project. I have no fears that my cash used on this project will yield a solid product.

This is one of the few Early Access projects that I have jumped on where I feel like I immediately got a return on my investment. There is a playable demo available at their main site too.. It would be nice if they would add it to steam and maintain it, but that may not be easily done.

Graphics Engine

The game uses Unity - but the graphics are quite nice. I've done a bit of indie work with Unity 3D and until I read about it on the forums, I couldn't tell it was a Unity based game. The only real visual hint is that the frill is batched, which shows up in open plains areas.

The terrain blending is done to perfection.. mineral types make sense, the textures look realistic to the terrain (IE.. no gold rock sticking up in the middle of the terrain). The forests are lush and all of the models are well done. The animations are 'ok' - though they could use a bit of work, but it is an Alpha, so no worries on that getting cleaned up.

On my system, it runs very smoothly - renders distant terrain without issue and feels very well optomized. It is processor intensive and uses a large amount of RAM (4gb after playing a while) - so if you have a system with less than 8gb - you will likely see some slowness loading the areas (They make heavy use of caching..)

The minimum system specs are really low.. I don't see how you could have a fun play experience with just those specs.

Game Play

The gameplay is fun.. even the crafting isn't bad (I'm not a fan of minecraft/free form building). It has several game modes, Adventure, Story, and Free Build (unlimited resources) - so it caters to a variety of play styles.

I see alot of potential in the story - if they can pull it off.. Multi-content base battles.. large battleships (all destructible), very similar to the combat of BF 1942 or PlanetFall. The best part is that it is voxel base, so the entire world is destructible/buildable.

The story starts off very slow.. I had this game in my library a few times.. thought it was just another voxel garbage game - so I didn't give it much of a chance. If you play the story, give it atleast two hours as it can be very overwhelming at first and will easily turn you away.

However, consider the story to be more of a tutorial on the interface. It gets better after you get into the vehicle/guns part and actually turns into an intrigueing story of alien races/who did it/why are we here..

This game is lightyears ahead of Landmark - the only other engine I've seen come close to doing what it does.

Overall.. this is one of the best games I've seen in 2014 and has so much potential and seems to be backed by the developers who can pull it off.

If you understand that the game is an alpha and that your story will most likely be spoiled by playing early (before it is complete) then this a definate buy for your library.

However, I would recommend waiting on the story to be complete as my only disappointment in this game was reaching the point in the story where it was incomplete (I really wanted to play on.. it was addicting, fun and a great experience)

This is one of the rare gems that I have seen in the latest trend of Voxel game engines. If it continues in it's current direction, it will be one of the best games that I have played in the last 20 years. [b]Machine Specs[/b]: [i] i5 OC @ 4.4 Ghz - Nvidia 660 - 16gb 2400 Mhz[/i] [b]FPS (High Settings)[/b]: 60+ [b][h1]Summary[/h1][/b] The game is in an alpha - so the story line is not complete. There is about 20 hours of playable story content, and what I have seen is extremely interesting. They have the potential to weave a great story out of this game and are headed in the right direction. It is a hybrid of a FPS/BF1942 (Yes, the old one) land, sea, air combat - mixed into the crafty style of minecraft, splashed with colony/base management & building. The game uses a Voxel engine, written in Unity, and while I am not always a fan of Unity 3D based engines (Mainly due to it having such a low barrier to entry - so you get alot of shotty development teams using it), but this game is written so that you would think it's using CryEngine or some custom engine. It has no signs of Unity slowness. There is a huge technology / crafting tree.. Its not perfectly balanced, but it is so engrossing, that I think they will have no trouble balancing it. The crafting works well.. the UI is intuitive and makes it a good experience. They have a unique system for 'scanning' for minerals - which makes finding materials much easier and helps with base/colony planning. A great idea.. and it also looks amazing. There is a great system for crafting your own items/weapons/aircraft/boats/cars - the system is easy to use, reminds me a bit of Google Sketchup, except with voxels - and is fairly realistic in material usage, weight, and physics (IE.. heavy planes don't fly) They allow you to import models from other users in ISO format - which is a great feature if you are lazy like me and really don't wan to spend hours painting and building a really cool ship. All of the importing is integrated using Steam Workshop - so its' very seamless.. It reminds me of the model importing from Spore. The multiplayer is still immature - most servers are lowly populated - but it is an Alpha game, so I suspect that will change in the future. It has a bit of the DayZ appeal in multiplayer, so I think this part will come around as game development progresses. It offers Adventure, Surival, and Coop modes - but there is no Coop for Story mode. [b] Game Development [/b] The game does not feel like an Alpha at all.. The game is fairly stable. I have seen a few crashes due to array indexing issues, but for the most part, its not bad. The developers have pushed content on a regular basis and seem to be a very worthy team capable of completing this project. I have no fears that my cash used on this project will yield a solid product. This is one of the few Early Access projects that I have jumped on where I feel like I immediately got a return on my investment. There is a playable demo available at their main site too.. It would be nice if they would add it to steam and maintain it, but that may not be easily done. [b]Graphics Engine[/b] The game uses Unity - but the graphics are quite nice. I've done a bit of indie work with Unity 3D and until I read about it on the forums, I couldn't tell it was a Unity based game. The only real visual hint is that the frill is batched, which shows up in open plains areas. The terrain blending is done to perfection.. mineral types make sense, the textures look realistic to the terrain (IE.. no gold rock sticking up in the middle of the terrain). The forests are lush and all of the models are well done. The animations are 'ok' - though they could use a bit of work, but it is an Alpha, so no worries on that getting cleaned up. On my system, it runs very smoothly - renders distant terrain without issue and feels very well optomized. It is processor intensive and uses a large amount of RAM (4gb after playing a while) - so if you have a system with less than 8gb - you will likely see some slowness loading the areas (They make heavy use of caching..) The minimum system specs are really low.. I don't see how you could have a fun play experience with just those specs. [b]Game Play[/b] The gameplay is fun.. even the crafting isn't bad (I'm not a fan of minecraft/free form building). It has several game modes, Adventure, Story, and Free Build (unlimited resources) - so it caters to a variety of play styles. I see alot of potential in the story - if they can pull it off.. Multi-content base battles.. large battleships (all destructible), very similar to the combat of BF 1942 or PlanetFall. The best part is that it is voxel base, so the entire world is destructible/buildable. The story starts off very slow.. I had this game in my library a few times.. thought it was just another voxel garbage game - so I didn't give it much of a chance. If you play the story, give it atleast two hours as it can be very overwhelming at first and will easily turn you away. However, consider the story to be more of a tutorial on the interface. It gets better after you get into the vehicle/guns part and actually turns into an intrigueing story of alien races/who did it/why are we here.. This game is lightyears ahead of Landmark - the only other engine I've seen come close to doing what it does. Overall.. this is one of the best games I've seen in 2014 and has so much potential and seems to be backed by the developers who can pull it off. If you understand that the game is an alpha and that your story will most likely be spoiled by playing early (before it is complete) then this a definate buy for your library. However, I would recommend waiting on the story to be complete as my only disappointment in this game was reaching the point in the story where it was incomplete (I really wanted to play on.. it was addicting, fun and a great experience)