Recent reviews by DavidAdas

You can run backwards in this game.

10/10

You can build some truly awesome contraptions in this game. Cars, airplanes, rockets, boats, cow launching trebuchets, robot sarlacc pits...you name it. The game does an excellent job in enabling the player to explore the depths of his or her creativity. I am dozens of hours in and still brimming with unimplemented concepts and ideas of which I have barely scratched the surface.

Unfortunately, this cannot be said for the game's co-op survival mode . It will not take much. Maybe a couple of basic vehicles and a small base. When it hits, though, you'll know it. It's the lag of doom, and it will eventually make the game unplayable for everyone but the host.

This is certainly not a big deal if you intend to play survival mode by yourself, but if you intend to play survival mode with friends then I would highly recommend waiting to purchase the game. I am currently in the latter category and am thus in a holding pattern until the issues are addressed.

But definitely add the game to your wishlist if you do intend to pass on it today. I have no doubt that the game will be awesome once the lag is tackled. It is definitely a game my friends and I are eager to pick up again.

Edit: I originally had this game set as "Not Recommended". You can find my original review below.


In my original review, I criticized the game's lack of variety and repetitive game loop. It had the right framework in place to contend among the likes of Dwarf Fortress and RimWorld, but very little built atop of it.

Two years later, the developers have done a remarkable job amending content to the game. There are more weapons, more ships, more armor, a new skill system, a new cybernetic implant system, new item durability, new enemies to kill, etc. This filler content is what was sorely lacking, and its addition now makes the game much easier for me to recommend. I have played well over 30 or so hours of the game recently and have enjoyed it thoroughly.

That said, Space Haven's game loop has not changed much in the last two years. I still find myself doing the same 3 things I did previously: exploring derelicts, shooting at other ships, and mining asteroids. Bugbyte made a remarkably clever decision in taking the Dwarf Fortress genre and moving it into outer space. Yet, oddly, they aren't taking advantage of their setting. In a place of infinite possibilities, there doesn't seem like much to do; little to explore.

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Space Haven has the basics it needs to qualify for the Dwarf Fortress/RimWorld genre, but a simple lack of depth and variety hamper its ability to play in the same league as its predecessors.

When you aren't sending the same away teams to clear an abandoned starship of the games two monster units, you are engaging in ship-to-ship battle with the same two starship weapons and/or performing your standard set of colonist operations (mining, crafting, researching, etc). You may also opt to board a starship with your away team and enslave the crew, but your colonists will do so armed with one of the only four weapons in the game (the pistol, SMG, assault rifle, and shotgun) and a single helmet slot which does not appear to serve a purpose. Perhaps the latter will be utilized in a future update. Outside of this, there really isn't a whole lot to do other than try and survive the game's two random events: solar flares and meteor showers.

Even the colonist mechanics/operations fall short of what you'd expect from the genre. There is no equipment quality/durability mechanic in Space Haven, much less an option to craft equipment/furniture using different materials. Resource types are very limited as well. Heck, even the number of existential threats seem pretty limited. I think I've had four or five total colonist tantrums in the many hours I've put into the game. Beyond that, most threats are external.

I am sure that mods exist to help cover these gaps, but in its current state Space Haven falls short. I do enjoy the game and will admittedly continue to play it for a while, but it has a bit of a ways to go before I give it the attention I gave RimWorld. I do hope that the devs continue to support though. It definitely has potential.

Smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack smack

Okay, next enemy.

Smack smack smack smack smack smack....

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Someone drew out a rather extensive comic and baked it into the Source Engine. No, seriously. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome. Whoever came up with this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ genius.

According to DayZ, Soviet-era Russia is a hot and humid hell where you will die of hyperthermia at the drop of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hat.

Chased a McGuffin so that I could get the info I needed to free a different McGuffin.

10/10. Would McGuffin again.

Without a doubt, the true hero of this game isn't Adam Jensen (our nano-enhanced and techno-augmented protagonist), but Eidos Montreal for revitalizing one of the world's most beloved franchises.