390 people found this review helpful
12 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 1.2 hrs on record
Posted: Sep 30, 2018 @ 1:24pm
Updated: Oct 5, 2018 @ 7:55am

You may want to peruse this thread before considering a purchase. But please be clear that my review below was written before any of that nonesense happened. The info in the thread did not influence my review, but it would certainly influence any future purchases I would consider with this team.

Depth of Extinction combines X-Com gameplay with FTL-node based overworld movement, and the whole thing is too standard for it's own good. Everyone gets excited when they hear FTL comparisons, but I just don't think this is a great mix. Overall, the game isn't terrible, but it has a lot of rough edges and needs to breath some fresh life into the genre to merit a near $20 price tag. This title is very indie, and while I do appreciate shoestring budgets and all that - sometimes less is more. The voice acting is amateur (which is fine, no problem with me), but I think if you can't go all out, then maybe you should just have text-only or something. Another thing that smacked me in the face was that the interface feels mobile. Now I understand it is not on mobile (yet), but I can't shake the feeling the UI was designed for it. This is something that is a pet peeve of mine.

The pixel art is competent, but in an age where we are bombarded with new pixel art indie games on the daily - the bar is very high. It feels like every month a game pops up that just defies what we thought was possible and raises the bar. The sound effects are in the same boat. I bought this title on Itch (I think) on day one, and have picked it up casually a few times. Every time my mind started quickly drifting and the whole thing just felt uninspired, when I want it to have a strong 'just one more round' effect. Again, I can tell this is a labor-of-love for the devs, but I just don't find myself getting hooked at all like I did with similiar titles such as Steam Marines or Xenonaughts or the modern XCOM reboot.

Pros:
+It is certainly a labor-of-love
+You can play with just the mouse

Cons:
-The only novel thing here is the mix of X-Com gameplay with FTL-node based overworld movement, and I don't think it works that well
-The gameplay is too standard; it needs to have some original ideas
-This is very indie (which is fine), but has too many rough edges to merit the asking price
-Unfortunately, I don't find it addicting at all
-The enemies say some really wonky and random stuff, like "fe fi fo fum" and odd expletives that I won't say here

Sadly this is a hard pass from me.
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57 Comments
Blackdeath Jan 4, 2023 @ 2:37pm 
eh, I enjoy the game, got it on sale and worth the few dollars. I dont care what the devs did or did not do, all devs do shitty things once in a while as most people do in the real world.
Lokaror Apr 6, 2021 @ 3:00am 
Thanks for the review. Removed from my wishlist.
slowly dismantling Dec 19, 2020 @ 5:13pm 
Bootytickled devs. Ryan, you're the unsung hero. Didn't have to make the thread but would not let the theft go. Big kudos.
Three English Letters شازام Sep 15, 2020 @ 5:44am 
Thanks for the excellent review!
:itsboshytime:
Knuti Jun 8, 2020 @ 1:10pm 
Yes, they did it to hurt people but they didn't expect that someone like you would fight back against injustice and now they couldn't run away anymore! They admitted to it all because they said they made a mistake!

I'm glad that's settled. See you around.
Ryan Dorkoski Jun 8, 2020 @ 12:02pm 
Yes, that is a fair assumption. It was intentional. They admitted it.
Knuti Jun 8, 2020 @ 11:31am 
"Knuti - the issue is that they said that after I called them out on it."

Yes, you tell someone what they did wrong and they fix it.

"In other words, if they could have gotten away with it"

That assumes that they tried to harm people intentionally.
Ryan Dorkoski Sep 6, 2019 @ 1:22pm 
Knuti - the issue is that they said that after I called them out on it. In other words, if they could have gotten away with it - they likely wouldn't have fixed it or even told me about it. It was only after Steam sent me a notification did I find out. If they would have owned up before, I would completely agree. I'm way over the issue (and have been for some time), but I'm just explaining so you have a better understanding.
Knuti Sep 6, 2019 @ 11:59am 
I looked at the thread and this is what the dev said:

"yep, we screwed up on that one and apologized and fixed it."

What is the issue here? People just need to move on with their lives and not hold grudges forever.

Ryan Dorkoski Aug 24, 2019 @ 4:41pm 
Thank you for the support Vorpal. I'm grateful.