Recent reviews by Techno

I don't know how to best describe this game. The entire game is built around realistic physics resulting in needing to be mindful of the weight distribution of your ship parts or how much ore you have mined. There are different types of scanners which, depending on the technology, will tell you different information about what might be inside the rocks you want to mine. You need to manage your crew, your fuel, and your ammo. There are no clear upgrades and every ship and part has its own benefits and drawbacks. But to view this game as a hard sci-fi mining simulator would not be doing it justice.

I play this game for the vibes. Hopping on for one dive with no clear goal in mind and just seeing how things play out is an indescribable experience. It's easy to lose yourself in the rings of Saturn.

If you enjoy space games and the experience and fantasy of being in the distant future and flying around as a nobody, I highly recommend trying this game out.

This is a review from someone who hasn't followed the early access development. I have only played this game since it's full release.

I simply did not find Techtonica fun. It's supposed to be a unique mix of factory building and exploration and unfortunately it does neither of them well.

The exploration: Initially fun as you look around your starting area but gets boring quite quickly. The overall map is split up into smaller rooms which are all connected by a central elevator. You have to feed the elevator with resources to unlock the next room in sequence. Each room/level isn't particularly big and will have one or two areas of interest which will help unlock new technologies or story progression. Once you find these areas there is little reason to return. You end up ignoring entire rooms since you will have your factory only on certain levels.

The factory building: Nothing particularly unique or inspired here. Standard conveyor/inserter/assembler type gameplay. The visual design isn't very interesting nor did I find any enjoyment in growing my factory or trying to puzzle out a production line. In fact I was actively avoiding expanding my factory at certain points as you had to dig and level out space for your machines which was tedious.

I played this game alone and perhaps it would be more fun with friends but that holds true for any game. In a vacuum this game would have been fine but when your competition is Factorio and Satisfactory this game is not worth your time. If you want the 1st person 3D factory building play Satisfactory. If you want the hardcore factory planning and building, play Factorio. Both of those games (Satisfactory more so) have their own forms of exploration and both have multiplayer.

I'm not sure what the devs can improve to fix the problems I had with Techonica. The combination of how the core game works with the visual design and level design make this game a do not recommend for me.

If you are looking at videos of the game and find it interesting I have no issues suggesting you try it out. I did not have any performance or bug related issues with the game.

It's a fun Ubisoft style Star Wars game and that is exactly what I wanted. Whatever issues this game had on initial launch don't seem to exist anymore. I'm having tons of fun and would recommend this to anyone who likes this style of game.

The best naval combat sim-lite game available. Incredibly deep mechanics and amazing visuals. If you remember playing Jane's Fleet Command from multiple decades ago and want a modern version - this is the game for you.

Just be aware that Sea Power is decidedly in early access and there are tons of bugs and incomplete/missing features and units. The 8-12 months in early access seems quite optimistic. If you're looking for a complete experience, wait for full release - otherwise I highly recommend the game.

This is the most optional DLC (excluding Timelines) but still worth getting for the complete X4 experience. The new systems and factions have a bunch of unique mechanics that offer some variety in how you can play but overall the impact to your game will be far less than the other DLCs where major races are added. Get this DLC only after you get the other three major ones (Split/Terran/Boron).

The Boron questline feels like it ends half way of where it should end but the new systems and of course the boron race and ships are a great addition to the game. Can't go wrong getting this DLC.

Probably the best DLC of the bunch, the Terrans have a unique economic system. The Terran quest line is fun and Terran ships are awesome to use. Highly recommend this DLC,

Buy this DLC either because you want to support the devs and/or because you want to play mods (VRO/SWI) that require this DLC.

The DLC itself is not good. Timelines adds a bunch of one shot missions to play separate from the open world/sandbox that you're used to. Some of these missions are replays of significant combat events from X history while others are things like races or timed mining missions. It gets quite repetitive quite fast. The first few sets of missions could be a good way for new players to get a taste of how X4 plays and there are some unique station models and events to see but I wouldn't recommend the DLC just for that.

You do get some ships that are unlocked to use in the open world as you complete missions but you can find a mod to unlock everything to avoid having to slog through the actual missions.

There is no concern for the course of future DLCs as Egosoft has stated that Timelines was a one off and they will be returning to their standard formula for the next one.

Sins of a Solar Empire II is a unique RTS where you need to expand and colonize planets in order to conduct research and build up your fleets, ultimately facing off with your opponents. I put in hundreds of hours with the original game and see myself doing the same with the sequel. If you enjoy the RTS genre, if building up your empire and fleets before going after an enemy is your jam, if you enjoy the space setting; I highly recommend trying this game.

SoaSE2 is the original but better. There is nothing that I miss from the original. Big UI and QoL improvements, it is far easier to manage a large empire and multiple fleets. New graphics are pretty. There are plenty more layers of decision making with ship and planet items. These are extra upgrades that aren't just gimmicks but can really impact the game. The addition of all planets rotating around the sun and phase lanes connecting and disconnecting on a time scale of hours adds much more strategy to those longer games on bigger maps.

This game does use AI art, more so than what the disclosure would lead you to believe. Currently all the research icons are very obviously AI art. There aren't any extra fingers or anything but the composition or perspective doesn't always make sense and some parts of the images have way too much detail while other parts look out of place. The buildings and vehicles look nonsensical at times. There is zero coherence and no real art direction to all the icons. Hopefully this gets replaced with properly done art in a future update.

Crashes on start up, no amount of troubleshooting and guide following worked for me. The game itself is great but I was unable to get it to work.