Recent reviews by The Lunatic

As of 15/08/2024 the developers added a cash shop to the game.

ECO is a civilisation simulator. Players work together to build a civilisation and overcome an existential threat. Each player has a role in this community. A cash shop directly destroys this community and adds a real world advantage to players willing to buy it.

As a server grows on Eco, there ends up being overlap between players, as there is only a set amount of roles within a server.
To prove an example:
Jim and Bob both make and sell cars.
Jim's car is closer to Gregg's iron mine, but Bob's car factory is closer to the central hub everyone has built around.
Jim and Bob both compete with convenience and efficiency deciding who wants cars from them. The game even goes as far as to have a real world economy around this. Money can be printed and exchanged for goods and services. In the game's default state, competition comes from location, efficiency and ability to move goods.

Jim buys a cash shop skin for a car that Bob cannot get.
Jim now has an advantage. No amount of efficiency upgrades, better planning or social engagement can fix this advantage that Jim now has, Bob whilst still able to make cars which function much the same, nobody bothers engaging with Bob on the server.

This is pay to win. You won't shoot down the meteor faster, but in a community-driven game, you will have something in a community that people want more so than otherwise, and you will therefore win the role of producing that role within the server.

This is obviously a perversion of the core concept of the game, the developers have offered no refunds after this significant shift in the game's focus. Servers may disable the cash shop, however if they do so they risk being removed from Strange Loop's server browser. Do not buy this game.

Painfully boring and devoid of any interesting gameplay.

I played for 6 hours and never went below 95% HP. It's so easy that there's just nothing to engage with or even feel like you're playing a game.

Bait and switch cash shop in early access.

Early Access DLC?!?!?!

Don't do it.

Grindy, boring, very expensive with DLC and Microtransations.