Recent reviews by Pi'Xhel

A nice MMORPG with a nice story, overall time-friendly too; you can put it down and pick it back, which is quite unique in the genre

Very fun demo that showcase a healthy foundation on which to build upon!

A nice small rythm game,music's great. And the characters have some spank for sure!

Pick up that can

A very nice PvE shooter, with a good dose of satire, a good difficulty curve, while allowing and encouraging mistakes, which leads to moment of blasts.

A great modern JSRF

Let's get the painful points out there first:
- bugs:
- NPC path-finding can be a bit janky.
- NPC doing special poses (lean on a table or whatnot) very occasionally have issue staying at the same z-axis: they either start floating away (no boost pack involved), or clipping through the ground

Small pain point concerning the endgame and post-endgame: NG+ do require leaving everything but your character progression behind (level, powers, skills stays, the rest, goes). I do however understand the decision, and in the end I think it's for the best as it add some real weight to the decision to ascend or not

I only focused (and completed) the main quest so far, apart from a couple (well about 30 according to the game) secondary quests.
Loved every minutes, except the long walk distance from the ship to some place and the repetitive gimmick to "power up".
The main quest was a blast, and Bethesda really crafted an excellent sci-fi story, in a very good canvas.

The comparison to NoManSky could be resumed as:
- better story and storytelling
- better hand-crafted section (be it the point of interest or the cities etc)
- about the same for the procedural sections (so planet walk)

What I'd like: some kind of ground vehicle of some sort. An Endor speeder would be be nice

Space flight is essentially an Elite Dangerous/Star Citizen casualized, which is not a bad thing, nor a good one. It makes it more accessible, but definitely shallower too. It is better than NMS pre-Echo (nb: didn't played NMS Echo yet)

What you should not do:
- Fast travel instead of grav-jump. You'd miss a lot of charming random encounters, and less charming one (nothing some big space guns can't resolves). To skip on too many space battle can be detrimental to the overall space stuff, as you won't be able to level up your pilot skill, which ultimately is the one allowing you to pilot "bigger" ships.
- Hoard. I know it's hard, but still.


Endgames quirks/bugs NG+:

- Not being able to sell planet charts/scans to Vladimir is a bummer.
- The total lack of reaction from Heller & Lin when you go back to Vectera to pick up good old Barret is a bit disappointing.

- Customizable Mechs: ✅
- Innovative combat system: ✅

Still a bit buggy sometimes, but nothing gamebreaking

It reminds me of Total War Warhammer but:
- With hex turn based battle
- With hex turn based grand strategy
- It is not a 4X, but more a 3.5 IMO: You do Explore, Exploit and Exterminate a lot, but the 'Expand' is not what you'll found in a 4X such as TWW where you snowball economically with territorial reach.
- Economy is nomadic for the most part, this add a lot of (good) difficulty when you come from more classic 4X

Replay potential is good, but not excellent:
- The main goal stays the same, but you have multiple ways to accomplish it along the way
- In each game you'll face 4 foes, they are picked randomly in a fixed pool of 12 or so. So you can't always use the same strategy.
- You'll get one hero per game. with their own quest line. The hero is picked at random
- The map only change a bit between each games: the main landmarks and topology doesn't change, but the rest is placed at random (for example, where bandit camp will spawn etc). So yeah, less discovery for the map: you'll know pretty soon where's what.

The predetermined map is also a positive tho: it's handcrafted and takes place in an established universe, so it offer a nice and consistent experience compared to some game that are use more procedural.

The game is really good, I do hope we will see more scenario added!

An early review for a very polished Early Access Game.
Played using both a Steam Deck and PC.

Didn't encounter a single bug. Which is rare for a game, let alone one in early access.
+100 cookie points for having a demo, +50 others for making progress transferable.

I think the game strike a very good balance in term of randomness (which is rare):
- It's not so random that it's 'unfair' or that the player doesn't feel in control
- It's random enough so that every 'run' is unique enough.

I did play one cycle. which is enough for understanding the main loop, but still not enough for me to:
- Quit the Settler difficulty: I tried for my first game after the tutorial, that was not a good idea. This is a positive point: It means the tutorial is just enough to let you play, but leave you a lot of place to grow without being hold back by a tutorial.
- Discover the interaction mechanics between the settlements

I would say that my only 'would-like-to-see' points would be:
- Better Steam Deck support: The game is perfect for the platform imho
- Keybindings for the construction menu, a bit like Planetary Annihilation did