Recent reviews by Wolfe Beckhaver

My reviews rarely seem to be seen, so probably not worth the effort to write a novel describing how much I enjoy this game or how much respect I have for Keen as a game studio (I really liked Portal Knights as well). But I will say this.

I enjoy all aspects of the game, however the base building is top notch. What I have created so far makes me long for the home I have never had.

Nightingale is a survival game set in a Victorian era Gaslamp setting (gaslamp is similar to steampunk but with magic where as steampunk focuses on science). The player travels through portals using dropped and crafted "Cards" (as in like playing cards) that take you to different procedural generated realms (based on card type). You can always fast travel back to your base so exploring is encouraged and part of the game play. As of this writing it's an early access game meaning we have access to play an unfinished product. (Sadly, many seem to not understand this which seem to be reflected in their poorly opinionated reviews).

The game is a survival game so has the typical survival elements of gathering, crafting, base building. and combat.

The character creator allows for a wide variety of faces, skin tones and hair styles. You can make some butt ugly characters (of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder), but if you spend the time (those who moan about "ugly characters" clearly do not spend the time) you can make some "beautiful" males and females in game. I really like the character creator. I hope we see a barbershop in the futuure.

There is currently no transmog in game. I hope this changes as a future addition to the game. My wife and I both like to customize our characters.

The gathering is reasonably well done with trees falling after they are cut down, minerals/rocks smashing apart as you mine them. The crafting is layered and fairly deep, but not overly complicated. Different materials will craft better items and there seems to be good ranger of items to collect. I enjoy the crafting and the crafting stations.

The base building is nice with a pretty straightforward UI for putting down base "blocks". The base parts are a full wall height so they take up a larger space meaning you can make a room with 6 blocks. A floor tile, 4 walls and ceiling. You can navigate in this space, but this is done easier in 1st person. It does not take too many base parts to build a functional and good looking base due to the nice graphics of the game and the textures.

Speaking of 1st person. The game was originally built for 1st person only, but due to player request 3rd person was implemented. 3rd is not as polished as 1st due to it being a fresher implementation. Its not bad, but it could use work as there is some minor clipping with base parts.

I enjoy 3rd person, but 1st person is really the best option for survival base building games. I wont get into why because this involves game theory regarding how a player navigates inside of a space and that is not the scope of this review, but regardless of how you choose to play, both work well.

The combat is ok, its not the best, but its not the worst. I would like to see some work regarding combat, but at the same time it has not stopped me from enjoying playing the game. I also imagine combat gets better as you unlock some weapons and rifles, shotguns etc. I am using a mining pick mostly to fight right now.

You can also enchant your gear which can affect how you engage in combat.

I am around 70 hours at the time of this review. I have played most of it with my wife and both of us have really enjoyed our time. We both feel we have our monies worth at this point in time, so I see no reason at all not to give a good review.

If you enjoy survival and Gaslamp fantasy/Steampunk and or the Victorian era, I think you will definitely enjoy your time in game. Its a diamond in the rough, but has a solid foundation and I can see it going places.

I have 31 hours as of this posting. I have really enjoyed my time in game, however I have run into a fundamental flaw with the games design regarding multiplayer/co-op.

This game was only purchased because it was sold as being co-op, and its true that you can play with other people but only to a degree.

I will give an example of an issue my GF and I ran into.

I just got to the point where I can upgrade my base tent into a full building. This is my save and my GF is invited to play. The building requires that certain materials be placed into the hopper for it to be built the next day.

So I had my GF to gather materials while I read out to her what she needed to gather. She placed all the materials except nails, i had placed the nails. So, the building should be ready to be built. NOPE. It still said she needed to add nails, or conversely I needed to add 20 gum wood, 20 hard wood, all the iron, tin plates etc. Because it was "cheaper" for her to just add nails instead of me RE-ADDING all the materials (outside of the fact we used all our iron), she added the nails...BAM all materials were there, we just needed to sleep.

So we wake the next day, no building, still a tent and I look at the material box and it still required all the materials.


There is a museum in game. You can purchase a camera and take photos and place them on the wall. Because this was my save game, I was able to place pictures. When my GF logged in, I wanted to surprise her with a camera as a gift. We both took pictures of each others characters. I updated one of the pictures to have a picture of her. She tried to do the same for me, but could not change the photo on the wall.

This makes her feel like she can not contribute to the world in a meaningful way. She plays as a sidekick, not as someone who has any ownership of the world. This is a terrible flaw in the games design.
This is not true co-op. This is her being invited to my game.

Because of this, I can not recommend this game for folks who want to play co-op. If or when this changes, I will change my review.

No Man's Sky is a sandbox (the largest sandbox in video game history) that offers many different ways of playing the game both through how you choose to play, and through the game settings. You can make the game as easy or as hard as you like it.

• The game has received 24 content updates since it launched in 2016 and not a single penny has been charged to the customer/player for any of them, regardless of the 5 or 6 platforms the game is played on, even in todays rotten economy where other games are charging you hand over first, in some cases the retail box price for a single mount, the developers at Hello Games have stood firm and treated their customers/players with honesty and respect. This alone goes a LONG way for me.

• The graphics hold their own today as many of the content updates have refreshed the graphics. The team has been using a more "mature" sci-fi look recently (I love it) and less "tron" inspired like they did at launch.

• The single player aspect is a wonderful experience. Co-op can be a lot of fun, but there are some bugs and things you have to do to work around some of the multiplayer/co-op limitations.

• The base building can be really fun if you choose to push your limits and "world build", making for an even greater immersive experience.

• Exploration is insane. There is more to do in this game than humanity can literally complete in the entirety of our existence. If you are super ADD about being a "completionist" than this game may challenge you.

• There is little to no PVP. If PVP is your main love, then you will mostly not like No Man's Sky.

• The multiplayer/co-op experience could be worked on and improved. It still feels a bit rudimentary.

• I personally wish there was more of an RPG aspect. I wish we could name our avatars independently of Steam and I wish there were more body customizations. I also wish we had actual faces with a robust character creator. I do not "connect" with my avatar in the same way I can connect with my avatar in typical MMORPG's.


Overall I have really enjoyed my time in No Man's Sky and I eagerly look forward to future updates. I wish I could thank Sean and the team in person with a firm handshake for their efforts in continuing to support and make No Man's Sky a fun experience.


Here is a screenshot (unmodified) from a town in game I call "Desolation Gulch".
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2997078522

I did not find this game fun at all.

The world looks amazing. The music and sound effects are amazing.

I am enjoying PVE and some of the new content, but the devs have absolutely REFUSED to fix bugs that have been reported countless times (the housing bug issue) over the course of 15 months.

With the recent announcement that they are shutting the forums down, with no reliable place to post bugs (cant post screenshots in discord or "submit feedback" in game), it appears to me that they are working towards finishing what they are working on TO SELL, then put the game in to maintenance mode.

I doubt new world will be around for more than a year, if it makes it that long.

Buyer beware. This game is hosed.

I just hit 2000 hours in Starship Evo, I think its time to give a review.

For starters, this game is phenomenal when it comes to building or creating spaceships, space stations, hover crafts, etc. The limit of what you can create has less to do with the game and more to do with your own personal experience and or creativity. The game is also great at pushing your limits and personal growth.

I have spent a fair amount of time in the past 7 years in building games and Starship Evo is the absolute best, by a landslide in regards to creative freedom. Its simply unparalleled. Even in the past year of playing the game, the developer has cranked out new rendering, better lighting, more tools, more bricks to build with...the game just gets better and better.

The game does not have any survival or game play at the moment, but that is to be expected in an early alpha early access game. If you want to try this game out, do so because you want to build cool stuff, not for survival elements. The developer still has a lot of work to on that front.

As far as the developer goes. I have had a number of personal interactions with him. He is kind, honest and extremely hard working. He takes feedback into consideration and makes changes if they are appropriate and necessary. He is an intelligent person and has as much passion for this game as even the most seasoned gamer/builder. He loves spaceships as much as you do and he loves seeing peoples creations and I have to imagine the cool stuff people crank out, fuels him to keep at it. Starship Evo espouses inspiration.

The game has bugs here and there, but he is fairly quick to fix them (sometimes a bug may not get fixed because something is changing in coding that will fix it anyway, he is smart with his time).

I know folks do not like to read a lot, so ima keep this short, but overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Starship Evo, I play it almost daily, in fact its running right now. It is great for building, still has a LOT of work to do for survival and game mechanics, but those will come in time. Patience is a virtue.

I paid 20 bucks. I have played for 2000 hours...I DEFINITELY got my moneys worth!

Thanks Tsuna, keep up the good work!

Still learning tools but already looks promising.