Recent reviews by JimmmyD

Game really poorly communicated what it was, it's not really a building game or about automation, it's a race - the current tax system charges you 2% of everything you've ever sold, to that end there is an "end' where the tax catches you and you just lose.
But yeah a tax system based on infinite growth just feels disgusting if you're looking at this game like I do as a puzzle for you to figure out for biggest numbers or do a no pause run, the 90% reduced tax newbie mode doesn't fix that at all.
Because the mechanics of the game are poorly signalled (looking at the constant use of wrong tubes by all involved with it) I was really excited but yeah that change kind of removed any sense of Zen or "I'm going to have fun trying to be as efficient as possible.

It's a puzzle game with a ticking clock you need to race, and currently the dev's are moving the goalposts rapidly meaning you can save on something profitable and end up waking up to a patch completely ruining it.
Feels like a rushed job and kind of overpriced for how feature incomplete it is (hopefully it gets better)

Review current as of November 2015 -

Overall I can't recommend this game as it really doesn't feel like "fun" - I bought the game after watching a Youtuber (Many a True Nerd) and being genuinely excited- other reviews have touched upon the AI's stupidity (which for the life of me I can't wrap my head around) and the burtality of getting the balance of production vs consumption wrong whilst buffering for the RNG of falling meteors, map placement and sandstorms.

Pro's:
- Extremely challenging when it feels like the game is "working"
- great concept

Cons:
- AI will frustrate and confuse you, you have no way of interacting or even truely forcing an action, this is dumb and makes your role feel less of an overseer/protector and more of a dimwit with a spreadsheet.
- RNG is king in this game, Sandstorms destroy your ability to relyably generate power, AI might decide to stop tending crops in favour of something else, You can't micro manage so you may be overproducing a resource when you really want the machine next to it, Power generation cannot be accurately gauged as wind is extremely tempremental and using solar only + batteries isn't viable.
- Some maps you'll literally get to the ground, watch the stupid cutscene and realise the map isn't playable - (I got one where it was a valley barely big enough to chain structures together (realistic yes/Fun no)
- The brutality would be fine if the game supported better mechanics - e.g. putting wind turbines on hills/windy locations - hidng your landing pads in areas out of the wind to help mitigate sandstorms, even just creating airlock/tunnel space to allow you to remove/replace buildings you had outgrown.
- RNG controls your development, you need to buy plans for more advanced bots/buildings these plans cost a fortune IF they come before you lose your constructor bot you might have a chance but I've literally had colonies fail on the back of not being able to get another constructor prior to it's lifespan running out (Yes your robots die too).

All in all I didn't have fun even on the easiest difficulty and the harder difficulties are locked behind progression in the easiest - the game just needs some polish and maybe a balance tune to push RNG controlled victory to the medium/hard levels.

What an absolute POS - first week the game was un-runable due to a menu bug that not only caused the game to crash but then proceed to try and eat your computer for lunch... Upon finally getting to run around it's a laggy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it alternates between structured "this is what you should do" and 'hey go make the game yourself" style gameplay which just leaves me feeling like I have no clue what i'm supposed to do. I honestly think i bugged my first quests as I did nothing at all to achieve the objectives... but finally the nail in the cofin for me was falling into a hole in a building with no way to leave, you can't google nether suicide command or anything with the word nether in it without hitting upon a downpour of minecraft related content and no information on the Nether website, i basically decided this was the point to say "I'm done" and move on.
TLDR: These guys seriously have to be kidding with this game, 0/10 DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

Rust is good fun and highly playable - awareness of suroundings and critical base design will make your time on rust better.