Recent reviews by Shraeder

This game is decent, but don't expect a AAA game. I feel like there are a few improvements that could be made, and maybe a few additions to enhance the gameplay loop, but overall I'm satisfied with my purchase, and still boot it up regularly.

I think I'm going to address the negative review comments first. Having played this game more than the average number of hours, I feel I have a better overall picture of the game. Some of these negative reviews are from people who have barely scratched 3-5 hours.

A lot of people who have reviewed this game complain about long travel times. When you unlock the heavy plane, there is a fuselage that allows you to continuously boost and you can travel very quickly to the other islands. Alternatively, there is a perk in the "Upgrades" tab that allows every plane to "lock on" to an island and your boost speed is significantly increased. You can reach just about any island in less than 20 seconds with this enhancement.

Other people have mentioned the "grinding" that's involved in the game. I feel like for the most part, the pacing is fine. I've unlocked a decent amount of content at just about 35 hours. I feel like a lot of people aren't going to the other island towns and talking to the bar owners to unlock more worthwhile contracts. Also, there are plane modifications that make harvesting much easier. For example, on the heavy plane, you can equip auto-turrets that harvest crops from trees. This, combined with the magnet ornament makes collecting materials so much faster. It's also important to diversify your fleet. Having a plane for every occasion makes the mid to late game so much moire rewarding.

I think lastly, I'll address the voice acting. Yes, it's AI. No, it's not particularly good. But honestly, I don't really understand why people have such a big problem with it. There are countless negative reviews that only seem to mention the VA, and none of the gameplay. I've played (and enjoyed) games that have had REAL voice actors that were worse. The Battalion Wars series comes to mind. At the end of the day, You can just turn the voice audio off it it really bothers you. There are very nicely styled subtitle cards that will pop up any time anyone is talking.

This is the part of the review where I'll mention some things I feel can be improved:

I feel like a lot of improvements can be made in the brewery. The percentages for ingredients in recipes is kinda awful. I feel like it should be a minimum number of items instead of a minimum percentage. I don't want to have to do math when the percentages don't add up to 100. The "skill based" yeast scooper seems like a weird choice. It doesn't really seem to fit well with the rest of the brewing UI. There have also been too many times that I've looked at the wrong abv percentage (one for fermenting and one for distilling) and overshot/undershot the target for the contract. I feel like selecting which you are making beforehand makes more sense.

There should also be a way to sell excess brews other than dumping them in your bar. Maybe a shipping port, or even the floating markets could take them off your hands for like 20& off? I end up with way too many filling my base's inventory.

The light planes are very quickly outclassed by the heavy planes. I feel like the only reason that you would want a small plane is for the missile wing set for combat and the fishing pontoons. Otherwise, the lack of inventory space and health makes them not anywhere remotely as useful as the heavy planes. They also don't seem to be that much more maneuverable than their heavier counterpart, so any real advantages they should have in combat seem overshadowed by how much longer a heavy plane can stick around. I think what I'd like to see if higher speeds and maneuverability, as well as some more interesting weapon systems on the light planes to maybe just make them more combat oriented, while the heavy planes do all of the collection and delivery.

Overall, this game was worth the money I paid. I still enjoy the gameplay loop, even though there isn't a ton left to accomplish. I look forward to seeing either more updates to add more content, or maybe a 2nd installment with some of the improvements mentioned. I think this game didn't really take off because it wasn't really well advertised. I kinda had to go searching for this kind of game. I think with the improvements mentioned above, and maybe some changes to the UI and hiring some real voice actors, a second installment of this franchise would really take off.

FUN EXTRA NOTE:

This game fully supports HOTAS hardware right out of the box. I really have to hand it to the devs, because for some reason that functionality is left out of games like this. There are far too many flight sim and space sim games that don't bother adding native support, so it's a refreshing change of pace to see an indie dev add this.

From someone who has almost 900 hours (in just the steam version alone) I feel confident that I can give you a very meaningful review. I've been following this game before it launched, and bought it both on epic and steam. Coffee Stain really knocked this one out of the park, and I really can't commend them enough for the effort they've put into this game and the changes they've made from community feedback. Even though I didn't develop this game, Coffee stain has really made us all feel like we've been a part of this monumental project with their consistent dev updates and their amazing Q&A site. I'm happy to finally see this game come to 1.0, and see all of the new people getting to enjoy this game for this first time.

Anyways, here's my review:

Satisfactory is an absolute gem for anyone who loves building, automation, and exploration. The game offers an incredible sense of freedom as you construct massive factories and optimize your production lines. There's something truly satisfying about watching your creations come to life, from the simplest conveyor belt setups to sprawling, efficient megafactories.

The open-world environment is breathtaking, with stunning landscapes and a sense of scale that makes every project feel monumental. The exploration aspect adds another layer of excitement, as you discover new resources, creatures, and biomes that push you to adapt and expand your operations.

What really sets Satisfactory apart is how it encourages creativity and problem-solving. There’s always a more efficient way to build, and experimenting with different layouts or tackling new challenges keeps the game fresh and engaging. The multiplayer mode is also a blast, letting you collaborate or compete with friends to create the ultimate factory.

Overall, Satisfactory delivers an incredibly polished and addictive experience that’s both relaxing and challenging. If you’re a fan of building games or just enjoy a sense of progression, this game is a must-play!

This game is a lot of fun and has a lot of potential. I'm mostly bummed out by the lack of controller support beyond just xbox and playstation. This is a space-sim after all, and it would be great to use the HOTAS I spent hundreds of dollars on specifically for these types of games.

In it's current state, it hasn't been very playable for me. At one point, I died in the tutorial because it told me to put a gas mask on, and then attach the canister to it, but it did absolutely nothing to keep me alive. I then couldn't even respawn, it just showed my lifeless character for what seemed like an eternity. I restarted the game and my character just fell out of the world. It doesn't exactly bode well for the continued functionality of the game.

I may pick this back up after it's seen a few bug fixes, but as of now, I haven't even been able to leave the tutorial area.

PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION: Flawless Execution. Forfeit All Mortal Possessions

I know my review scoring system may be odd, but believe me, it’s better than giving it a super generalized score that makes a quantitative statement of qualitative aspects. These numbers do not indicate a negative or positive score of the game. They are intended to give you a better understanding as to what the core gameplay will incorporate. I will be explaining each of the scores individually below, and I hope you enjoy this short summary of my experience so far.

RED BARRELS: 5/5
These indicate the level of chaos and the wow factor of the game and this game definitely earns its score. From the ragdoll physics and friendly fire damage, to the wide range of explosives and visuals, this is one of the easiest games to rate in this category. The friendly fire and ragdoll physics make for hilariously chaotic gameplay at times. The combination of the two never fails to be crowd pleasers, and certainly is done well here. The “Stratagems” are an incredibly unique twist to the “Contract and Extract” game genre. While calling in ammo and other supplies may not be new to this type of genre, the way you do it definitely adds to the Red Barrel factor. In this game, calling in gear is done via key combos. You use the control key and the WASD keys in a style very reminiscent of DDR or the Konami Code. Often, you have to use these “Stratagems” in stressful situations, and getting a single keystroke wrong means you have to start over. The level of pressure helps to increase overall immersion and feels a little more realistic than interacting with something by pressing “F”.

CALCULATORS: 1/5
The Calculator score is best described as the need for critical thinking, math, and possibly spreadsheets. This game scores pretty low on this scale, but again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is a small amount of strategy involved in picking which of the 4 stratagems you equip for a mission, as well as your character loadout. The same could be said for picking the order in which you complete contracts before extracting. The weapons are fairly balanced, but there doesn’t appear to be a single loadout that can easily complete every mission. You may compromise on your weapon loadout and have to make up for it in stratagems. The order in which you complete contracts in each mission may very well change the outcome of your deployment as well. Otherwise, it’s not really rocket science. Just play with whatever gear you like, and you should be fairly capable on the battlefield.

CLOWNS: 4/5
This score is based on the humor factor. This game combines a lot of aspects of humor, and one plainly obvious facet is satire. In this universe, you play as a soldier fighting for a dystopian government that has left the bounds of the earth to settle many planets in the galaxy. The game bombards you with the propaganda of “Super Earth”, in a way that is very reminiscent of Starship Troopers. The overly-patriotic advertising and narration makes for a funny setting. This trope can be a very effective form of comedy and has worked well for a few other titles, including this one. The other major factor of comedy comes from the gameplay itself. As mentioned before, this game incorporates ragdoll physics and friendly fire. Almost every match will involve at least one funny incident as a result of one or both of these occurring. It’s a very simple formula, but has been perfectly executed.

SKULLS: 3/5
This score is based on the overall difficulty. There are several factors to consider, because difficulty is very hard to quantify. I’ll start off by mentioning that this game would likely be moderately difficult for a player who is just getting into shooters. There are a lot of prompts to interact with, as well as the simplified HUD reducing the info for the player. The Konami Code-like stratagems and the occasional minigames for terminals may be challenging for someone brand new to gaming. However, I personally have thousands of hours in shooters, puzzle games, and simulators. This of course, would be trivial for an experienced player. This is remedied by the fact that you can choose which difficulty to play. The trivial game mode only has one contract and very few enemies, which may be helpful to new players. As you increase the difficulty, so does the complexity of missions and the variety of enemies. This makes for a very smooth transition between each of the levels, and can help new players learn fairly quickly. The harder difficulties can prove to be very challenging. Often, it can be impossible to complete them by yourself, or will require a lot of strategy to finish the contracts and extract safely. This means that experienced players won’t feel as though the game gets too easy and lose interest quickly.

HATCHETS: 0/5
The number of Hatchets indicate the level of survival components to a game. In this case, there are absolutely none. Just a reminder, this is not a negative score. This is simply indicating that this is not a quality this game possesses. There is a currency to purchase new equipment, as well as a “science” aspect for unlocking new ship upgrades to help with stratagems, but none of these are necessary to your survival.

GOLD NUGGETS: 3/5
This score indicates the objective uniqueness of the game. This game isn’t exactly “world-shatteringly” different from other titles. However, there are some very unique features that make it stand out. The gameplay loop feels very similar to that of other “Contract and Extract” games in this genre. The number of missions,the procedural generation of the maps, the enemy types, and the biomes, mean that no two missions will be exactly the same. It’s very similar to Deep Rock Galactic in that regard. What sets this game apart is the stratagems and minigames on the terminals. As mentioned before, the way you call in items and strike packages is a fresh perspective on this format of game. It makes the experience feel more skill-based than just waiting for a timer, or selecting an item with the number keys. You have to learn to use these skills under pressure, and the muscle memory isn’t immediately communicative from other games. This makes this title much more interesting, as you will have to develop a competency that other games will not help you with. Learning something new in a game usually makes for fun experiences.

WRENCHES: 4/5
Our final score deals with the playability and stability of games. Since its meteoric rise to fame upon launching, this game has been quite controversial. From what I gather, neither the development teams, nor Sony were expecting such a massive success from this game. The first installment of this franchise barely saw over 6000 concurrent players. This game has had roughly 100x the active player count as the previous version. With over half a million concurrent players, the servers were at capacity for a few weeks. Several players mentioned they were unable to play the game for days due to the overwhelming number of people who have purchased this game and were attempting to connect to the online services. As of March, players have not been reporting this as an issue, and from the sounds of it, more servers have been deployed to handle the gargantuan load. Almost every negative review as of this moment appears to be attributed to server issues that have since been resolved. The only other issues I have seen were isolated bugs and occasional crashes. But from what I can tell, the development team has been hard at work since I am unable to reproduce several of them since various patches have been released. The only issue not currently resolved is the armor rating system. Currently, the armor value doesn't seem to affect anything. It sounds like the devs are hard at work attempting to solve this, but as of early march, is still broken.

FINAL REMARKS:
Overall, I highly recommend this game, and It's definitely going to be a trend-setter.

I want to start off by saying that this is one of the most engaging VR games I've played. I usually don't like the survival horror genre, but this game does it well. Sure, this game is creepy, and you might get the occasional "self imposed" jump scare (there appears to be no scripted scenes), but I do like that it takes a back seat to the survival elements.

At the time of writing this review, I have maybe around ~35 hours in the game. I spend a lot of time looting and doing side missions and have yet to beat the game. Some people say that there's about 10 hours of gameplay, but honestly I've been playing the game almost as it should be (maybe with a bit more item hoarding and collection than most), and I would say I'm relatively late in the game. I plan on replaying it as well, maybe at a higher difficulty.

The looting system isn't perfect, but honestly better than most VR games. It uses the point and grab method instead of the traditional reach and grab. Some people say that this breaks the immersion, but honestly, it's such a small detail and it still is less intrusive than trying to grab something from thee floor, only to realize you didn't calibrate your floor properly. I have run into a few issues where items get stuck in cabinets that you have to pull open, but those kinds of problems are few and far between. The backpack system is fantastic. Using a visual storage solution where items hover in place is perfect for VR. It not only allows you to organize items however you want, but also becomes punishing when you cram too much stuff into it. You can't easily grab the specific items you want if you are clipping too many objects together. I also like that the carry weight means that you not only have to think about what you loot, but also what you plan to bring into the radius with you. If you over-prepare, you can't bring as much stuff back with you. But if you bring too little, you may not survive.

The gun-play is second to none. Absolutely brilliant. The weapons handle just like their real counterparts. You not only need to keep track of ammo, but your magazines as well. If you leave magazines behind, you can't re-use them and you are limited to as many as you bring with you. You could fill your magazine wherever you want, but during a firefight, it makes the game a lot more interesting knowing you are down to your last few precious rounds. You also need to properly clean and maintain your guns. If you go for too long without cleaning them, they can start to become less reliable. Typically a simple barrel cleaning is enough, but if you go too long between cleanings, you may need to give the gun a good scrub down with a toothbrush and some cleaning spray.

The enemies you come across are also a lot more diverse than I expected. As you progress through the game, you will come across maybe 10 different enemies and slight variations (Don't quote me on that). I'm not going to detail about each one, as I don't wish to spoil the game too much, but they are different enough to keep you on your toes. There are also eerie statues littered throughout the world that look very close to enemies. I promise, you will mistake one as an enemy more than once, lol. But it does get the blood pumping.

It's also obvious that this game is a labor of love, and that the developers clearly intend to support the continued growth of this title. They listen to their community, continue to fix small issues and bugs, add new features, and overall make an effort to improve an already stellar game.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend purchasing this game.

I hate to sound rude, but this has been one of the worst experiences I've had in VR. I know this came out when VR was only just starting to be popular, but The developers have had 4 years to work on some of the small, but plentiful issues this game has. Instead of that, they decided to release a paid DLC. Here are the problems I have with this game:

1) Only The Host Can Interact With Quest Items
*No Melee
*Light Sources Aren't Dynamic (Surfaces Don't Reflect Light For Ambient Lighting)
*The Glowstick Is Virtually Useless (Only Really Lets The Host See Where You Are)
*Random Grabbing Interaction With The Index Controllers

Here I'm going to explain these issues one at a time and propose a solution that could have been devised and implemented in 4 years time:

1) I understand that you may not want other players to interact with quest based items, however, there are already restrictions in place to prevent playing with people you don't know, who might grief a session. If the host wants to give me consent to pull a lever, or hold the flashlight in the mines, I should be able to.

2) Since you cant share ammo between players, it is very common to run out of ammo while the other player may have quite a significant amount still on them. A good solution may be to add melee, or allow players to share ammo. And since guns are the only way to kill zombies in this game, the amount of ammo you have directly correlates to your success in a mission.

3) & 4) I'm covering both of these topics at once with an incident me and my friend came across with the mine. In the mine, there is hardly any light, which is absolutely fine. A lot of good zombie/horror games have very decent low light level design. The only problem is that since the only light sources aren't dynamic, they only light a certain radius, and don't fill a space. Even with the host (the only person able to use the flashlight) couldn't see the sights on their own gun because the lighting is very poor. And I, with the glowstick, wasn't able to do much of anything. I at one point dropped a gun (because I'm using the index controllers and was having plenty of issues using them in this game, which I'll get to later) and couldn't even see where it had gone because the light radius of the glowstick is about 1 foot. I had to have the host shine their light on the floor to help me find it. Even turning on the generators for the extra light was almost worse than the light being off. The bloom from the incredibly bright light sources made it even more difficult to see, since it wasn't solved by pointing the flashlight in that direction.

5) The last gripe I have with this title, is the index support. While the controllers work right out of the box, the game clearly hasn't been re-polished for the grabbing mechanic. I was constantly struggling with the guns switching hands when my controllers got too close, or randomly grabbing guns from the holster. This was especially frustrating in the mine, as I couldn't even see my hands or my weapons. I would often find that I was holding my empty hand out instead of the gun that was in my other hand.

This isn't just a game, this is art. The sounds and the visuals are masterfully produced, bringing a wonderful atmosphere that flows very smooth through each biome as you travel along. The music is clearly composed for specific moments of the game, giving strong emphasis on the setting and your overall feeling. I've never felt such emotion during a game, ever. I've never really played a game like this before that can tell a story without any language, and I must say, it's really quite something. Unlike a lot of newer games, the emotions and story are not forced. As you travel along, You build your own feelings and learn the story in your own unique way. It certainly doesn't hold your hand in the way that lots of other linear style games do. I strongly recommend going into the game not knowing anything about it. in order to get the full effect that the game clearly was designed to give, I wouldn't even watch any gameplay footage. As far as the gameplay goes, The puzzles and overall game mechanics are simple, yet challenging. Juggling the various tasks of keeping the landship moving and solving puzzles along the way, can be very challenging. It's a great mix of story and problem solving that really give your brain an excellent exercise. I would love to see either a continuation of this series, or perhaps an expansion pack. 9.5/10

This game was the first in the series that I had played. I have to say, this game, despite it's age, Is one of the greatest games of all time. If you really pay attention to the story, you start to have feelings for the individual characters. no one character seems static. they all have their own personalities. What really sets this game apart from the crowd, is the gameplay. you can play it just for the interesting story and you stick around afterwards to collect all of the mysterious items and guns. I really love that you can pick up this game anywhere in the series and still feel connected to the characters and story. It teaches you to love the characters you used to hate. If this were somehow a movie, it would definitely make the top 10 charts for its story quality, and the gameplay is phenomenal. overall, I'd give this gme a 10/10

It can be a bit buggy at times... but it is much better than battlefield and of course, better than call of duty. this game helps you learn leadership skills and how to work with teammates. you get to meet some interesting people. you can also solo or have a tiny squad and still be very effective and the new system for balancing weapons really brings out the skill rather than showing who has a fatter wallet.