Recent reviews by Tomthetechie

This has been, and continues to be, a blast to play! This game changes up the survival game formula a bit but doesn't completely reinvent the wheel. I think a lot of players came to this game expecting things to be like the last game they came from and I think that does a disservice to the game this is and those players experiences. This isn't Ark, Rust, Valheim, Tarkov etc. It's it's own thing, there are similarities but those are what make this game part of the same genre. I love this game for what it is, not what it isn't.

At first I hated that my base wasn't permanent, I put a lot of work into it, but as I've cycled through more and more missions I've come to enjoy that. None of it has to be permanent, nothing is sacred. In almost every other game I've played that includes base building, I end up creating a base that somewhere down the line isn't big enough or I may want to change something about it that ultimately requires more work than it's worth. Now I can just try something new next time. I have an outpost, but I haven't yet made that perfect base that I want to recreate. So I'll keep playing with the formula.

This game pushed me to stop hoarding resources. Like what am I saving them for? Use 'em or lose 'em. I spent the time collecting/growing them. Unless I'm expecting more people to drop in, I don't need to gather the maps worth of resources to sit in a storage container.

There is a lot of hate/concern about the perma-death mechanic. I genuinely enjoy it. It creates some additional stakes on drops. I used to have a lot of anxiety about this. I have put in a lot of work into my character, and don't want to lose it, but the stakes are clear on how and why I would. Having done a fair number of solo and coop maps, it really isn't that hard to get back off planet. Sometimes that may cost me my loadout, which sucks, but I can still get off planet with my character intact.

There's also a lot of moaning about pnemonia in a space suit and I agree conceptually it is silly, but as a mechanic, it makes sense. The devs don't want me to live in a cave without some effort. So stock up on some antibiotic or do the work to get a dehumidifier. Simple enough.

There aren't vehicles of any kind. This is a pro and con. It can take a long time to cross the map, but that does require you to do a little bit of planning before you just go. Do I have the supplies I need? How much stuff do I want to bring vs craft at the destination? Do I want to pack light so that I can return with more resources or go prepared in the event of things going sideways? How far do I need to go, and will my base survive while I'm gone (assuming I still need it)? Do I bring a mobile shack and bed roll or run through night and hide in rocks? The farther up the tech tree, the less you have to really plan and that can make for some long boring walks while solo. When in coop, those journeys make for a great time to chat on the journey. The ability to make one in T4 could be nice but to be honest, I'd want it to be the grindiest tech item to craft in the game as it stands.

The workshop items are pretty awesome, they create another set of decisions to be made. What do I bring down to make my (or my team's) life easier? Do I bring X item? It's not as good as a similar thing I can craft on planet, BUT I get it out of the gate. I like that we got some additional slots to drop with as well, makes a HUGE difference. I think that the naneo armor is OP considering that the composite armor costs a relative fortune and isn't really as good but that's probably an unpopular opinion.

The game is regularly getting updates and I appreciate that. There is some valid criticism that it was fully released under cooked but as long as that development keeps happening, I don't really care. this week, I really appreciated the respec option as I no longer have to life forever with my poor life decisions. I feel that it's been implemented well.

I am excited for what comes next in the game. I do hope that T4 gains more utility as the game develops and new missions/DLC get released. I would like to see the ability to get some shorter timed side-missions while on the long missions I think this would spice those up a touch more.

As far as grindiness goes, it's really not that bad at this stage. There are some of the last few benches that haven't really created a niche to justify their existence yet. I can say that the more people you play with, the harder it tends to be to get to T4. There's just more that needs to go around. If everyone wants an hunting rifle, you need 40 titanium per player, that stacks up fast. There are recipes that could use some rebalance and the devs are actively working on that balance.