Recent reviews by Bipolar Bear

Looks like crap, plays like crap, and has been in EA for a decade which really says something... I was bored and turned off after the 1st 5 minutes but I persevered hoping that would change. It didn't.

It's kinda neat, but I don't think it's worth it yet, and I got it on sale. It shows promise but the building system is atrocious, there isn't much to do, and the game gets old rather quickly. I really like the concept and some aspects of it are executed really well so I'll keep an eye on it and will update my review accordingly in the future.

In one word: pointless.

I trudged through the tedious and aggravating 'stranded in space' campaign which consists of building barely viable vehicles to push around rocks to unlock new parts so you can build bigger and better but still barely viable vehicles to push more rocks for more parts. At the end you blast off into space. Woohoo.

I got this game for the building potential, and while there is a lot of potential there, I quickly became bored because there's nothing worthwhile to do with anything you build outside of the campaign (unless you're into racing), and the campaign was dull. On top of that the selection of blocks is very limited and there's no 1x1 blocks at all. Cosmetic blocks are locked behind coins that you are barely rewarded with for repeatedly performing tedious, boring tasks.

The physics are kind of aggravating, and the blueprints the devs added generally work terribly as well. You know there's a problem when the devs can't even build vehicles that work well. If you build a car with the center of gravity off to one side the car will literally spin in a circle at a standstill.

People have uploaded some amazing builds to the workshop, but there's nothing to do with any of them.. drive/fly around in creative mode for a few minutes, get bored, call it quits. To make matters worse, you're not going to be able to actually build most of those things unless you have ALL of the DLC.

I found that the majority of the time when I closed this game out after a play session I just wasn't happy, I just wasn't enjoying it no matter how hard I tried.

6/10

I love the ship building aspect, and enjoyed going through multiple campaigns testing different layouts and learning how to better defend my ship from hazards. That was my favorite part about this game.

Resource collection is a necessary evil that gets tedious and boring after a while. I enjoyed the planetary missions for a while but then they became just another job. The majority of the time spent in this game is grinding "hold x to blank" tasks like scanning scrap/planets, clearing infestations, fixing nodes, speeding up tractor beam collection and resource refinement, etc. Combat is mediocre but sometimes intense because I don't want my clones to die.

I guess I probably have more bad than good things to say, but I got it on sale and still got enough enjoyment out of it to recommend it.

Meh. I ended up getting bored of this game REALLY fast. I regret not refunding it sooner.

There's 2 game modes.
1) You have to reach a certain score each level to advance, it's pretty unforgiving and you'll start over a lot, playing easy, boring levels over and over.
2) Sandbox mode where everything you do is completely pointless and there is no point system or anything to make the game interesting.

It's desperately lacking a mode in between, one that isn't torturous to play and one that doesn't feel completely pointless.

Now they're putting resources into making a VR version of the game, which doesn't seem at all like something that will make this game any more interesting.

The grind required to progress in this game is simply unreasonable. Maybe it would be more interesting if you weren't just traversing the same exact locations over and over and over, and if you didn't have to painstakingly micromanage the hell out of EVERYTHING constantly.

I'm 19 hours in and my understanding is that it takes 55 hours to complete, I simply don't have it in me to go any further. I even started using CheatEngine to duplicate my items and give myself a ton of cash to help reduce the grind, but the game is still a tedious, unrewarding slog.

For a while the prospect of bigger ships kept me going, and I now have the 2nd to last ship, but I just don't care anymore.

There is absolutely no reason this game should be as long as it is, or the grind as grindy. It would be nice to have some custom settings so that adults with busy lives can casually play the game without having to dedicate hours upon hours to literally going in circles. The devs padded the hell out of this game and it's an absolute borefest after the initial charm wears off.

Also, inventory management is absolute trash, as is much of the user interface. It takes something like 5 clicks just to cancel an action, which may not sound like much until you start having to do it regularly.

I give Diluvion a 6/10. It kind of breaks my heart to write this review because as much as I enjoyed various aspects of it, I just can not recommend it to the average player. I think a lot of love was put into it but I think it required way too much patience. It pulled me in enough that I persevered.

Diluvion gave me a sense of wonder that I haven't felt since I first played Subnautica, which I think says a lot. There's something about quietly poking around the depths of the unknown that really appeals to me. If that appeals to you and you think you're interested in this game, I'd recommend picking it up during a ~$5 sale and giving it a shot.

Sadly, Diluvion is plagued with bugs and many of them are game breaking. I lost count of how many times I had to revert to old saves to rerun quests because I found myself in bugged dead-ends. I had a couple mission items disappear from my inventory - items that could only be obtained once. Sometimes the forger that makes an upgrade module that is required for you to advance further just simply doesn't give you the option, even though you've completed the pre-requisites and have been told to visit them. Sometimes people go missing from your ship, and some people just simply never leave after their quests are over. Some crew members randomly remove themselves from positions you've assigned them to following save/load.

There are many inconsistencies where story events fail to trigger just leaving you confused and stuck. I was constantly searching Google and Steam discussions for help as I played through the game, and I found that there is an extremely limited amount of guidance out there. The problem is exacerbated by there being multiple different versions of the game.

Diluvion doesn't hold your hand a ton which is nice for an exploration game, but sometimes it does a very poor job of guiding you. This is exacerbated by extremely low visibility, which is presumably to hide pop-in because I noticed that for some reason I can see landmarks better from a distance when they're in my periphery versus when they're right in front of me.

Ship-to-ship combat was enjoyable and I really like the ships/landmarks and their interiors. The looting is pretty boring and severely redundant, and the encounters while looting are an awful annoyance. The grind that the game requires is unreasonable IMO. I wanted to retain my sanity from having to suffer through hours of boring looting screens so I downloaded CheatEngine and learned how to multiply my coins and items using that.

Some of the achievements are also broken.

To make matters more confusing, "Resubmerged" seems to be a significantly different game compared to the original from what I've heard. Some prefer the old version and some prefer the new. If you install it you will get the new version, but you can switch to the old. There's also a beta branch off the new version which is supposed to contain a number of bug-fixes that the one semi-active dev works on from time to time. I played on the beta branch.

The developer, zigzagLeo, is an extremely kind and helpful person. I've seen them routinely offer to personally fix bugged save files, which is very generous, but what's going to happen someday if/when they drop support? I still admire the level of support they offer for a game of this age.

Like I said, I think a lot of love has been put into Diluvion, and I know the developers weren't able to achieve all that they had wanted. That's why I don't like writing this review.. but I have to review what is, not what could be. If any of the developers are reading this, I am sorry I cannot recommend the game, but I hope that you don't feel as though you've failed. You have built a wonderful thing, and I was happy to lose myself in it for 20+ hours, frustrations aside. I hope you can take pride in what you've built, and I really hope you can take what you've learned to create a much more solid Diluvion 2 :)

This game sat in my wishlist for years until I finally decided to get it for $3 and I'm very happy I did!

It's unique and surprisingly immersive. I love the art style, the machine, the world and the story as it unfolds. It was short but it didn't feel too short, and I see myself replaying it in the future. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

This is one of the most mediocre games I've ever played with one of the most annoying protagonists ever. It's not a BAD game but I am so glad to be done with it, because it's padded to hell and playing it has been an absolute chore.

The protagonist drives me crazy because he constantly mumbles to himself about damn near every single thing you ever do. Filling up your gas tank for the 1,000th time? Yep, he's gonna point out that you need gas again..

I've wasted so much time staring at Deacon's back while he refuels his bike and skins animals, being forced to drive around Wizard Island at 2mph, and watching unskippable identically scripted cutscenes every single time you save someone. He annoys me so much I downloaded a mod that puts a full-face motorcycle helmet on him so I can pretend he doesn't suck.

The world is decently crafted, the graphics and sound design are acceptable, but the story was just terrible. There is so much time wasted listening to people talk in emotionless, boring cut-scenes that honestly, after a while, are impossible to care about.

I did enjoy some of the early gameplay, before it got super redundant. Clearing NERO stations, exploring tunnels for the first time, clearing camps and hordes are all decent aspects to the game.

I love motorcycles, I love survival, and I love zombies. I do not love this game. It certainly has it's moments, and I'd probably give it a 5.5/10 overall. It just didn't do it for me. I had a lot more fun playing Dead Island, State of Decay, and Dying Light.

I'd rather walk.