Recent reviews by CosmicDan

I've tried to get into this twice now, but I'm just not feeling it....

...now I gave it a third try and gave it more of a chance. Well, it's not AMAZING, but considering it's free and the F2P model is pretty good, it's a decent enough game.

One of the best cRPG's ever made. I am still hopeful that whoever owns the IP makes a sequel happen - the high-fantasy world in an industrial revolution is a super cool setting and the world and lore is well developed.

Get the Widescreen/HD patch and UAP to help play on modern machines.

It's not a "survival" game as prominently displayed in the tags (well, survival in the sense that you need to avoid dying - like almost every game) but a story-driven narrative. Set in a utilitarian near-future society that has endured an earth-changing event, the game succeeds completely in suspending disbelief and immersing you into the setting in spite of the pixel-art style that has made that difficult for me in the past. In fact, i'd even be so daring as to say the pixel art is of benefit to the story telling as it lets your imagination fill in the blanks (if you read books then you'll probably see what I mean).

Horror? I suppose, very soft though. I’d say it’s far more a thriller and mystery. I got a few “wtf” moments but the only jump scares were the kind you get from any game with action.

If you like story-driven games on alternate history, science-fiction, post-apocalypse and mystery, just get it – you won’t be disappointed, take it from a gamer in his 30’s with almost 700 games in his Steam library – this is NOT like other modern games, it is truly a work of art and it reall appealed to my nostalgia. The game may be short but the 4-5 hours you’ll get out of it will be awesome quality – compare it to seeing a great movie at a cinema, only better (I don’t care too much for the cinema).

If, however, you are one of those people who NEEDS to get closure on mysteries, you might consider giving this a pass as the many open questions you'll be left with will annoy you (and I also feel sorry for you).

With that said, I really hope the developers/write make more games set in this universe. They really have a knack for it.

EDIT: I solved my crashes by running the game in windowed mode. But the game has no borderless windowed, and that title bar ruins the experience.

Got this game on launch, was OK. The 30fps cap (which couldnt even be maintained on my 970 GTX) was pretty annoying though, after a good few hours I decided to start over from the beginning after a few patches.

Downloaded last night, went to play today, game just crashes on startup. Reports all over of people who have had this problem since 2016. No logs, no error, nothing - just silent crash to desktop after pressing Launch on the Launcher.

Wish I could get a refund.

A game that launched as so terribly optimized was made even worse. Considering all the other little issues that I was willing to put up with (check the pinned topic in the Discussions - some of the issues are plain embarrassing), the developers really should be ashamed of themselves.

I don't know a lot about 4x and Grand Strategy nor play them much so I don't have a lot of bias/predisposition or knowledge, but I did play a lot of Sins of a Solar Empire and I can say that I see great potential in this one.

It looks and feels very polished, the UI and general design just seems to be really good quality.

The depth is good, but not to a point where it feels too complex. The politics and diplomacy are somewhat random each game (based on the 5 council members you pick from the start based on a random pool, their traits will determine your focus and direction for the whole game) and I particularly like the surveying and artefacts aspect of exploration.

The music is fantastic, the other races look great. For a strategy game, it is incredibly immersive compared to what I'm used to. But again, the only think similar I've played is Sins, which is pretty old.

That's all I have to say for now. If you like space and RTS games, you should like it.

I tried to like this game. It's probably pretty good. But Rufus, the main character, is the most annoying, arrogant, immature person I can think of. And I'm a millenial! I'm sure this is just minority opinion, it's clearly quite popular. Apart from that, it's alright I guess. Just that main character is a dealbreaker.

Firstly, don't pay attention to my play time - I've played this a LOT on Android.

Yes, it's a port from a Smartphone game but don't let that fool you. 9th Dawn II is, much like the first, heavily inspired by old school PC RPG's. I definitely agree with that, it reminds me of games like Ultima and Excelsior from my childhood, except it's realtime and has a great control scheme - if you're using a gamepad then it plays like a twin-stick shooter. With a mouse then the cursor is your attack direction, WASD to move, like many twin-stick shooters on PC also have.

The game is not easy, but not hard either unlike what some others say. Sure, expect to do some grinding and expect to die - but it's not a frustratingly punishing title by any means. It's much more difficult on mobile, which is why I got it on PC.

The port is fantastic, really well done. And so cheap! If you're a fan of any RPG at all, you wouldn't regret buying this - especially for that price. Just be aware that it's not a hold-your-hand game like so many these days. You're expected to READ and THINK a bit (not to the scale of, say, Pillars of Eternity, but yeah).

Eh, just get it, it's cheap as heck and a really unique/nostalgic RPG. Developers like this with such heart really deserve it!

I wasn't expecting much of this game, but I was pleasantly surprised. The art style and presentation got me hooked right away. I don't know what else to really say - if you like RPG's, Hack and Slash, Metroidvania and gothic/gloomy art styles, you shouldn't be disappointed.

Oh, one more thing - people say it's difficult or like a 2D Dark Souls, I honestly don't feel that way. It's not easy, sure, but as soon as you realize you can't just button-mash and actually have to think about how to engage enemies at times then you'll be fine.

Told my colonists to stockpile all the goods from the wreckage and start building a wall. Then one of the women vomitted on the food in the stockpile.

10/10 - would feed my colonists steak with special sauce again.

First, regarding performance: Apart from minor stuttering here and there (which is forgivable for a launch title from an indie developer's first serious PC game), it performs perfectly on my 970 GTX Windows 10 machine. Set framerate cap @ 90fps (important), Vsync OFF (forced on in Nvidia Control Panel to stop tearing) and Borderless Windowed - everything else at default. It is very playable for me and I have no idea why so many are having such severe issues. If you are worried, hold off for a bit until they patch it up.

On to a quick personal review.

It's a game all about discovery and exploration. In most FPS games in the past I often go to look at things with binoculars for lulz as if to "inspect the situation" or just look at some graphic stuff close up and admire, I don't really know but it's fun... and in this game I actually get rewarded for doing that. It really scratches an itch if you're the curious type of person. Some of the creatures are hilariously random too.

I like the "encounter" style of story-telling, too. If you've ever played FTL, Renowned Explorers, or any of those other story-driven rogue-like games (or whatever you want to call them) then you'll know what I mean by encounters. They aren't entirely random though - if you have developed an understanding of the language you might get an advantage, and sometimes they're number pattern puzzles. Hopefully there are more encounters added soon, but so far the lore and "storylet" content is quite captivating for me.

Regarding combat, I've killed maybe three agressive creatures in self defense and only killed one Sentinel (they open fired while breaking into a building), have not done any space combat at all - so I can't really say much about combat. Maybe I'll update this review later, if I remember. Sentinels are comparable to Police in GTA, they are universe police and will check you out if you go around killing animals and mining wrecklessly or blowing up secure installations, but you can hide from them to reduce your "wanted" level. I think that's a really cool system and has potential for great fun in future. Especially if/when multiplayer arrives.

All in all, it's a chill game about atmopshere and exploration - it certainly has a unique charm to it. If you like the idea of being a space explorer/pioneer, you'll probably like it. If you expect it to be a shooter or story-heavy space opera, you're better off giving it a miss - keep waiting for Star Citizen. While there is a fairly strong level of lore and story to the game, it's not the focus - the game is first and foremost a space sandbox/survival/exploration game. That might be too boring for some, but for others it does what it sets out to do really well. It's original, engaging, and has a very captivating art style. I am looking forward to progressing my stories and can't wait to see where the developers take it in future.