Recent reviews by The Dougler

This game is really good but its not nearly as good as it could be. The game is very complex, (in a good way) but its user interface is the source for most of that complexity. Instead of designing a complex system to maintain power or atmosphere I'm spending my time attempting to understand a complex interface and making a simple system. Too much of the challenge comes from wrapping your brain around the arbitrarily complex method of building the thing rather than making a sound system.

Ideally a problem solving game should allow you to focus on the problem as much as possible and not the boilerplate of playing the game. In Factorio I can place objects with a single click and remove them with another. This is not realistic, but it allows the player to focus on the problem being solved with the wires rather than the boring reality of physically placing them. Because it takes me less than a second to place a wire or remove it, I can try many things and learn what works. With Stationeers requiring you to manage different tools, multiple items, which hand the item is in, and all sorts of boilerplate to accomplish the same thing you are slowed down and spend more time running back and forth getting the correct tool rather than solving problems.

Realism vs gameplay is a tough balance, and I think this game while being very good has not quite struck that balance yet. This game need to simplify around the complexity. Keep the many interlocking complex systems, but simplify how you build them. Building an appliance shouldn't take two different tools and multiple trips to your material storage, this does nothing but slow down building. Secondly drop the overly realistic control scheme and adopt minecraft's. Give me a single inventory and a hot bar instead of two slots with multiple inventories of different types that open with different keys. Lastly individual parts provide no where near enough information to the player. The game shows its development status most in this. It is excusable due to its status, but it certainly hurts the games sales as new players will so rarely invest hours in an online wikepedia merely to appreciate a game they've bought. Most will just get a refund when hit with a wall of (rewarding) complexity and very little information as to how to solve it. Even just tooltips on hover for an items usage would be a huge improvement.

This is the first game I've ever felt compelled to write a review for. In fact this is the first review I've ever written. I say that to give you the proper context of just how good this game is. This game is simple, beautiful, and a joy to play. I would not be surprised to see this game used as an example in a University level game/user interface design class. Very few games get every little detail right, this one does. Whether through the developers design prowess, the games simplicity, or a combination of the two, they've achieved a flawless game. This game does one thing, and it does it very well.