Recent reviews by Maragnus

I purchased this to be played co-op with my daughter. Unfortunately, when using the Steam Link, all attached controllers including the keyboard only controls the main character. Yet all of the controllers appear in the options menu. I returned the game without playing it. It looks awesome but did not work for the specific reason it sounded fun to me. I waited patiently until a stable version came out and it still wasn't quite ready.

Fueled by my love of sandbox games like Space Engineers, Empyrion and Minecraft combined with the "promises" made by Sean Murray in videos, pre-ordering at an AAA price was a done deal.

By "promised", I mean everything that Sean said was part of the game. When you say something in your outloud voice on the internet about your game without saying "MAY" or "COULD" is a promise, especially when you're still using those same lying promotional content after the games release.

The game as "promised" would have been an AAA game worthy of a AAA price. The game as is, is not worth the current price. It feels like an early-access with final graphics and placeholder crafting, story and mechanics.

They've "promised" to keep working on the game without charging for DLCs. But I don't believe in the promises for Hello Games anymore.

1) AAA means appeal to everyone, satisfy noone.

The pre-released game sounded challenging, wonderous, rewarding. But it actually lacks all three. I truly enjoyed my first 10 hours or so. After that, I knew everything that I needed to know. I had seen every combination of every structure and every planet started to feel the same. The rest was a grind just to try and find value with the Atlas and center of the galaxy.

Every time I was driven to accomplish something, I was disappointed in the results. Find every species on a planet? Follow the path of the atlas? Reach the center? Reach the maximum of each species faction? Nothing. No meaningful reward for the effort.

2) Discoveries are lackluster

I spent an incredible amount of time on my second planet and upgraded my suit entirely and got almost every single multitool, suit and ship upgrade unlocked for crafting. Once I got them all, I never had a reason to hit any drop pods, damaged machinery, operation centers or shelters. All of the challenges were underwhelming and painfully easy. My first time underwater should have been exciting, but it was just another disappointment. Every planet feels the same and most useful resources are available on every planet or moon.

3) Disappointing story.

There is nearly no story complexity and a linear path through the two potential options. You're along for a ride with a few waypoints and the endings are not satisfying. It makes some big promises but there is no doubt in my mind that it actually did nothing at all. The story text was engaging and exciting.

4) There is no challenge.

Hostile planets, sentinals, pirates and I died only once, by accident, because I alt-tabbed out and couldn't get back into the game without Googling it (it is open Task Manager, click Bring To Front). I've never been at risk of dying, even with four-star wanted level harvesting restricted resources from a planet. Occasionally I'd need to blast one of the big guys with a single grenade so that the damage overlay wasn't obscuring my vision.

3) Upgrades are limited

Once I had enough room in my ship for three warp upgrades, three weapon upgrades and a couple shields, upgrading my ship lost value. It was too much work anyway since you can only carry over half the materials it took to upgrade it the first time. Once I got a 20-slot multitool, there was no need to grind through upgrading another. And my suit was maxed very early on.

4) Pace and Expression

The game is slow paced, which is exactly what I was hoping to get. I can sit back and play, explore and grind away. This works in Minecraft because your hard work from grinding is used to express yourself in building. But you can't truly express yourself in this game. You get whatever random ship you can find or afford to buy. So far, I've only shared my inventory layouts with my friends. I've never shared anything from a planet, because they've all already seen it before. Some goofy, illogical creatures are disappointing and immersion breaking. Hopping pinapples and fat dogs walking impossibly on hind legs should be amusing, but it just wasn't.

And they take it too far. The interface is slow and cumbersome, requiring confirmation on every button you press. Eventually, the tedium of refueling my launch thrusters kept me from exploring anything planetside that looked remotely interesting. That and the horrible planet side flight mechanics not letting me land reliably on pads or buoy posts. The clunky, lumbering interface really drained my enthusiasm for refueling and rebuilding after getting a new ship or gun.

The game works excellent with the Steam Controller and Steam Link. Most of my play has been in those drony hours after the kids are in bed.

I have been enjoying this game since June 2014 and created dozens of colonies over hundreds of hours of game play. Tynan is making constant improvements, adding new features and depth to the game. It has now brought the stories filled gaming from Dwarf Fortress into a futuristic world.

My only caviat is the difficult settings. They are alright but it jumps from casual, unrewarding play to relentless and brutal. If you want a challenge but you're not willing to lose everything and start over, this may not be the game for you. You could get back-to-back raids without a chance to recover. Or a tough assault to early that cleans out every pawn. But it's worth it. Because next time you prepare a little early for that outcome. The variety of ways you can be overwhelmed is astonishing and oddly fun, all typically being cause and effect from a decision made long ago.

This definately needs a more robust AI story teller that keeps it interesting but never starts a death spiral that you can't come back from.

Looses the horror charm of the original Doom 3. I never startled or jumped like I did in the dark with the original. I just run ran through the linear levels, pumping lead into unaffected monsters until their death animation started. Guns feel artificial, architecture is repetitive boring.