Recent reviews by e+

So my biggest complaint from the base game is that the puzzles were way too easy. In this DLC, puzzles are still not that hard, apart from the 3 extra puzzles. They will make you life miserable. I wish all puzzles were as hard, but oh well I guess people get easily frustrated. Anyway, I recommend the DLC, it is a step in the right direction.

If you enjoyed Myst, this one is at times better.

Better than GTAV in quite a few ways. Awful PC performance without mods. Even with mods, performance can suck bad. Would still recommend though. Let's hope GTAVI won't be a bad port when it comes to PC.

First I will start by saying I recommend this game. It is good.

There are some things however that the first game was better about.

The environments while beautiful at times feel waaaay too huge and the game becomes a walking/running simulator.
There are more puzzle mechanics and items such as inverter, combiner, the drill (forgot what it was called but you know which one i mean), however it seems to me that the puzzles are a tad bit easier than the first game. And I am already inside the megastructure, having collected all stars and optional puzzles.

I still recommend the game; it is a good game. Maybe I am way too early to get to the more difficult parts, but it just feels that the first game is just a bit harder. I don't know, it might be nostalgia. It is always the case where people would expect more from a sequel and I have taken that into consideration when writing this review. However, I still feel that the game could have been even better. It's not a bad game, so if you liked the first, you will like this one as well. Just don't expect to be blown away the same way when you played the first one.

EDIT: I have completed the game, it took me 40ish hours to get to 100%, this includes going through the dialogues, exploring, etc, I am sure speedrunners can do it way quicker.
My previous points still stand as I never spent more than 15 minutes per puzzle, admittedly there were some which felt a bit tougher but still nothing like Road to Gehenna DLC from the first game. Also, level W2 was a huge pain to walk through the map, I do like that this is the way to hide certain things from the players but there should be at least some fast travel option (excluding the one where you have to get to the capsule in order to use it).

I like that the frame and base for future mods is there. I don't like that paradoxmods and editor have still not been released.
I do not care so much about the performance issues. If you want a sophisticated and complex simulator that can handle hundreds of thousands of cims, traffic, trees, assets, water physics, I know that performance-wise the game will lag, no matter what. Sure, optimisation is needed, but I do not think it must be the sole focus and the priority so many players rant about.
I recommend the game, although I really can't wait for editor and workshop and think it would have been better to have those from the start.


EDIT: leaving a negative review because this game has still not received mod support, asset and map editors are missing despite the promises of the devs they would add them at a later point. This game was rushed to launch and that is its biggest problem. Probably it has something to do with Paradox and not CO but I don't care to be honest: the game is unfinished even 4 months after release. There is no communication from the devs and publishers, on top of that when mod support eventually comes to this game, mods will NOT be on steam workshop, because again, having 12987192 launchers and 231987192 websites for mods is all the community EVER wanted, right?...

This game at its current state is quite "janky". Yet it somehow is unbelievable fun. I really hope it gets even further additions and not get tossed out like Stranded Deep. For the 50 hours I played, the game crashed only once and I got stuck in some ruins (had to wait to die from starvation) but that's about it, considering it is still early access, those things are surprisingly rare. Yet AI is kind of bad, graphics are quite outdated and the general feeling is just not great, but then again, I cannot stress enough that I did have fun playing the game and can see it getting better with future additions and polish.

THE REVIEW CONTAINS NO SPOILERS REGARDING THE STORY:


I know it is too early to give a proper review so what you read now might be edited later to add more information.

The game is early access. It blows my mind how stable the game is, so far I haven't had crashes, performance issues, gamebreaking glitches and such. This is absolutely great for early access. But on to the actual gameplay:
A lot of content from the first game (weapon upgrades, soups, having to boil dirty water, is still missing but I am confident Endnight will add it before full release.
That being said, the game copies way too many things from the original - not a bad thing in itself but we definitely need new additions - the 3d printer is cool, and I absolutely fell in love with the new building system. But we do need more new things and mechanics.

Speaking of the new building mechanics, while I do love them and I do see a lot of potential, I cannot help but notice it is quite bland at this point. There is almost no furniture, only 2 traps, the buildings are all rectangular and it is no longer possible to build an irregular shaped base. Some things are either not there, or not explained properly so hopefully that will also be fixed or added to the game.

The cannibals are moving much more fluidly in comparison to the old game, overall the AI is better as they try to surround you, though occasionally they do get stuck. I'm yet to find more creepies as I have only met the blind cave dudes who also give creepy armor for some reason despite being easy to kill, and I have met Fingers as well as Twins. I haven't met what used to be called Virginia (not the friendly NPC), Cowman, Armsy but perhaps they do exist somewhere. Anyway, larger mutant variety is always welcome.

The graphics are quite good though there is still some jankiness here and there. Honestly, given the hype, I expected to be slightly disappointed but I am not. This game is good. It is still Early Access but it is good. Hopefully all the missing mechanics will be added to the game at some point.

I have almost 50 hours now. This game has some potential but the negatives far outweigh what could have been a good game. Where should I start...

Building mechanics make absolutely no sense. There is literally no gameplay difference between building a twig shack and a brick fortress (apart from costing you significantly more). Not only that, there is zero incentive to build *anything* at all, as buildings won't protect you against rain, wind and cold - they simply do not exist in the game apart from visuals/sound fx. Animals pass through walls so no point in building a base, apart from trying to RP which in this game gets boring fast.

Same applies for rafts - different materials used to build the raft hardly matter at all. Do not read what is written as information - I can barely notice any difference in the way the raft behaves if it is built using different materials. So why you need level 4 crafting to build the barrel raft when a twig one can do as much is beyond me. Or, why do you need to put an expensive brick floor on top of the raft base when you can go around with planks of wood. Also, bricks as a raft floor - are you serious? And if you are trying to haul barrels - no matter how big your raft is, you can barely load a barrel or maybe two (if you are lucky) before the raft starts sinking or going awry in circles. In my game, I managed to transport a couple of barrels using the starting dinghy - so the only reason to build a raft is speed and to be able to haul crates on a shelf. You cannot even build some sort of a half-wall to prevent stuff like tyres and barrels from falling off.

Resources are also bland and far not enough. Sure, the basics are there but oh my god, the crafting menu and UI is abhorrent. It is all over the place, you cannot favourite certain items, only pin what you will need to gather before crafting it but not actually craft it unless you go again through all the menus. Horrible. Variety is bad, soon you will end up with dozens of label makers, compasses, underwater torches, vehicle parts which are fairly useless if you already have 1 of each (or a few in the case of vehicle parts). Inventory is disorganised and honestly this is the only game where your empty hands count as a part of the inventory. On top of that, you can easily stack everything in boxes and then pick the boxes with the items inside, game seems to not care. But as soon as you have all the slots occupied and have - lets say 2 axes, you suddenly cannot equip neither as the game tries to split them into two slots - without any logic whatsoever. A total mess.

AI is also incredibly poor for a game this new. Animals get stuck on everything, combat is incredibly clunky and lacking anything interesting. Sound effects are lacking, soundtrack is nice but very short and easily becomes very repetitive as everything else in this game. And why the hell do the tiger sharks make a growling noise when biting?! They are sharks, not tigers. What's next? Horse flies that neigh??? Graphics can either be good or bad - some aspects are nice but they still feel very outdated.

All that being said, there are some good features. Procedural generation offers some replayability so long you are not incredibly bored by the time you finished the game the first time. The map itself is not infinite as the devs would like you believe, rather it consists of a few dozens small islets but scattered around differently every game.

There is also an option to create custom maps and islands but the map editor is so frustratingly terrible to navigate, this options is borderline useless. Trying to build a simple island, raise tool actually lowers the land, the other tools are buggy as hell, did not stay there for more than 5 minutes, it was THAT buggy.

Overall, you will like the idea of this game, but not the game itself. There are way better games in the same category out there.
If you are still willing to buy, do not buy at full price. This game does not deserve to be priced that high.

EDIT: typos.

This game is typical for R* - Single player - a masterpiece; MP - a generic soulless adaptation of the SP world, unworthy of your time. But dunno, if GTA online was your thing you might like it. I play it solely for the story experience.

I absolutely recommend this game. Good story, great graphics, cool mechanics. There could be some more stuff added, like fences and such and more could be desired from enemy AI but that in no way is a dealbreaker. This game is fantastic. One of the few games I would recommend even on full price. It is worth it. Great job, devs!