Recent reviews by Rhase

So far it has been really fun and led to some ab-aching laughs.

The soundtrack is amazing. The graphics are eh but passable. The concept is fantastic.

I will say it feels like it was not balanced with less than 4 players in mind, even on smaller ships. I would love to see the devs better balance the game and better explain mechanics to new players as there's a whole lot that just flat out isn't told to you.

There are some mechanics that are outright unintuitive. For example, you are effectively punished for repairing minor hull breaches as you can only "heal" the ship with the plates made by engineers for major breaches. It just feels bad to leave minor damage and to otherwise constantly lose hull integrity.

The "difficulties" make zero sense and are not correlated to a missions difficulty. At all.

I really, REALLY want for them to add a protection against double inputs; just a half second of can't re-activate the same thing. The input lag is real and it's frustrating to immediately undo the thing you did, or to have a teammate open the door you just closed etc. A small cooldown (just 1 second) with these interactables would be so helpful. The number of times I've insert a power shard or an ammo crate only to immediately pull it back out is too high.

From an Engineer's perspective I want two major changes: The ability to stay stuck to the hull via a tether or something while in combat to do emergency repairs (there's already enough risk in being shot, so it's not like it's free. You can't put out fires inside AND outside; it wouldn't be imbalanced it would allow for more meaningful decisions).

And also for exterior damage markers to NOT show up while inside the ship. It makes the UI a hot mess when things are also on fire inside. There's no need to see exterior damage from the inside where nothing can be done about it, there is already an indicator on the health bar. That or severely differentiate them visually; again, opacity could be helpful, like make them never more than 25% if they "have" to be shown while in the ship.

The interior damage in general can be frustrating to locate, the yellow triangles are not reliably displayed. I can't explain it, but it also feels like they vanish when I hit my ability, and not in the good way. I can just no longer find them. Maybe let the opacity get closer to 100% as you get closer to the issue? And a more obvious differentiator for full blown defects (Ie: Red or orange).

I know it must sound like I hate the game lol but I really don't. It's fun there's just a lot of polish needed to make it great. It feels like it released to 1.0 a bit too early, but that it will become much better.

Definitely an Indy game with indy jank, but also that good old fun. Just tighten up the mechanics. c:

The controls are hot ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on mouse and keyboard.

I booted it up today after a few years after giving up on it about 50 hours in at launch. I started the alt-tab journey of trying to figure out how the hell to interact with the game the moment I got into space. Nothing is intuitive, it's the most convoluted ♥♥♥♥ control scheme that doesn't even properly explain to you how to use it in the tutorial. If there is ANY place you should be able to figure out a ridiculously unecessarily complicated system to loot a ship you just blew up, it should be in the tutorial.

"Go close and hit e" okay. Googling it you have to switch the control scheme by hitting F first, because why would there only be a single system to control the game in space. No they decided to make two (hopefully only two) entirely separate systems that need to be toggled between. HOW was this the only solution? Given its needless compplication, can't there at least be prompts that pop up to remind you what weird sequence of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you need to do? Or better yet, a smart system that switches based on whether you are in combat or not, or based on lootable proximity?

I was really enjoying the game up until the instant I got into space off the first planet and it all came rushing back; the reason I gave up in frustration. You spend so much time alt-tabbed trying to figure out how to do things in this game.

I've played Beth games since Morrowind and I've been gaming for decades, but this game makes me feel like a boomer trying to send an email.

I can't believe it has been years and Bethesda has done nothing to improve the space experience.

The UI is so abysmal it puts a huge barrier between you and being immersed in the game.

I have no idea if the story is good and probably never will.

I can't get passed the garbage mouse/keyboard controls and I just don't have the desire to rebind my muscle memory for this game.

Maybe it's better on controller. No idea. If you play mouse/keyboard, don't waste your energy there are far better space games that you can immerse yourself in.

It has been a long while since I was so excited to play a game. Since my sleep schedule has been abandoned. This game is near perfect; puzzles upon puzzles as complex or simple as you want it to be, creativity in layout and design, a dash of math and logistics planning, spaghetti. Weirdly it has me focusing on efficiency outside the game, too lol. It hasn't invaded *my* dreams yet, but my friend has dreamt of optimization haha.

It's addicting. I would adore for the devs to keep adding phases to the game, even past the elevator (I haven't completed it yet, but don't want it to end). Or a new map. The main map is huge and has four different starting biomes which feels like 4 total maps, but the exploration is such a huge factor. If they were to make a new planet within the system it would be a fantastic patch for fresh start playthroughs.

The graphics are beautiful, the humor is just right (GLaDOS clearly has a cousin and it's ADA), and I'm 54 dense hours in (no afk time, fully engaged) and still excited to boot it up and work on a project. I'd happily bet there are 75-100 total hours of rich gameplay without fluff, and then countless hours of whatever sandbox fluff you want to add.

That said I am slightly concerned about replay value. We'll see how the devs continue adding. New planets, new phases with new challenges. There's so much potential here.

If you're thinking about it, buy it. You will not be disappointed.


Live. Laugh. C̸͓̯̙̉͆̿̿̋͂̀̌̍͝Ö̶̙͎͔̰̲̩͍̼̰̃̈͐N̷̻̩̠̖̫̳͕̎̅̆̑̍̾̄̄͊͂͐͆͋̉S̶̤̖̥̈́́̈̍̉͋͂̐̀̅̕͜͜͝͝Ǔ̶̯́̾̈́̉̔͒̚͜M̶̻̠͍͚̔́͘͝Ė̸̙͕̳́͊̾̔̀̎͊̾.

Not recommended without a controller, the controls are god awful on mouse and keyboard. Shelving it until a day after I decide to buy a controller for my PC. It's just not fun to play as-is, and rebinding the beykinds doesn't seem to stick. C for crouch? Really? I tried to rebind it to lCtrl as god intended, but it didn't update. It said it saved but it didn't change and I'm not playing a game where I gotte try and rewire muscle memory.

Did they not even try to research standard control schemes? It's UX 101.

It's just hard to believe this game was ever play tested on a PC by anyone other than Naruto with how you have to contort your hands to suit the default keybinds.

I am actually feeling more neutral with the game in its current state, but chose thumbs up in the hopes as it is developed it lives up to its potential.

In its current beta state, I found myself initially enchanted but then bored. So bored. Of doing the same things, talking to the same NPCs and repeating it again and again. I feel like the progression is just too slow paced, or maybe the world is just too small.

Once there is more content perhaps the devs could speed up the initial grind. The pace just feels so off and unfortunately it bucked my interest in the game because nothing was happening. Adding a lot more home styles and craftable stuff to build with would be a good start so people can be more creative in that regard. (obviously that takes time to implement, but I think it's a worthy goal of the art team, along with adding more color palattes and individual color channel dying to objects like many other games have.

The home building is clearly the end game, which is awesome. Owning a home is a fantasy for many people just as unattainable as weilding magic or slaying dragons. But maybe go all in on it feature-wise, as it is currently anemic.

Again it's not a bad game. It's in Beta. These are the things I would like to see for it to hold my interest personally.

Fun survival game to play with friends. The soundtrack is so relaxing and I cannot wait for it to be a fully fleshed out game. We hit the end of the story content available to us at the time in the game, it only took around 20-25 hours, but it's an interesting world to learn the story of through exploration.

One unfortunate problem to overcome is that the larger you make the raft, the more likely it is to have parts of it submerged due to waves. We started building up a new top deck above the base deck to counter this, as it's weird to be in your raft then underwater due to a wave. Basically once your raft gets too long, the physics get weird. Of course IDK if you were ever intended to make a cruise liner out of sea garbage haha.

Unlike Minecraft or Valheim, or other survival games with creative building mechanics, you are a little limited in building by the wave issue, and that you only have your one raft vs expanding to new bases or building up and out for as far as you want. I think it would be neat if the devs added a mechanic to tie separate rafts together so they all interacted with the physics of the waves individually, or maybe even made a "home island" patch someday to be a bit of an endgame, where you build on land but still use the raft to gather materials.

That suggestion aside, this is absolutely worth buying. It's just the type of game that makes you smile, AND you can enjoy it with friends. I would expect an easy 25 hours of entertainment, likely to expand over the course of development.

This game in a nutshell: But wait, THERE'S MORE. And we're not gonna explain ANY of it. GL;HF!

+ MOVEMENT. Gameplay, especially movement, feels stupendous. Addictingly so.
+ NO FOMO. None of that BS. You can drop the game for a year and come back just fine.
+ Taps into that dopamine drip humans get from collecting
+ Can actually be completely FTP, though dropping some plat on slots helps, as the premium currency can be earned in-game via trading items to other players and apart from unlocking more slots faster, platinum is not required to improve gameplay or advance. (Spend plat on slots if you wanna be FTP).
+ Extremely helpful and passionate community
+ NO ADHERENCE TO META. The only time you see specific build requests are for specific farms. Go be creative and play what you like.
+ AMAZING STORY???? It's rare and not the draw, but this is an incredible universe.
+ Obscene amounts of content. Obscene. Overwhelming, really.
+ The hands down best "battle pass" system in all modern games.
+ No FOMO, all items are eventually available elsewhere on timers for ingame currency
+ You can unlock the previous week's challenges if you go all in, so you can binge when the mood hits instead of having to play weekly.
+ Doesn't cost real money to unlock

- Unexpected spikes in difficulty can be frustrating. Explained below
- Similarly, there are rare instances where the core gameplay changes dramatically that can be frustrating, but they are short-lived missions and the story or eventual upgrade system you unlock makes them worth it.
- Extensive systems without any explanation in game; make friends, join discords. Fire up ChatGPT? IDK. You will need to ask questions.

The movement is addictingly perfect. Take a moment to get used to just how mobile your frames are and you'll find other games simply lacking. It is incredibly satisfying, though it can take some time to master as you're able to go very fast with pinpoint control.

Then the systems start when you gather your first mods. Neat! As you play, there are more and more and more and more systems to increase power. It can become overwhelming and is confusing, but will rarely prevent you from playing. There are a few quests designed for higher strength builds that you can run into too early (We All Lift Together! .... except that defense quest is so so so hard as a MR2 Excalibur without a companion and no other means to attract aggro off a tiny beacon.)

That was a hard quitting point for me, though I eventually came back. Beware that if something feels incredibly difficult when the game is generally Dynasty Warriors in Space, you have stumbled into content that was added later than you are currently progressed, but accessible earlier than it was balanced for. Just back out and continue the star chart. It was not intended to be hard. (until you unlock steel path).

Also, this game has story. Something you'd never guess from the first 60 hours of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around murderhoboing entire planets. I was not expecting Second Dream, and it was so powerful. I'm looking forward to the rest of the main story. Apparently like 5 years into development the devs decided "let's make them cry" lol.

At the end of the day, it has its flaws but it plays incredibly well and that's such an important factor in games that it kind of overshadows the issues new players face trying to figure it all out. Having someone you can ask what the hell "x" does is almost mandatory. Because there's a lot of "x."

Because it's free, there's no risk in trying it to see if you like it.

Incredibly fun game that keeps getting better and better. It's about 1 part pooping your pants to 10 parts laughing your ass off with friends. Moments of genuine tension and side-splitting comedy all wrapped up in a large number of weirdly nice suburban home hauntings.

Grab your friends and have some fun. Then get them killed and run away giggling as they yell at you before the ghost gets em. Absolutely recommended!

It just doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like Halo. I don't know what else to say.

Not even touching the focus on microtransactions and mountain of bad nickel-and-dime to death game design, the insanely slow progression (that hey you can skip by throwing money at so it doesn't even feel GOOD to progress because there's no prestige in it), the sheer quantity of "progression" that feels more like a chore than fun (the "challenges"), the fact the challenges split teammates focus from the match and put it instead on completing their challenges (why pick up that cindershot when you gotta get pistol kills for a challenge right?).... the game just does not feel like the halo I grew up playing at all. It's not fun.

It feels like doing chores or working a minimum wage job. An extremely long, slow and unsatisfying grind. Actually, I take it back, that statement is an insult to doing chores. At least after chores are done you feel satisfied because you've accomplished something tangible.

Give it a shot for yourself and make your own choice, it's free. But that's my two cents on it.

I'm pretty neutral about this game overall. I enjoy Telltale games. I love Batman. While not unfun, this game was lacking on a few fronts.

Pros:
- A twist on the story we all know; not the same old same old. Was a very fresh perspective on a very old franchise. (probably worth playing for that alone)
- A less emotionally constipated take on Batman
- Literally the best penguin costume to date in any media, in my opinion.
- Batcat. Sure he's a playboy, but who isn't a sucker for Batman and Catwoman's complex relationship?
- I did have fun.

Cons:
- Some of the voice options seemed out of character to the point I wanted to restart levels for tripping on "bad" options. From the first moment Bruce snarked at all of his guests that "his wine was worth more than they are" I realized I'd have to be careful which choice I made. (and not in a meaningful way).
- Production quality; high end machine on latest Nvidia drivers, it locked up once and had framerate stuttering issues in multiple places. The transitions between scenes were clunky and obvious at times. Not up to par with previous Telltale titles, but it is playable. Not enough instances to not play it, just very distracting when they crop up.

???:
- Bruce looks uncannily like Archer from the TV show of the same name and it's a little hard to not be distracted by it. Minor detail but still. Weird.

Time to find out if you can post a review without a thumbs up or down. (Whelp, you cannot. Not worth damning with a thumbs down, but not my most enthusiastic recommendation either.)