Recent reviews by Rook

It's a brilliant piece of brain candy (which explains the Overwhelmingly Positive reviews) but it's a really terrible Tycoon game. No inventory management, no production chains, no automation, no deep market simulation, completely abstracted expenses, basically nothing that makes a game a good tycoon game.

You pick a "recipe" for a video game and work at it for a fixed amount of time. Some arbitrary activities grant you R&D points, which you have to use to unlock new stuff on the tech tree and train your staff. Other than that, you play around with combinations of genre, platform, and game size until you find a few combinations that work well, then you hope you can spend the rest of the game repeating that success with similar combinations and not going broke.

Even with that, it's brilliant when you get hooked. The gameplay is perfectly simple, just a couple levels more complex than Cookie Clicker with all the same dopamine rushes of getting a perfect 10/10 game and watching your bank account fill up. And how it encourages you to always have something in the works so there's never a good breaking point and you just keep playing. I would recommend the mobile version over the PC version, because the game is best enjoyed when you play in 30 minute chunks on the toilet or on the bus, instead of as a designated gaming session.

I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would. It's a great mix of challenge to your mind and body. You may think you have a solution in mind, but when it comes time to physically act it out in a timeframe then you run into problems that you didn't expect. And then you think of a new solution and try to implement that.

The rules are so simple, and lead to such complex problem solving, that this is an easy recommendation.

This is also a rare game that could not be done in regular gaming. Using your whole body is core to the experience. You have to solve 3D puzzles in a 3D space with your 3D body.

If you like automation games at all, and enjoy the unique gameplay experiences that only VR can deliver, then definitely pick this up.

It is a bit short for its price tag (I'm about 2/3 through at the time of writing) but it's up to you how to spend your money. I'd recommend spending at least some of it on this game.

Fantastic little game. It's the type of game that could become a big game, with just a bit more content. The formula is SOLID, just not quite enough to do to leave early access. Which, in my opinion, is exactly what early access is about.

PROS:
- Gameplay with meaningful decisions. Do I go out and try to defend the realm, or save myself for the later battles of the night? Do I invest in my economy or my defense (you're familiar with this decision if you've played Kingdoms)? Which "front" do I focus on? And on the meta-level: Do I play this level with XYZ config, or ABC config? (to unlock new perks, etc)

CONS:
- It is short. It's worth full price right now, but it's going to take you 5 hours at the current state (August 2023)
- It feels like a game. Devs, I would encourage you to let players place buildings where we want instead of predefined positions. It currently feels like a "here's a level, figure out how to min/max it to win" instead of "enjoy this creation, have fun with it"

But overall, it's an easy recommendation. The devs have done phenomenally and deserve some good rest

The game is very playable and enjoyable as of path 1.2. I haven't spent a lot of time in the late game, but a lot of the unintuitive and broken things from release are now fixed and fun.

Does not work with Index controllers or roomscale. After spending a good ten minutes trying to get the controller bindings to work I was not successful. Beyond that, it doesn't look like the in-game controller assets load correctly with index (they just stay static right where they initially load), and it looks like the game places the floor at the level where it expects your head. Might be playable if you get the bindings set, but even then it probably isn't. Shame because it does look like a great experience.

This game is good. Don't fall for the hype, it's not going to "ruin gaming for you since nothing else comes close" like a lot of reviews say, but it is a very memorable, excellent story driven game filled with puzzles, bizarre physics, and beautiful areas to explore.

Very deep and rewarding, lots of mechanics interplay to make the game challenging, and lots of ways to succeed (even more to fail) make this game well worth the current $14 price tag even if the dev never worked another moment on it

There's no challenge to this game. There's no pressure to innovate, since you can never lose users (the worst you can do is not gain users as fast as you'd like).

Your competitors mean nothing, it's just a way for you to "rank" yourself against static "opponents." They won't innovate past you and steal your users. They're just.... There.

There is no creativity or flexibility in how you do things. You don't decide on features which might be good or bad, you just hire employees to create mana for you which you can spend on a "better" website. It's all just levels of the same stuff. No interactive components or creative problem solving. Just hire people and wait for them to make their widgets and blorps. Once you have enough you can press the magic button to get more users, which gives you more money to hire more widget and blorp makers.....

I felt compelled to review this now since it's an awesome game and the historically authentic inclusion of women in ancient society is not a good reason to blast it

It's a good game, but doesn't really need a PC version. Doesn't lend itself well to sitting at a desk or a couch and focusing intently on it. Get it for your phone for quick ten minute bursts.