Recent reviews by Stuka

Well, when it comes to Train games I'd say DRV is at the top for this decade. VR or Not, it's a lot of fun. But it's also not perfect, it still has some issues but minor ones for the most part.
This game shines with it's trains and simulation around them. They have that balance, uniqueness, and challenges between them. Though there is also something to say about fun failure. For the games namesake, derail valley, the derailments are wild. Sucks during career but are a lot of fun in Creative. Wonderfully done chaos! The Jobs and world provide a great challenge to newbs and vets alike. I still personally hate the corner near City West. That said, this is where DRV seems to drop the ball a little.
The map is rough to be polite. All the love went to the trains. Conflicting signage, clipping foliage, clipping ground, stretched textures, and floating objects are so common it's safe to say ever job you're going to see a few things. None of these things hinder gameplay however, everything is visual thankfully. So minor, but annoying and immersion breaking. Some actions can feel a little finicky but you can learn to work with them. Also the map is overall slow and mountainous. Great for the challenge of play, but there is no real areas to gain proper speed before you have to almost immediately slow down. 50kph feels fast as f*ck. 70-80 is rare and short lived. The map even with all it's little issues is still great and has some impressive areas, it honestly just needs a refresh and some love.

Overall I still highly recommend this game, it's rough in some parts, but rarely around the Trains, and that's mostly why we're here, diversity in play from casual to sim gamer. I'd love to see more love put into the map, but for now I'd say DRV is still a solid 8/10.

Since it's been a few days in 1.0 I want to add a fair review. Firstly, it's still a little rough, some minor bugs and jank but nothing super annoying or game breaking. There has also been a lot of drama over the development of the game, which I think has lead to a lot of negative reviews between some folks. The devs are humans, and in the early days WAY over promised. Simply they didn't have the skills to match their ambition and creative difference arose. The game was nearly abandoned, and a new studio took over, they honestly saved what was left. It's not the game we were sold in 2021, but it's still not a bad game today.

The game itself is charming yet janky. Jack of all traits and master of none. THIS IS NOT A SIM, it's casual, and that's fine. With all track player placed and the trains using physics to keep on track, this is where most of the janks comes from. Honestly, this part is what makes it for me, making and planing your own route through the map is the best part. If you want to just drive trains, get Derail Valley, or Railroader, if you want to play a simple tycoon game from first person, then get RO! is a fun little game.

overall I give it a loose 7/10. Main issues, is meh UI, annoying plants, runs a little rough like the old locos and no passanger service yet. The fun is the unique narrow gauge locos, fun maps, silly jank, and creative freedom.

Best with a small group of friends, not really ONLINE either, it's just multiplayer.

90% of my time has been staring at a screen that updates 1 frame a second with pixels bigger than my future since none of my friends ever want to be captain. 10% of the time it's pure panic. 10/10 fun.

Empty and broken Promises, do not get this game. Just get KSP1. Don't waste your money like I did.

If I had a nickle for every time a Slavic dev made a ground breaking amazing tough as nails city builder that was then picked up by hooded Horse. I'd have two nickles, and be thankful it happened twice!

Now after playing for nearly 16hrs on the first day I can say the game in it's current state is good, with a few first day issues. Some minor balance issues and menu funniness and of course EA lacking of late-late game content. However it's still really good, and even though the content isn't fully all there yet being early access and all, it's still more content than big dev city builders, won't name names, CS2... but if this is the foundation for what is to come than OH BOY will this game be a treat!

If you love playing colony/city builders, get this game, support the dev and lets enjoy it as it becomes an amazing game. It's been worth the wait and hype.

Also, if you made it this far and are still wonder what the other Slavic city builder that was ground breaking is, it's Workers and Resources. Which is also a dark souls tough as nails city builder, Slavic's don't mess around with difficulty!

*Updated August 2024

I have never had such a stressful relaxing game, but that's a good thing.

Let's get this clear first, this game isn't for everyone of course. It can be slow and methodical to sail the same region earning money for upgrades and the better ships. But it can also be really rewarding buying that larger ship, or even simply a stove to cook your food. You are a simple trader with a small ship at the mercy of the winds and the dynamic market prices.

Though if you're an adventurous trader you can go into the open ocean. The world isn't just the map you start in, each starting region is connected with each other in a vast ocean. With even two "secret" regions you'll have to sail off the map to find. Sailwind allows you to do this with in-depth navigation tools and uses them in a wonderfully immersive way! But this ocean can be a maddening calm void where keeping busy is the hardest thing. It can suddenly flip into a raging unforgiving storm were the unprepared may find themselves re-enacting "The Perfect Storm". You'll spend weeks between regions in this vast ocean but this is worth it as the best money is made travelling to another region. With the Economy Update, the game can still be a grind, but if you're experience enough in the art of trading you can now greatly cut down that grind down with buying and selling your own cargo instead of missions.

This brings me to the other amazing aspect, weight balancing! Each ship has different weight limits, but it's not just weight to worry about but balance! As Sailwind has a dynamic system where a poorly distributed ship's cargo could easily capsize you. More commonly a poorly distributed cargo could slow your ship to a crawl, forcing the bow or stern to deep, or listing so heavily to one side you won't be able to sail with full power.

And on top of all of that, there is a survival element, food, water, and hardest of all sleep! Sleeping in the game doesn't lock your ship in place, it continues without you at the helm, sure you can always sleep quickly in port, or anchor in shallow waters. But sometimes on weeks long voyagers your ship will be at the mercy of the wind and waves as you sleep. Or the time limit on a high value cargo must mean you must let your ship sail and hope it stays on course.

Each ship already handles in it's own unique way. But now with ship customisation apart of the game, it too provides more variety in play, or if you want, bring a comforting layout to different hull. Customising ships also brings new challenges as it's not as easy to simply put the biggest and most sails onto your ship to go faster. Ships themselves can become unbalanced uncontrollable messes with the wrong sails. Sometimes to much sail can also be a problem for those raging storms in the open ocean. Sailwind also includes wind shadows, meaning sails compete against each other. But different configs of sails can put forth what you value most; Speed? Manoeuvrability? Angle of attack? Simplicity? You can find what you like best and make it happen!

Sailwind is a great blend of realistic sailing mechanics and game play, the learning curve is steep, but mastering it is very rewarding.

This game is 100% a labour of Love, the Dev adds great content as often as they can. I've played since some of the earliest builds, and it had great potential. Now It's an Enjoyable experience, and with what is planned in the future, will be a gem of a game. It's also at a state now that I can and whole heartily recommend this game for a Sim, Trading, or Ship lovers alike! This game has become my go-to relaxation game, even when I stress about the storms, I find the whole moment a joy. I eagerly look forward to every new thing the Dev adds but even if the game stopped development, I'd be sad, but I'd still enjoy what was done.

If I've convinced you to get this game, then I hope you have as much enjoyment as I have! May the wind be in you favour, provisions last, profits high, and waves gentle! Happy Sailing!

I have played almost 42hrs in three days. This is dwarf life. I took days off work for this, the wait was worth it. The graphics are great, but the best part of this are the new controls. The learning curve is steep but worth it. I have waited years for this version, and I am not disappointed. 100/10 Game of the Millennium!

Potential, was a lot of fun when active, but died. I still occasionally check to see if the game will get updates again. I have had the pleasure of seeing a few good dead games return and finish after years of neglect and hope for the same for this game. For now, not worth it anymore.

Didn't think they could make the game worse...But, we have Stormworks Industrial Wasteland.

I welcome more money making options for Career... but career is still in a sad neglected state between the two choices. The devs are clear in their intentions. They only want to add "cool" stuff to bring people to the game and not fix the issues that make people leave the game. This DLC is full of bugs, but also feels like it was not properly tested before release as it's unbalanced, broken, and down right just a gimmick.

Some examples,
Dogs, pure gimmick, can they do anything? not really, how do you find them? By chance. Also prepare for a random tsunami to just kill them in your base or out in the world. If I had a dollar for every dead dog I'd be able to get my money back.
Animals, broken. A single rabbit once destroyed my entire diesel train running at 200kph because it was on the tracks in a tunnel, and it lived with no health damaged. A bear once sprinted into my starter base area as I was building and killed me.
New and old industries. the new metals are almost laughably easy to get especially gold. The old fuel system has been revamped to bring a new challenge and I like it if it was balanced. However it's not balanced, your starting fuel amount is pathetic, and areas where you may buy fuel and oil are far and few and nearly non existent in the new biome making an early career a royal pain, of course late career it's a nice logistical challenge.
Many Roads and rails have random kill areas from not being tested.

DO NOT BUY IN THIS CURRENT STATE.
To say I'm angry is an understatement, but it is only because this game could easily be a classic if the Devs would just fix it.

"...what kind of survivor where you? ... how did you keep breathing after it took everything from you?..." -ELEGY - A Visual Poem of The Long Dark

Hardcore rouge survival game like no other. When you do well, the hardest part is fighting boredom for boredom can make you take risks that may end your whole career. But the boredom isn't bad, it's immersion! Waiting out that blizzard for the 5th day with good supplies will lead to you to be bored, but that's better than being on day 5 of a blizzard and being out of food and water for over a day questioning if it'll end in time for you to desperately race to fine something to eat or risk everything getting lost in a total white out to blindly stumble on something you could use. The longer your game goes on, the more on edge but bold you become. This is Man vs Nature story at it's strongest. And story mode? just is dessert on top of an already amazing game.

If you want a hardcore survival game, this is one of the best.