Recent reviews by Sancho

EDIT: The review below was given for Alpha16.4. I'm not too thrilled about Alpha17 at this point. Since there exists the ability to revert to older versions, I still recommend getting the game and reverting to that version. I'm not sure what the devs think they're doing at this point but I hope things improve eventually.

This is a great game and I do recommend it. For context, I usually play PvE with a small group of 3-4 friends, or I play singleplayer. What 7 Days to Die excells at is immersion. The randomly-generated worlds are very interesting to explore, with hundreds of prefabricated buildings, caves, and landscapes to roam and loot.

It's not perfect and there are many that have pointed out flaws. The game can be a bit of a grind and it has a rather artificial ways of lengthening gameplay time. For example, at the beginning of the game, you have very little chance of finding quality loot until you have leveled up your scavenging by looking in thousands of containers. Though it's not that bad if you play with friends that can help share skills and collect loot. The fewer people you collaborate with, the worse experience it will be (with singleplayer being quite tedious, but still enjoyable). Since my last playthrough, this grind has been vastly improved, but still exists. You can now find almost any gun or equipment very early in the game (although very poor quality), and then slowly you can replace/upgrade them as your levels increase.

As a crafting-building game a lot of possible things have been added in recent updates to appease any aspiring interior decorator. My biggest complaint is that it's very difficult to build a permanent base early in the game. Sure, you could chop down some trees and put up a wooden shack, but I doubt any veteran of the game would waste time with something they know won't last. Each play-through, I end up doing the same thing: I find a prefabricated building in a town, put a door on it, and call it home. Then I wait until 50+ days when I finally have the tools, resources, and time to put up an actually functional base that will last. The game does have a way for you to upgrade your walls, but once you have maxed out your upgrades on wood, you will need to tear it down completely and replace it with concrete before you can upgrade it anymore. It's possible you could get around this with careful planning/engineering. Maybe by surrounding your wooden shack with a proper defense and walls. But as I mentioned it is easier to just get a temporary base for the first several weeks.

I hope for more updates, especially to make end-game more enjoyable and less of a grind. A quick look at their blog and I'm very excited for the things that are to come. However, don't hold your breath since they take their time with these updates. Still, I'm amazed at the features they have added since my last play-through, like distant viewable terrain and an electric system. As it is now, I think it's definitely worth playing. Looking forward to another playthrough in a couple years!

I was a bit hesitant to buy this game since I thought it looked cheesy and without lasting appeal. I can happily say I was very wrong. Of all the various couch games I own, this is the game that all of my friends and family, from highly seasoned and competitive gamers to my girlfriend's parents, all consistently are enthusiastic to play. The game has quirky, hilarious weapons and game mechanics, which often end in you getting yourself killed in a hilarious fashion. Unlike other party games, though, there is little luck factor involved and a high skill ceiling. The game is also well-polished, with tons of little bells and whistles that really set it apart from other indie games.

Pros:

• The steam workshop is integrated very well into the game. You can even play random maps without having to subscribe to them, and then you can subscribe to the ones you like real-time.
  
• The netcode is actually quite good. It has a system of client-side hit registry, which means I could play with friends on the other side of the world and no one would have a significant disadvantage.
  
• Can mix local couch players with online players, so you could have 2 local players and fill in with online players (though only 1 player from each client connection can play)
  
• You can set custom icons for your controls that match a number of popular controllers. These icons will display in the warm-up rooms, so you won't need to explain the controls to your friends. For example, I play with 2 Xbox One controllers and 2 USB SNES controllers. After some quick initial setup, no matter which of my friends got which controller, they would see the correct icon for the button they should press for each action.

Cons:

• Occasionally people will create farm/troll/fun maps on the workshop, and there currently isn't a way to filter them out. This means I quite frequently need to skip levels we don't want to play.
  
• The random map system is a good way to get replay value, but it needs more variation.
  
• No real singleplayer to speak of. There's a challenge mode but it gets old pretty quick.

Kerbal Space Program is essentially a physics simulation using rockets that you build, piece by piece, from scratch. It is a sandbox game without any real set goals, though reaching other worlds and landing on them is an obvious motivation. Utilizing the mechanics of the game to get a craft into orbit or sent to other worlds requires experimentation, research (a lot of which has real-world basis), and clever engineering. For learning the basics of rocketry and aviation, this game is an amazing learning tool.

It has a career mode which adds several progression mechanics such as research (achieved by reaching different parts of the solar system and transmitting data back to your home world, or collecting samples and bringing them back for an even greater bonus), money (collected through randomly generated contracts), and astronauts themselves (which can be obtained through missions or by hiring with money). Though these added mechanics aid a player to slowly experiment with limited sets of technology and gives motivation to avoid disastrous problems (especially losing your precious Kerbonauts), it isn't balanced particularly well and can't be taken too seriously. It is basically a tutorial for new players, though I still prefer it over sandbox mode. I recommend playing on the mid-level difficulty with undo-function disabled for a decent, but not too punishing, experience.

There are some pretty glaring flaws. The learning curve is extreme and some of the rocket building tools aren't very intuitive. The game provides tutorials that help explain the mechanics, but further research from YouTube will be required for more advanced things. Also, atmospheric aircraft have extremely finicky physics. If you play career mode, I recommend you skip any long-range aircraft missions on Kerbin. These missions can take a really long time since time acceleration messes up the physics even more. Also, the game is lacking in N-body physics, which detracts from the complexity and educational value slightly.

Overall it's a wonderful game if you have the patience, and there is a free demo available to try (though it's way out of date last I checked). There is also a thriving modding community that can extend the complexity and fun. Although people often talk of the extreme difficulty of the game, it makes the achievements very satisfying. Plus, I guarantee you'll feel much smarter once you figure it all out.