Recent reviews by Gundies

The first 20 minutes I thought it seemed cool and thought I'd like it. The next 34 minutes were boring and a waste of my time that I can't get back. Combat is bad, progression is bad, dying too early is extremely bad cause then you lose access to the stuff to tell you how to make new tools, gathering is sparse, and crafting is a pain since it won't use your stashed ingredients.

If it looks like something you'd like then get it. It's good and there's a lot of content here.

One of the best incremental games to exist. As you play it keeps adding layers and options in, and it does this from the start through the rest of the game. It's set the bar high, most other incremental games are just garbage tier compared to this. Lots of progression to be had even with initial early access onto steam. 8hrs in and not done, nor do I see the end of current content yet.

I liked this game, it needed some bug fixes and a 1.0 release that I was waiting for before diving back in. Unfortunately they've just announced that it's servers are going down which means it's not getting it's much needed 1.0 release fixes. Sad.

I played another 8hrs and it's simply not fun. I want to like it, enough that I dumped 12hrs into this unfun thing that should be fun just trying to find the fun that should exist here. It's Master of Orion 3 all over again. Slow as possible to get anything done. Too many nuanced systems to the point that automation is pretty much required on some of them to make any progress, plus the automation is simply better in many cases. Combat is lame. Ship design seems cool, until you realize all you're really doing is picking your weapon type so it's just a far more complicated version of stellaris ship design. "Colonizable" worlds are a trap, 95%+ of them will doom your economy for the rest of the game, and taking over the independants is usually the only way to make taking new planets not the stupidest move you've done in your playthrough.

All that said I'll probably try another run or two, because I want to like it and even after my initial feelings on the game it was far too late to hit refund.

Original review after 4.7hrs played is below:

it's a janky mess. The closest comparison is Stellaris and that feels and plays way better.

Major turnoffs include:

-Message spam, constantly, endlessly, and growing in frequency. Apparently you can disable them, but it clearly isn't easy to fine. Take a page from your closest competitor and let us right click a message to get the popup options for it.

-Almost everything is default automated. At first it made sense, there's a lot going on and I get to pick what I want to do. Then I realised it was Master of Orion 3 style where I'm just there for the ride. Attempting to take control of stuff makes it significantly worse. Automated fleets are stupid and terrible, they're half automated and badger you with popups (see issue 1) for what they should just do while automated.

-Slow. Sooo slow. 4x speed (the max) is what normal should be. Not only are you mostly just there for the ride, but it'd be faster to walk.

-Lack of map clarity for war. Eventually you'll get tired of paying tribute to some random pirates that demanded tribute really early on that you couldn't kill at the time. So you'll break that tribute treaty...and then scratch your head as to where they are so you can go gt them. Actual war with another empire is far worse, warning spam (see issue 1) that's mostly useless or irrelevant, and then a warning buried in the middle of them where an invasion fleet is on their way. If you catch it you'll pause and try to find it so you can go defend yourself, eventually you might even make sense of the mess and get your fleet on it's way to defend. However a few short moments after you unpause you get another warning that your planet is now invaded.

-Income makes no sense. I can have +5,000 income, but watch my money slowly drain. I can have -5000 income, and watch my reserves slowly grow. I check my treasury income screen, and it says I should be losing or gaining that same amount, yet my reserves clearly have a mind of their own for both positive and negative.

-Research doesn't tell you what it actually does. Some tell you that you get a new ship, or a new mining station, or whatever weapons, but there's no stats so it's just a differently named thing where I can't tell if it is or was worth getting. There's 4 or 5 sensor researches in the second column, what's each one do? Not a clue so I got them all. What did I gain for that? Not a clue, I couldn't tell any difference on my ships scanning range or speed.

0/10. Garbage fire.

The Hero Siege I played 5+ years ago had a lot of promise and I liked it. Now it's a totally redone slow and bad diablo wannabe. It doesn't feel the same, look the same, or come anywhere near the fun it once had. They didn't even have the decency to preserve the awesome game that it formerly was in another game mode.

It's pretty much real-time combat HoMM with the ability to either gimp yourself, most likely be fine and balanced, or be overpowered as hell.

The actual gameplay is a lot of fun. I want to like it. I should like it. I thought I was liking it. But the game constantly wants to remind you that it's a garbage tier port from consoles.

Using mouse and keyboard? Too bad, it's going to list everything with the controller version of the key. Want to back out of the keybinding menu? Esc wont work, nor will any other key I tried, you right click then on the context menu click the xbox B button...while using mouse and keyboard... Guess it's time to buy another new controller cause this game will actively try and make your life hell if you're not using one.

Like random slowdown? And sometimes not so random such as the first 5-10 secs of a boss fight? This game's got you covered in all situations ranging from open world field to tight quarters dungeon to even just standing in place. For a cherry on top it even threw a hard crash at me with under 2hrs of play time.

The game behind this garbage is great, but it's so constantly in your face that it kills the momentum mood and fun that you should be having.


EDI: I just tried using the map with kb/m. That's an exercise of futility all on it's own as you need to experiment pushing random buttons on your keyboard since you can't use the mouse on it and all the displayed hotkeys are for a controller. I'm done with this dumpster fire of a port for now

This game is a hell of a lot of fun, especially as co-op. Lots of variety, customization, growth, and challenge to be had

It's very good. kept me up 4hrs past my usual work night bedtime and looking forward to sinking my weekend into it.