Recent reviews by DemoJones

Can't uninstall it through steam, sus

This is a gem from my childhood.

The new remake (Spacebase Startopia) is a half-baked, buggy, cash-grab.

Play this one.

The only challenges come down to UI and QoL compared to modern games but wow does this game hold up in almost every other area!

The devs even came back to it 20 years after the original release 0.0

Passion like that is missing from a lot of bigger modern devs and studios.

if you want a deep, good colony sim/management game and you don't mind outdated graphics give it a try.

Disclaimer:
I've played a lot of the previous games

The Point:
WAY too easy, the franchise is known for being challenging.
Hard difficulty would be slightly easier than the standard Kingdom experience for a complete newbie.

Good:

• Artwork took a big bump up
  
• New things - Novelty is always nice

Meh:

• Story line
  
• New ways of making income (of which there are WAY too many - refer to "The Point")

Bad:

• Too easy
  
• Sacrificing game play experience so the story can be experienced
  
• Someone said it's like they made it for kids... yeah, that...

They seem to have changed their target market? I don't know... It's a decent game, but I think they strayed a bit from their core values that made the kingdom franchise good in the first place. A good looking, updated, but ultimately shallow addition. Would give it a neutral review if it was still possible, but I am loyal to the franchise for hours of fun, and it's not bad enough for a negative review.

It's really well-made and faithful successor of Startopia... Until mid-late game.

The Campaign is short and shallow, although funny enough to be entertaining.

No problem, just play sandbox mode! Sandbox mode was awesome in Startopia!
Plus the modern UI and QoL makes it so much easier to do what you want to without excessive amounts of clicking!
(One of the biggest advantages of a remake IMO)

But then you start running into bugs, can't take over enemy AI sectors because your Giant mech gets stuck between buildings, and when you tell your aliens to attack the sector they don't move there. Things basically don't work like they should so you get soft-locked.

If you want an awesome experience just replay the beginning of a sandbox over and over and everything will be perfect 😂

It has a lot of potential but the devs have basically made a hollow, modernised remake of a cult classic and haven't bothered to fix age old bugs or issues the community has.

Another nostalgia-bait game which would be AMAZING if it actually got the support it deserves.

Stick with the original to avoid having your heart broken.

Main points that keep me playing till I can't keep my eyes open, and the music feels like it's vibrating in my brain:

• It's funny, the humour comes from the situations you find yourself in and the general blunt, dry nature of the game.
• Simple, yet interesting art style. Pixel art gets me and this art is done well.
• The gameplay loop, which has recently expanded, makes me want to do it again and again.
• It's challenging, but once you get the grasp of the controls, it's slightly less challenging.
• Flexible build style, you can make the space station exactly how you want it.

I played this game a lot on Xbox Game Pass when it was on it.

The dev gave me a Steam code today and I'm so grateful I get to experience the updated (and WAY less buggy) version of the game.

I love colony sim games in general, they keep me up for hours when I should be sleeping, and Starmancer is no exception to that trend.

I have played it in a buggy mess (every colony sim goes through these teething issues, I've seen it a lot).

When it was infuriatingly buggy, I just kept playing it annoyed, and found ways to play around the bugs. Kind of like they added to the challenge of the game.

I’m happy to say it’s SO much better now (You would probably never know what it was like… seriously!)

The devs are a dedicated, passionate, 2-person team who keep on going despite adversity, I respect that in a time when far less has made so many games become abandonware.

I'd play more right now but I need to take care of my IRL needs like eating.

I felt a cold sinking feeling in my stomach as I started playing this game. Did I buy into the hype? Was my love for an old classic taken advantage of?

Nope. Just had to make it through the tutorial and suddenly I started to feel some very familiar feelings. Agents are so annoying! I love this game! I'm elated that they so faithfully reproduced this classic with modern quality of life updates and innovation! (you can have more than 100 minions! wooh!) lol

JUST FINISH THE TUTORIAL

It's a bit mind numbing at first, takes about 3 hours to get through all of it, but the game get's a whole lot deeper after that, and suddenly you're stuck in Evil Genius World again!

Love it! Thank you! Can't wait for more content!

This game has a lot of bugs, but within the first week of early access the devs updated it 3 or 4 times. They're super responsive on their discord and overall I'm very happy with my purchase. I can't wait to see what the future of Flotsam has in store for us.