Recent reviews by Good Old Gamer

friend was like *hey dude... play wid me!* and i was like... *mmm.... seen it.. .vids.. .trailers... im not too sure...* ,,, *ima buy it for ya bro... you like it, pay me back...* ... ok, here is a friendly deal then... if you buy it for me, and i pay you back.. here is how we roll... we play *together* no rushing ahead as you always do... no *yeh im bored and done!* after a week... and if you do have the itch to play alone sometimes as i do... we create our own personal server for it, so to be on a level with each other co-op.....

... anyway...

LOVING the half-life vibes!!!

Mechanically... not much to say... we only just got crossbow and first *Fight night* ... although i guess i can and should say something... the way the survival mechanics are done is awesome... Radiation... hunger.. .thirst... tiredness... temp control.. .etc

we explored the *Other place* and almost &%$& ourselves doing it...

100/100 would pay their friend back for gifting them this game!!!

Any negatives??? i might let you know as i find them only played 3.5 hrs as of time of review

hey dev... why is this even in my library? i cannot play it... only leave a review...

or are you that scammer dev who gave us (about 5/6 years ago) a messy scam of an assett testing sandbox which went through about 3 iterations... and *aparently* 2>3 devs? ;)

Because if not, please get your trashware that i DID NOT pay for NOR INSTALL NOR CAN PLAY without *repurchase - if i ever bought it in the first place) OFF MY PC!!!! (might report to steam for installing/downloading a file that i did not request, to me steam library... SOMEHOW...

If you refuse to explain this after 48 hours, i will report you for mal-practice and scam and fraud,,, please explain yourself!

**I warned you dev... on monday i will be reporting this to Trading Standards and Solicitor in the UK ... you had 48 hours to respond... it says i have previously refunded it i never once installed a game caleld *The Bloodline* and no one can tell me its previous *name/s* so you will be reported as some kind of hacker/scammer... lets see you get out of this one ;) **

my thoughts after 70 hours:

Bare in mind it IS early access at the time of this review.
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**I will not explain character creation... apart from... you create a character (all of which have been struck by the *YOU SO UGLY HEY! YOU SO UGLY HEY HEY!* Scanlan meme!!! and you can change the starting difficulty and name it)**

As a survival addict (its in the name) its *one* of the best i have ever experienced... and a VERY great try in being something almost completely different.

But... in true early access fashion, things could be better, some horrendous and also random bugs (which is to be allowed considering), however, Just over a week and no updates yet (apart from *we added a new server* stuff).

The bugs should actually be the priority as they are in MOST games - it is so annoying to have *random bug #1837* on character 12!!!! (this is what i mean by RANDOM bugs - example... one of my characters had his inventory eaten, none of my others did - in the Forest Antiquarian realm, the Realmic Transmuter is broken *on ONE of my characters* in the sense of, add a card to it, it does the GFX *i am changing this realm for you!* however, it doesn't take affect and you have no buffs/debuffs listed on the hot bar - as i say COMPLETELY RANDOM as it hasn't affected my 11 other characters)

Difficulty?
TO be expected... easier with friends... but a few of my friends express *the game play loop is currently too boring for me to play again currently, sorry dude, you are on your own!* - i have to agree in MANY ways that it does get extremely boring - i want SO MUCH to make it to The Watch, but i cant, because the bosses become IMPOSSIBLE on medium difficulty solo (in my abeyance), and now i am stuck on *medium* with impossible bosses... why am i stuck? Because if i want to make the abeyance realm easier i have to create an entirely new one and leave all my stuff behind!!!!

Content? I personally haven't seen much of it at all beyond the Provisioner Realm (as i cannot complete the Herbarium SOLO) so i have no clue! However, many streamers and youtubers have reached end game within 50 hours (but they at least, have friends who are bothered to play at all!)

Personal current outlook and feelings of where i am in the game? - Could have a LOT more content for us Soloists, mechanics SHOULD be explained a lot better! (how do i upgrade X bench with X? how do i get gear level 70? how do i get past my stale mate with the Formidable Bishop in the Herbarium? etc

GREAT AND AMAZING **try**.. yes.. its early access... yes it is being actively worked on (however, we still NEED updates!!! because now it is getting a bit boring having to create new character after new character, trying to figure out what my 6th character did wrong... and trying to find a *load* that ISN'T hit by random bug #937!!!!)

I am however marking as RECOMMENDED because for all its faults, it IS a very fun game (although gets boring fast) and they have tried so damn hard to make it such! BUY IT!!! ***If you dare!!!***
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TL:DR:

Fun concept
Trying to be something new in an old skin
Difficult as a solo player
Boring game play loop
A few bugs, many of them random
Worth the low price if you understand that it is early access

NEUTRAL REVIEW

DO NOT buy this game... its going the way of the plague... devs have increased the price during EA...

Game WAS a good concept when it was *releasing next year* 3 years running... and then removed from steam for about a year (before it was even released the ad was removed from steam)

THe difficulty is horrendous, even on custom... gfx are PASSABLE even on my rtx 3050 laptop and the rest of it (Inc gfx) far surpass minimum...

Can only REALLY *successfully* play it with other people due to said difficulty (check my library i live for survival games!!!)

And now they have upped the price? Well, check the fall out on THAT update ;)

concept? 10/10
Implementation? 4/10
Dev mindset? -100000000000000000000000000000000000000/10 DO NOT BUY IT!!!

Early access was awesome.... full game sucks... its too hard now, cant get past first area (after crash) with any class... wish i could refund

Besides, i am a forever DM and this is NOT 5e as advertised - it is simply an RPG with a D&D skin

a free game that has heavy abanonment issues = -100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

the fact that its free = 5/10

the fact you cant save = -1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

you risk nothing, its free... but abandoned

As fun as this game is ... with being *YEARS IN THE MAKING* ....

I expected SO MUCH MORE... More to explore... a bigger map... a LOT more *MEANINGFUL* choices (its an **RPG** after all...

But hey... at least my Nitro 5 > 16 gig Ram > 3050ti > windows 11 potato can play it on LOW settings with still almost being *photo realistic* (if CGI was ever photo realistic) AND stream ti at the same time without any issues at all...

For playability - 9/10

For exploration and FORCED choices that don't really mean a thing - 3/10

For atmosphere - 8/10

For having an almost MEANINGLESS Sorting Ceremony (or any real point to the choice of house beyond very very VERY simple lip-service mechanics - 1/10

For who this game is related to and her views regardless of how much or not that person was involved - minus 239856239857029738509823758923/10 (i am not for or against trans rights - i am hetro - but a human is a human and humans should be ALLOWED to human! to this end i think thats why a male can be a witch and a female can be a wizard... but after this person's openess on being AGAINST Humans being Humans i feel that *might be* quite offensive to the trans community)

** 7 hours in and its a bit of fun** ... if you can handle this game with its requirements then buy it i guess?

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Family member had to refund on my behalf due to toxic as fk community making people (inc-self) wanting to kill themselves - STAY THE FK AWAY FROM DISCUSSIONS - buy elsewhere!

HONEST REVIEW:

(and also tutorial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3comRFkPeXo

Now, if you don't have 1 hour and 19 minutes to watch a video, here is my honest thoughts about this game:

First; i love games like this so maybe slightly biased to them, but hey you like what you like right?
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Review-

First thing you would notice is the lack of music or sound (which is actually quite relaxing to be honest).

The Graphics are amazing for what it is... yes.. you read that correctly... The graphics are amazing for what it is, it was created by a single developer (of who i have no idea of their skills, but still)

Game play:
Plays a Lot like The Kindred, meets Gnomoria, meets Stonehearth, meets Dwarf Fortress.
There are a few bugs and oversights and spelling errors (English is not the devs first language);

The bugs are nothing game breaking - just little quirks here and there (example: the z-levels can be changed by the number keys, but it is intended to be *CTRL+Number* but it isn't - and with the number keys close to the main camera movement (w/a/s/d) it's easy to press one by mistake especially on a laptop... stockpiles and workshops priorities are not fully in effect yet (i would need a bed... or food... or want the stockpile filled before anything else... i lower the priority on everything else and it still prioritises the plank making over the bread cooking or the stockpiling...)

For what it is, and the little quirks and what we have currently, it is worth a shot? HELL YES!; is it expensive for what it is(?) yes and no... for the content we do not have *yet*... *maybe* (the dev and I have discussed this, and he agrees that it might be slightly a bit expensive, but as i say in a moment, the price is understandable... especially in the world how it is today)... for the content and fixes that are planned... that it is by a single dev who needs money to live? it is *reasonable*

I am glad to be a part of this journey and to give my input throughout.

I really hope this game does well.
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In Closing, after looking at the other games by this developer (i expected to be corrected if i am wrong) the others ebfore this (which i have not had a chance to play yet) all look like passion projects mainly... or if you could call 2.5D miner games a prequel to this, i don't think that I... or you would be wrong to be honest, i think the developer may have used those games as starting blocks to understand what he could do with engines and game creations, and here we have a very nicely done (with bugs and all) game which tries to be various games on the genre rolled into one, which it seems to pull off to varying extents.

Buy this amazing hidden gem what are you waiting for!

Thank you Reiti.net

UPDATED REVIEW: original review stands (underneath) BUT - this is a MICRO MANAGEMENT SIM and is extreme micro (98% or more!!!) - Not fun if you are not used to telling them when to eat... when to cook... when to harvest the *farms* ... when to sleep... when to work out... etc!!! (i think i wasted my money due to this)

Firstly, well done, and thank you dev/s for your honest response to my discussions. I decided to take the risk and am glad i am here to follow this game through its evolution! I love games like this; well, when your library is 80% games like this that has to be saying something right? :P (i don't love them... i am addicted to them!!!)

Now please understand my current experience is with the tutorial only, and with that in mind, here is my review on the Tutorial (and store description)

**TUTORIAL EXPERIENCE ONLY**
Starts simple enough, wake up in a capsule... the AVI/AI is there to great you with the control tutorial which is nice and as expected, then explains that you should start exploring and collecting items and find your fellow crash members and then hot-tail it to the station...

Then explains how to activate said station and build a refinary... ok, simple enough... job done!

BUT... what it DOES NOT EXPLAIN and i wish to god it did... WHAT the refinery modules do... HOW to use them.. .WHAT is most important to refine... WHAT refines into what... etc...

It DOESN'T tell you or even reccomend anything about building crew quarters and what to stock them with, or how to farm...

But thats not too bad, because if you are a survival nut like me then it is actually pretty intuitive on what and how to do things... If however, you are new to these types of games then you might find yourself in a bit of trouble, which is a shame because at time of review there are no guides on how to actually play - the only ones are how to make diamonds and how to upgrade... and those new people might even be wanting to refund...

PLEASE UPDATE TUTORIAL(???)

**This is in no way ANY disrespect to the Dev/s or the game in GENERAL because it is a very nice effort and the love of development shows! This is concerning the tutorial itself and how it SHOULD be expanded upon**
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STORE INFO:

Very mis-leading to be completely honest... *choose between 15 random colonists* ... it does not mention ANYWHERE that you can only (currently) choose 5...

DRIVE A ROVER (etc)... the store page DOES NOT tell you that it isn't even implemented yet (reading the popup for the roadmap which happens around day 4 will tell you things like that are not planned until Q2/3!!!
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Apart from the Tutorial and misleading info i quite enjoy it and am glad i ahve it and wish the devs all the best in evolving this game - and i do reccomend it as well

*week XXX update...* WHO CARES ANYMORE!!!
WOW just what i always wanted.... 32 weeks of USELESS updates *yay back packs YAY training grounds YAY another useless update YAY another usless decoration YAY anolther useless map YAY

LET ME BLOODY REFUND THIS STUPID GAME!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!!! IT IS SO DAMN POINTLESS NOW!