So, I have "played" for 70h and here is my short review:
First 20h:
- it was great, it was enjoyable and fun.
- I did mostly ground missions and very little space combat.
From 20h to 30h:
- The game systems flaws start to show and the fun gradually start to decline.
- The ground combat start to show that something is missing and the felling of slow combat increased progressively.
- I begun to do some space combat and boarding.
30h:
- It became really boring...
- Then I started reading the steam forum to better understand stuff and the dev plans and at the same time to try and salvage my will to play. (I don't want go give up on this game, but its difficult)
30h to 40h:
- As I decided to march forward, I switched mainly to space combat + boarding... this way I started making money to upgrade my ship equipment and raise funds for my next ship.
- As thing went, I decided to board only ship models I potentially planned to buy later (to loot equipment for later) or bigger ships to sell (but now I'm thinking the selling prices are mainly based on ship condition and not model) and destroy other ships and move on to the next.
- In the end I was mostly blowing enemy ships up because I grew tired of ground combat (even when it took less than 15min to take over a enemy ship).
40h to 65h:
- From now on, since the game is running in background, the gameplay time increases a lot because I frequently forget it running.
- I bought my Light Merchant ship and started mining/salvaging shipwrecks (these drop ship repair parts used to repair a ship during boarding, otherwise only by salvaging, and lowering selling price of the ship, you can get these parts)
- At this moment, I can't really say I'm playing the game, since I'm mostly doing other stuff while the game is running in the background... then after filling the cargo hold and refining a few times, I go and sell all... rinse and repeat.
65h+:
- Bought a even bigger Ship that will increase "my playing, but not playing" time.
- Well, this way I take some time to cool things down. I plan to do some more ground missions (probably following the main quest line) + boarding.
CONCLUSION:
The game is a impressive feat for a solo developer... while a solo dev generally means a cohesive game instead of combination of things by many people (that generally end up not working well together), the game suffers from the lack of a bigger team as things tend to be either too simplistic, or cluttered or bloated or just pointless.
Besides, there is a lot of grind... and even things that aren't grind, feel like it after some time.
I still think its worth a try, specially since you can have a lot of fun in the first 20~30h (more or less depending on taste)... and even more because this game shows that ITS POSSIBLE to have a game that we all have been wanting to play, but the Studios insist in ignoring it or say its technically not possible (bullshit), if this Dev had a team to command and improve/refine his ideas, this game would be a top masterpiece for sure.
First 20h:
- it was great, it was enjoyable and fun.
- I did mostly ground missions and very little space combat.
From 20h to 30h:
- The game systems flaws start to show and the fun gradually start to decline.
- The ground combat start to show that something is missing and the felling of slow combat increased progressively.
- I begun to do some space combat and boarding.
30h:
- It became really boring...
- the ground combat that at beginning was good became stale probably because of the lack of character abilities (those are locked by weapon type and probably isn't higher than 20)... you character as you level-up, basically the only thing you get is +bonus or +%bonus, nothing really new or game-changer.
- As I said before, space combat is really weak, but not so bad as I first thought, because the game as a whole, have too many things, a lot of it is just clutter, and coupled with cryptic UI things tend to be a LOT different after some time (be it for better or worse).
- Yeah, clutter, there is a lot: each weapon attachment only works for its weapon type (Rifle thing can't be used for LMG, etc) and in case of ships, each equipment is locked by ship model... so a Laser Turret from your starting ship can't be used on any other ship... that means even between the same ship class, you can't reuse ship equipment.
- As I said before, space combat is really weak, but not so bad as I first thought, because the game as a whole, have too many things, a lot of it is just clutter, and coupled with cryptic UI things tend to be a LOT different after some time (be it for better or worse).
- Yeah, clutter, there is a lot: each weapon attachment only works for its weapon type (Rifle thing can't be used for LMG, etc) and in case of ships, each equipment is locked by ship model... so a Laser Turret from your starting ship can't be used on any other ship... that means even between the same ship class, you can't reuse ship equipment.
30h to 40h:
- As I decided to march forward, I switched mainly to space combat + boarding... this way I started making money to upgrade my ship equipment and raise funds for my next ship.
- As thing went, I decided to board only ship models I potentially planned to buy later (to loot equipment for later) or bigger ships to sell (but now I'm thinking the selling prices are mainly based on ship condition and not model) and destroy other ships and move on to the next.
- In the end I was mostly blowing enemy ships up because I grew tired of ground combat (even when it took less than 15min to take over a enemy ship).
40h to 65h:
- From now on, since the game is running in background, the gameplay time increases a lot because I frequently forget it running.
- I bought my Light Merchant ship and started mining/salvaging shipwrecks (these drop ship repair parts used to repair a ship during boarding, otherwise only by salvaging, and lowering selling price of the ship, you can get these parts)
- At this moment, I can't really say I'm playing the game, since I'm mostly doing other stuff while the game is running in the background... then after filling the cargo hold and refining a few times, I go and sell all... rinse and repeat.
65h+:
- Bought a even bigger Ship that will increase "my playing, but not playing" time.
- Well, this way I take some time to cool things down. I plan to do some more ground missions (probably following the main quest line) + boarding.
CONCLUSION:
The game is a impressive feat for a solo developer... while a solo dev generally means a cohesive game instead of combination of things by many people (that generally end up not working well together), the game suffers from the lack of a bigger team as things tend to be either too simplistic, or cluttered or bloated or just pointless.
Besides, there is a lot of grind... and even things that aren't grind, feel like it after some time.
I still think its worth a try, specially since you can have a lot of fun in the first 20~30h (more or less depending on taste)... and even more because this game shows that ITS POSSIBLE to have a game that we all have been wanting to play, but the Studios insist in ignoring it or say its technically not possible (bullshit), if this Dev had a team to command and improve/refine his ideas, this game would be a top masterpiece for sure.
