Recent reviews by macrogramz

minecraft in space. one of the more functional economic and trade systems in a game primarily focused on something else. 10/10 will play again. and again. and again...

Caveat: I don't have enough play time to fully review.
If you have enjoyed playing games like Dead Cells, Skul, Spelunky, Starbound, Terraria, .. this might also be a good time. I particularly enjoy the pseudo-physics of sand-gravity.
My only critique is not important but I hope performance / CPU usage can be reduced somewhat in the future.

This game has been available for about 9 months, I waited to play for 6 and another 3 months until posting this. If the final game is as fun as the initial Subnautica game when complete, I will be happy. As of 10/2019 however things could be better. All voice-over tracks are disabled by the game at this time. Subtitles are an option for those willing to go that route. The current game I quit didn't have enough lithium. Almost none. So I enabled console, cheated in scanner rooms and verified where it SHOULD have been. Previous partial playthrough did have enough lithium for 15 hours play or so... I'll give a positive review. If game updates stagnate, review will be updated to show NOT recommended.
I trust in the Subnautica team will be finishing their game and likely it will be great. Sadly, many well-known AAA game corporations in general .. increasingly true... have been making terrible sequential titles.. as in they get worse.. much worse. I don't believe the Subnautica series will do this to us but I have to admit right now being slightly bummed about the state of things... Gorgeous and problems..... :)
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edited to add the following on Oct. 08, 2019
1. The Unstable Build has voice-overs enabled.
2. When I just now tried this Beta Branch version, I had less trouble finding Lithium. Maybe a bad random game in Stable Branch or maybe they have changed the unstable resource distribution.
Those were my to specific complaints for the Stable Branch (default) game version as of Oct. 07, 2019. So that was a relief to discover. I also did not encounter any more bugs or game-breaking problems using the Beta Branch. Also good.

game worth it? yes.
game turning into a repeating +$20 DLC cash farm? yes.
[update: now a $25 for each DLC cash farm? yes]

Addictive. Hilarious and randomly brutal. Overwhelming at first for some. Steep learning curve: accurate. For myself, learning curve was lessened by having awareness of dwarf fortress and playing too much Rimworld. It is similar to Rimworld but it also is totally different. An element of "tower defense" exists. Less fine-grained control of pawns or actions than Rimworld but really engaging.
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Minor and not very significant criticism: there is a SERIOUS LACK of information about game mechanics. I spent a lot of time looking at a very sparse (or even often blank) wiki for Rise to Ruins, I spent a lot of time reading forum posts that helped a little. Custom Difficulty settings contains a textual error about a setting that can't be more than the corruption amount at start above (setting doesn't exist). Sometimes food/water flows well, sometimes everybody starves and dehydrates to death. Game needs simplification in the water process or instructions. It's overly complex for no reason.
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love it. can't stop playing. 'nough....

Edited review.
The Long Dark is a different kind of survival game. The "replay value" of this game is high. There is a quality of art and design that is really different and quite appealing, I personally do not care for the story and just couldn't get into it enough to finish it. Too many contrived obstacles. I could play the sandbox (or pre-release sandbox version.. basically) and challenge modes forever. I hope others don't have the problems i did getting into the "main story" mode.. Probably just me.

Originally, I posted review as NOT recommended. I changed this review to recommended. Also thank you for the developer note on the memory usage problems and Unity 4/5.