Recent reviews by shrewdlogarithm

As per some other reviews - there's a lot of stuff going-on but it doesn't come together in a way which is fun to play YET

The game itself is quite disjointed - LOTS of levelling up - LOTS of choices - not all of which are that helpful - I'd like fewer choices which are more impactful.

Levels also have Objectives which get REALLY boring REALLY quickly - they clearly exist to force you into moving around but the combat should do that - I don't need to be picking Mushrooms and other nonsense - thanks

It also DESPERATELY needs someone to make some decent sound effects - the combat feels weak and it's mostly down to lack of crunchy/thuddy/explodey noises I think!!

I will keep an eye - it's promising but the elements don't really fit togther YET

This is more a caution than a non-recommendation

This is a PUZZLE which happens to use a programming-language to solve it BUT - like TIS and Shenzen before it - the instruction set/registers/execution model are limited to create 'challenge'

I like 'challenge' but I feel this one pushes that a-bit-far - I felt like I was trying to guess the program from the design of the puzzle instead of writing a program to solve the puzzle.

I suspect a non-programmer might enjoy this MORE than I did - it's certainly well presented and eminently playable but I just kept running into stuff which was clearly put there to push me into finding THEIR solution instead of my own - and I didn't enjoy that...

You might - but be aware this won't "teach programming" anymore than Spacechem didn't "teach Chemistry" :)

I came for the factory building...

I stayed for the absolutely amazing world this offers for exploration

I then killed everything which moved, tore all the resources out of a it and made a FACTORY!

With TRAINS

Love it...

It's not a factory game - it's THE factory game!

When I first saw Shapez 2 I thought "why do we need 3D - Shapez works really well in 2D as-is"

Then I played it for a while and it's SO much better - there was a lot which was annoying about being stuck in 2D and this just makes that go away...

The UI is just AMAZING - top-tier work - everything can be done with a few clicks or buttons - you can move whole areas of factories around with ease - EVERY other factory game could learn from how smooth manipulating your factory is here (and undo - it has UNDO - are you listening factory-game-makers???)

Performance is also amazing - you zoom a massive factory from 'whole factory' to 'single machine' with not the slightest hitch and there's detail galore...

My ONLY gripe is the music - it's the sort of stuff which works for trailers but not when you're playing a game for hours - it's just a bit grating and a bit repetitive - but there's plenty of music in the world to listen to eh?

This is possibly one of the most interesting and yet also one of the most frustrating games I've played in 40+ years of playing games.

The concept is great - a mix of exploration and factory building where not EVERYTHING can be automated so there's juggling of stuff/manual carrying/searching for stuff etc.

The frustration comes from some weird design decisions which mean you have a LOT of walking, a LOT of fetch-and-carrying, a relatively small inventory, a lot of manual farming of materials and a UI which is - erm - going to make you swear quite a bit!

Maps are random - things have to be placed in certain locations - moving stuff around can be challenging - you may not even notice a lack of 'something' until you're many hours in and it can take a LONG time to move stuff across the whole map!

Can it be fixed? Possibly BUT at least some of my issues seem to be deliberate choices - fighting with your inventory space is 'adventure' apparently - there's some odd 'gameplay' which is often unfun - I'm not really sure why - if feels like they're "gating content" but there's LOADS of that so...

Lastly, the game has ONE gamemode where you start from scratch - a custom game mode could fix a lot of issues BUT there's no mention of that I can find so...

This is a very 'zach like' puzzle which I've enjoyed quite a lot

BUT

The way objectives are set-out seems deliberately obscure and adds a layer of difficulty I don't think it really needed - I actually found myself 'reverse engineering' requirements from results instead of reading the overly wordy 'explanations'

It's still worth your time - just be prepared to read a lot things MANY times before they click...

There's a lot of Minesweeper goodness going-on here - hard not to recommend it BUT

A WORD OF WARNING

Story mode starts-off well but unlocking levels gets more and more frustrating - it's all a bit 'mobile game' really, with both time and "in game" money based unlocks (yes, in a single-player offline game!!)

The "in game" currency can be used to buy "lives" and 'hints' as well as unlocking content but it's limited which means you can easily 'waste' enough to make it harder to progress - which isn't really that well designed...

The Minesweeper bits are AOK tho!

The core idea of this game - recruiting, levelling-up and healing people who you lose PERMANENTLY if they die is cool

Everything around it is less cool - difficulty is all-over-the-place, lots of things have been thrown-in without really being tested and it gets REALLY boring REALLY quickly...

With some tuning/development it could be an interesting game but I'm guessing sales aren't that great so they're calling it done and - well - it isn't and I can't recommend it as-is

Shame - the whole recruitment idea is excellent but the game around it is very, very "MEH"

I've had some fun in this but as-of Sept 2024 the game is in a poor state IMO - it's grindy, some upgrades and weapons feel bad and the fun which existed in earlier versions just isn't there

It's not a bad game - it could easily be improved by making the whole experience 'less of a chore' but as-of now (following a "Balance Pass" no less) it feels like a chore...

The USP here is mining - but mining is quickly sidelined as the game becomes another 'kill all the monsters' game - ironic given that DRG manages to do both and earlier versions of this weren't so polarised.

Maybe it will develop - maybe they will fix the bad weapons and tweak the upgrades and difficulties - maybe the 2nd level will one-day actually be fun-to-play - who knows

All I know is that I stopped enjoying it and struggle to recommend it as-is

YMMV - Rock and Stone and all that...

This has the potential to be fun - esp if you can ignore the jank but BOY is it janky

Worst example - ALL enemies spawn from nowhere RIGHT in-front or even on-top of you - it just looks and feels BAD

Not improving that look is the performance, I can run PoE at 100fps but I get 45 on "High" here!?

It also hard-crashed 3 out of 5 times I ran it and once mid-game - not ideal...

Icing on the cake is I was permanently banned from their Steam Forum for raising the spawn issue :)

Thin-skinned developers should not release half-finished games...