Recent reviews by Sturmjaeger

Good game, but it's even harder to enjoy a rogue like when their is an additional challenge to your progression: game crashes. The game actually crashes and takes Steam down as well.

I think I would enjoy this better if it were a taad more like Dead Cells, and you could choose your path, instead of slogging through the same old rooms in a linear fashion.

If the crashes were fixed, I would rate this a 3/4.

UPDATE: Ok, so it's not crashing any more, and I'm enjoying it again. 4/4

After playing the game for 12 hours, I gotta say I was hooked.

Pros:
+ Graphics
+ Music - ambient but appropriate
+ Gameplay Controls - even that the developers recommend using a controller, it worked well for me on mouse and keyboard
+ Game Mechanics - extremely satisfying to figure out custom builds and what kinds of skills you want to specialize in

Cons:
- You may not have a life.

CHANGED REVIEW TO MUST BUY SINCE BETA FIXED ALL THIS.

Conclusion: Buy it now. You won't regret it.

Don't buy until game-breaking bugs are fixed. Massive Damage have done massive damage to their reputation in my book.

I really wanted to like this game. It was on sale, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far, I've played for 22 hours (pretty constantly in 5 hour sessions over about 3 days), and am a fan of strategic 4X games.

PROS:
+ Creative skills combination system (think Xenogears in space)
+ Base-building,
+ Familiar ground and space combat system
+ Multiple ship designs
+ Non-irritating music

CONS:
- Game-breaking bugs (see below)
- Gameplay at mid-game feels like a tedious game of whack-a-mole. You send the same fleet around to do the same sequence of tactical actions - rock, paper, scissors style. Oh, and the lovely RNG makes it so that if your disable ship tactic doesn't work you're in for a heal-a-thon. This serves to only extend the length of the tedious battles.
- Not fun
- Never get to enjoy the full game because bugs choke it to death prematurely

Why am I giving it one star then?
The game is broken. I can handle (and even welcome) games that force you to make tough decisions. I can handle games that pit you against overwhelming odds. I can handle resource challenges that force you to do the best with what you've got.

What I can't handle is bugs that fundamentally break the game and ruin a system of well-established rules arbitrarily. Those kind of games aren't fun and are a betrayal of the gamer's trust, rendering the time and effort he or she has invested into a game moot.

Some background: I'm still on my first playthrough winning battles against any fleet in the game, even though I'm still using Tier 2 ships (with Tier 3 ships on the way once I get the resources). My officers are almost all around level 7. I made an early mistake and so I am missing a tactical officer (have 2 Eng, 2 Science, 1 Tactical Officer so I don't have two sets of 1 of each officer/ship in my fleets).

Example 1: I had a settlement 20 days away from falling. I scoot over there and while en route I get a notification it had fallen to the Chruul. I arrived, killed the enemy, and the screen showed the same fleet there and my ship was in the position it had been when I got the notification. WTF?!

Example 2: In the most egregious bug (and the subject of a lot of discussion) is when the first Spire arrives. It seems to appear based on time. I killed the fleet guarding it, and then it gave me the message I needed more research back at the Starbase. I acknowlege that screen and indicate for my fleet to go to another system. It shows that message again. I dismiss it again.

I go back to the base and there is no relevant research. I checked the OFficer Training area and not even the biowarfare upgrade was the one. So this is a terribly bad quest with zero in-game clues as to how to obtain this research. I did a google search and found how, but triggering this condition (visiting New Terra) brings about the arrival of the Chimera, which would exacerbate an already bad situation.

Example 3: Main quest "Expand the Starbase" missions is bugged and never progresses even though it is checked.

The bottom line is: you cannot have a plot-based, branching campaign with these kinds of debilitating bugs- especially when there is no way to recoup resources once a system is (unfairly) conquered. In the end, every victory I win is a Phyyric one, which only delays the inevitable due to these massive bugs. When it slowly dawns on you that the game becomes a series of Sisyphean tasks, it's just not worth playing any more.

Right now, I've stopped playing and won't play again until these issues are dispositively fixed.

I'm extremely disappointed, and was very angry when my colony (which again had 20 days to go) was instantly killed because of a damn bug.