Great chassis for a game.

The core gameplay loop is very engaging. You are on a race against running out of food and energy. There are high-tech solutions that make that easier but you need to move fast to get the resources. But moving fast opens up harder challenges, which require other high-tech solutions to solve. The timing is pretty established - most things become available just as you start to desperately need it. The planning of the perfect ship layout to help with this race is potentially quite addicting.

...at least up to a certain point. Then you stabilize and there isn't much challenge or variety and the pace starts to feel very slow. But, I assume that's why it's an alpha. The opportunity to introduce all the variety of Rimworld and FTL events, disasters, and combat challenges are there, just not utilized yet.

One disappointment is that the characters don't really stand out from each other. Other than maybe research, everyone is just kind of a warm body that can do a little bit of everything. Having someone good at construction or industry really makes no difference when the limitation is always just having the resources. There is some social and health status stuff but I never noticed any actual impact of it with 20 hours on hard.

Also, the setting feels very generic. There are data logs I guess but the one or two I read did not seem like a well-written story and there is zero plot immersion beyond that right now. So, while the mechanics are strong, the game does lack personality at the moment. But it is certainly easier to add a compelling story to a working gameplay concept than the reverse.

In the best of worlds, this ambitious game lives up to the combined potential of epic colony builder AND rougelike space sim and can be one of the finest games out there. But this is a large canvas to fill, and it might never quite find its identity with either and be...okay. Long way to go but if you don't mind early access games, it certainly has my interest, and ought to have yours as well.

Great chassis for a game. The core gameplay loop is very engaging. You are on a race against running out of food and energy. There are high-tech solutions that make that easier but you need to move fast to get the resources. But moving fast opens up harder challenges, which require other high-tech solutions to solve. The timing is pretty established - most things become available just as you start to desperately need it. The planning of the perfect ship layout to help with this race is potentially quite addicting. ...at least up to a certain point. Then you stabilize and there isn't much challenge or variety and the pace starts to feel very slow. But, I assume that's why it's an alpha. The opportunity to introduce all the variety of Rimworld and FTL events, disasters, and combat challenges are there, just not utilized yet. One disappointment is that the characters don't really stand out from each other. Other than maybe research, everyone is just kind of a warm body that can do a little bit of everything. Having someone good at construction or industry really makes no difference when the limitation is always just having the resources. There is some social and health status stuff but I never noticed any actual impact of it with 20 hours on hard. Also, the setting feels very generic. There are data logs I guess but the one or two I read did not seem like a well-written story and there is zero plot immersion beyond that right now. So, while the mechanics are strong, the game does lack personality at the moment. But it is certainly easier to add a compelling story to a working gameplay concept than the reverse. In the best of worlds, this ambitious game lives up to the combined potential of epic colony builder AND rougelike space sim and can be one of the finest games out there. But this is a large canvas to fill, and it might never quite find its identity with either and be...okay. Long way to go but if you don't mind early access games, it certainly has my interest, and ought to have yours as well.