I was initially looking forward to this game when it was announced in 2019, a spiritual successor to the legendary sci-fi management game by MuckyFoot in 2001.

It skipped my mind when it released in 2021 due to other things going on in my life and now I decided to try and play it despite the mixed reviews and let's just say I should've thought something was up and it's readily apparent now. This game has terrible optimization issues where the whole game chugs trying to access your employee menu. The AI pathing is exceptionally bad and nobody seems to seek out the Sick Bay when needed. VAL is especially annoying as they're nothing like the snarky but by-your-side inorganic of the original with a grating text-to-speech voice.

And good LORD the ending is such a copout whereas the original you were actually helping to make the galaxy better in the wake of intergalactic warfare and VAL even offers to toast with a bottle of champagne, Here it's a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave without a surface. VAL is using you to iterate the perfect way to wipe out organic life within the galaxy and then terminates you at the very end despite everything leading up to it implying you're going to defeat them.
I couldn't stand getting that far because while I could work through the slow process of building up my army in the penultimate mission, I couldn't stand the massive amount of chugging caused by navigating the menus.

I don't like the additions of more needs for the aliens which means more things the game needs to keep track of and leads to an even greater strain when you're dealing with hundreds of visitors and Unity is *not* the kind of engine for agent-based sim gameplay as we've seen with both Cities: Skylines games. (For an example of a well-optimized game, see the first two RollerCoaster Tycoon games which are programmed in x86 Assembler with a bit of C++ to run on Windows, those games will run decent even on an old ThinkPad)
Oxygen management is just another hassle.
Having to build the lifts between floors rather than two coming with each segment.
Energy distributors on the Fun Deck which replaces the more subtle Power Rating that limits your spending ability.

Worse still is the complete lack of planning for any mod support at all which would've helped by, say, bringing back the feel of the original or even a total conversion mod of the original but nothing of that sort was planned or even considered.

What are some of the things I *do* like about this game? Well some of the neat shortcuts for performing functions such as the item vacuum and the ability to instantly unpack with Shift+R.
Research improves the performance of facilities rather than just simply making them cheaper to produce.
A lot of actions can be performed more directly rather than the original's play-by-feel with the lack of numbers.
Dryads can passively harvest from plants on the Bio-Deck without destroying them but you can harvest them directly if you need resources urgently.

I'm not angry at this game, I'm just plain disappointed at the wasted potential of a sequel or successor to one of the defining games of my childhood

I was initially looking forward to this game when it was announced in 2019, a spiritual successor to the legendary sci-fi management game by MuckyFoot in 2001. It skipped my mind when it released in 2021 due to other things going on in my life and now I decided to try and play it despite the mixed reviews and let's just say I should've thought something was up and it's readily apparent now. This game has terrible optimization issues where the whole game chugs trying to access your employee menu. The AI pathing is exceptionally bad and nobody seems to seek out the Sick Bay when needed. VAL is especially annoying as they're nothing like the snarky but by-your-side inorganic of the original with a grating text-to-speech voice. And good LORD the ending is such a copout whereas the original you were actually helping to make the galaxy better in the wake of intergalactic warfare and VAL even offers to toast with a bottle of champagne, [spoiler] Here it's a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave within a Platonic Cave without a surface. VAL is using you to iterate the perfect way to wipe out organic life within the galaxy and then terminates you at the very end despite everything leading up to it implying you're going to defeat them. [/spoiler] I couldn't stand getting that far because while I could work through the slow process of building up my army in the penultimate mission, I couldn't stand the massive amount of chugging caused by navigating the menus. I don't like the additions of more needs for the aliens which means more things the game needs to keep track of and leads to an even greater strain when you're dealing with hundreds of visitors and Unity is *not* the kind of engine for agent-based sim gameplay as we've seen with both Cities: Skylines games. (For an example of a well-optimized game, see the first two RollerCoaster Tycoon games which are programmed in x86 Assembler with a bit of C++ to run on Windows, those games will run decent even on an old ThinkPad) Oxygen management is just another hassle. Having to build the lifts between floors rather than two coming with each segment. Energy distributors on the Fun Deck which replaces the more subtle Power Rating that limits your spending ability. Worse still is the complete lack of planning for any mod support at all which would've helped by, say, bringing back the feel of the original or even a total conversion mod of the original but nothing of that sort was planned or even considered. What are some of the things I *do* like about this game? Well some of the neat shortcuts for performing functions such as the item vacuum and the ability to instantly unpack with Shift+R. Research improves the performance of facilities rather than just simply making them cheaper to produce. A lot of actions can be performed more directly rather than the original's play-by-feel with the lack of numbers. Dryads can passively harvest from plants on the Bio-Deck without destroying them but you can harvest them directly if you need resources urgently. I'm not angry at this game, I'm just plain disappointed at the wasted potential of a sequel or successor to one of the defining games of my childhood