Recent reviews by Xavori

Don't believe any of the reviews that say this game doesn't support LGBTQ+. All you need to do is rip the head off of a T-Sun marine with your bare hands and watch them burst into pink glitter to see that for the lie it is.

While I had to check YES/NO, I'd rather this review be more along the lines of "Maybe, but with definite possibilities for YES in the future."

The good: It's a really well-done geopolitical strategy game with aliens. And space combat. And stuff. So much stuff.

The bad: Too much stuff that does too little. A whole bunch of stuff that while not just out-of-the-blue feels like out-of-the-blue because until you research a bunch of tech, you can't figure out what's going on. And stuff you'll get that is absolutely useless and a waste of time (early space ship design comes to mind, but it's not the only thing). There are also some pretty serious balance issues, but that's not that surprising in an Early Access game.

The ugly: I have this crazy dream where game devs actually spend a few bucks doing usability testing on their software. I know. I know. I'm jousting at even crazier windmills than ol' Mr. Quixote, but still, I'm gonna dream that impossible dream. But ya, the user interface is just terrible. Sure, once you figure out where stuff is, and so on...you'll still end up wasting time because there isn't any good way to know whether some of the hidden cooldowns or check-flags have been triggered before you try to do something (*cough*unification*cough*). It's just a mess.

That said, I am having fun. And ultimately, that's the yes/no litmus test, right?

Pause-able realtime 4x space game with tons and tons of stuffs and things. Yes. It's made better by a ton of DLC because Paradox, but even the base game is rock solid entertainment.

The ultimate relax and just do stuff at your own pace kinda game. And there is so much to do. Mining, metal detector treasure hunting, fishing, riding a jet ski, farming, chatting with townsfolk, exploring, hunting, running for your life the first time you head into the deep mind because you didn't even come close to preparing properly, and more...

I bought the game for myself. Then I got two more copies for my nephews. Trying to talk a few more friends into joining as well. Can't really say anything that tops those actions.

I really wanted to like this game. I've tried multiple playstyles and whatnot looking for a 'fun' way to make this work. But every time I try something, the game just goes and fraks it up. I

t starts out problematic with one of the worst intros for a colony builder ever. A non-skipplable, lame, backstory. Every single time you start a new colony, you get to watch the same nonsense. Then, when you get through that, you get to re-roll your random colonists looking for the critical starting skills in colonists who won't hate your kingdom, at least that you know at that point. Then, you start the game with fingers crossed because there are still more colonists traits that were hidden from you that can screw things up that you simply aren't allowed to see until after you start.

One of the worst of those things, and completely bass-ackwards game design for a colony builder, is colony size. While you the player might want to build a glorious kingdom with a thriving community, you might be stuck with colonists who want a tiny (as in 4 max colonists) kingdom. Now, you can deal with just a bit off of colony size at the start, but as the game goes on all the other maluses will build on that one, and it becomes a chore to keep your colonists from leaving via the omg-I-can't-believe-anyone-thought-this-would-be-fun-just-like-right-now-reading-this-bit-one-slow-word-at-time-conversation-system-that-was-obviously-designed-to-keep-you-too-busy-clicking-next-to-actually-realize-how-many-ther-problems-there-are-with-the-game-and-are-you-annoyed-with-this-yet-because-that's-how-the-slow-text-lines-appearing-during-conversations-are-going-to-make-you-feel system.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, the game just needs so much work, and there are so many much better colony builders out there (Kenshi, Rimworld, etc.) that until this game gets at least to the same level of fun as those, there isn't much point in considering this one.

Maybe eventually the game will be worth playing. But as it stands, AGS is essentially making every mistake every previous MMO has made. Exploits abound, including duping items. The player economy is entirely based on grind ala early MMO's. End game content is also pure grind and/or dependent on PvP. PvP is unbalanced badly, and the problems are compounded by the broken economy allowing a small subset of players to have a massive advantage over everyone else.

All that said, who knows? Maybe the game can be fixed. It's happened with other games in the past, but as it is now, it's definitely not worth your money.

There are two showstopper bugs I've run into in just 6 hours. They're so obvious there is no way they should have been in the game at release.

1. Activating an ability with an animation that moves your character (ie. pretty much all of them) while near an object (for example, hiding behind cover) has a decent chance of moving your character inside the geometry where they become stuck. If the AI is doing the whole hide and buff, you can't get to them, and they won't come for you, so the mission becomes unending.

2. The AI can, and does, get stuck when trying to pathfind near objects. This leads to it running in place forever.

Needless to say, given that I'm a fan of the boardgame, and that I played a whole bunch of Mordheim on Steam, this is seriously disappointing. I'd honestly refund if I hadn't played more than 2 hours before the bugs both had shown up multiple times making it obvious that the game is broken.

So my first game...first ruler...got sick. The court physician made a horrible mistake, and my ruler ended up a eunuch.

10/10 Would curl up in the fetal position sobbing again

(and then my first naked woman was 66 years old and covered in dirt and stains...I don't think the undead platypi like me)

2233 hours played as I write this. I don't think I can give it a better recommendation than that.

There is something zen in working out efficient production lines.

There is something cathartic in working out your frustrations upside the skull of some alien bug.

There is something fun in just playing this game without any pressure.

That's what makes this game work so well. You just sit and work at your own pace to produce these amazing contraptions to produce junk for no purpose other than because you want to.