9 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.1 hrs last two weeks / 781.0 hrs on record (152.1 hrs at review time)
Posted: 27 May, 2020 @ 1:15am
Updated: 8 Oct, 2020 @ 8:27pm

Early Access Review
So far, I have played Stars End for approximately 152 hours (that number will keep going up)
The game has a lot of potential and I would love to see that the finished state is going to be like.

Currently the game feels like its being pulled in all sorts of directions (just like the word it’s and its, the MS Word spell checker can’t decide which is right) The game starts off being way off into the future, where mankind has not annihilated its self yet, which in recent times feels like we are close to just that. You are drop to the planet with nothing except the clothes you wear, you have to forage and craft your way through, you can do it on your own or with friends. There are some problems and they are being worked on. (Also if we keep finding and reporting the bugs and or problems, the dev’s can fix them even if some might take longer than others)

When I bought the game it had “single player” listed in to play options on the Steam page, I was surprised that the dev’s removed it, it was after all 1 of the reasons why I initially bought the game.
Stars End has a solo mode in the game which is my preferred option in game; however it still requires an internet connection to play. I hope that at some point they will return the single player option on the Steam page and give us the option to play the game, even when we lose connection or the servers are down for maintenance. (Speaking of the Server Maintenance, it would be nice if we had a 5 or 10 min warning and or count down before being booted for Maintenance)

I am not big on MMO’s due to what happened to a game called Steam Hammer. The servers are not available and the game is dead, unplayable and removed from Steam for that reason. (But because I bought it, it is still in my games list and can still be installed, just not played)

Yes there are a lot of assets, but a lot of games start like that. (EGS, GearStorm & Craftopia to name a few) Eventually I hope to see the dev’s create their own, but I also know that CAD and modelling software is expensive and can be hard to use. (I’ve been there, when I was CAD operator for the Airlines. AutoCAD was £6K for the package and hard key; now you have to rent it starting at £150.00 per month) Not to mention the Compatibility problems. (32Bit Vs 64Bit, Drivers, OS, etc)

I see a lot of people saying things like broken, not finished, scam and comparing it to SE and EGS.
What they seem to forget is that “Stars End” is still in early access and is still in its early stages of development, I am not a programmer, I had a brief interaction with Turbo Pascal when doing an Electronics course 1996 (failed 7 out of 8 parts) Loved the practical, hated the theory. Defiantly can’t understand programming language. It’s not fair to the dev’s and the game to say: broken, not finished & scam, complaining that there are not enough people on the servers. What these players keep failing to realise is the following:

1. The game is still developed and we are still getting feedback from the dev’s, unlike some other early access titles that came out round the same time or have been out even longer.
2. SE (Space Engineers) had been in Early Access for Approximately 13 Years before release.
3. EGS (Empyrion Galactic Survival) has some of the same assets as Stars End, is released and still has a lot of bugs. (I hope that the dev’s of Stars End doesn’t rush the game out of early access like Elion did with EGS)
4. As for those calling it a scam, cash grab and other such rubbish; the game is still being worked on and still gets frequent updates. Another is that those people have a “privated account” with a Steam level of “0”.
5. It’s like a lot of people are forgetting why Early Access is available and why it is there.
6. If there are not enough people playing when you want to play, hit up those in your friends list and ask them if they want to play with you; take advantage of the sales when they come up and gift the game to those in your list. (But make sure that you notify them that the game is still currently in a very early access stage of development)

The game is still early access, and bugs are to be expected, but they won’t get addressed if no one reports them. It seems that the dev’s have a long road ahead of them and I hope that they make it and that we all have more blasts, than the falls.

If you are not sure if the game is or isn’t for you, don’t hesitate to check the game on the YouTube gaming channels. My channel has the same name as my Steam name. (To make things easier for those who follow me on YouTube) When I upload videos of Stars End I also upload them to Steam.
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Developer response:
Dev Konstantin  [developer] Posted: 27 May, 2020 @ 12:12pm
Dear 2005Guyver,

First of all allow me to thank you for being one of the best youtube content creators for Stars End that we have.

Thanks for your review and I completely understand your frustration with the mySQL solo hosting setup that came with the new update. Luckily it`s just a misunderstanding.

I`m terribly sorry for the confusion - we really did not handle unrolling this well. We were working very late on the update, and messed up the news announcement.

We did mentioned that this is a temporary situation, but I should have been very clear with saying that:


“””Ability to play solo without mySQL is being added later today!”””

It has now been added as part of Update 30 that went live today, so you can play solo without mySQL now. (Update will be live in 30 minutes)

mySQL will be permanently required to host dedicated servers though. But - it`s a free program for players to download, and setup does only take 5-10 minutes. But again it would not be required for solo.

I really hope you will forgive this mistake, and continue to play the game shortly, once this update is live (ETA is 5 hours). Also please consider updating your review, as this is really hurting our small indie studio. All the hard work, and we screw it up by getting the game buried with negative reviews over an improper update rollout.

Thanks! And any questions or comments - I`ll be happy to help here, or on our forums.
2 Comments
2005Guyver02 27 May, 2020 @ 7:42pm 
I was just about to go to bed and saw the update, so that I can do some back breaking labourer on my birthday in 5 hours.
Dev Konstantin  [developer] 27 May, 2020 @ 7:04pm 
2005Guyver02, my full reply is above, sorry about all the confusion - mySQL is not longer required to play singleplayer, it was a temporary one day thing.