Recent reviews by Staticwombat

Regret buying this outside Steam, think I'd rather refund it. This isn't a game about making trains and routing them, it's a game about building towns and then some trains between them. It's basically Anno, but with trains, it plays very similarly.

If I wanted to build towns, I'd have bought "Sweet Towns", not "Sweet Transit".

Oh, and while we're at it, all the reviews are right. The UI is absolutely awful, finding key buildings is unnecessarily difficult. Everytime I want to build a storage, I have to search for it since I can't find it under any tab.

EDIT: Having played more, I still can't recommend this. It's a real shame since the train implementation is really nice. However, here's a few key gripes:

- I am building industries, so I can build more industries. Again, if I wanted to do this, I would play Anno. Why aren't the industries and settlements just provided on the map and I shuttle between them?
- Why do I have to micromanage how towns distribute wares? The absolute mess of having markets feeding off storages, production buildings, making sure I somehow siphon off the right resources to the warehouse vs to the market... It's unnecessarily complicated.
- On that point, why can I only feed markets and such from ONE location? Why can't they have two or more inputs? I appreciate couriers are meant to solve this, but they move such a small volume of goods to be unnecessary.
- Why isn't it clear what buildings do or don't impact desirability? This would not be hard to implement. It's equally not clear that trees completely block negative desirability.
- There are nowhere near enough ways to control attractiveness.
- The balance of costs seems to be very out of whack. If you get into a debt spiral, it's pretty much impossible to break out of.

Again, a real shame, the trains implementation is great fun but it's unnecessarily frustrating to play.

Cute little game that you can complete in a full evening. Simple mechanics, a refreshing little 2D puzzle platformer. 4-5 hours gameplay, unless you're going for completionist, then you can expect to add 1-2 hours on that. I enjoyed it a lot.

The only minor gripe I have is the number of webs I had to use to do some of the tasks. The video is pretty generous when it shows using only 3 webs to get the leg on the mecha-ant, I used a LOT more than that. Moving some of the objects is a bit tedious, but overall worth it. The movement and exploration are the best parts.

Given Sseth just reviewed this, and in lieu of ever having bothered to write a full review, I can confirm this is absolutely fantastic. It's worth it at full price and it's absolutely worth it on this one-off sale.

EDIT: And I might as well update this to highlight this game again so Stem gives me a nomination award.

Flash and its associated game design died but this one missed the memo

Objectively the best team shooter released in the past decade, a real throw back to the glory days of Battlefield. The gunplay is neat, the traversal mechanics are smooth, the game runs extremely well, the unlock system is good and there is a huge variety of weapons and skins to unlock, multiple gameplay modes, and support for up to 128vs128 players (though I normally find 64vs64 to be a better experience). I can't really think of a single downside.

For something made by three guys, and at this price range, it's insanely good. I would much rather play this than any other FPS.

I wrote a fat ass review and then Steam lost it all, which is a real shame. So here's the quick version:

* It's good, but it still needs lots of work.
* The setting is great, I love that the only enemy is the environment.
* I've played 13 hours in the space of under a week. My first session I played 5 hours straight before realising.
* It's way too slow. The game only goes to max 4x speed (12x when sleeping), things take a lot longer than that allows.
* After year 1, there is no challenge.
* The progression feels really good.
* There's too much micromanagement, especially around cooking.
* I need to be able to disable some of the popups, constantly being told I was out of materials was annoying.
* The UI in general is very clunky.
* Winter is boring, exceptionally so in the first year, not helped by the slow play.

It is evidently early access. I believe with more work, this could be really good, but I don't know how long that will take.

Would I rather play this, or would I rather play Rimworld?

Neither. I'd play Songs of Syx.

Quite an enjoyable time sink. The gameplay loop is fine: Collect resources to manufacture or trade, make money, complete the planet area, and then move to a different area or planet.

The main goal (as far as I can tell) is to visit each area and find the hidden artifact. The only way to do this is by buying Scanner modules from the trader and dropping them across the terrain. There are different scanner "levels", each scanning progressively more land at once, and each can only be used 5 times. In theory, you can scan an entire planet with (I would guess) no more than 4 level 3 scanners... However, if you somehow manage to miss a small bit of land, this suddenly becomes incredibly tedious. I ended up using around 6 level 3 scanners on my last area before giving up; the hidden artifact is clearly somewhere my scanner isn't quite reaching.

Back to the pros, each planet is slightly different, requiring different base designs (though the overall base-building mechanic is simplistic), offering different combinations of enemies, but generally presenting the same gameplay loop.

Overall, an okay little game. I would hesitate to pay more than £5 for this really... It's quite simple and whilst a project of passion, doesn't have much depth. I have played free games at and above this quality. That said, in the grand mire that is cheap Steam indie games, this is a good one.

As a single point, the dev has mentioned he's moved onto a new project. Whilst he's said he'll finish off this little game, I don't see what more there is to add beyond polish. That said, this is in a perfectly playable state.

I really enjoyed FAR: Lone Sails when I played it a while ago, but I don't really remember why. This was enjoyable, but not as enjoyable. I actually think this sequel is too long, potentially... It's still good, but I'd really recommend playing Lone Sails and leaving it there, unless you're REALLY aching for more.

Let me preface this review by saying, I went into this expecting something completely different. I was expecting a game like Outer Wilds or Return of the Obra Dinn, but got something closer to Zelda or a platform RPG. It actually reminded me most of a little indie game called Pine (which I recommend if you enjoy this). To be clear, this is not a game where you must discover what's going on; it's a game where you're given clear objectives to achieve, one after the other.

Dredge is a casual horror story game. You play as a fisherman hired to feed a coastal town, but quickly forget about that and start exploring the seas. The gameplay starts as a mid-00's era upgrade-a-thon, catching fish and gathering materials to upgrade your boat, before transforming into a zone-by-zone story game. Whilst there is a big open world, you're guided in it by a linear story, with a number of set-pieces that remind me of PS2 era boss fights. That said, the lore and story seem reasonably thin, and the twists are all predictable; you're really playing this as a time killer, less than anything else.

It's a very satisfying and relaxing game. Even the "horror" parts that mostly appear at night are soft. There isn't anything really scary, and the game doesn't present much challenge. It's largely a grind, with some RNG thrown in (which so far has not been a hindrance, unless you're trying to collect-a-thon the game, in which case some of the rare species and aberations can be extremely frustrating).

Death is not an issue in this game; you are simply reset with all your gear to when you were last docked. That may put off some hardcore players.

Overall, a good game that will appeal to a casual audience, with the added charm of the setting.