Recent reviews by HexD

So far I have a decent number of hours in the game. It's had a rocky start with a number of bugs and interruptions, some of which have cropped up in my runs too. Releasing any big project is a challenging affair, and I've been impressed by how they've handled it -- communication in Discord and Steam, as well as an in-game patch notes overlay with pending and recently solved issues.

Gameplay is an interesting mix of conveyors, production efficiency, and planetary scales. The planet points of interest (POIs) is more compelling than a single-instance world to me, and I'm excited to explore further and creating a wider trade network, as well as the strategy and specialization that I hope comes along with it.

The tech tree might be my bigger gripe; I don't like arbitrary, abstract research points. I see them as an antipattern -- something tempting to use, but usually results in something less than compelling. That's kind of the case here. The actual research is interesting and prioritization is fun, but the queue is needlessly short and the tree is much deeper and narrower than I feel it should be. This needlessly gimps certain aspects of the early game and makes it difficult to experience the width of the game.

Colonists might be the best examples. Survival techs are further down the tree than getting the actual colonists unless you rush it, which is difficult because the tree itself does not have hovering tooltips for the unlockable research. Initially, it was all hidden, and I'm glad they've removed THAT because it is frustrating to need a tech, know that it must be in there somewhere, but not be able to discern where it will be.

TLDR, this will be a great game with a number of compelling aspects to each session, but the tech tree in particular needs a heavy rework.

Managed Democracy has won out. Brb, gotta smash some enemies of liberty.

There's a lot of mixed reviews on KSP2 and I can understand why.

The roadmap has been nothing but clear, though -- so when I purchased to play, I understood I was getting an Early Access game (for better or worse!) with a number of the features still in the pipeline. While I haven't pushed the game as hard as some of the folks hitting early krakens or outright bugs, I found orbit in Kerbin and Mun flybys to be stable and fun.

I'll probably put the game down for a little bit while I wait for additional features -- it really is barebones, but I'm looking forward to being along for each step of the process.

Phasmophobia started out as an indie game by a single developer with a simple premise: hunt ghosts before they hunt you! I'm proud to say that as it has developed, it has held onto that premise-- all while improving on the ghost AI, improving the sense and atmosphere of danger, and making tweaks to improve the player QoL.

I 100% recommend this game.

I am revising my original opinion. I still do not like the story, or the shoehorned dialogue. The writing tries far too hard to make dialogue tell us what our characters are, rather than letting it flow naturally. Unlike the original, it creates sets of nav points that expose the narrative for you.

A lot of the maps feel the same way -- tight, linear, and designed to guide you into a specific set of locations.

This still doesn't feel like Subnautica. Someone got it in their head that they wanted to tell a specific story -- and per my understanding, that story got rewritten several times in the development cycle.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this release. I hope Unknown Worlds recognizes that freedom was one of the hallmarks of the original Subnautica charm, and that this narrow, hand-held experience does not set the trend for their next release within this IP.

It has good ideas, but it feels like they were sacrificed in the name of a forced narrative.

Excellent colony management sim with a unique mechanic and a very challenging scenario. There's a ton of polish in the first campaign alone, and I'm almost certainly going to pick up the expansion content -- I absolutely feel my money was well spent on this game.

With 700 hours in the game I can confidently say I know it. A little. Maybe a bit more. It can be hard and frustrating at times, but it can be equally worth it for those mind-blowing plays. Sometimes you'll even make some friends among the community -- I'd say give it a try.

Easily one of the most delightful ranching games I've seen -- easy to play casually or introduce complexity by ranching the rarer and harder to control slimes! I played to the 'End Game' and felt very satisfied -- maybe not a game that I would come back to in the near future, but I paid full price and felt it worthwhile.

Great visuals, great audio, and a great premise.

Absolutely phenomenal game that has long since resolved its server problems. I have had 260+ hours ingame and there is STILL more content incoming and for me to do.

I can't recommend this game enough. I'm normally a multiplayer guy, but Subnautica captivated my imagination and sense of exploration ever since I picked it up. Watching it go through development has been inspiration. The developers do an amazing job of listening to the community and building something they can be proud of, and the pride really shows in their work. Do yourself a favor and pick up this game if any, tiny, wee-bitty part of you has a sense of adventure and a touch of fear about the big things lurking underwater.