レビュー

• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  Excellent game. Graphics are decent, audio is good enough, gameplay is entertaining. Even better, running flawlessly on Linux. There are lots of interesting things to do, plus the fun of turning obstacles into resources. For instance, you start off with a lot of rocks preventing construction. You could push those rocks into a chasm, but once you build a geology lab, you need to destroy them there to build research points! Nifty gameplay idea. If you're looking for a pretty simple simulator with lots of theme, then this has my recommendation. On the other hand, I wish it had an "advanced mode" to add more complexity and more building. Also, I wish I could automate the rovers and extractors.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  Good game so far. Definitely far from perfect, but it is still a work in progress. The developer is in constant communication with the player base, and you can tell his dedication to the end user. He is a one man designer, so I am willing to give him time and see where the game can go. Great potential for a great game, especially when the game is made by somebody so passionate about space travel and geology. It can use a lot of refinement, true. But that is why you buy the game, play, and make suggestions in the discussions as to what you would like to see. Solzerogame will listen to your concerns and offer an appropriate solution. I spent almost an hour before purchasing this game doing my research, and have the utmost confidence in my purchase. The developer even acknowledged that in a larger release, some bugs came out which did not surface during trials (this is a common occurrence) and will be working on all known issues in a timely fashion. I am all for supporting such projects. I hope to see more good things to come. Edit to make my review a little more focused on the gameplay itself, as I have been getting flak for putting my hope in the developer: All of the above out of the way, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in game. It starts a little slow, but I believe this gives the player time to acclimate to the experience and learn how to start a base. It will require a couple trial and error restarts, but I love that in a game. I don't enjoy my experience being spoon fed to me from a silver platter. You will also need this time to thoroughly explore your planet and gain a firm footing on where to establish a base. Resources will be scattered and one must take time to make an informed decision in order to have a productive colony. This game focuses on micro management. I like that you have so much control, but feel as if it could get tedious near the endgame. I am not sure how efficiently the micromanagement will scale up. We will see. This game will not be for a lot of people, because it requires planning and thought. If you are a casual gamer, maybe find yourself another title. I on the other hand enjoy the challenge. I am big into games like Banished, PlanetBase, etc. So if you like those games, I believe this one will fit comfortably into your collection. Just understand that the game needs a little bit more time to mature. If you are not sure yet, throw it on your wish list and wait a couple months... Bottom line: I enjoy this game. If it looks intriguing to you based on screen shots and videos, I am confident you will as well.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  Sol 0 isn’t the most groundbreaking strategy/simulation game at this time, but it does provide some enjoyable gameplay. At this point I do like how the game restricts you on starting your base. You actually have to plan out everything before you decide to send some astronauts to their deaths. While starting out the game can be rather slow, I think it lends a lot to strategically launching what you need to survive. Once you get things rolling it’s just a matter of resupplying until you become completely self sufficient. This is where the meat of the game is, and can be satisfying, and boring to a point. Of course the game will keep things interesting by making EVERYTHING break every 10 seconds. This leads me to my main issue with the game. I understand this is Mars, and it’s remote, and desolate, and things will happen. However, I hope and pray that human engineering is sophisticated enough to make technology that will last at least a few years without breaking. I would be cool with performing maintenance on things fairly often, but the amount of stuff that breaks in this game is TOO DAMN HIGH! If that’s not enough for you, on normal difficulty the game will make sure you become well acquainted with your new best friends. These friends go by the names, Dust Devil and Meteor Showers. They are like the best friend you really never wanted. They drop by way too often and wreck your best toys before leaving. These are the only “real” issues I have with the game. Overall the game is well worth what I spent on it. If a little more balancing is done with disasters and stuff breaking all the time, I think the game will be great. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about bugs, but I haven’t had any issues with bugs other than having to issue orders twice every once in a while.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  Like other reviewers, this is a game I really wanted to like, and it contains some mechanics around strategy and decision-making that look like they would be fun. I'll state the main reason up front for why I would not recommend this game. The design of the game mechanics themselves is unpolished to the point where the player must do a lot of things that are not fun and barely drive the gameplay forward. Secondarily, the interface is such that many of these not-fun tasks require multiple clicks, often involving very small buttons. I would recommend that the designers look up Fitts's Law of User Interface Design. - You must build next to existing structures, which makes planning really difficult sometimes. How do you know if you'll have enough room for the structures you want to fit in an area? - Also due to the above, expanding the base is a chore because building even the smallest type of construction requires a large number of very careful clicks and keypresses to select, position, and rotate the object. You now must wait for it to be fully constructed before ordering any construction adjacent to it. - Doors. Whatever the design intent was, execution here is awful. Just built 5 or 6 buildings? Chances are, you now need to go and open 4 or 5 doors, which takes 2 clicks each. Say I want to demolish a building (likely caused as a result of the first problem, nearly impossible to plan out space). Well, the game gives you what you asked for - an astronaut walks over to the building and it vanishes instantly. Did you move the screen to somewhere else because you didnt want to wait for the astronaut, and time is a resource in this game? Did you forget to manually close the airlock that connects the building to the hallway? Do you see where I am going with this one? No, it is not the airlock scene from 'Interstellar', but it does result in half your base dying before you can scroll back over and click twice to close the airlock. Like a psychotic individual trying to justify their actions, the game's attitude is basically "Hey, you never told me NOT to depressurize the entire base". I don't mind the "Early Grind" part of a strategic game where you spend more time and effort trying to meet the basic support needs before you eventually build something cool or discover something cool that opens new possibilities or allows you to use resources more effectively and then start -accomplishing- something cool. This is actually what makes a lot of games interesting, a natural progression toward doing bigger and better things. What killed this game for me and made it a Thumbs Down was the fact that the basics/needs/support mechanics force the player to revisit over and over again the worst-designed and least-fun parts of the game. ------------------ With the main points taken care of, I will go on to mention some of the other issues of note that did NOT have a major effect on my decision to give this game thumbs down. Low production values and unity-style graphics - I love good graphics but I love good gameplay even more. The price makes the production value issues acceptable IMO. Some scientific inaccuracies or abstractions for the sake of gameplay, like construction is instantaneous, the guys wearing the spacesuits never go indoors or you launch a rocket and it arrives on mars instantly (I dont care at all, just mentioning). This is NOT a personnel or needs-based game like planetbase where people go indoors to eat and sleep. Generally the game is rough around all kinds of edges. I personally did not encounter bugs, but if you play a fair number of games, you will find the rough edges. If a rocket launch is ready, the game continues until you click the button to go to a screen where you select a rocket and configure the payload. What if you decide you'd rather wait until later to launch? I could not find a way to back out of that screen, I had to launch something! Not a dealbreaker but it illustrates the game's roughness. ------------------ In closing as I said earlier, I wanted to like the game. I hope the people who already bought it are enjoying it. I hope the game is updated and improved so that more people want to buy and enjoy it. I hope the developer goes on to make another cool game in the genre that I tend to like.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  Shows a lot of potential, but playability is poor. The game is ridiculously unforgiving even on normal difficulty level: my colony has room for 12 people, yet when I have only 11, I get a constant whining of the colony is not being to support itself, and people start disappearing. Some rooms just never get enough oxygen, even though I've built a lot of generators right next to them and opened the doors. Perhaps this is why regardless of food generator rooms, the food level is negative. The bulldozer is ridiculous: it has no AI, so you need to push away all the rocks, one by one, and it often gets stuck in terrain. The other vehicles also require too much micro-management and offer little reward. I could go on, but in its current form this game is way too frustrating and tedious.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 18, 2016

  It can be tough at times to be objective about a game. This one is pretty fun, like a light version of a few other games of its type. The question though is, "would you recommend it to others?" and my answer is, yes. Having said that, it must be pointed out that there are a few annoying bugs such as your astronauts getting stuck on solar panels when they are supposed to be cleaning them or how just plainly stupid and unintuitive the bulldozer is... I mean, I fling a rock clear across the screen sometimes for no reason I can understand. It is nice to be able to automate or not with your forklifts, but what about the astronauts? It would be nice to be able to take them off of automation (other than selcting them) because they often do not prioritize well and spin circles in place... frustrating. Past all of that, this game is fairly simple once you get past the learning curve of having little to nothing explained to you at all. Best of luck researching new plant types for crops and understanding what the heck is going on right away, but it is a fun little system once you get it. You have to use different ships to bring in different types of things, such as colonists, this is explained nowhere, I didn't even know I had a new type of shit for several turns as was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get settlers. I finally got it in one of those "oh damn, there is some new tabs up here that were never pointed out to me" moments. tl;dr: 5/10, just a passable game with a steep learning curve. Needs more depth, and longer tutorial.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 28, 2016

  First a rant about the negative reviews. They are left by the people who want candy. So you give them candy but no, they want it in their mouth. Ok so you put the candy in their mouth. But wait, now they need help chewing it. for $6 bucks this game is amazing. If you enjoy playing this game for about 6 hours then it was worth it. $1/hr is pretty good value considering how much we waste on kit kats, vaps and breath mints. The interface is so fucking simple, if you took the whole 60 seconds to play the entire tutorial scenario. I mean the tutorial literally takes like a min todo. The game mechanics are so easy to learn. But to pull off a successful colony requires quite a bit of thinking. Its pretty challenging for a simple game. As far as realism goes it hits the nail on the head. It tries to keep it real in terms of technology thats feasable with in the next few decades but it does away with annoying aspects of real life like simulation. Its balanced so well. ------------------------ To the Devs:- 1) Please make the rover auto-explore for resources. Plus the rover should be a 2025 ish flying drone instead of a 2003 Mars Rover. 2) The fuel collection and ore mining vs costs of fuel/items is highly imbalanced. The resource runs out way too damn fast. I mean we landed on a planet not an asteroid. 3) Need a better solution to scrapping pods/buildings. 4) Would like to pause the game and queue up construction of multiple buildings, so I have a way of seeing if they will fit properly and won't waste space. 5) Need a windmill power generation option. 6) Some of the buildings need clear descriptions for their dependencies. Keep up the good work.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 1, 2016

  [u][b]We're Amazing![/b][/u] If you sit down and actually think about our place in the solar system it can be awe-inspiring. Here we are on Earth, sitting in front of our screens made of glass, that's something we figured out, how to make glass from sand, that's kind of cool all on its own, let alone the manipulation of electrons to power the thing, the LCD's or whatever to display the image you're looking at right now. It's all very, very cool, all our stuff, our society, everything we have around us that we take for granted, it's all something we, as a species, have come up with all on our own over millennia, we're pretty amazing! Thanks to mutations caused by solar radiation and some helpful mass extinctions along the way to clear the path for our evolution, we now find ourselves advanced to the point where we are collectively smart enough to make all this "stuff" from the resources we find around us. [u][b]Lucky Earth[/b][/u] But imagine if our planets history, Earths own evolution, had been even slightly different. What if the Earth had formed a little further away from the sun, say at around the same distance Mars orbits today, would that have been enough to stop life from evolving? probably not. It'd be colder, things would be different, but as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park "Life finds a way." How about if Earth was a little smaller, say around the size of Mars, that doesn't sound like too drastic a change, would that be enough to stop life from evolving? Again probably not, but there'd be some pretty big problems down the line because size really does matter. You see, most rocky planets, like the Earth, are essentially big magnets, there's a super hot iron core way down in the middle spinning around which makes a magnetic field, (that's why your compass works) and that magnetic field also protects the planet from lots of dangerous particles that the sun streams off into space. [u][b]He Aint Heavy[/b][/u] The problem is if a planet (like Mars) is too small to have enough internal heat and pressure to keep a molten core spinning, then in time, the magnetic field will weaken and fade away. Without this magnetic force field those dangerous particles from the sun will start to blow away a planets atmosphere, if you're a life form that's gotten into the habit of breathing then this is going to be a pretty big deal for you. [u][b]He's My Brother[/b][/u] So four billion years ago, when our sun was still a baby and the planets were shiny and new, things were very different. The Earth and Mars were similar, both hot rocks orbiting the sun, both with molten cores and magnetic fields protecting them from the particles rushing out of our new star. Mars was our little brother, and went through the same things the Earth did. [u][b]The Good Life[/b][/u] Both planets were bombarded by rocks and comets left cluttering up the new solar system, each bringing all kinds of things with them, gases, water, even organic molecules. Both planets developed atmospheres and oceans, we know for a fact that on at least one of them, life evolved from this organic soupy goodness, life which eventually advanced to the point where it learnt to play computer games and read reviews, isn't evolution grand! [u][b]Cold, Cold Heart[/b][/u] The problem was that Mars was just a little too small and a little too distant to keep its core hot and "spinny". As its heart cooled, its magnetic field faded and bad things happened. Our little brother started to die, it's atmosphere slowly blew away, lost to space, it's water evaporated away with it, what little was left froze into the ground. It turned cold, dry and dead. It turned into the Mars we know today. [u][b]Everything but the kitchen sink[/b][/u] This is why when we send people to Mars (It'll happen one day) they're going to need to take everything they need with them, at least until they can set up some basic infrastructure, and that's where Sol 0: Mars Colonization starts, with the preparation for the first permanent manned presence on Mars. When you first fire up the game you'll be treated to a screen showing a rocket sitting on a launch pad waiting to be loaded with supplies. This will be your first flight to Mars and the first decision you'll need to make in the game, what supplies should you start out with? The launch window to Mars only opens up every few months (it's an orbital alignment thing) and the weight that your first rocket can carry is limited. You'll likely be tempted to send an astronaut up to have a look around, but for your first flight this would be a very bad idea, whilst you could send a man up along with all the food and water the rocket can carry, this almost certainly wouldn't be enough to keep him alive until your next launch window, also without any building supplies, his usefulness would be pretty limited up there... it'd be a meaningless death. [u][b]Curiosity[/b][/u] Fortunately you can satiate your curiosity by sending up a rover or two, these little robotic friends can explore the surface around your landing area, scout out any mineral and ice deposits and allow you to make a more educated decision about where your next Lander should touchdown. You should have a little room left on your rocket to load up some supplies to leave on Mars in preparation for your future flights too. [u][b]Opportunity for Exploration[/b][/u] After picking your landing zone and deploying your rover you can set about exploring the surface. You'll need resources to help sustain a manned mission. Initially, everything you need is going to have to be shipped in from Earth so the sooner you start producing your own resources on Mars, the sooner you can think about sending actual colonists up there to found your first settlement, but we're getting ahead of ourselves... [u][b]Pathfinder[/b][/u] Your rover should find several resource deposits on the surface ranging from Ice (for drinking water) through to methane (for rocket fuel). If the thought of constantly clicking around the map to send your rover searching for resources doesn't appeal, don't worry, you can draw out paths for your little robot to follow whilst you get on with other things. When your next launch window rolls around, it's back to Earth to load up another rocket. You'll send more supplies, food and water, maybe even an astronaut if you're feeling brave and ready for things to get really interesting. [u][b]That's the Spirit[/b][/u] Once you've taken your first small step for man, your astronaut will want to get busy with some construction work, all those supplies you've already dropped are now going to be used to lay the foundations of your Mars colony. You're going to need to place some pallets to start unloading those supplies, maybe you should send a forklift up to help with that on your next launch? You'll also want to build a cryotank early on to start thawing out that ice to use as drinking water. Most of what you build will need power too, in the early game this is going to come from solar panels so you'll need to pick a quiet spot for those as well. [u][b]Red Planet[/b][/u] Your first hour or so in the game will be spent building up the basic infrastructure on Mars, greenhouses for food, solar panels for electricity, oxygen generators for... well you get the idea. Several launches later (assuming your astronaut didn't come to a grizzly end on the Martian wastelands) you should have a rudimentary, self sustaining colony on Mars, equipped with all the luxuries like breathable air, drinkable water, home-grown food and maybe even a bed to sleep on. Keep in mind that things don't always run smoothly... [snip] For the full review (and others) please take the time to visit [url=http://www.review-well.com/]Review-Well.Com[/url]
• gamedeal user

  Aug 20, 2016

  This is a pretty good game and works well with me. The problem emerges when you are finished with it and dont have much to do. Then you can only basicly start again and do almost the smae thing.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 24, 2016

  Well done for what it is and it's not a bad way to waste 30-60 minutes, but if you're looking for a deep, immersive "colony building" game--like I was--look elsewhere. The map is microscopic and there are only enough resources for a few mintutes of gameplay. Once you've explored all 6 acres (?!) of Mars and used-up what little you could find right where you landed, you're basically done. Replay value zero.