Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 15, 2022

  Please ignore the playtime on the review. I've been in the closed beta test since September, so I have roughly ~44 hours in the closed playtest and as the last build I tested was the launch build, I haven't played it enough yet. Anyway, I'm that "reviewer" from Starcom Nexus. Short Version = It is a far improved game over Nexus, and its worth picking up in its early state. ===== Long Version = Like Deckard Cain used to say, stay a while and listen... Things the game has improved over issues raised in my Nexus Review: -> All core anomalies, linked to achievements appear achievable in a single run now. -> All of the research topics work as advertised (as far as I can tell). -> All purchaseable objects are now in the trade window, so you always can acquire them all, regardless of gain order. -> No missions involving getting parts to assemble from destroying ships, like the communicator quest in Nexus. -> There isn't any research that is considered mandatory anymore. So no, having to research warp hoppers at the endgame or no need to research a weapon to destroy the phage. -> Shipbuilding is vastly improved and you can make a lot more varied looking ships. There is still room for improvement here, but it is way beyond better than the Nexus method. Other issues raised in the Nexus review: -> The post-launch support didn't happen because the features were too difficult to implement, and so Kevin rewrote the entire game from scratch, and made it easier to implement such features. Things that were impossible to do in Nexus, appear quite doable to do in this one. Do note that some features from Nexus aren't present yet as a result; ie Flak Cannons, Axial Ultraguns, and Drones. -> Lore is fairly light at the moment, but what there is, is engaging and interesting and makes cognitive sense. New improvements in this one: -> You can enable (or its enabled by default) a directional indicator, so that you can move and dogfight now with enemies. Very useful, when your ship is on fire. -> Fire effects on your ship, when damaged. Bit overdone at the moment though, but it is very pretty. -> The UI for tracking quests is vastly improved, over Nexus. -> You can now place very descriptive notes on the star map and easily remove them. -> The trade UI with aliens is vastly improved, over Nexus. -> Graphics are amazing and kept a solid 60 FPS at all times. I often had dips in Nexus. -> Sound design is excellent and there is a variety of nice musical tracks. -> You can now set a destination and travel automatically to there. Less tedious flying in the big dark. -> Crew is far more valuable now and can grant bonuses to ship-to-ship combat too. -> Map is more randomized now, so things aren't always in the same spot. So it keeps a linear game quite a bit fresh. We might see fully procedural gameplay later on too. -> The new universe feels fresh and believable. More so than the one in Nexus. Overall, its worth your time to buy it and play it. The current build Betelgeuse has about 6-8 hours of content, so give it a go.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 16, 2023

  Pov: you're a Stellaris science ship but you have guns and are also a political ambassador i enjoy this game, needs more content but still good have high hopes.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 22, 2023

  The game places you in an unfamiliar world at the helm of something like a survey ship in Stellaris, or the captain's chair in Star Trek Voyager. You fly around (slowly) between stars and planets, spotting anomalies and sending your crew as landing parties to investigate them. Occasionally you'll meet alien races and get involved in their politics or have to fight them. Every so often you'll return to your main base to research new technologies and upgrade your ship with the materials you found. None of this content is procedural, and the writing is pretty good (more so for world building than character development), so the feeling of discovery and wonder is really there. The simple, clear, and elegant aesthetic vaguely reminiscent of an art-deco style contributes to this atmosphere. The highlight is the excellent ship building: a good mixture of abstraction and functionality, giving an experience halfway between puzzle solving and creative expression. Sadly, the good mostly stops there. The ship building only impacts combat, which is a very small portion of the game, and one that is trivial once you've reached the halfway point. Speaking of combat, the hectic, 80s arcade feel of it seriously clashes with the calm and meditative mood the rest of the game has. Solving anomalies is a bigger part of the game, and that's done with dice based stats checks. But those stats are completely unrelated to the ship or anything you can control; instead they get increased by the crew levelling up - which only happens when solving anomalies! The catch-22 is self evident; the lack of player agency all too clear. The larger problem, however, is that the game forces the player to wait all the time. I don't mean it's slow, I mean you have to wait. Twiddle your thumbs, make yourself a coffee, chat with the the neighbours, and take the dog out level of waiting. Travelling between stars can take a couple of minutes of doing nothing but waiting for the autopilot to get you there. Even fast travel takes 10+ seconds between neighbours. If you fail to solve an anomaly (through the bad luck of the dice roll) you'll have to wait up to 15min before being able to try another without a huge penalty. Time during which there's nothing worth doing as any exploration will require you to back peddle for the anomalies you skipped once your crew has healed. If combat doesn't go great, you'll have to hide and wait while your hull heals before you can do anything again. Even trivial things like getting science points from objects you pick up requires navigating a menu and then waiting for an entirely unnecessary bar to fill up. In every single aspect of the game, when there's a cost to be associated to a mechanic, the dev decided that it should be to eat up the player's time and make them wait. Frankly, that's borderline disrespectful; and neither enjoyable, nor interesting, nor engaging. That said, the game does have some very good sides; the writing and the aesthetics makes for a nice atmosphere, and the ship builder is very well executed. But they're not enough to carry the disjointed, disparate mechanics. There's far too little content as is: 15h for me to clear the map, a large chunk of it spend AFK because the game needed me to wait. Some people will like the product as it is, but at this point there's very little reason to hand over money other than to support the developer. I'm hoping that with more work it will become a gem, and I will check back on it as it progresses, but for now it's too shallow to really shine.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2023

  You'll notice a lot of people have under 10 hours game play... That's because that's all there is for story content... Pick it up if you want to give developer feedback but other than that you might be disappointed (right now). That being said the ground work is there for a great game it just needs time, and it follows the same format as the first game. If it looks remotely interesting to you, do yourself a favor and get Nexus first, it is incredible. I was really pumped when this hit early release now I wish I had waited, but Nexus was so good I wanted to support the dev. Looking forward to when this is complete. It's not a matter of polish on the game, it's strictly content depth. The new crew skill levels and what not show that it will have some interesting new features to the already solid ship building and content progression.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 15, 2022

  This second offering is much like the first at base (thrown into an unknown region, must explore for resources to upgrade ship) but the difference in style, the addition of auto-pilot, the crew system and make it just enough different to be enjoyable. If you enjoyed the first game, look at this as the second chapter or a rewrite. Its still in early access, but its been fun so far. Just when you think you're doing okay... man, you find a new class of enemy.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 23, 2022

  Okay, so a couple of things. Only buy this game RIGHT NOW if your desire is to help the developers improve it. Its definitely a fun game at first. But it quickly gets old, There isn't really a plot to it since it is in early access. The characters are fun, but also pretty forget-able. (I honestly don't remember any of their names) Over-all, not worth it in its current state. Gameplay: - Much like other Top-down space games. Except with much less content. - The fighting is skill based, (You have to manually aim with your cursor to hit things) - You can scan planets.. but its not procedural, so everything is already set in stone. - I have played for a while but still have NO idea what the percent bar means when you are doing skill checks. Like, is above 50 good? What happens if it hits 100? Yeah it doesn't explain it and seems like a pointless mechanic. - Venturing out in space is pointless, as there is nothing beyond what is hard-coded into the game... That was the one that got me most. Its mostly just story-driven exploration. - Some missions seem like they would have a story to them, but then end abruptly and seem pointless. Overall rating as of right now 3/10.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 2, 2023

  A nice, small space-opera action-rpg shipbuilder. Build your ship, research technologies like weapon and armor and explore various planets and phenomenas with a focus on learning about ancient yet advanced, often extinct, civilizations. Meet, fight and trade with other alien races and come back to base every now and then to discuss with your team and spend your research points. Its superb in its current state (the second big update of EA I believe?) as far as systems, gameplay and looks go. Crew could use some polish, doesn't seem to be wise not to simply specialize all of them if you want a good story. Maybe combine half the skills so there is room to spec and diversify, or something, I'm not sure what would work. 8/10 currently, 9/10 or better I would expect on release. Its quite a visible improvement over Nexus and while a few things are missing the combat and ship building which was quite good is even better. The story and storybits (exploration of planets) is somewhat light at the moment, feels very much on rail, but thats okay. Just don't go exploring too much expecting to find stuff and you'll be fine. Finally as far as cons go the NPCs don't interact and fight much with each other and, like Nexus, there is quite a few copy-pasted NPC which is the one area I think really break the ambience. I'll update as needed and really, really recommend you give Starcom: Nexus a try if you haven't already. Not necessary at all for the story its just a good game 😃
• gamedeal user

  Dec 16, 2022

  Exactly what I needed. Just wish we had more content!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 17, 2022

  Great game, more Starcom: Nexus (which itself is a massively slept-on gem) with the improvements you would expect. I can confidently say that playing the EA right now, buying and supporting this great team, will not spoil or ruin a full replay through later.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 17, 2022

  Right now there is almost no content. The only reason it last longer is because resources are very very scant. So Anyway long story short its tooooooo short right now. I passed it in less than 10 hours and I restarted a couple times cause I got stuck. So even though it has a ton of potential and its fun to build your ship. its too short of a game and there is almost nothing to do. It has to have like 50 times more content to be interesting ( for me, your experience might vary). Anyway. Yeah I passed it in less than 10 hours.