Recent reviews by Madjim

This game needs a lot of work. I cannot recommend this game until the interface and explanation of tasks gets better. Start CO2 scrubber. Go to machine indicated. press start. go flying across the room. Still says start CO2 scrubber. Stupid. This game assumes you already knew what you are to do. You are always getting thermal warnings even in the base. Select a task to track - how? Oh - its in messages - ok.... How to track - press the unlabeled symbol in upper left of message. Except you have to do it several times for it to light up and stay lit. I had played the demo a while back and thought they had improved the game quite a bit since the reviews were positive - unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. The concept might be good - but not worth it right now.

I wish Steam had a So-So option. I just cannot recommend this at this time. The game crashed multiple times until I installed some mods to fix the issues. This game is basically a remake of Fallout4 with some space screens added. I look forward to the mods that will make this a more interesting/fun game. The ship building is nice, but the outpost building is meh and wasn't thought out. Make sure to choose the Wanted attribute to give yourself some excitement in space and exploring the repetitious POIs. I believe this game has great potential once the mod community has a chance to do in depth mods with the creation kit. Most of the current mods are re-textures, menu-replacers, or settings/optimization modifications.

Game is unique and interesting. One of the few early access games that has delivered.

Here is my 2cent worth review of how this game is in it's current state, after playing a few hours. I am a semi-casual PvE gamer, liked Conan mainly for the mod-ability and free play style it offered. Was interested in the new map, mod overhaul system, and new assets. My current recommendation is if you are thinking about it, is to wait. will they fix things? will the community still be willing to support the new mod system - once fixed? only time will tell.

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The inexcusable bad:They released a mandatory download of a new DLC that is in early access - regardless if you bought it or not. This wouldn't be bad in itself and there are good reasons for doing it (see later in the review), but it can literally break the entire game. If you modded your game - or play on modded servers - you are hosed. The only way to run the game is to delete the modlist.txt file. If you do not, the game regardless of doing the new DLC or not will claim it is corrupt and crash. I do not care if there is a new and more fabulous mod system on the way - breaking the entire game for early access DLC is not acceptable. Even reselecting the mods to use from within the game and having it rebuild the file will still get a corruption crash. They really need some QA testers before releasing something that will break the game for everyone.

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The annoying bad:Thralls - did you like them? Did you play PvE? Well too bad for you. The Isle of Siptah doesn't have any. Ya I heard that you can go into one of the vaults battling your way to highly "coveted" thralls - kinda thought they were special thralls - not the "only" thralls. With no thralls (human PvE enemies ) - kiss the priest stuff good bye as well. Resources: good luck - in fact finding a loot box in a vault gives you iron ore - wow what a prize. The map is scant chance of finding iron ore nodes anywhere near the coast line. I was able to reach level 30 fairly quickly, and had learned steel. But still had only stone weapons. Constant fighting wolves is what cause me to level up quickly. Trying to find iron - kinda necessary - was a pain. If you play on PVP servers - I can imagine you will be stuck at stone age - basically forever since the Iron spots will be horded by clans.

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The wait and see:The map: I see constant reviews on the size of the map being so small. But in game it is pretty big. Yes it is not the size of the original, but running constantly looking for resources, I was not able to cover it all. Plus the new mod system is supposed to allow more/custom maps, so this may be a good addition - we will see. Will PvP make this unplayable because of the map size - dunno. Early access - this may be a mistake by FunCom. It has already broken the established game. it should have only been available through the testive client until it was a more proven system without the issues. It is a very hard thing to do - launch an "Early Access" on a DLC that reworks the base mechanics of the game that is require to be accepted by all. So far this has been a blunder - we will see if they can turn this around.

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The semi-good: Bandages - they redesigned bandages to be more necessary, but put food as a back drop. Not sure what this will mean for thralls and healing them, Food no longer does healing (mostly) - bandages do. The animation for bandaging yourself up are good. bandages are now easier to obtain earlier - the base bandage is plant and aloe based, and the next level bandage is leather and aloe based. Not exactly sure what advantages food does anymore. Heal over time - like normal people do - nope.Maelstrom - Interesting concept and maybe a good new challenge. But it happens all the time. At first it took a while for it to happen, but then it started. I huddled in my little house I built, and waited, and waited, and waited. OK - so it is not like the sandstorm - went out and explored. Took quite some time for the sun to come back out. Then the maelstroms seem to happen at a greater frequency. Now it was just annoying that in the middle of the day it got dark, and I just ignored it. Wasn't going to explore it with stone age weapons and low end armor.The new weather and clothing dynamic - extremes require different clothing to mitigate, but moderate climate shifting does not detract based on clothing. This is something that is interesting idea, that will need to be explored. This is a big wait and see, as I am not sure how this will play out. Considering your clothing options are really based on clan/faction. This may help keeping the clothing more clan based without the need of additional assets.

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The Good:The assets - are great addition to the game. From the little I've seen, it looks like some care and hard work went into them. Nothing too outrageous, and still keeps with the theme - this is tough to do. The vaults - The one small vault i was able to explore - was nicely done. the underwater glowing fauna was great. I hope not all the vaults are dark like this. it would be a shame that a lot of the artwork is missed due to poor lighting. Before peeps pop up and say torches - um you are underwater for most of the vault I explored, so torches won't work (I hope - didn't try it).A new start with the old available as well - The beaches are great, and having a new alternate way of playing the game, while keeping the mechanics familiar. Ship wrecked on an island - very nice.

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Other thoughts:People are complaining that even if you do not buy the DLC why make you download the data for it. There is a very good argument for what FunCom decided to do. If you play multiplayer, you need the assets so you can view the other players assets that may have the game. For example I make a Floatsom (spelling?) dwelling in the base game and you without the DLC come up to it - what do you want to see? The structure or words that say "buy the DLC to see it" where the walls should be? It is a difficult thing to keep continuity in a multiplayer environment with everyone having a different levels of DLCs. This assures a more seemless experience based on what you want to pay for. Think of playing on a customized server (when that used to work), you were required to download the customizations that the server used to join. Does it have to be soo big? Maybe not. if the default was low rez versions and you downloaded HD versions of the models and textures later - people would complain about that too.

Fun and free game.

Cute little time waster. One of these solve it with what pieces are given. fun to play but not take too seriously

Game is off to a good start. If you do not mind taking chances on pre-release games this one is worth taking a look at. It needs a lot of work, but the idea is very promising.

Blast green minions into space - what could be better? Lots of options, and a bit of humor.

This is by far the best early access game I have come across. The development points are consistant and each time a major update happens, it is really a major update. Multiple minor updates follow, for fixes and tweaks as the major update gets vetted buy the community. The game is good, and is getting better with each update. The developers listen to the community and while thankfully they do not adopt everything they listen and seriously consider it. One of the nice things the developers do, is show things that are currently in development, and what to expect in the next major update. This lets you know that the developers are working hard and have excellent ideas on improving the game.

I really like their release system - it works. Major updates are great for showcasing new and exciting features. Minor updates show a definite interest in keeping the bug count under control. It is very tempting to run rampant with new ideas and features while basics take a back seat or is ignored. What you end up with is a great idea for a game that was poorly implemented. Concentrating on just the basics without much on the new features is just as bad. You would end up with a great game if it was released yester-year. It is hard to keep a good balance.

I believe this is a fine example on how early access should be done.

Very fun game. Better than SR3 IMHO. Wasn't sure if they could pull off Saints Row with super powers, but they did a great job. Honest Aliens - who'da thunk? Lots of the same type of gameplay, just less driving around town and more running/jumping around town. Why take a car when you can leep tall buildings, or run faster than a speeding car? What really makes this game better than any of the simular types, is the irreverant humor. There are some very nice mods that do not change gameplay (most are cheats anyway) and you can find the collection at saintsrowmods.com. It would be better if it had better modding capabilities, and a steam workshop.