Recent reviews by ModZero

Look, even if, just like me, you really suck at this game - this is some of the best music in video games _EVER_. Also, good vibes only. I was already saved.

The one and only. This is, frankly, a small fraction of my actual play time - Steam doesn't see alternate install locations, and I got the game long before the Steam release anyway.

Also, this one is finished, but very actively modded. And, with KSP2 being what it is, there's a good chance modders will stay!

Fantastic and smooth combat and beautiful levels is all that I ask for🥰 it's fast paced and incredibly satisfying. So yeah, I recommend it very much. Still though, there are a few flies in the ointment, so I'm gonna elaborate on all of that stuff.

Oh, one more thing: the character creation is amazing. I mean, Nioh 2 already set the expectations high regarding the achievable girltwink heroes (and apparently your bears and butches too, but I know what I want to be in a game, okay?), but this one was fantastic. This game might give me an eating disorder 😱 (not really, please don't send me automated mental health check-ins). I really wish Dark Souls/Elden Ring gave us that level of customization, and the glamour system. Yes, I know DS reasoning for not doing that, I don't care. Let me be the inexplicably tanky girltwink.

Now, to the bad things.

Apparently KB&M controls are not as good as you might expect. I wouldn't know, but there are reasons to prefer that. I'd consider this the biggest issue, as it might be a proper dealbreaker for some people, especially if you either don't have or can't use a controller.

Performance is fine 99% of the time, but there are spots where it unexpectedly drops visibly. It's never a big issue, though, seems to pass almost immediately. Note that I have the RTX3060, a reasonably chonky CPU and an almost comical amount of RAM - but considering this is mostly a GPU game, and it's not even a TI over here. I'm pretty sure it counts as "mid" over here in 2023. Slowdowns seem like they're caused by some local anomalies in geometry/effects optimization, rather than the game being overall too complex.

Also, because this gets people: this isn't actually a soulslike, but gaidenlike (apparently, never played Ninja Gaiden myself, but the style apparently stems from that game). So while there is an important parry mechanic and a "dodge," expect a much more aggressive combat style than in Souls games. I think it still scratches the same itch, but for some people this makes a big difference, for either better or worse.

Network coop is fun, but tends to make bosses a bit too easy. Sometimes curbstomping a giant angry boar is exactly what you need in your life, though.

Sadly network PvP is completely broken, and no, I don't mean it's incredibly hard or "oh no invasions" (you can easily disable them). I mean I haven't had an invasion where the result would be in any way decided by skill - and I don't mean "oh no I lost." I "won" every time, and by "won" I mean "the invader lost all motivation and found the nearest fire to go and stand in while waving and/or making sad gestures." There weren't many of those either, unsurprisingly.

PvP netcode in a game as reflex-oriented as this is hard to make, it's not really a surprise, especially with me being a host - if I see the invader rubberband all over the place, I can't even begin to imagine their side. This is a shame - I can imagine it being a lot of fun, even if my experience would be, most likely, getting curbstomped all over the place by butches. Look, my switchy self is stuck always being a top in real life, at least let me get smashed in a game, okay?

Whelp. This is not just an early access thing - it feels deeply broken, bare-bones, unconsidered. I'm keeping it, because I'm a fool who _really wants it to work out_ - but I don't actually expect that to happen. I had thousands of hours in KSP1 before it even came to steam - and uncountable afterwards, even if Steam doesn't know how to count them - but this just breaks my heart.

The game doesn't just feel early. It feels rushed and careless. No, it's not out to EA to "gather feedback" - it's out to EA to cash in, and maybe not get the project killed outright.

Honestly, I remember burning hundreds of hours on it in the late 2000s. It's an amazing, complex game. While some of its technology and game design were surpassed, it remains unique and contains things no one else does.

I'ts highly recommended, this game couldn't have happened without the non-commercial past, but the cash injections sure helped make it less painful to play.

Imagine if X-Com was made without all that pesky tactical elements, focusing instead on the cool geoscape stuff. Now, make the geoscape bigger. Better. Faster. More productive. Imagine being invaded by the British Empire mysterious aliens with overpowering technology, who will exploit your divisions and faiths to exploit not just your resources, but the very people.

Now, add the tactical mode back. But it's no longer fleshbags (occasionally boltbags) duking it out in the local forest. Nah. It's spaceships. It's your spaceships that can barely turn and have thrust of .01 milligee trying to pwn an alien spaceship that has orders of magnitude more thrust, far better turning ratio, and a cannon that can one-shot your best ship - and you win because nec Hercules contra plures.

Also it's been a week and I've lost almost 90 hours to this game. It's buggy junk and costs a lot and it's game of the year. Eat your heart out, Paradox.

I get to be the big heroic orc muscle lady, and that happens to be all I really want from life.

Predictable and cheap heart tugs.

The ending caused my left contact lens to dislocate.

10/10 would cry again.

TL;DR: great concept and fun story, a game that will leave you craving more, and something that will stay installed on my hard drive to come back to over and over forever.

Fun story (if a bit... heavy handed at time. You know, "a corporation telling a story about how corporations are bad" kind of heavy handed - but pretty good, considering), and amazing core game loop. The ships are fun, and varied enough - absolutely worth the price. Voice acting is fun, characters are interesting and range from relatable if a bit over-eager to instant nemesis. It's really cool to see how well this worth for something that's pretty much entirely just scripted dialogue and a few snippets of text. It's not the deepest story ever, but it's what I needed these days.

And don't mind the scabs in the negative comments. The story is fine, it clearly took effort, but the core gameplay is absolutely OK, and you get a plenty of game for your money.

The only complaint is that I wish there was more - specifically, more entirely different ships. It's not that there's too little for the money - I already got my money's worth, and I held up with playing to not burn out before release - but it's one of those games that live you with a craving. Which is, arguably, a good thing?

The ships in the game are varied enough, each one of them has different core challenges, and I like that. I don't think I'd like it if there were ships clearly adding as a padding, with no new challenges to them. There's also some randomness to them, so it's overall more than it seems. You are never entirely sure what's going to be inside.

Adding the kind of "entirely different model" thing is probably incredibly hard and expensive, but I'll admit I'd probably buy a DLC that is just more ships. Or just add modding to the game (though any modder deciding to add a complex ship is probably setting themselves up for burn-out, I've seen what happens when a KSP modder decides to make an IVA mod, and that stuff is barely interactive).

It's a mess, but highly enjoyable. It's almost an opposite to Rimworld - not very "game-designed," including everyone's favorite piece of nonsense (except for toilets - Dubwise, help!) to the point of breaking usability, balance and discoverability. The net result is actually amazing, though also equally frustrating.

It's a worthwhile experience but you'll have an urge to try and make "your own but better" it won't be better, is what I'm saying.