Recent reviews by Stamos

is this a good game? Was it morally and ethically created? Don't know, probably not, but it's a lot of fun and by sales numbers that's cleary all that matters to players. Incredibly refreshing to play something of combining Ark, Pokemon and BOTW, along with a decade of early access games and with no western corporate PC filtering to the content. Hope this shakes things up again in AAA world.

Lovecraftian Fishing Tetris. What’s not to love?

DO ALL THE THINGS!!!!!

Worth it to play PVE with friends or solo after learning to edit the server settings to your liking since much of the default experience is more focused on a PVP balance and always on servers.

Not worth it if you value how you use the short time you get to exist on this planet. I have no issue with a fair challenge and enjoy survival games that require you to experiment and learn, but this game explains precious little about the actual game mechanics required to complete missions. And the missions themselves are a ridiculous grind. Almost 50 hrs and I'm still trying to complete the first missions in the beginner forest area because "kill 200 wolves and find/grow 200 pumpkins". It also feels poorly balanced, I get the sense all these frequent updates change and break the progression flow for new players. What's with the mission where you need to build a rustic cabin? Seems like a perfect tutorial like early mission to learn how to make a cabin and fill it with decorations beyond just survival. But then all of a sudden you need 2 statues that require high level materials to craft. All the way up to unlocking a machining bench so you can learn to make concrete and smelt gold in modern furnace because you need 2 statues for an otherwise rustic wood cabin. :-/

But the breaking point for me is that there isn't anything "fun" about spending a 8 hours on a mission only to have the mission fail at the very end because of surprise waves of 50 wolves and a bear boss that have decided the metal space shuttle (that has sat there untouched the entire time) suddenly needs to die. If I'd been given any warning I could have at least created some defenses around it. But no, now I'd need to repeat all the work of getting up to bio-fuel crafting, fight a leopard boss for wreckage parts, just to have another chance at the last "reboot the shuttle" part of the mission. Protip, expect to commit genocide upon the animal kingdom anytime you do any mission objective in Icarus. The game feels like Ark in all the wrong ways.

Oh, and generally the game is still buggy and feels alpha. New features implemented poorly and in a broken state.
TLDR: Was fun for the first few hours and the concept of "starting fresh" each mission is actually intriguing. Getting to improve efficiency in crafting and survival each mission out. It just gets old fast when each mission takes 5-10 hours, only pretends to be balanced for solo play and 90% of the time you are just repeating the same progression beats over and over. Takes far too long to unlock anything useful to help speed past the early grind stages.

I would purchase this game in order to thank the developers for the trailers alone. But with 200 hrs in across Epic and Steam I would also put this in my "must play" category. Multiplayer has been buggy but with the consistent improvements and constant communication from their team, I still have confidence this will get much better before release. My kids still play Goat Simulator and now their parents are addicted to Satisfactory, love the quirky humor of this developer. Also shout out to LetsGameItOut for his Youtube videos that brought this game to our attention.

It's getting there. New frustrations with every update but at the same time, having played this at release, it now feels like a full experience. Can be a disjointed learning curve and with being such a big sandbox, bugs and other glitches can compound the confusion at times. But your efforts are rewarded and after every play session it feels like you are a little bit more in control of the universe surrounding you.

How did I miss this game when it came out? What a mind-bending thrill ride. Bio-shock meets Deus Ex in space. I ignored the main objective and was able to explore almost the entire station on my own, not artificial barriers. Curiosity, strategic thinking and unconventional approaches are rewarded.

Vanilla Skyrim: 7/10
Skyrim with mods: 11/10
Skyrim with paid mods: 0/10

This one is right at the top of my best 'gaming experience' list and one I would use as an example of why I game. If you like puzzle solving, turning your brain to mush and taking the red pill then this game is for you. Like Limbo I found this refreshingly different from the mainstream titles, absolutley enthralling in its immersion and just right length in gameplay.