Recent reviews by Mikebloke

I careful yes to recommendation. Gameplay spoilers below.

"Frostpunk in space" is a fair assessment, and it feels like a lot of the game is emulated on that idea. But the game's concepts, storyline, references is its own.

The positives:

A new "city is ending" building experience.
Progressive difficulty / complexity as time / chapters go on.
Its enough to tick you over a bit until frostpunk 2.
The storyline, references and side stories are mildly interesting to contemplate.
Some genuine "which option would you pick?" sections throughout the game brings more thoughtful analysis.

The cons:

There is a few bugs. Drones seem to stop working, I've fixed by just deleting and rebuilding the hub.
Its not always clear when something is "unlocked" where the unlock is, is it research, is it a building, is it something you can build in a building, or is it an event associated with a building. It. is. not. clear.
It promotes save scumming because the events even while trailed across various options makes you save and reload, an ironman mode on this would be great.
Whole game is a railroad - each chapter follows the last. No sandbox / randomiser, no significant branching of story for the odder science things that happens in the game, and no alternative scenarios.

Unfortunately, the ending for me was ruined by the fact that the audio started about 20-30 seconds before the video did. Immersion broken. Basic thing surely.

The difficulty is fine, but the more you delay in a chapter the better off you will probably be. I've broken the game by researching everything I possibly could at the beginning before making the first jump. It made it much easier, but requires a stupid amount of time. I reset a chapter by reloading a save multiple times even on my first playthrough.

What could be improved:

Adding difficulties and ironman mode. Easier for chill, harder for frostpunkers. Ironman mode for those that like real pain.
Fixing the bugs, a few still exist but if they could sort it out, it would be good.
Any kind of randomiser / sandbox mode - I think it could be pretty cool to jump from system to system - the storyline suggests it could be possible.

Bonuses (or what I'd pay extra for):

Yes the sandbox / randomiser idea would be worthy of a cost.
More scenarios playing out other parts of the story of other ships/stations is totally doable as well.

Ultimately, they've modelled this game on Frostpunk, and any further improvements will likely match this too. Going further than Frostpunk ever did, such as Mod support, would get them a bigger thumbs up.

I still remember playing this on a train one day and this guy in his 60's was just staring mouth wide open trying to work out what the hell I was doing. Little did he know I really didn't have much clue either and I totally forgot how to make stairs, but it must have looked good.

Play this version to understand what everything is without having to look it up.

Just finished this game and found it a breath of fresh air. The lack of information about what to do is part of what makes it so enjoyable, and a challenge.

It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and I did have to google 3 things what to do. One was near the beginning, as I admittedly didn't understand one of the earliest commands (some of the text that does help to explain does seem to disappear quickly - though I think there is some recaps in the menu). The second was regarding the general objectives (my advice is to not keep too strictly do it, just enjoy the game while slowly following its markers) and finally how to train a particular trait, as I wanted to 100% the achievements!

All in all, it was great, I know this was intended to be the first of a trilogy, and unfortunately it feels those that didn't get it put a downer on that but hopefully they will go forward and do something of a sequel. This is probably one of the few modern games I truly feel was a treat to play. Glad I bought it. Shame I've finished it!

There is not a lot of replayability in it, as the learning is most of the fun but one good playthrough is really worth the cost.

Now the last DLC has come out, I thought I would give this a review. Frostpunk is a city management game with a slight difference. It has event chains which mostly relate to keeping one section of your people happy at the expense of another. Its also a "tough as nails" experience where most people can expect to lose at first if they had not looked up or watched someone else play and went into it truly blind (similar to games like Banished, Dawn of Man, Dwarf Fortress - but a very different style of game). The heat mechanic has an obvious solution, but as you get more experienced other options come available. And this is what makes this game fun, there is definitely an expected experience, the tech tree, buildings and event options is designed to lead you to a certain path but there is often alternatives available, some likely not intentional (no generator runs, for example).

I think on the most part, most Frostpunk players thoroughly enjoy the experience and Frostpunk is a great game. One thing to note however is that feeling that you just want a little more... a little more options in the game, a little more variation, mod support (virtually confirmed as never coming), some extra use to the buildings you get in endless mode, etc.

Frostpunk was made in their own engine, and that is great, its actually nice to see someone use their own stuff for once. DLC has had long waits inbetween, and I think its been purely down to however they have programmed the maps. Although never said openly, it does feel that their map engine has properly screwed them over and created long development times for new material, perhaps because they never thought they would get this far and people would want it to keep going. I'm not entirely convinced that event chains are handled efficiently either, as they have regularly talked about mod support as something that would be too hard or even impossible to add. Adding mod support or changing the way an engine works late in a project is definitely difficult, and for small time bedroom developers like me its extremely time consuming - but for a paid company with quite a lot of success and support, you'd think they would have the ability to do so.

And I think that marks many of our frustrations as players, Frostpunk is not only an amazing concept, but one we can fully delve into and a world we want to explore in more detail than 11 bit studios can handle. A lot of this seems to be the way they coded the game, and there has been plenty of hints there will be a sequel of some kind (and not just the mobile game!) - my hope is that they will learn from this mistake and develop a much more fluid system that not only has mod support, but also makes the job of adding expansions for themselves a lot easier.

Finally, I would suggest buying the whole game as a bundle, the DLC are ok, but they are not fully engaging on their own, and some players have been disappointed with the small level of content of each. If you had to only buy the base game and one DLC, go for The Last Autumn.

Don't be disheartened by the hard talk in this review, Frostpunk is a great game and definitely one worth playing, if its not on a "100 games before you die" list, it needs to be.

First off want to say there was no crashes, I'm not having any technical issues that others have.

Like many people, I was curious of the game for many years, the concept seems interesting, and the artwork is appealing, but it is as others state, a very basic clicking game, and when we say basic it really is. Essentially you need shops to make money, shops need workers so you need houses. workers need "beauty" ie trees, and everyone needs water.

I gave it a shot, it cost me 39 pence, did I get my moneys worth? I played it three hours, so thats 13 pence an hour, think of that what you will. Mastering the game is very easy, and there might be some additional gameplay for someone who really wants to beat their highscores, or to genuinely make an aesthetically pleasing district, but after that there is nothing.

I've played this game a lot, I've 100% it legitimately, I wish there were more of this game, and I played the originals back on flash back in the day (wow, remember that!).

I still play it now to increase my Wizard Level despite there being no legitimate benefit other than to survive more enraged waves.

Its another Paradox game, and unfortunately the horde against DLC has followed with it. I'm not totally against this crowd either, I feel priced out of keeping up with EU4 DLC, but accepted CK2, Vicky2 and working my way up HoI4 DLC.

To confirm, at this stage outside of the pre order bonuses, and a cheeky soundtrack dlc after release, the game currently has no DLC and none have been announced.

The game plays as a much more polished version of EU:Rome and I wonder how many people have forgotten that fact. EU:Rome is now an age that it doesn't really boot up anymore, because its that old. The game suffered anyway from a lack of major updates, expansions etc, and was left to very occasional post-release patches from some nice developers working on it in their free time. Even at the last patch, EU:Rome had bugs and people were keen to mention them in the hopes of another final patch.

That didn't happen though, and amongst the Vicky3 jokes I:Rome got announced. I'm glad it did because I am a huge fan of EU:Rome and hated the fact it doesn't work on my newer computer. Its difficult especially with the negative reviews to say what its better to compare it to; its previous release as EU:Rome - of which it beats hands down - or the expectations of the community of a post-DLC reality.

There is things missing from I:Rome that could have perhaps made the grade before release, namely 2 consorts and a number of v1.1 features that is planned. Yes, it fails in this sense, but not worth the damnation that PDX has received - and in reality, will be soon fixed.

DLC fatigue has got to me too, whereas on CK2 I'd happily buy the Islamic and Pagan DLCs to play as new countries, religions, with new UI's to make them feel unique - I:Rome like its predecessor allows you to play any country. It suffers for that feature - in that India (new to the map), Rome, Egypt, Carthage, Judea, Gaul and the tribes of Britain, Scandinavia and Spain all kind of play the same. Expectations were that game variance for these cultures and religions would be different and it just wasn't - but nor was it in CK2 to start with!

One hopes that a DLC, at the right price will fix that, but should not get in the way of appreciating what I:Rome is now: An updated, graphically much more stunning and playable game of EU:Rome that we can't even play anymore. I want to help fight against the tide of negativity about the game, but I come to this conclusion with my own reservations and desires for the game moving forward: That variance in gameplay needs to be implemented as soon as possible to get the full enjoyment out of this time period and system.

I feel the need to write positively about this game, but first off a bit of where I'm coming from.

I own every Metal Gear game that's released in English in some form or another bar one (its that NES one!)
I own nearly every rerelease of every Metal Gear game, sometimes on multiple consoles
I own every updated and extra disk versions of every Metal Gear Solid game.

Safe to say, I'm a Metal Gear 'Fan'. I appreciate -not fanboy- the work Kojima has done with the series, but would like to point out that there has been plenty of non-Kojima games with the Metal Gear lable. We have the NES game, Snakes Revenge, Ghost Babel, Metal Gear Ac!d 1+2 and also Metal Gear Revengence if you are being picky. Needless to say there has been presedent in the past for non-canon, and non-Kojima games.

For some reason, Metal Gear Surive has been picked on, possibly because people felt that MGS5 was an easy target due to yet more problems with Konami attempting to Kamakazi all their popular IP's. Kojima is not alone in the fantasy world of endless money and possibility when it comes to developing video games, remember Will Wright and everything Spore was going to be? This could have been predicted with all the self-styled interviews he used to have on games like Sim City 2000 that was bundled up.

Not all the fault can be placed on Konami, and Kojima had a part in his own destruction, this should not influence how we feel about post-Kojima games, and this is where I finally get to start talking about Metal Gear Survive.

I'm not a huge fan of multiplayer and always online gameplay, given I have 40 year old cartidges which work fine without a company server checking to see whether its still live or not, I'm dubious about games like Fallout 76 which will presumably pull the plug at some point in the future and make a game unplayable. Metal Gear Survive might also fit in this category, depending on how they actually coded it and if they remember to patch the game to allow single player once they decide to turn of the lights for multiplayer. For now though, I'm actually GLAD I bought the game for £14.99. (currently retailing: £34.99).

I found a solid, 32 hour single player experience. Do I want more stuff? sure. Do I want more things to do? sure. Would I have liked more 'maps' or some new terrain or just something that wasn't rehashed from MGS5? Sure. But I still played the game to the end of the Single player campaign and I sodding well enjoyed it. I liked the difficulty in getting items at the beginning, the leveling up of the base, the distraction of the second map and the few boss fights that is in the game. I'd even go as far as saying the concept of a sequel would be something I looked forward to! And at no point I felt that I was cheated out of my money and I knew what I was getting when I bought it.

So Metal Gear Survive needs to be treated as a game in its own right, with elements of the Metal Gear Universe but as its own game too, just like Revengence, just like Ghost Babel (which, rather than having complaints of being non-canon, actually got high praise) and yes, even Ac!d which many people actually enjoy. The Kojima fanboys need to settle down, the Konami haters are just going to have to accept there won't ever be another Suikoden or Zone of the Enders game, and just accept each and every game that comes out from now in their own right.

If you buy Metal Gear Survive you get a survival Mine-and-craft game with 3rd person shooting combat with a short but competent enough Single player experience for the right price, and possibly some fun multiplayer action if you ever wanted to see Left4Dead meets Metal Gear. Accept it, Live it, Like it.

Pros:

Interesting story
Interesting timeline
Hell even the DLC wasn't that bad
Graphically quite pleasing
Hunting
Town simulator

Cons:

Same bugs, same fails trying to run away and then trying to run up the wall when you don't want it.
Its so much easier to just kill troops than to escape, there just seems to always be someone ready waiting.
Certain items are just like "yeah just accept this is canon now, don't question it"
The time skips feels a little too long, and a little too broad. Ugh.

Despite this, it isn't a terrible game, and I enjoyed it at least.

This is going to be quite an honest review, I spent 2 pence on the game, and I clocked out at 63 minutes. Various others have paid similar prices (or more) and asked for a refund, I won't be doing such thing and in this review I'll explain why:

I base all my games on the premise that 1 hour for £1 is a reasonable cost. If I buy a AAA game for £30 I expect it to last me at least 30 hours, if it lasts only 15, I seriously question whether its been worth the money. Its a basic rule.

For 63 minutes of gameplay, most of it in the single player mode, I got approx 31 minutes per pence, that is nearly in comparison to another game on my list, The Last Remnant that lasted 72 hours in one playthrough (not 100% either!, in fact I didn't actually play it, I watched my ex-Wife play it) for £2, making it roughly 36 minutes a pence. But enough about the cost-playtime ratio:

The game is essentially based upon a content package that seems to be available for $50 for the unity engine, this is fair enough. What the developer has essentially done is renamed and released this content pack in a barebones release, currently on sale for about 79p or 2p in the sale. If the developer has made more than $50 in this game, They can call it a financial success. If I had paid full price for it, I'd still have technially matched my value criteria.

But what about the game itself, it plays more like a tech demo than a game, and in reality it could have changes done to it within a matter of hours and it could be so radically transformed and its value increased. I struggled to join a multiplayer game for a start, and when I did I never met another player (though it appeared some were logging in), there appears to be a quick inventory list but I have no idea how to actually asign things to it, crafting building material is fair enough but I don't get how to actually place it (I tried building a door in a pre existing house only to die before I could figure any of it out), and shooting is problematic and unreal. A plank of wood is more effective at the beginning until you get an axe, which appears to one hit kill zombies every time. There is a scoreboard by pressing tab, but otherwise no other notice of how well one does.

It appears as though the developer does make updates to the game, which is quite interesting; in the unlikely event that any of these suggestions would be considered, I make them anyway:

1) There is no good reason why personal scoring can't be labelled on the HUD, put it in a top corner.
2) Zombies clearly spawn near houses, its pretty much the only way to find them, the occassional one when you are hiding out in the woods would not be a bad thing.
3) There are two types of Zombies, this could be easily increased with ones that'll take more than a single axe hit, and make weapon progression more worthwhile.
4) In single player trying to find resources and building without getting jumped on is virtually impossible.
5) A round/wave based system would fix this game up so easily.

These basic things could improve the basic game so much and make it less ridiculed. Yes there are better games (for free) on steam using the same content packs, but I'm treating this game as an Individual game in its own right.