Recent reviews by SilverFolfy

Ok, so I bought this because I like the game and want to support it, BUT THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO DLC.
For the love of all that is radioactive, please do not do DLCs that have obvious ingame benefits (pay-to-win-ish style).
Make decorations, hats for AO, customizeable light colors or whatever else cosmetic but please don't start off with this cr*p, seriously!
Also, the ever-present bug of achievements not unlocking for the AO madness scenario is still present, I cannot get them not matter what I try despite having completed both. Just wanted to add that too since maybe it will be seen...

EDIT: Well, would you look at that, this seems to polarize a bit, but also seems to resonate with a lot of folks. Please give it some second thought. I am 100% willing to support a good game with just cosmetic stuff. Either that, or some actual content DLC. The chemical module would have lended itself well to be a DLC, but standalone single DLCs that are just superior machines is kinda scummy.

These tracks are to Satisfactory like C418's tracks are to Minecraft.
Iconic, melodic, dreamy, perfectly satisfactory, and able to stand completely on their own.
Both MP3 and FLAC available and all included ID3 tags are correct, what else is there to say except: buy it, listen to it, enjoy!

Edit: The mods in question are available again on itch.io, after a prolonged wait Monomi Park has finally responded to the issue and confirmed they will not follow up with a lawsuit, probably because it is not worth it and there would be no chance of winning it.
After all this wasted time and energy it leaves a sour taste nonetheless.

Original review/explanation on the issue:
OK, the game is great and I loved it, but this time I am going against the grain for once here and give a negative review nonetheless.
Why?
You see, the developer Monomi Park seems to not give a cr** about the community of mod developers.
They decided to, without any reaching out or notice beforehand, DMCA take down 3 popular mods from itch.io recently, that enabled Multiplayer for SR1 and SR2, and also a better build mod for SR1.
Here is the takedown notice: https://itch.io/takedowns/397693
The mod was available for free on the dev's discord, the version on itch.io was just for additional support/donation, which is fair I believe.

IMHO this is bullsh** as DMCA does not apply here as there is no stolen code or content in these mods. I'm not affiliated with the mod dev, but this is disgraceful behavior and DMCA'ing seems to be a cheap scare tactic without actual legal grounds for it.
Nicholas Watros of Monomi Park, LLC, I hope you read this and reconsider your life choices...
To all players, if you are interested in mod-friendly games and community focussed game developers, stay clear.

Contains at least 3 things I love:
- Foxes!
- Iceland
- Nice music

Bonus points
- Dedicated mouse buttons for barking (L) and tail wagging (R)
- Ancient ruins with glowing marks (a bit of an overdone trope, but I like the aesthetic)
- Chapter Select and collectible progress is saved globally (no need to replay the whole game for 1 missed thing)
- No graphical or gameplay bugs whatsoever, solid performance on Ultra setting without FPS drops.
- No negative points I could complain about

Neutral/Miscellaneous
- Graphics range from OK to beautiful
- Movement is mostly fluid, although a tad "floaty", but I've seen waaay worse.
- Game and achievements are pretty easy
- Very similar to Lost Ember or other "animal walking sim" games, but with it's own twist of being a fox with spirit abilities.
- Can recommend at current pricepoint (~16€), seems fair.

TL;DR: Love foxes, walking sims and mythical (nordic) worlds? Go for it!

EDIT 2024-05-27
Strongly considered putting a negative review now due to a new DLC to buy ingame benefits with RL money.
This is NOT how I want this game's future to look like. Please do cosmetics only!
Will see how this unfolds...

Original review:
I'll start by saying that this game is certainly not for everyone, and going in blind without prior knowledge about nuclear reactors or power generation is certainly a steep learning curve.
So if your idea of a good time does not include possibly hours of trial and error and maybe consulting a 150+ page operations manual then this is definitely not for you!

I'll begin with the basics and then describe my first experience with the "Start up" scenario, which I would actually recommend as it not only teaches how to run a reactor but also how to do maintenance inspection and repairs first!

Not particularly great, but manageable.
The lighting seems to be a little "off" and the metal surface textures are all a little to "shiny".
It certainly has that particular lowish-budget Unity engine look to it, particularly the surrounding environment, but realistically I won't hold that against it.
It's a single dev that has been concentrating on the gameplay and simulation aspect first and foremost.
The framerate seems to be locked to 60 at all times, even though the resolution dropdown is hinting at the possibility of more FPS options since my resolution is listed multiple times. (I often saw in Unity that framerate and resolution are both set via this dropdown, however the "framerate" part seems to be disabled here).
60 FPS is plenty though as the game is rather slow paced in terms of actual movement, so it's not that noticeable.
With the highest setting there are framedrops, while not really improving the graphics all that much, so there are somewhat pointless to max.

Also nothing to particularly praise, however during the initial component startups in my first try I often caught myself being a bit terrified of any new strange sounds that came from the reactor room, turbine hall or internal electric/storage room:
"Is that a good sound or a bad sound??"
So it definitely gets the point across, and "bad" sounds are usually noticeable without actively looking at any gauges.
One time while testing the backup generator it nearly caught fire, but I heard the particular sound of something sparking/smoldering above me so I managed to shut it down for repair. Nice!

Walking around feels very weird no matter what setting is used in the options.
Animations are IMHO very janky and slow, upping the animation speed helped with the slowness but increased the jankiness even more, so I disabled the character completely which feels much more smooth.
I'm here trying to control a nuclear power plant and not fiddle around with character controls after all.

The core part of the game, that is maintaining and running the NPP, is well done.
Being a game rather than a realistic simulator it is more on the "arcady" side though, with exaggerated speed and adverse events, which is totally fine as that makes it enjoyable and more engaging.
It's heavily trial and error, goofing around and seeing what breaks is really fun and you can get a feel for how things interact. I'm not going into too much detail as this part is the most fun to self-discover, and it's basically what it says on the tin (and in the screenshots), lots of dials, gauges and blinking lights.

Apart from that the game includes some routine tasks and activities to do in order to keep this complex machine running:
- Maintenance checks & repairs, some of which can be done yourself (oil changes, pipe welding, wire repair, etc) while others can only be done by your companion robot (more on that later) such as maintenance to pumps, valves, control rods etc.
- Delivery orders where you have to order & keep stock of everything needed for the operation (fuel for the backup gens, oil, fuses, repair tools, etc)
- a whole system to track and manage service compliance, since you have to make sure the plant delivers to the grid based on demand. Under- or Overdelivery are both things to watch out for.
Doing a bad job with running the reactor puts you at risk of losing "operational licenses" (you have max. 5 of those), which is basically fancy term for "lives". Doing a good job or averting a crisis can earn those back though.
Staying in compliance with grid demand also awards "Prestige points" which is basically a fancy way of describing money.
- and some others: there are audits, reactor refuelling and waste management, installable upgrades to existing infrastructure and inventory management (of your character) but that is very clunky to use

In many of these tasks you are supported by a (mostly) friendly robot called "AO" that can perform maintenance checking, repairs or help run specific operational tasks for a small cost of money.
But even AO needs to be managed as it has it's own internal battery that need charging and replacing.

In my case, all of the videos I watched in the past about the workings of nuclear power plants (weird special interest of mine) seem to have paid off!
With some ~2-3 hours of first inspecting the plant up & down in the game and slowly working on getting all systems up and running the critical part of inserting the fuel into the core actually went relatively smoothly.
At that point I didn't even know there was a giant PDF operations manual available, but I managed without somehow, whoops :D
The most important thing for me was to manage the control rods insertion with utmost care, going for adjustments in the range of 0.1-0.5% at a time and watching reactivity, pressure and temperature closely.
As long as all the circulation is working and temps and pressures are nominal it run pretty stable.
Or in short: green lights good, red lights bad.
After that the first scenario was pretty mild though, but a good tutorial.

I'm currently still learning getting the steam turbine torque to be in a normal range without over-revving. So far the adjustment of the steam bypass does not seem to help much but I'm sure I'll get there.
The worst mistake (so far) that I made was not paying attention to the condenser temps, and when that hit 100°C+ I was in for a bad time as I watched all my turbine speeds plummet rapidly. Good times!

1) The achievements for the scenario "Uninterruptible power" and also "Survive AOs madness" do not trigger, depsite both being compelted and a check mark showing completion.
The Dev states that they are re-synced upon opening the Scenarios menu, however no matter how often I try to restart Steam, logging in/out and opening the menu or starting a new scenario, they don't pop.
The log states:
951.8538: MenuInicial: Botón presionado Escenario
951.8538: Analizando logros locales y sincronizando
Which should mean that it's trying to sync, but it won't.
2) When the chemical module is disabled, the door leading into it cannot be entered, so far so understandable, however it can still be entered via the tunnel from the waterside leading into the NPP, but you can't actually enter the NPP through the "chemical" door. Not really an important issue, as there is not really a point to go there anyway.
3) It doesn't really make sense to have the valve for the freshwater intake (switching between external and internal vessel water supply) be only accessible physically inside the reactor room, why not make it controllable?
4) Inventory management of the character is too clunky/unwieldy and should be improved

Strongly recommended IF:
- You are interested in nuclear power
- You are not adverse to the idea of learning by doing and looking at 150 page manuals
- Quality of graphics and optimization are not as important to you

A vampire from hell thrust into the role of a "christianist" priest in a polish village running around slaying heretic "shatanists" while being ordered around by a cast of crazy characters (including a sock puppet and a frog alien) with the most wacky dialogue and story I've seen since maybe Saints Row The Third.
Also lots of black metal, hell yes! (ha!)
And all that makes, what I assume to be, a totally completely accurate portrayal of real life Poland. :D

Basically a not too difficult but very entertaining shooter/slasher that does not take itself seriously at all.
Price is justified, time to 100% completion is about 8-12 hours (I subtracted some AFK time).

This is possibly one of the cutest games I have played yet.
If you like "A Short Hike", "Carto", "Eastshade" or "Unboxed" or similar titles this one hits the same spot, and vice-versa!
Forget all the other "serious" games, here I had a smile on my face from start to finish, and I think that is what ultimately counts the most!
Lighthearted exploration adventure games like this one have given me the fondest memories so far.

Easy enough for anyone to play, delightful in all things from graphics to music to characters.
Also pretty short, but in this case I think that's totally fine, nothing kills motivation for a game more than unnecessarily and artificially drawing it out with 100s of the same tasks (looking at you Ubisoft!).

The full price may be a tad much, but can still fully recommended for a little relaxing vacation trip to rest your soul. And that alone may be worth every cent/penny.

Disclaimer: This is a preliminary review, I have not completed the game yet, but I would estimate my progress to be about 20% give or take, with an active playtime of about ~15 hours, which already means that this game has a lot to offer content-wise, and so far it was a great experience throughout.

Update: Finished the game, but had no time to write a review yet that does it justice.
Can recommend to the fullest extent! Buy it! But also play the first game, it will all make much more sense!

Outdated preliminary review
Here are the short versions of each category below.

Graphics: Stunning, gorgeous, really. A lot comes down to the general aesthetics of the design, but there are a lot of "advanced" graphical options present which were not in the first game.

Performance: Is is OK, I can feel though that my RTX 2080 is becoming just a tad bit "mediocre" at running new titles. I am mostly getting a stable 60 FPS+ at 1440p however, so it is fine for this type of game.

Gameplay: An interesting blend of "traditional" puzzle gameplay à la Portal and more open style exploration with a sense of wonder at uncovering the secrets and meanings of the surroundings, tied together by a (so far) very intriguing storyline, with multiple characters.
There are a lot of similarities in the puzzles to the first game, but many things have changed or expanded upon (like the laser puzzles), so it feels very fresh.

Story A love letter to all the explorers, thinkers, tinkerers, scientists and dreamers alike.
Without spoiling too much, it is (so far) a great continuation to TTP 1's storyline, again filled with many philosophical questions & theories, with time for contemplation, reflection and theory crafting. This time around you're not on your own in the world though (as was the case in TTP 1 were all interactions were constrained mostly to terminals), you can interact and talk with different characters & companions to make sense of it all.

World / level design Incredible, breathtaking, awe-inspiring. That is basically all I can say about it.

Sound / Music: The sound design is good & immersive, but the star of the show is the (once again) excellent soundtrack accompanying the game. I really do hope they will release this one again as download.

Overall: I am tentatively already calling this a masterpiece, in every possible way. And it is a game that resonates with me on a great level, just as the predecessor did.
The madlads at Croteam really seem to have done it, they have made an incredible and logical follow-up to the first game.

Cute little exploration/grinding game.
The gameplay loop here is simple:
- You first crash land on a tiny island on a planet.
- You then gather resources (chopping trees, mining ore, killing foes, ...)
- You use those resources to build out the planet's surface via unlocking it's tiles, uncovering new resources, enemies, dungeons and mechanics.
- You also need to upgrade your tools and armor, and there is some very light material crafting involved.
- There are already lots of planets to explore and build out (you will get to each in a linear fashion, but you can move freely between the already unlocked planets)

All in all simple but fun, this is a game that you can play basically anytime, even switch off your brain a bit and watch videos at the same time. Very cozy.

I have already played the mobile version of it for some time, which I kinda disliked though because of the available microtransactions and ads (so, typical mobile game stuff). Nothing too bad, after some small ~2€ one-time purchase all the ads were gone for good and the game was enjoyable, but it always seemed to drag on longer than it should because the prices to unlock new land were increasing rapidly to incentivize purchasing the materials for real money. A little bit scummy, but again, typical mobile game fashion, but not as much as most crappy mobile games sitting in the "top charts". (Pro-Tip: The more extremely a mobile game is advertised and pushed via sponsorships etc., the more it wants to suck your wallet dry, and the more scummy tactics it uses to do so)
But I digress...

This PC version has done everything right and the Devs seem to understand that the PC landscape should be treated differently than mobile.
Only one purchase: the game itself. No Microtransactions/Ads. Reduced rate of land unlock costs so it feels very active and faster to get to new content than in the mobile version. The grind is now very "tame" and manageable by comparison and it's a lot of fun to progress at this rate.
The game is also already receiving some good content & QoL updates since release which is nice to see!
Would I recommend for the price? I feel it's not *quite* worth the price, but it's close.
In any Steam sale I'd say it's absolutely worth it.

The OST for this game is not something I expected to be so good, it completely took me by surprise when I started playing.
But it fits the game perfectly.
Time to blast Khaït Nebula's Theme 24/7!