Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Tanchyon

My .02 Patch Review

OK so I have run through the game a few time on release and due to not being able to save gave it up until the .02 patch that updated the other day. The game seems to run better, things seem to work better and a little less glitchy. For the most part I can go for double digit minutes without seeing a bug. Most of the bugs are just nuisances, and can be fixed with a save/reload (Which now seems to be working, to an extent).

So thanks to some newfound stability in the game I set off to find a new base location. Sharks were a nice addition and I have found a couple of items I have never seen before so I'm guessing they could have been added with the patch. Got my base up and running, to the stage where I felt confident enough to start putting up a log cabin.

This is where things started to fall apart. Not because of the log cabin, but just I had been lucky so far. Some of the structures I placed and built wouldn't "complete" once all materials had been added. When I would reload these structures and the resources I put into them disappeared. The recipes in the survival handbook had incorrect numbers and types of materials - once I placed a trap etc I would then find I had to get a different number of completely different resources to complete it.

Then after battling a few cannibals and dismembering them to build some effigies I got hit by a fast moving leg when the body exploded and DIED on the spot. Oh well, I thought... at least there's reload now. After a quick reload, most of my inventory was gone (yup I know, common problem) and my half built log cabin disappeared. I put 40 logs into that thing, and it was difficult enough getting to the woods and hiding from cannibals to cut the 10 trees down to get it that far.

So in the end, the patch did make a huge difference. I was 'making it' out there in the wilderness, and the game was working with me for the most part rather than against me. But a few killer game breaking bugs spoiled it for me, so instead of hating it, I'm gonna wait for the next patch. Can't wait to see what comes next, good work guys!

PS and to those of you who haven't bought the game yet, keep in mind that although the game looks great and has a great concept with fantastic moments, it is still in a really raw state at the moment. So if you want to think of it as a "pre-order" where you can get a sneak peak at the development whenever you like then by all mean BUY IT NOW. But if you want a polished product that is guaranteed to work on your machine and without annoying bugs then hang on for a bit. These guys are releasing patches all the time, so it won't be long before it's the quality game you are after.

2017 Review: (Final Verdict: 5/10 - If you like building games and watching them get demolished then don't read any further just buy it)

Well I never thought the day would come but this game is finally out of Early Access. I personally have been waiting for it for 4 years, others about 5. The main gripe stemmed from the period of 2 - 3 years where pretty much nothing happened with the game and the dev's heavy handed tactics of dealing with the criticism. Nonetheless all that is history now and I shouldn't be dwelling on that alone.

The game now is OK. There is a variety of modes and maps, performance has greatly increased as has some of the AI and building options. I would agree with some of the sentiment in the comments that the game is worth something like $10-$15 dollars if you are a fan of this sort of thing.

What the game does well:

Performance is decent. Just about everything in the game is visible. You don't just put resources and items into storage, the little characters will mine and craft things right before your eyes and place it into appropriate storage where you can see it. Even when you craft the weapons kits every piece is always visible wherever it goes. Say you want to craft an arbalast, the crossbow, hat and bolts will be carried one by one from the crafting table to the weapons rack where you can see it hanging there. This might not mean much to some people but to me it's a great touch.

It's the same when you are building your castles. Each section can be destroyed individually and if some parts don't have enough support they will fall where they will lie until your bricktrons pick them up and rebuild or place them in stockpiles. It makes it cool to watch the resources how they are collected and stored, transformed, and become parts of the construction.

The mechanics of the game are pretty solid and in my experience unique. The enemies are a little bland but they serve their purpose of creating danger and tension in the game modes that include them.

The tutorials and explanations are great and acceptable for those new to the game.

Also the community leader (Shato) I have to mention here. He is a much better people person than the previous one. I feel bad for Box because he copped a lot of flak but he also deserved it with what he was doing. Whether he was doing that under orders from the devs or not I have no idea but for a while there was a really really bad environment for the game community. So the guy that replaced Box is a big improvement, he seemed to have the will and patience to connect the devs with the public again and that is an understated accomplishment.

Things that are not so great:

Well this is a difficult one as I am slightly biased but i will get into that briefly at the end. The main issues I see with the game is a lack of content. The concepts in the game are great, it could have possibly been a genre leader with a little more building options and a little more creativity when it comes the enemies and gameplay. I really think a decent story (Castle Story???) and even a campaign could have been worked into this game. Working with the awesome concepts this could have really shined.

I would have been willing to bury the issues of the past completely and give this game a thumbs up. But alas even though there is a decent variety of maps there isnt much to do after a while unless you want to mess around with some friends in the limited multiplayer. Now this is just me, I am sure that there are plenty of people around that would be quite happy to play the game just to create different buildings so if that sounds like your thing then disregard my opinion on content.

So just to briefly sum up my reasoning for still not recommending this game, it is a personal taste and morality of early access issue on my part. This is THE game for me that made me very wary of early access, the years I spent waiting for content and arguing for more transparency left me coming away from the game wondering why I was stupid enough to buy it. Without the Early Access issues or with some decent utilization of the concept of the game I would have given it a 6 or a 7 out of 10. But in the end I am going to have to give it a 5/10, it's not bad but its definitely not good. For me if given the choice I wouldn't have bought it. But for you if you like building stuff and a little bit of resource management then go out and buy it. You won't regret it.

Pre-2017 Review:

Fraud and Lies
OK I know that the mods are keeping a tight leash on the forums here and they are shutting down everything that is pointing out the truth so I am going lash out and hope that a few people see this before it gets locked or myself banned like many others have before.

There are a lot of Early Access games on steam. Most of them have a capable and dedicated development team behind them. We all know this, we are all playing their games. We know what to expect from Alphas, Betas, Early Access etc etc. And this isn't it. This game has changed very very little for more than a year now. And they are still taking peoples money for it.

The people that originally backed this game are for the most part gone - they check in every few months hoping that something has changed but it hasn't. At this stage the only people that are happy with this game are those that have recently bought it in the last couple of months and don't know that a patch isn't 'just around the corner', and those that are friends with the devs who jump on every negative review and defend it with the usual "Alpha", "Early Access", or "refactoring" excuses.

We aren't stupid. We have played plenty of Early Access games before. They all need to be refactored a couple of times during their development as the scope of the interest in the game increases. All the early access games we are playing are doing the same. Castle Story is NOT unique in this.

The devs just use refactoring as an excuse for having not produced anything notable for more than a year. This is rubbish. They have accumulated near enough to a million dollars to work on this project and all they do is stall.

I know there are a lot of others out there that are just as fed up with this rubbish, and I hope it serves as a lesson to everyone to be very careful as to what they back with Early Access games. There a plenty of good ones out the with dedicated developers, but there are also a few rotten eggs.

I'd like to hear from everyone that has been through the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥e and all those that were banned for speaking out about this, but I know they probably have given up on this game plus anyway it won't be long before this thread is locked down and removed anyway. I feel sorry for everyone that wasted their money - I had hoped for something special too.