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nice

the animations where pretty good

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As several people have already noted, it's not super intuitive to jump right in, so probably check out the linked guide. After a couple false starts, I had a solid run on the easiest difficulty.

I had a love-hate relationship with Stellaris back when it came out; I liked the exploration and building, but most of the combat and diplomacy stuff felt like it was getting in my way. The puzzle aspect of creating optimal routes in a finite amount of turns gives the game a lot of replayability.

Wishlisting the Steam version for sure (I like the look of it so far, but I would love to see an optional graphic setting where the game assets have the almost-minimal pixel charm of the pico8, but with the wider field of view and control)

A nice distillation of the gather & upgrade loop.

I had hoped to complete all the sequential objectives, but unfortunately I encountered a bug. While I was waiting for rare materials to respawn for a sequential objective, and as I was getting close to gathering all the materials for the anvil's final recipe, I experienced a bug where attempting to either drop or deposit (in a chest) a 99-stack of coal simply created a copy of the stack without removing it from my inventory, so I started to get choked for space and had to hurry up and finish crafting that recipe. Continuing into New Game Plus did not resolve the coal problem, so I was unable to do much at that point.

I don't know if that recipe was actually the end goal, as there were some materials I never had occasion to use, but based on the patch notes I assume there's a significant portion of the game that I didn't get to experience.

I enjoyed what amount I was able to play, but I don't currently feel like replaying all of that just to see what I missed.

From the start, I want to point out that I feel that QUALITY of this game warrants a higher rating, but the inclusion of microtransactions (and the fact that the game forces you to wait a certain amount of time before allowing you to continue, unless you participate in the microtransaction system) is something I consider to be in poor taste, ESPECIALLY on Newgrounds. As such, it has detracted from the gameplay experience and made it less enjoyable, and so I award it fewer stars.

As far as the game itself is concerned, I do enjoy what part I'm actually able to play. The music is simple but charming, the graphics are simple but charming. I don't think there's enough polish to warrant asking people for money, though. There are some interesting things going on behind the scenes, but from the players' perspective this is a game finished enough to be posted on Newgrounds, not enough to be posted in a marketplace. I want to be clear about that. This game is good enough for sponsorship, or even between-level advertisement, but it is not yet good enough to warrant asking the player for money, no matter how little money at a time.

You've gone to the trouble to add a player-customization system, but the advanced customization system is quite bland. There is an illusion of deep customization presented in the form of a bunch of options with one or two available styles, and a full range of color palette, which unfortunately just makes room for some really ugly color combinations. Randomizing is definitely not recommended. You can choose to have 1 type of scar, or be covered in unsightly boils (at last!), or choose from a small handful of hairstyles, facial hair, 2 body types, eyeglasses that look out of place, a single earring, etc. Granted, these choices don't have much effect on the in-game sprite, but the portrait is still a reminder. There is a lot of missed potential here.

If you're going to have character-customization, why not add more hairstyles or facial styles, which give the player a closer connection to their avatars? Or make the various craftsmen customizable (or at least make 3 or 4 pre-fab combinations for each craftsman).

It's a genuinely good premise, and there are intricacies that I would like to explore further, but I promise you I will not be purchasing tokens to supplement my gameplay experience. A good microtransaction system is the kind that an interested player can take full advantage of, but the uninterested player hardly even knows it's there.

(The rest of this review is a diatribe about pay-to-play and microcurrency games)

At first, I realized that certain shop upgrades could be purchased with tokens if you didn't have the full amount in gold, and I thought that was a smart implementation of the system. Later, I realized that certain commodities were only available by purchasing tokens (less of a big deal, since I didn't have any use for those commodities). Then it tells me that after 12 in-game days have passed, I have to wait for a timer to tick down before I can advance to the next day. I literally can't play any more right now unless I spend tokens (Thankfully, I type long-winded reviews and my turn will probably come up while I'm typing this). Finally, I see that certain item production recipes must be "unlocked" by throwing tokens away. You are withholding content from your audience. It may not be the audience you're hoping for (see: "paying"), but Newgrounds doesn't really strike me as the kind of place that would welcome games with a micropayment model.

There's a huge difference between making your game more accessible or faster to play with microcurrency, for "casual" games that people spend 5 minutes on in the bathroom at work, but it alienates people who really want to explore the game.

It's nice that you've at least included a free 100 tokens, so that people have their choice of what portion of the game they'd like to have less restricted. I'll probably use mine on buying extra days, before I give up on it entirely.

I got three extra days out of waiting the time it took me to type this

Age 40, Male

Joined on 6/28/10

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