brrrr brrr booom booom, game fun

I would really like to give this game a score instead of the Stream "Yes/No" review. I'd say it's a very solid 7.

It's fun for the first few hours, but I had to force myself to keep playing after that, hopping the later upgrades would make the game better and they don't.
You can tell they had a great idea, that being the car gameplay, customisation and upgrade system and built everything else around that. The issue is that the rest of the game get really repetitive and the story does not hold it up either.
The car is great and the customisation where you have to choose between having more storage or more fuel for example is great. It is what kept me going and finishing the game. The are fun combinations you can do, like for example an electric engine with windmills on you can which generate more battery power the faster you drive. I also liked how everything is manual in the car, you have to start and stop the engine, put the car in park, close the doors, etc. It makes so that every time you stop you have to make a decision: should I stop everything and save on battery and fuel or will just be a quick hop off and back on.
I can see why other people enjoyed this game so much, however I just expected something different with people comparing this with the likes of Subnautica. You do get that feeling of your car being the safe haven and wanting to explore just a bit more, until you realise there is nothing to explore. You just drive next to a resource, hop off, get the resource and drive on. I would have loved to see a mechanic where you have to actually have to use your car to get a resource, like having to pull it from the water or maybe even having to ram your car into something (there is one resource you can get this way, but it's not worth the damage to your car since it's much easier to get with a tool you have).

Here are some of my issues with the game:
- randomly generated zones are boring, no thrill of exploration.

- you get most of your resources from the same 6 containers inside the same 5 buildings scattered around the zones. I enjoyed the scrapping mechanic and would have liked them to do more with that. Instead you go into a small house, go to a box, hold e, transfer all, exit, go to the next box, etc. The issue is that even in late game zones you still get the same early game resources in all the containers so I stopped looting them, even less reasons to explore. There are also resources which you "mine" using your 3 tools, those are a bit better since there is actually a bit of gameplay behind getting the resource, however some of them feel like re-skins since you just use the same tool on a different thing in the same way to get a different resource.

- getting to the late game zones is really tedious since there is no way you can skip the early game zones; imagine in Subnautica if you could only have a base in the starting area. This is where a lot of people also complain about the fact you cannot save while inside a zone; say you need just one or two more of the late game resources for the next car upgrade, well hope you have an hour to spare to get it.

- along with that feeling of tediousness the game is also disjointed, so every time I got back to the garage knowing for the next trip I would have to start all over again I just felt like I did not want to keep playing. There is no "just one more" upgrade feeling you might get in similar games, once you get to the garage you feel like you're done.

- once you understand all the mechanics, which the game does a really poor job of explaining, the game is really easy. The "enemies" are mostly static and you can just drive around them and the ones that actually move are also easily avoidable and annoyances at best. It fells like the most thrilling parts of the game you are just meant to avoid. For example for the massive storms once a zone start to close, the game gives you and indication way before that is going to happen and at that point you can just leave since there is no incentive to stay. I would have loved to see the storm bringing in rarer resources giving you a choice to leave and avoid damage to your car or stay an maybe find something really good.

- the controls, way to many "hold" to do something, waste of time. Opening a container, which is by far the most used action in this game is mapped to hold a key, why? Also, while the inventory screen the game gives you a list of the bottom of all you available keybindings, like transfer all, take one, etc., so why does it not show you the keybind to sort? I was almost done with the game when I found out you can do that. I did not think to look it up since it gives you all the other actions you can do at the bottom so why not that one?

While this review might seem fairly negative, it's only because I saw a lot of potential in the game and felt a bit disappointed. In the end this is loads better that most AAA releases and is fun little game, just keep your expectations low.

Really great game, amazing progression that keeps you playing for the next unlock, and tons of content.
When I started playing I thought "Oh cool, Subnautica but on the planet surface...", and it is that, in the best way possible, but so much more.
The devs have confirmed they will continue to update the game and I hope they add more backstory and personality to each of the wrecks.
Even if they don't it's well worth the asking price and your time!

Let me just preface this by saying that this game IS fun. I am about halfway thorough the main story, explored a lot of the map and still looking forward to playing every day (even with the extremely lacklustre enemy variety).

However I cannot recommend the game for it's current price. Just wait until you can get it AT LEAST 50% off. By that time they might even optimise it and maybe add some new content (although I doubt it).

If you don't care about the price and have a good PC buy it and you will have fun playing it, simple as that.

A fun game with lots of potential. Would like to see more time added to each mining license and some incentive to actually go layer by layer. The latter stages just feel like you are racing to the bottom and skipping 80% of the mine.
Can't wait for the next update.

Not a game I can recommend. It follows a simple loop of "Explore area to find new tools -> Unlock a different area with the new tools and repeat".
In the end it feels more like a collection of mechanics and objectives/chores than a full-fledged game. Individual game mechanics also have very little depth.
There is a resource and crafting system which makes very little sense. For critical upgrade materials, you don't collect them as much as they are straight out given to you once you reach a certain point. There are secondary resources which you get by killing creatures, which is just an excuse to include combat as it is boring and provides very little challenge. You can also get them from resource nodes spread throughout each area so you will rarely find yourself missing something.
You don't even have a resource inventory and everything is automatically dumped every time you get back to your ship. The only reason to get back to your ship being to "craft" you new upgrades. The way you get back to your ship is via instant travel from the multiple portals spread out over each area. This make the whole ordeal so superficial that they might as well give you the upgrade and trash the whole resource and crafting system. It's not something you are involved in anyway.
Same as the combat, the exploration is not at all challenging, and at times it feels like you are just along for the ride instead of in charge of the gameplay.
My harsh opinion might very well be caused by the fact that I was personally not invested in the story. The Portal meets Subnautica humour was overall dry and I found myself wanting to silence the game dialogue altogether. By the time the credits rolled I thought to myself "Why did I even bother? Was all that even fun?"

Pretty good story driven game. I had it in my backlog for quite some time and after playing Control from the same developer, all the references got me intrigued.
It still holds up even if it is a bit dated, and the remastered version is not really worth it unless you can get it at the same price.
The gameplay can get a bit repetitive and tedious towards the end as the normal difficulty is not at all challenging and resources are never an issue. Personally I would not classify this as a horror game.
The story makes up for the lacklustre gameplay and the game does not over-stay its welcome, being quite short. I am looking forward to the sequel!

I purchased the DLC after completing the base game simply because I wanted more Outer Wilds, and it delivers just that.
That's all you need to know, this is more Outer Wilds with a few different mechanics which sometimes makes it feel fresh and other times frustrating.
As for the horror aspects, I played it in VR (where horror is scientifically proven to be 100 times more effective) and even then I didn't find it too spooky. I don't normally play horror games and this doesn't feel like one.
Overall the puzzles are a bit harder than the ones in Outer Wilds and since you don't go from planet to planet like in the base game the scenery doesn't change much, which makes it difficult to remember where something was when you want to go back to it.
The one thing I feel it was lacking was a better ending since it doesn't have the same impact as the base game ending (or rather doesn't add much to it, wink wink). When I got to it I remember thinking "This can't be it, there's got to be more, I missed something."
After playing the base game and now the DLC, I can't wait for the next game Mobius Digital will release!

Thank you Mobius Digital, that's all I have to say.

One of the best games I've played in recent years. Before buying it I was a little bit sceptic thinking it would just be another survival-craft game with a gimmick, but it's so much more than that.
It has something most games lack these days, it's own personality. I found myself playing for hours at a time hoping to get to the next part of the backyard to see what new bugs and resources you can find. Some of the different biomes make it like you're playing a different game almost, so it never drags on and there is always something you can do. They nailed the progression.
Another great decision was that they decided to have a parry mechanic, which makes the combat fun and engaging every time. Each new enemy you find has it's own attack pattern which you have to learn and adapt to. It's true that towards the end you can just face-tank basically anything and slash, bash or poke away until it dies but I still found myself using the parry since it's very satisfying to pull of. There are also a few re-skins where some bugs are the same model with small tweaks and a colour change but that didn't bother me too much.
The story is just kinda there and doesn't provide a lot but also doesn't get in the way. I much prefer that to it being a cut scene-fest like other modern games which try to make it a grand narrative but in the end all it does is take you out of the action for some old lady to ask you to find her frying pan.
As for the multiplayer I haven't tried it and I know there are some issues now, like for example how there are not enough upgrade materials for everyone until after you finished the game almost. Even still if you each play a certain role, you can upgrade and share the equipment you need. So maybe the tank gets the best armour, while others focus on DPS.

If you asked me what game am I most excited about this year, I would say "More content for Grounded", which we know is coming. Buy this game, you won't be disappointed.