While I haven’t played 4/5, 2 is my favourite. I still re-play 2 every few years.

2, and to a lesser extent the first one, had a more darker and gritty tone. I would argue there is even a (mild) cyberpunk vibe to the game.

Don’t know why they used the term “dozens”, maybe they meant mainline quests. There are hundreds of quests from what I remember (some are pretty simple though).

It’s really good. Interesting take on the standard fantasy CRPG tropes; a fantasy world of magic going through industrialization. Many different ways to play the game (albeit the industrialists/drone operator approach is IMO too difficult for a first play though).

So what gameplay is there for trading/hauling?

On a subreddit that’s been known to brigade.

How do you know this? There is a reason why I am asking.

And would you be willing to change your opinion if a redacted copy of the NDA was published?

Your reply is why people call star citizen a cult.

They do have investors. And at any rate, it makes no difference if the money is instead going to the founders family members. He hired his unqualified spouse (openly admitted to not know what SEO was and how metrics worked) for a senior position and they changed her surname and told employees to not reveal that they were married.

Do you have any source for that claim regarding MOP and The Escapist? Just bringing up that quote isn’t a magical “I am right” button.

I tried their free trials 4 times. Twice I encountered game breaking bugs (required a restart and switching service respectively).

Let’s ignore that for now. I will start with the good things. The planet to space transition was pretty cool, not going to lie. The cities were also detailed and looked nice (the first time you take the train in one of the cities, it does contribute to the world building). That being said, both the planets and the POI have nothing to offer in terms of actual gameplay structure. The cities might as well be a menu based system for purchases/interactions. The planets just have some random uninspired mission locations that all feel the same. You might as well have a separate map that you enter via cutscene.

But the biggest was the horrible gameplay. It’s one of the reasons I believe star citizen is scam.

I will use a small trading indie game called Merchant of the Skies as a comparison point. It was developed by a husband and wife duo in less than 12 months. The game has:

• Dynamic world impacted by trading activities. City taxation/reputation, new resources, new locations, new ships and upgrades all open up as you complete various trading missions.
• Bazaar system. There are several location on a map that have weekly bazaars. Certain days have peak visitors while others are off days. You have to time your arrivals/trading.
• Supply and demand system in bazaar sales. You over/under price your goods depending on how much of your ship’s inventory you want to sell. This is also tied to the weekly visitors intensity system.
• Refueling system. Locations on the edge of the map have refuelling station that are few and far between. There is a simple RNG system for bonus fuel during travels.
• Mail/passenger travel side missions. You can occasionally help travellers and deliver mail. It’s fun to align this with your trading activities.
• Different late-game ships that you can pick depending on your play-style (it’s not only about cargo capacity, it does actually have a relatively big impact on how you go about the game).

This is just the gameplay that is relevant for comparison. There is also in-depth base-building, complex trade fleets and delivery scheduling, a simple RPG system, a simple ship employee system, a simple bank system, a resource gathering system, rudimentary exploration (map is randomized on each run), a mainline story and a bunch of different side missions.

Now compare that to star citizen. No supply/demand. No world impact. No economy. There is nothing to do except get more money to get ships. Sure you play with other players, but is there any kind of competition in terms of trading? They don’t even have a functional escort system where you can hire NPC ships for defence against griefers.

And crude gameplay is not limited to trade. FPS combat with single digit ticks? Exploration with one fully explored system? I will add that they sell non-functional “exploration ships” for hundreds of dollars; some of them are literal JPEGs. There is a bunch of other stuff that they’ve marketed but have simply not implemented or completely abandoned after the initial cash shop sales campaign (data running, journalism spaceships, refuelling spaceships, passenger transport spaceships, medical spaceships, farming spaceships, flying bazaar spaceship, mine laying spaceship, the list just goes on and on).

And this is after ~12 years and allegedly ~$750 million spent on development.

I will speculate a lot of that money goes to the founder’s family, key insiders and friends and they knowingly lie about their capabilities, intentions and just make shit up to sell JPEGs.

You don’t have to agree with the last point, but am I wrong with respect to trading/hauling in SC?

It’s a solid RPG/adventure game. The setting is pretty compelling. I can recommend if you’re into the genre.

Thanks for the in-depth review.

I tired out “Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop” earlier this year. It has a unique world, fun graphics and a solid gameplay loop. That being said, it seems the “repair sim” subgenre is not for me.

Not to mention “House of Shoes” and “World of Cutlery”.

Surprisingly, it sort of work with Midwest 90: Rapid City.

I played an earlier alpha of this. It showed potential but was in an early stage of development. The devs mentioned that they’ve made a lot of changes since then.

I got to say, their world is pretty unique as far as post-apocalyptic settings go. The tower defense x restaurant management gameplay combo is also something you don’t see every day.

This is actual a very good gaming/audio-visual experience. As OP mentioned, subsequent playthroughs tend to be less exciting.

I can also recommend The Bunker by the same developer. I liked the The Bunker more. Although The Complex is also very good.

Will do. Wasn’t sure what the tag was.

That’s a fair point. It is also something that people in democratic countries don’t fully appreciate.

I think you overestimate how many people in russia do not stand against putin because they are afraid of the consequences. It’s definitely true that it happens, but it’s not really relevant in the bigger scale of things.

Unfortunately, a strong majority (at the very least) do support putin specifically, his authoritarianism and genocidal imperialism. And this is not limited to specific demographic segments. They may not openly act as rabid chauvinists (although there are tens of millions who do), but they are fundamentally aligned with the putin, his regime, his goals and his methods. For them it’s a fair price for their own comfort (both material and existential).

And what further muddies the waters is that among those who oppose putin, many actually support his imperialist agenda (e.g. Navalniy and his team who supported the annexation of Crimea until 2022 when they forced to change their position since they were kicked out of the country).

The whole framing of tens of millions of russians being stuck between a rock and a hard place is incorrect. Even those who claim they are for peace are really looking to consolidate their current occupational gains (with continued atrocities and eradication of Ukrainian identity).

but claiming someone in Russia who doesn’t stand against Putin is “complicit” in the war is rough.

An alternative viewpoint from someone who has lived in North America and russia for a decade (and speaks both russian and English).

Most Westerners have a pretty primitive and naive understanding of russian culture; you will note how even seemingly reputable analysts that consult senior US diplomatic figures speak in broken russian.

Westerners greatly underestimate the extent to which genocidal imperialism is supported within russian society. Not every single person of course. We are talking strong majority to overwhelming majority support that goes across multiple demographic segments (even ones you wouldn’t think would have majority support like younger cohorts or highly educated cohorts).

Consider the annexation of Crimea, which if you live in Ukraine, was the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. 80-85% support depending on methodology (just a few percentage point delta when using list experiments vs. direct questions).

And don’t be naive in thinking that russian society does not recognize the genocidal intent. They most definitely know that Ukrainian is banned, Ukrainian churches are banned, you cannot do anything without getting a russian passport. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have the courage to openly oppose this regime are sent to torture dungeons where electrocution torture, cutting off genitals, cutting off fingers, rape, is all a standard procedure.

And russians society knows this, yet they continue to strongly support the invasion and occupation of Ukraine, Georgia (how many russians protested the 2008 invasion?) and Moldova.

Now one might say I am de-humanizing russians. To that I will answer that I am actually treating them as adults that make their own choices and should take responsibility for their actions. There is nothing inherent (in a biological or some sort of cultural essentialism sense) to russian culture that enables imperialism to makes propaganda “uniquely” effective. It’s a conscious choice made unfortunately by at least a strong majority of russian society.

This is not directly aimed at you, more of a general comment regarding naive and honestly uneducated takes on the nature of russian society.

Sort of unique for the time considering the typical fantasy/sci-fi styles prevalent during during the time.

This is one DLC I wish I never had to play while also being that one DLC that I will never forget (still playing it though).