It is a game where you wish that some other developer would take this game and would make something great out of it. It has great engine, but game never feels to go anywhere with what it has.
Place of discussions and of full review:
Calicifer’s Reviews
The Tragic Tale of the Dwarfs
It is difficult not to recommend games like these due to arbitrary Steam review system. However, while game is great, it is nowhere as good as other people suggest it to be. It feels like a hollow shell of itself. A game which never went from EA to anywhere it was supposed to. Developers had focused and improved random generation of their levels. It is an amazing piece of tech they have, but beyond it, they do not have a game. Any system they did feel like it is just tacked on. Nothing in this game is fulfilling or fun. The only exception is when you are having fun at your base which is great, but that does not make the rest of the game, does it?The True Gem
There is only one real gem here which you won’t find anywhere else. It is procedurally generated maps. They are amazing, beautiful and complex. It creates a sense of wonder as you travel through unknown terrain. Somethings it is harsh, sometimes it is simple. It has variety from frozen wastes to bio-luminescent caves. Game creates its own maps which makes this game a lot more replayable. Where other rogue-lites would have static maps, often just bad maps (I’m looking at you Gunfire Reborn), this game not only can make good maps, but it does it randomly. Some proper love and care was put into it needs to be given proper credit.And All the Rest
Unfortunately, I cannot be as supportive about anything else. Level generation is ground breaking, revolutionary in game technology. Game is full of personality…while you are in lobby room. Everything else does not live up to such high level. It is all sub-par systems, shallow gameplay and is a giant grindfest. The little content there is, it is spread very thin. I struggle to think or find anything good to this game and while I enjoy it and will enjoy it for a little bit more, I can see writing on the wall. As soon, as I unlock all level types, the little additional content I’m being fed will stop and I will be starved for gameplay. Where is the content?
When we started to play in early access, we had far more fun in this game than anyone else. It was tense as we lacked ammunition and weren’t familiar with cheat code – nitro. It was hectic as drop pod would land and we would have to escape through winding tunnels under enemy attacks. Some friends were left behind. Some hilarious situations born like trying to dig through the map as we had given up finding route to drop pod. Oh, it was fantastic. Sadly, this was just us misplaying and having way too much fun than we were supposed to. What happened to this game? Where is complex navigation via maps and terrain? It was challenging and fun part of coming together and working together to create paths through challenging environment, using mini map trying to figure out cave system. This aspect is gone, it was never there. Where are actual mining in this game? You drop in, do objective, but you cannot look for resources, mine to your hearts content. Why place these arbitrary resource limits and then locate resources either in incredibly easy to reach places or incredibly annoying ones like on roofs? There was so much potential and all of it was wasted here.
There might be some fun found in it after spending hundreds of hours, but no game is good if it does not become fun after playing dozens of hours.
- The first real problem this game has is that it seemingly never went out of early access. It severely lacks content. There are 4 dwarf classes and each of them have 1 unique weapon and 1 unique class ability. They also have semi-unique grenades. Some being identical, some more unique than others. That is it. I played a lot more off the record and again with this account when game released. I never seen possibility to unlock anything else than different kind of grenades or how your special ability functions. There is supposedly other weapons in this game, but I had never saw it nor there is any mention if I will ever be able to play with them. This game is so incredibly poor with content that you will be playing dozens after dozens of hours unlocking practically nothing. Then there are few skins which you will be able to unlock from the store. Skins and character customisation in this game is equally trivial. Developers had made the whole system and just put few skins in game and the only way to get something is to buy huge, overpriced skin bundle. Shop is barren and what is in there, it is locked behind grind wall. You cannot customise your dwarfs. Even with all the DLC, it feels surprisingly empty. Where is the damn content in this game?
The most tacky of all the tackiest systems - I will use Deep Rock Galactic from now one to describe the most uninspired and average progression systems in this game. Starting from how you unlock power. It is just some minor or very situational bonuses which you have to unlock almost dozen of times. They evolve from completely insignificant to game changing over the course of their upgrades. However, those perks have are in an ugly tree. Most bonuses are as boring as they can get. Faster revive, faster ammunition refill, damage resistance when you are standing next to mule, ability to press a button when you are falling. Like who came up with this stuff? It is so incredibly boring and uninspired. It is a prime example how developers seemingly lack passion and talent to develop their game as it did not become better since EA.
Then we come to various cosmetic unlocks. Oh boy it is a terrible system. First, you need to unlock special points via seasons. The only way to unlock those points is to play a lot. You need to go to completely separate in-game system to see what you can get with them. It is one giant cosmetic tree. It is so incredibly bad as it lays down complex paths towards your desired gear. What if you want something cool from two branches? Sucks to be you, because through incredibly long grind you can only get one (point earn rate is very low)… Even worse, class specific skins are mixed in. I play with engineer and by mistake I took skin from not my class. Why class specific skins are even there? I want to level up my class, why I’m getting random rewards?
They will never learn… - That pure RNG is incredibly bad design decision. This game relies on random dice roll where player structures will land. This results in more complex maps dwarf rocket landing on a hill with no way down. It is also enemy nest. So, you get instant wiped. We had an unlucky streak where we were wiped several times in a row due to nonsense like this. We are being landed in a middle of an enemy nest while on some hill with no room to fight, but with all of the opportunities to fall down and die. Same happens when you need to evacuate, your escape pod can and will quite frequently get stuck in the air with absolutely no way to reach it naturally.
The Unfortunate Truth
To me, it is an amazing game which never went anywhere past early access. It has no content. Cosmetic shop is empty, there are only single weapon per class, enemies are quite bland to fight against. There is not a single feature which would make this game fun to play. This is really unfortunate and I’m not sure how this had happened as developers are adding content and they do have an incredible level generator. However, everything around it feels like empty, uninspired, rushed, unfinished. It is first time where I see fantastic game and I wish that some other studio would take it over and would do something with it.When we started to play in early access, we had far more fun in this game than anyone else. It was tense as we lacked ammunition and weren’t familiar with cheat code – nitro. It was hectic as drop pod would land and we would have to escape through winding tunnels under enemy attacks. Some friends were left behind. Some hilarious situations born like trying to dig through the map as we had given up finding route to drop pod. Oh, it was fantastic. Sadly, this was just us misplaying and having way too much fun than we were supposed to. What happened to this game? Where is complex navigation via maps and terrain? It was challenging and fun part of coming together and working together to create paths through challenging environment, using mini map trying to figure out cave system. This aspect is gone, it was never there. Where are actual mining in this game? You drop in, do objective, but you cannot look for resources, mine to your hearts content. Why place these arbitrary resource limits and then locate resources either in incredibly easy to reach places or incredibly annoying ones like on roofs? There was so much potential and all of it was wasted here.
There might be some fun found in it after spending hundreds of hours, but no game is good if it does not become fun after playing dozens of hours.