Scraps: Modular Vehicle Combat
From the first bits I played, this is the greatest game. Unlike Robocraft, you don’t have to deal with damage propagation. Instead, you have to deal with cooling the weapons and other functional parts, supplying power to the same functional parts, and being able to grab enough scrap to upgrade your vehicle.
REVISION: While the multiplayer is essentially dead, the new Gauntlet mode is remarkably fun and unique; a roguelike involving vehicle construction is nothing I’ve ever heard before, and it pulls it off well. There are only two problems I have with it, and they’re more minor nitpicks than anything:
– Real player with 74.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Simulation Games.
I had been following this game for a while via the old tech demos but had never been willing to pull the trigger on purchasing the game since the demos lacked any real form of game play. With something playable finally released, I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, the actual game play mechanics are awful.
Despite being a car combat game with a focus on building your dream deathmobile and watching it get destroyed in actual combat, trying to actually build a fun car is tedious. The actual vehicle construction is fine – however, the developer decided to hide half the parts under a Call of Duty unlock system. Great, another game to grind away at before I can even do anything. Another issue is the game’s money and cost system. To put it simply, in combat, you are supposed to start with a basic car and acquire money to purchase bigger and better cars, all of which can be your personal designs. The way money is acquired, however, is horrendous, requiring players to deposit money on “pads” – a process that requires you to sit in park for three seconds with a giant bullseye on your head – as opposed to just letting you keep any earned money in a manner similar to Counter-Strike. Also, destroyed cars cost money for them to be replaced, meaning that one lost vehicle is all it takes to set you back to square one. Players basically wind up in an infinite loop of never having enough money to actually do anything once combat begins.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
Dieselpunk Wars
I think I am the player who has been playing this game for the longest time ever (most of them spent on building stuff in creative), and I did enjoy it and had high hopes. But still…
Abandonware
Several serious bugs exist, including one that makes airships pretty much unplayable.
The Devs have been informed of those bugs for months but no action was ever taken.
They also stated on Discord that the May update is going to be the last update, so consider it officially abandoned.
Severe Lack of Content
– Real player with 466.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Sandbox Games.
A very good game.
Important notes:
Movement:
Movement on the ground for wheeled/tracked vehicles is generally pretty good, the only issue i tend to have is the velocity being canceled completely by trees/random geometry such as rocks. Movement also feels very slow/tanky however i think that fits the game just fine. Sea/Air movement works perfectly well, though i couldn’t get a walker to work.
Building/UI/Keybinding:
I have a few nitpicks about it, namely with not enough keybinds/options for keybinds in the building menu, and not being able to press esc to exit out of some menu prompts. There are some bugs here, as you might guess from an early access game, but aside from the occasional incorrect mirroring, it works just fine.
– Real player with 65.8 hrs in game
From the Depths
coffee tastes like purple
– Real player with 4364.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Sandbox Games.
There is a lot of thing that I would like to say, so I’ll try to keep it brief.
Here are some question from new players who I’ve heard a lot:
Is the Learning Curve steep?
Yes. It not just a learning curve, but a learning cliff, on fire and covered in bears. It would take quite some time to get used to the mechanics of the game.
The tutorials only teach the absolute basics (e.g. its (proprietary) build mode controls and AI programming). For new players, Only finish the first section of it and go experiments with the designer yourself. Expect some ragey moments at this stage as it will bombard you with an insane amount of content (even with over 1000+ hours, I’m still considered quite new by FtD’s community standards). Fortunately, the FtD community have very experienced people who are ready to help you if any problem arises (as long as you don’t say the game as a whole sucks), so I advise you join the Official FtD Discord server as most activities happen there.
– Real player with 1167.7 hrs in game
Crossout
TLDR: google “crossout slam dunk” (even if you have no intention of ever playing the game, lol).
Full version (Scroll below for a section on “omg, grind!"):
After enjoying this game for quite a while, I feel like I at the very least owe them a Steam review, because in my mind the “Mixed” rating (as of writing this) is quite unfair, and is largely created by new players mistaking a learning curve for a “paywall”.
Which leads me to this main advice to starting players:
– Real player with 2812.2 hrs in game
This game is EXTREMELY poorly managed. And trust me, this means alot, because most of the time i overvalue games and i respect the developers alot. I also recommend most of the games i play, to my friends. I would honestly not recommend crossout to anyone. This became one of the worst games i have ever played. Just because of some poor decisions
Let me talk about some key elements of the game.
GRINDING
Don’t be fooled by the fact that the game is free. The small playerbase is used to invest lots of money in the game, so as a new player, or a player who really plays for free, it’s a dead end. You will be smashed by the others, since the items are tier based and every tier is more expensive than the prior one. The last one takes few months, even years of grinding, depending on how often you play, of course, if you don’t pay real money. That being said, you might just find yourself in huge disadvantages if you play for free. There were decent ways to farm in game coins fast, but don’t worry, the developers made sure to patch them, so everything is a slow process and you don’t get anything significant without paying them.
– Real player with 2538.3 hrs in game
Balsa Model Flight Simulator
(Also put 230 hours into the public playtest prior to EA, quite confident this will become my most played game by quite a lot)
Haven’t even touched career yet, or done much with the scenario editor. I’ve just been completely captivated by making and flying planes. If you can think of something or find an existing design that seems feasible you can probably make it, and you can even come with new ideas that no one has thought about before and make them work.
This has replaced all other flight sims for me, MSFS may be beautiful and have great wind simulation etc, but I can’t fly and build my own designs which I’d much rather do. The community aspect of this is great too, seeing all the weird and wonderful designs that people come up with is always entertaining to me, and the mix of friendly dogfighting and chill flying around together is just great.
– Real player with 285.8 hrs in game
Balsa is one of those games that is up and coming with afterburners lit. Ignore the fact there are no afterburners (yet).
Multiplayer - Check
Weapons - Check
Creative Design Options - Check
Modding - Check
A Dev Team that LISTENS - Check
Keep in mind, this game is in Early Access. This means the game is developing, growing and has potential ONLY limited by feedback provided to the developers. The team even released a modding kit that allows for building mods already. I have been able to create several custom designed propellers, fuselages, and fuel\battery tanks and used them in game.
– Real player with 154.7 hrs in game
Interdimension
Build Your Ship From Modules
Each ship is composed of independent modules and connections topolgoy between them. Every module has its properties and functions, such as mass, hull and cargo space. You should design your ship with a clear strategy, balancing among maneuverability, endurance, firepower, cargo space, power supplyment and other aspects.
A Noval Sandbox Building Way
You can design ship in a more free and convenient way. Give less effort, but gain a more delicate ship.
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Module is freely attached via contact to other module’s connector area.
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Module can be freely rescaled through X, Y, Z axes.
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Support X, Y, Z axes mirror mode and Grid.
Command Your Ship Tactically
As captain, you need to command individual modules wisely according to battlefield situation. Set navigation destination and motion attitude, assign targets to turrets, shutdown unnecessary modules to reduce consumption, or overclock your cannon to give maximum firepower output.
Realistic Physics Simulation
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All bullets and missiles are physical simulated, will deliver impact force to target hit.
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Thrust output and torque output is computed from individual thrusters, so thruster direction and mass of center need to be concerned in ship design.
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Structure of ship will be broken if crucial node (module) of connection topology is destroyed, so it’s better to set some redundant connnections in design.
Roguelike Experience
In singleplayer mode, you can explore procedural generated galaxy, fight against distinctive unknown enemies, redesign and reinforce your ship, until victory. Attention, you have only one shot.
Have Fun With Your Friends
You can create a online game, invite your friends to play against common AI enemies or fight each other to prove which ship design is the most powerful.
Instruments of Destruction
Instruments of Destruction features an advanced physics-based destruction system. You can demolish every structure in the game piece by piece. In addition, every object you see in the game world–save for small decorative plants and rocks–is part of the physics system. Each element of the world interacts with each other and together they create a physical, visceral world to play with.
Build Your Vehicle
Build a vehicle your way, with an ever-expanding array of parts and pieces. Using an intuitive vehicle construction system that also lets you customize your vehicles' appearance and controls, you’ll always have fun creating your next awesome invention.
From simple splitters to advanced joints, a variety of parts slowly unlock as you play through the game, and each unlocks countless new possibilities.
While some vehicles will perform better than others in accomplishing your objectives, it’s always a bit more fun to get creative and go a little off script. Optional bonus challenges and objectives will reward more creative builders and add more replayability.
PitBots
Physics based combat game where you design a robot and fight in the arena. Crush, flip, pierce, burn and cut your opponents till the last part. Create superior fighting machines and dominate the arena.
DESIGN YOUR BOT
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Chassis Shaping is first step to create your robot. During combat chassis can be deformed and ripped apart exposing vital internal parts.
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Component placement is next step. Part types are, but not limited to: structural beams, motors, pistons, wheels, blunt, sharp & other weapons, energy supplies, main-board and cosmetic parts.
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Input Control Setup allows to bind various actuator actions using keyboard, mouse and game-pad controllers.
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Bot Painting can be done both in-game and using your favorite painting software. Once your chassis shape is final, use implemented basic painting tools to paint bot. For more advanced designs just export & import bot texture using “.png” format.
COMBAT AGAINST OTHER BOTS
Participate in matches against other bots in various game modes.
Fight alone or with friends. Host or join your friends match.
Cripple enemy machines by destroying key components such as wheels, motors, energy supplies, and main-board.
Use your weapons to shred your opponents apart. You can completely destroy bots as all chassis sections and parts are destructible.
Fighting arenas have hazards that may affect outcome of combat. Use them to your advantage. And avoid the pit at all cost.
Arena environments are diverse. Each arena might contain different hazards or none at all. Prepare your bot accordingly.
GAME IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT
More features are in the development. Current features are not final and are subject to change.
RELEASE DATE
Game is still in development and is not ready for release in 2021.
Demo version will be available before release.
Sprocket
I love this game! For being made by 1 person It beats a lot of AAA games in creativity. I would really like to see more games like this in the future and I will be following the game’s development closely!
– Real player with 123.7 hrs in game
I pirated this game from Google, but after playing it for a while I decided to just buy the game to support the developer bcs this game is just super fun, after just 40 hours of playing this game I can say I love it the designing of the hull and turret is simple but is still fun, I’ve already made about 20 tanks just from WW1, the only problem with this game is that it’s empty and lacking a lot of other features that I would like in the game, I understand that it’s only made by one person so I can wait for as long as possible so that he can improve this game a lot, so I’ma just list the problems I have with the game:
– Real player with 50.3 hrs in game
Rover Builder
(Oct 8)
A bunch of changes have been made. Generally building has improved greatly with symmetry working properly now, and the addition of namable crafts.
There could still be improvements like the ability to copy paste sections or copy paste part parameters, but id say this is easily worth your time if you like physics sandbox games now as you arent fighting the clunkiness as much.
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(initial)
Its obviously very ea, but that doesnt change the review does it. I cant recommend it in its current state, but il update if that changes.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
I definitely enjoy playing this game; it lets me unleash my inner engineer. I have had a lot of fun building unnecessarily complicated rovers. Despite having only a handful of parts (or maybe because of it), Rover Builder is a deceptively challenging game.
However, there are a few bugs/issues that I have found rather detracting. Fixing these will greatly improve the game.
- Bearings don’t always load correctly when the simulation starts. Sometimes they disappear and sometimes steel beams coming off of the bearings are in the wrong orientation. In order to fix this, I have to go back to the builder, delete the bearings, and reinsert them. Sometimes even that doesn’t work.
– Real player with 30.8 hrs in game