KartKraft™

KartKraft™

It’s been in development hell for the last 11 years but was released as a Steam Early Access title three weeks ago. It currently has one class of kart (but 9 chassis to choose from) and three tracks. There’s a free run mode and a leaderboard mode (you race the ghost of the person ahead of you until you beat them. Then you do it all over again). Leaderboard is addictive. Very, very addictive.

I’m utterly hooked on this at the moment. It’s a little rough here and there - the kerbs are a little unpredictable at best, but it looks stunning and the sound is absolutely spot-on for a little two-stroke (especially when you go under the bridge at PFI). It also handles (mostly) really nicely. A bit understeery, which the devs are working on, and there’s lots of stuff missing like tyre temps, brake temp etc.

Real player with 57.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Early Access Driving Games.


First thing i want to say is, What an amazing accomplishment for a small team. I do a lot of karting here in Ireland for fun, and KarkKraft is as close as you can get in a game. I have my own rig including vr and this game brings racing to a new level. The Tracks in early access are great, my personal fav is PFI. Really looking forward to more tracks. The AI are fairly good, can be a small bit unaware of your position on the track at times but all round very good, I think the game needs an aggression and strength control bar for the AI, And there hardest setting at the moment is a bit weak, hopefully in the full game we will have an option to add more than 8 AI karts. The Karts themselves are very good, physics and handling 9/10 only one small prob with them, they flip over a bit to easy at times, specially if u touch a curb, which is not life like. In FFB settings i think you need to add a collision control bar, i have ffb up high for that real feel, but if i have a collision on hit a wall my wheel shakes a bit on the violent side! I hoping track building is included, very important for the modders. and as for track ideas i think Spa should be looked at. I personally never maid a review before for any game, But this is worth every letter, Hope the feedback helps, Thanks again Team.

Real player with 43.7 hrs in game

KartKraft™ on Steam

Ostranauts

Ostranauts

Caveat emptor: this game is in super ultra bleeding edge early release. Lots of forthcoming features are not implemented yet. There’s still weird bugs. If you’re looking for a mature Blue Bottle Games title, go play NEO Scavenger and come back in a few months once the rest of us have playtested and QA’d this game into shape.

With that being said:

Ostranauts is an effective, entertaining spiritual successor to NEO Scavenger. You begin by using a sink to choose your appearance and gender/pronouns (you can be male, female, or nonbinary - big upgrade from the original!) A randomized personal history generator now precedes the trait selector, and your choices when generating your background influence how much starting cash you have available to kit yourself out before going hunting for a derelict to fix up and call your own.

Real player with 103.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Early Access Space Games.


A quick preface here: This review is based on the early access release as of 12th October 2020. This game is BROKEN and needs a fair bit of patience to play. There is only the one save slot and it’s easy to overwrite it and wind up with all your effort so far being lost. This is very-very Early-Early Access, bear that in mind.

That said, it’s a great game (the huge number of bugs, some game breaking, notwithstanding). The lack of a tutorial makes it hard at first to get your head around it but basically you play a spacer in a huge space junk yard. You start off with a little money and a tiny shuttle, you have to buy the gear you need and fly to, then fix up, a derelict space ship. That’s pretty much it at the moment but as you have an extremely complex control system where you have to scavenge parts from a number of hulks before you can fix up the trash ship of your dreams, and everything is included: Floors/Walls to make it airtight, doors to compartmentalise, temp gauges/heaters/coolers to control the temp, O2/N2/air pumps to control the pressure and breathability, beds, fridges, toilets, sinks, food, water, money, power plants, batteries, wiring, lights… believe me, it’s enough to be going on with.

Real player with 39.6 hrs in game

Ostranauts on Steam

Mind the Vikings

Mind the Vikings

I loved this game at first, and even gave it an excellent review but now its dead. One developer lout of the 2 working on it left. I wasted my money for a broken, buggy, incomplete game. First time I’ve been burned by early access. I hope the remaining dev is able to sell the title to a different studio that can complete it, but no one should waste their money on this. You can get other games with the same concept that are complete. If i could, I would return it. I was unfortunate enough to play it for an extended period of time.

Real player with 14.7 hrs in game


Read More: Best Early Access Survival Games.


PROS:

Great art style

Simple gameplay but still very fun

Actual people who interact with eachother

Factions

Personality

CONS:

Kinda unfinished

Overflow of bugs (see in comments how many bugs)

People cannot interact with relics

SUGGESTIONS:

Add a map, with different islands. Make people fight for the islands. Also add a “peacefull” gamemode with no other vikings.

Make people interact with relics, like climbing the relics.

See people actually coming by boat to the island.

Please dont make the suggestions a DLC.

Real player with 3.7 hrs in game

Mind the Vikings on Steam

Alchemy Garden

Alchemy Garden

15 hours worth of exactly what I wanted, I’ve maxed everything out, looking forward to full release! I paid 5$ for this, and easily would have paid 15 - 20$ for the alpha.

Not sure if a developer has ever read one of my reviews before but, things I would like to see in the future for A.G (also my initials, because were dope) are :

Relationship status with villagers - Increasing this would broaden the villagers desires and spending leeway. The amount you overcharge on an item would be in the formula for decreasing their relationship points. Levels of acquaintance could be titled. Pop up messages from villagers to convey appreciation or anger. “Damnit! I can never rely on you!” This may even end up influencing his battle outcomes.

Real player with 15.9 hrs in game

I bought and played this game for about 5 hours on Alpha 2 until they updated it the next day with Alpha 3, and there were so many changes that it feels like a whole different game. The Alpha 2 version was fun if a little simple, but the update has made the game so much better in a lot of ways. It was like the developer could read my mind, they added pretty much everything I wanted to see in this game.

Overall, the game is a lot more fun and a little more challenging than it was before. If you enjoy collecting/harvesting items and crafting with them at a casual pace, then this could be a fun game for you.

Real player with 13.7 hrs in game

Alchemy Garden on Steam

Dream Enders RPG

Dream Enders RPG

Wow I love this game so much. Can’t wait to play the rest of it when it comes out. Love the style and the story of it, am eagerly awaiting more.

Real player with 3.7 hrs in game

I loved it and can’t wait for more. The art style, the story about being trapped in a mmo game and the best part is choice’s matter. Just less than a hour and I’m so invested in the characters, i can’t wait for the full game. I support you all the way.

Real player with 3.0 hrs in game

Dream Enders RPG on Steam

In the Wild

In the Wild

Work in progress but certainly has lots of potential. Great visuals and educational content, and its free so its definitely worth the try I say. Great if you want to support up and coming indie developers!

Real player with 0.7 hrs in game

Visually appealing, with an immersive environment. Educational and fun for the little ones, and a great game to explore while relaxing.

Real player with 0.4 hrs in game

In the Wild on Steam

Initial Drift Online

Initial Drift Online

Initial Drift Online is of course using the hype of Initial D.

In this game you can easily find the best and most popular cars of the 80s', 90s' and 00s'

Video settings can be customised and it is easy to do so, therefore you don’t have to worry about your PC not running it.

Mouse&keyboard controls are easy, but won’t give you the best experience - my recommendation is a good, solid controller. Steering wheel controlling is buggy and may not work in some cases.

The starting AE86 is very weak and it heavily understeers, so don’t worry that you can’t get any good drifts or slides. Remember to change your suspension and wheel camber for the best experience!

Real player with 161.2 hrs in game

My first impressions were rough. The brakes make you skid into everything, the steering is twitchy with horrendous understeer AND snap oversteer, but I found the tofu shop and accepted the tofu delivery jobs, driving the passes over and over (and over and over) again.

I spent some tofu money on better brakes and engine upgrades so the car was definitely faster, and thanks to suspension tweaks it handles more to my liking too, and the more I drive the better the car gets.

It’s not better just because I’m getting better at the game either, it’s because this game has a level up system.

Real player with 62.4 hrs in game

Initial Drift Online on Steam

Mech Game

Mech Game

Mech Game is an online multiplayer cockpit simulation where you command a massive machine of war!

Join with friends or play solo – Position yourself as a Mech Driver, Gunner or Engineer to control 9 different weapon systems, melee combat, jump jets, shielding and more!

You can experience Mech Game in a fully-immersive virtual reality environment with support for the latest VR hardware, or play without VR using a standard keyboard and mouse.

Enhance your mech’s equipment through harvesting ore and killing enemies, then buy or sell your upgrades on the Steam Marketplace!

Phase 1 of Mech Game introduces capture-the-flag style gameplay mixed with AI minions and boss fights. Different modes such as Battle Royale and Open World Exploration are planned!

Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/yF876pW

Mech Game on Steam

CONSORTIUM: The Tower

CONSORTIUM: The Tower

There’s no game quite like Consortium. The original was this weird mixture of a Star Trek episode, Counter-Strike, and the original Deus Ex. While set on the Skyship Zenlil instead of the Starship Enterprise, the Captain, Pilot, Engineer, and Doctor joined with the player character: the overpowered redshirt.

As the OP Redshirt, hacked in some sort of metaplot, you go around schmoozing with your new crew, then discover a murder mystery, fight some Cling-Ons (Aggressive mercs who board your ship via a boarding carrier), and solve that murder mystery by fighting a traitor, whether you discover their identity or not.

Real player with 100.9 hrs in game

It’s not done, not by a longshot

I loved that first game because it was unique and it actually held enjoyment for me

This game wants to be that first game, but on a much larger scale with much more freedom for the player.

TL;DR at bottom

PRO

-Voice actors

-Satisfying combat and stealth

-It’s mostly stable

-I feel like a fucking badass as the bishop.

-I can do what I want and it’s not even on rails or in an airplane.

  • I just discovered and played with the upgrades. Ho lee shit

CON

-The voices not acted

Real player with 40.3 hrs in game

CONSORTIUM: The Tower on Steam

Kitchen Island VR

Kitchen Island VR

The core gameplay is fun, and I was having a blast right away. I am happy to change this review as dev’s have now been engaging with the community on bugs/issues. I am hoping they can solve some of the startup issues as I look forward to playing this game with friends more.

Real player with 0.6 hrs in game

HTC VIVE binds do not function at all as of this time.

Real player with 0.6 hrs in game

Kitchen Island VR on Steam