Thalassophobia
| Follow our GROUP and CURATOR for more interesting games and quality reviews!
|
Thalassophobia
A game that borrows inspiration from the roguelike and survival genre alike and puts you in an instant fight for survival against mysterious creatures, starvation, insanity and more.
Be prepared to fail over and over again while you keep learning how to keep a good balance of yours crews needs and safety.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Naval Combat Lovecraftian Games.
I bought this to do a review of it for YT. Never before have I heard myself so depressed after a video. It isn’t from the melancholy of Lovecraftian literature either.
Gameplay:
Aesthetically it reminds me of retro-indie games. Pretty good in that regard. However I’m not a fan of the GUI trying to move out of the way while I’m attempting to use it (infuriating to say the least). It took me about 15 minutes to learn the mechanics and I’m still not sure I have all of it with an hour of playing. I got the furnace once, but I’ve not seen it since and died soon after, considering the game doesn’t teach you how to use it. I tend to succumb to sanity being exhausted, but it’s impossible to keep my crew sufficiently saturated and not crazy. Frankly it’s not fun for me to die and die again with little to no progress being made so I don’t want to play it anymore.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Pixel Piracy
Let’s get the obvious shït outta the way first: I like Pixel Pirates! And yes, I know it’s actually called Pixel PiraCY, but Pixel PiraTES just sounds way better.
Anyway, moving on… I like this game. I really really do. HOWEVER, I cannot POSSIBLY recommend it to ANYONE, simply because of the atrociously poor “productivity” of the so-called “developers” of the game. They CLAIM that their complete radio silence and lack of updates for over eight months was due to ONE guy’s failing health, and while I do wish him a speedy recovery, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE REST OF YOU LOT GET TO SIT AROUND AND TWIDDLE YOUR FÛCKING THUMBS!
– Real player with 104.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Naval Combat Action Roguelike Games.
So normally I would write a more concise review analyzing a game, and looking at all the good parts of it but also all of it’s faults. Pixel Piracy is this special case where I absolutely adore the concept it delivers and the gameplay, but the execution is so god damn awful I can’t bring myself to play it anymore, I wanted to play it to the end and explore everything, have a massive powerful crew that would dominate the seven seas. Instead we’re left with a game that, to put it simply, is badly made. It doesn’t work, and yet it ‘released’ mere days ago. Anyway, here’s a list of about everything wrong with this game that will ruin your experience. Some issues may not seem important but do realize that all of them create unfair situations where the player is not at fault and yet the game will end up punishing them anyway or worse, just straight up giving them a situation they cannot get out of because of the god awful AI. So, here’s the list.
– Real player with 32.3 hrs in game
Aye Aye, Captain
This game needs a tutorial or something. I have no clue what to do. I moved my crew around by right clicking and then clicked the cannonball to shoot, and that’s pretty much it. I never actually won a combat because it felt like it was going to take a half hour of simply clicking one button. So I surrendered. Then on the world map I had no idea what to do but a few seconds later I was in another combat and lost my cannon. So I lose?
Then in another battle both my crew died, but I was able to surrender and sail around again until I got into combat and could do nothing.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Naval Combat Roguelite Games.
Abandon Ship
Version 0.5.something…
It’s… Okay.
A lot of it is very comfortable fun. You find yourself a combat, you watch your little micro managed crew and you snot your enemy. It’s fun in a non challenging sense. You buy 6 crew as quickly as possible, keep them alive with a bit of micro management and use the play style that amuses you most at the time. Simple really. Learning curve is a bit steep at the start but flattens out after a few combats.
The rest of the game at this stage of it’s release? Yeah…
– Real player with 57.0 hrs in game
So the first major update hit, Treasures of the Deep, it wasn’t as big of a shift as compared to pre-release builds versus the first EA build. The update itself is not an expansion per say, but more of a refinement to what we already had, aside the two new mechanics that count, you could say that there are more, but it boils down to just two major ones(more on that later).
Here’s the run down of the refinement from when I last edited the review:
-Improved fps on not so amazing computers
-Plenty of bug fixes
– Real player with 48.8 hrs in game
Her Majesty’s Ship
First, this game is not FTL on wooden ships. This game is a real-time management/strategy game with no tactical pause. The game is very similar to FTL but has a more MACRO approach to crew management then the Micro approach that FTL had.
I really enjoy this game and it is a great game. My game preferences run towards turn-based and tactical pause games. I really do not like RTS games whatsoever.
Although this game is a real-time strategy game at its core, it is very manageable and approachable. This game has captivated me.
– Real player with 64.0 hrs in game
Her Majesty’s Ship - Troubled Waters but hopefully smoother sailing on the horizon
I am recommending this title mainly because I really like the idea behind it - managing a ship of the Royal Navy in detailed fashion - but have reservations in doing so.
The game is all too brief at this point and I have noted that other players have requested an endless mode, a correction I heartily endorse and support.
Combat is rather too simplistic and does seem dependent upon RNG factors, outside of already having a vessel well-stocked with powder and eventually a complement of marines.
– Real player with 38.4 hrs in game
StoneTide: Age of Pirates
Been playing this game for a couple days now and I gotta say it’s been a real joy. Despite the bugs, it seems very promising with lots to expand on. For a $10 early access title, I say its well worth it and I look forward to seeing what this game will have to offer in the future.
– Real player with 20.3 hrs in game
imagine, if you will, you spent ten dollars on a map, which led to a oversized treasure chest filled with coins. and each singular coin represented an early access title infesting steam. now imagine each coin is crap, because early access is a curse, but every so often, while sifting though the fake coins, you come across a pristine, good one. one which is a keeper. one that, despite a few flaws or rough edges, is still worthy of your time. when you take that coin, and close the chest, you realize. this game is that coin. and the ten dollars you invested were worth it.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
Maritime Calling
The game is still in early access and it shows. The foundations for a potentially great game are there, but at the moment there isn’t much content in the game.
Buy only if you are willing to support the devs along the way to a complete product. If you do so then I recommend joining their discord where you can get in contact with them and provide direct feedback
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
Nice meditative game focused on micromanagement.
Unsurprising for early access it lacks some polishing and content but the overall idea is interesting.
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
The Caribbean Sail
Forget that the graphics would have looked dated on a Commodore 64. Never mind that you didn’t think you wanted a dying-at-sea simulator until now. This game is good. Your first run will be a disaster: you will board your raft, purchase whatever meager supplies you can scrounge up, and expect to have a fighting chance of reaching the nearest port, a mere thousand miles away. Hah. Your crew will starve. Those who don’t starve will catch the plague. Those who don’t die of plague will be picked off by Spaniards or pirates. All while a chiptune rendition of ‘Drunken Sailor’ tinkles merrily in the background.
– Real player with 90.0 hrs in game
Probably the best indie game I’ve ever played. If you have a thing for anything nautical you should totally play this game - there are so many things you can do. You can be a fisherman and make a living through selling fish, be a wealthy merchant carrying various flags to use them to fool around enemy ships to trade with them without involving yourself in the war while carrying an abundance of cheap luxuries bought from China to sell them to rich Americans or you can buy a powerful warship and be a pirate to destroy anything in sight and loot every ship you come across, or save civilized world from crazy pirates by being an ally of England or doing an absolutely crazy thing like sailing from China to America with the cheapest ship. You can even catch a giant whale or be a master gambler. Game goes on no matter what you ending achieve, so possibilities are endless.
– Real player with 61.2 hrs in game