After The End: The Harvest
Originally written for early access version 0.9u3 - 29May2017
Edited for version 1.4 20Jun2018
After nearly 90 hours and having seen the game to its completion, I’m finally comfortable editing in a final review.
Pros:
–- The game’s description and screenshots are very accurate for what you’re getting here: an expansive open-universe RPG with the look and feel of an old action-adventure SNES game.
— Among the biggest selling points for After the End continues to be developer interaction. Throughout the early access period and post-release, The Sworn has consistently been available to field questions and bug reports in the forums. I very much value this!
– Real player with 86.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Post-apocalyptic Games.
UPDATED REVIEW:
In a time of loot box gambling and unfulfilled promises many devs have been screwing over customers so it’s nice to see
an early access dev actually keep true to their promises and finish their game. This game has a couple of small issues, but what it does achieve is
so fun and refreshing that it is worth peoples attention.
I originally played through and finished the game during its 0.08 alpha.
It was prety different but i loved it! You can read my original review under this one.
– Real player with 60.0 hrs in game
CyberHive
I had some fun dissecting the game and there are some good parts in it, but overall can’t recommend it for the actual gameplay.
The short version is that the entire game revolves around one ressource, Energy Gel, and running out of that ressource is the only thing that kills you. Here’s some math to illustrate why that doesn’t work out very well:
1 bee requires 18 Gel per turn to live.
1 bee gathers 100 minerals per turn.
2 bees are needed to turn those 100 minerals into 50 gel.
So 3 bees, who need 54 gel per turn to live, produce 50 gel.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Choices Matter Games.
8/10 - my expectations were low, but i was pleasantly surprised by the game.
So the game is like xcom’s base management, but with a “Missile Command” mini game instead of crew combat part and heavy resource management. Also, each “room” has it’s own cute bee-girl. And the story line starts slow, but goes very intense towards the ending of the game.
The game is mostly bug-free (except for the characters who are bugs themselves, lol), but i’ve encountered a couple of small issues and reported them to the devs.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
A Sky Full of Stars 仰望夜空的星辰
Good visual novel.
If you interested in astronomy you should try this one.
Heroines list:
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Korona: Sister-like heroine.
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Orihime: Rich innocent senior.
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Hikari: Tomboyish childhood friend, has same vibe as Ageha (IMHHW)
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Saya: Cute, innocent but also stubborn childhood friend
My fav girl is Orimihe, but my fav route goes to Hikari’s route.
Short review:
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Long VN, around 50h~ (im slow reader).
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Has 4 routes, after first choice the common route divided into two.
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Less words censorship rather than previous coming of age title.
– Real player with 738.1 hrs in game
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Overall I quite liked it. You can tell at least some of the same writers of If My Heart Had Wings were on here. Had lots of feel good slice of life romance but the main 2 childhood friend routes had some love triangle melodrama.
Honestly I think the common route was one of my favorite parts.
The childhood flashbacks were some of my favorites in VNs because of how fleshed out they were and had really good buildup and feel good friendship scenes. Akito having more character than Aoi due to common route beginning alone (though he kinda become generic after the second common route starts). And everyone got to shine in some regard. And the first common route was really nice and a good way to show how the 4 routes would ultimately end.
– Real player with 72.1 hrs in game
Gedel Escape
The plot of the game
Dominic Stewart is an adventurer in deep space. On board the SBS-M72 spacecraft, he studies one galaxy after another in order to find traces of his father, who did not return from another expedition several years ago.
During the next trip, Dominic’s ship falls into a black hole and through the curvature of space finds itself in a previously unexplored system near the planet Gedel. The ship is wrecked.
The star next to which Gedel is located has gravitational instabilities, as a result of which bursts of space-time distortion occur every 12 hours. The entire planet falls into a time loop and rolls back a planetary day ago. Gödel exists on the same day every time. To get out of the planet Dominic needs to overcome time…
Features of the game
The main enemy is time
Time on the planet Gödel is divided into planetary cycles. At the end of each cycle, everything that is there disappears from the inventory. The exception is items that are placed in protected slots. But there are only five of them! You have to choose what to save in these slots: resources, crafted items, or something else you need to survive?
Jetpack flights
From the start, the player has access to a jetpack, with which he can fly around the world of Gedel and visit all the most inaccessible places. But keep in mind that the jetpack consumes energy, so for long flights you will need a lot of batteries!
Crafting system
All items are immediately available for creation. All you need is resources. But while you mine their planetary cycle will end and the contents of the inventory will be reset to zero. In pursuit of crafted items, you can stay at a broken trough!
Resource management
You need to constantly choose what to focus on: survival or completing quests. There is not much time, and each planetary cycle may be the last.
Puzzle
The world of the planet Gedel is filled with mysteries. Solving them, you get to know the plot of the game, the history of the planet and get useful things.
Starship Traveller
A good on-screen production of one of the early Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
A change of direction from the usual sword&sorcery style games set in the world of Allansia, this one is set on board a shapeship (as if you hadn’t guessed) which has been trapped in a different universe to modern day Earth.
Steve Jackson’s star-trek style original book has been brought to life on screen here. The game is exactly as it woz (all those years ago!) and altho i think the original artwork may have been replaced/amended, it still complements the game nicely.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
As someone who enjoys both Choose Your Own Adventure novels and sci-fi RPGs (Bioware’s games in particular), I’m finding myself pleasantly surprised with this title. While I have no prior experience with the IP, the ambience and story are vaguely reminiscent of Star Trek and the like in terms of audio and overall presentation.
It’s worth noting that this game/novel is quite unique among its genre since most of the CYOA stories I’ve read are bereft of any graphical (i.e., artwork injected into the text) and/or musical representations. Having these additions is a nice change of pace and helps to establish the atmosphere the developer is trying to create. Furthermore, this also includes a visually appealing GUI along with some customization options, which is yet another treat in this genre.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Area 86
An excellent and innovative game.
You can smash glass in this game- what else can you ask from the developer? The controls are a bit hard to get used to, but with some practices you’ll get it.
Bugs do exist, but the devs listen to bug reports on Discord and do make attempts to fix them.
– Real player with 23.6 hrs in game
This stupid clumsy robot won’t let me sleep… the game is so addictive :-)
The robot controls kind of sluggish and shattered objects on the ground make things more wonky. But this was done in a way that makes the game challenging and not frustrating … ok, I was lying, it is frustrating at times … in a good way.
The graphics are crisp and charming and I love the music, although there seems to be only one song. The developer is doing a great job at fixing bugs too :-)
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Earth Analog
I’ve completed the game. I’m not sure how long it took, maybe 30 hours, although I made some planets more difficult than they needed to be.
You play this game for the bizzare worlds that you visit. Some really are spectacular including a giant torus, a pulsating neutron star, an asteroid that is repeatedly expanding and contracting and a spherical fractal generated landscape.
I saw many people complaining about the control system and yes it did take a bit of time to be used to. But once I got my head round it, it was fine. Although I still found landing a bit awkward. A better tutorial would certainly help which I read is on the way (Q2 2021). I also see that the same update will include mod support so I’m looking forward to seeing what crazyness people come up with.
– Real player with 51.1 hrs in game
About 13 hours in I finished the main story and I gotta say this game is definitely more about the journey than the destination, but man the journey is pretty. Game play mainly consists of exploration, resource gathering, and simple puzzle solving. The main attraction here are the worlds you’ll be visiting, you’ll see everything from mars like rocky barren worlds to endless fields of cubes to things straight of a psychadelic fever dream. On your journey through the story you’ll find upgrades for your ship (HIGHLY recommended you do these), strange artifacts, and the occasional planetary anomaly (think of the ocean planet from interstellar). Movement is newtonian physics based but with the latest patches it’s incredibly forgiving if you misjudge your distance to an object or speed since retro thrusters are so powerful. All in all it’s an ambitious little indie game that offers a bevy of strange new worlds to explore, if you’re into that sort of thing then this game might just be for you.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Trajectory
Honestly …I thought it would be a good game , but ..number 1, I did not get anyone to answer or give me a tip on my queri ( stuck in reactor )..number 2 …graphics and how things happen in the game need to be addressed……example …in the cell room, as you’re walking ( running ) along the wall as you go up the stairs to get into ather rooms , it seems like the wall its two parts and as you get closer ,it turns into an actuall wall……anyway , I believe the game is a one person endevour ( thums up for you ) but , in my opinion …it needs work…….
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
6.4/10 - Lab rat simulator 2077
Trajectory is quite a neat little game for its price. The graphics are beautiful, and the controls feel tight. A single sitting of the game is very short; but due to the many randomized missions with alternative solutions and easter eggs, there is a lot of replayability for the obsessive completionist, especially for those who want to hunt down every possible ending. The gameplay consist of a fairly large, though somewhat monotonous, variety of puzzles, platforming and similar physics-based challenges and some thematic mini-games.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Orion Trail
I have left the original review below. As the game has now been released, this is what I now think of it:
It’s really good!
All the extra content added since I last played it (life has been busy, so over a month ago!) really shows. The game is far better balanced, more polished, and it feels complete. The devs are still on top of things, making changes based on feedback, which is an extra point in my book. I am especially loving the added random encounters, which really add flavour to the game.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
This game is a riot. I was unsure about it at first due to the early negative reviews, but some of the more recent positive ones indicate that the developers are taking public criticism and suggestions to heart and improving the game. So, I decided to buy it and I’m sure glad I did.
The game is very Oregon Trail meets Star Trek, minus the educational aspects OT and with lots of humor that (at times) pokes fun at ST. Basically, you fly through space as the captain of a ship, exploring the galaxy and encountering lots of interesting challenges. Unlike some space games that are mostly combat, Orion Trail is more of an adventure game and the challenges you face can be anything from problems with your ship and crew to encounters with other ships and space born life to planets that need exploring. The randomness and variety of encounters and ways you can try to deal with them add to the fun and replay value. The writing is very clever and funny and is full of hilarious Sci Fi inspired things. There are a few typos, but nothing too bad.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Spice Pirates in Space: A Retro RPG
An absolute masterpiece. I could not recommended this game more!
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Wow, I definitely felt like a spice pirate in space in this retro rpg. I fell into lave three times trying to save a child which ended the adventure of Captain Spice. What a game
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game