Recent reviews by Fragath

If this was not version 1.0, this would be a positive review. But since the game has exited early access, it can no longer be rated positively.

The main and biggest issue with this game is the lack of a mid- and late-game.

The early game ends around the first badtide. If you survive the first few droughts and one—maybe two—badtides, you’ve essentially finished the early game. This part of the game is really cool; on hard difficulty it is quite challenging and fun.

The problem is what comes next. The last real challenge is getting enough water to survive the 30-day-long droughts. Unfortunately, after that, the game stops providing any challenge.

Need gears? Just place one building next to another powered building—you don’t even need power transmission, since buildings pass power through, which is convenient but removes any challenge. Need treated planks? Place one building next to a power source, plant a few trees, and add one extra building for pine resin. Metal? There’s a small challenge since deposits are at the edge of the map, but still nothing significant.

After the early mid-game, the only goal is to increase the well-being number. But this offers almost no interesting or challenging gameplay, nor much purpose beyond small buffs.

The game requires a competent game designer to develop the mid- and late-game. There is a great foundation to build on. A few ideas:

High-tier buildings could require well-being above a certain threshold; otherwise, there is a high chance of work accidents.

High-tier buildings could require 10× more power (and limit non-watermill power sources), which would encourage building large-scale water power plants as a meaningful project.

Underwater farms are a great idea, but currently there is no real need to farm more than one material for food. Expanding production chains—especially those based on underwater farming—could create interesting challenges.