Recent reviews by MachDelta

Fun gameplay, awesome story, awesome art, awesome acting. Short but replayable.
Running a band of misfit heroes has never been this good!

A gamebreaking bug in the tutorial is pretty inexcusable.

Very cute game. Too many bugs, UI functional but kinda quirky, needs a few big patches.

NINJA
RAMBO
FUN

I LIKE POETRY.
TRY POETRY.
EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa

If you like detailed, squad-level tactics romps, this game is for you. Haemimont managed to update a beloved classic without ruining the secret sauce, which is a rare treat these days. I haven't had this much fun scooting & shooting since XCOM: Enemy Unknown. JA3 has all the right bits - satisfying gunplay, crunchy mechanics, the morally questionable liberation of a foreign nation, and almost all of your favourite campy & wisecracking mercs - so if this is at all on your radar I would give it a strong recommend!

A game where you play as a delinquent child on the run, causing mayhem and dying frequently, in a quest to obtain fearsome superpowers. Or you might be a childlike representation of your own innocence, trapped in a literal nightmare world fashioned from the soulless guts of corporate capitalism. Or it's something about the ephemeral and delicate nature of friendship.... honestly, I have no idea. But it is fun!

Good:
- Atmosphere, dark and broody may it be, is an absolute delight, Very pretty even in all the gloom, and has excellent attention to detail.
- The controls are nice and weighty (reminds me of OG Prince of Persia) and the puzzles are fun and rewarding (though not very difficult at times). Physics touches are neat too, especially in later stages.
- A game to be sipped from, not ran through at top speed. Soak in the world, and the game will find ways to tug at your emotions.

Meh:
- It's short. I finished in 4 hours.
- If you have strong phobias about dogs or drowning this might not be your jam.
- Sometimes the challenges are just traps, so you'll die to them once and then know to avoid it next time.

Bad:
- Expensive, considering the length of the game.
- Zero doggos who want to be your friend! They are all mean. Not one is a goodest boy or girl. Would be unplayable except you can make other friends that are not-doggos.


VERDICT: Wonderful game, borderline work of art. But be sure to buy it at a good discount!

tldr; Aimed for the moon, but lacks the delta-V to reach it. Yet.

Good: Puts the grand in grand strategy and the hard science in science-fiction. It's a staggeringly impressive game, in both scope and detail. Essentially several different, nearly full-sized games, somehow successfully stuffed into a trenchcoat. Somehow, it works pretty well. In particular, the factional shadow government sim/strategy loop is nearly Sid Meier-levels of addictive. (Just one more coup d'etat before bed, I swear...)

Bad: For an ordinary title the UI would be a fine (if a bit homely) effort, but Terra Invicta's sheer gameplay mass outmatches its UI by quite a margin. The result is usually serviceable, but often lacking, and occasionally quite frustrating. Also, the nascent AI makes for a fine punching bag but isn't yet capable of tying its own shoes, much less running a space empire. Lastly, the tech-tree is a bit, er, ambitious. It comes off feeling a little preoccupied with plausible physics theories, and not quite focused enough on things like balance, usefulness, or *ahem* readability.

Ugly: The space combat is awful. The only thing the controls are consistently capable of succeeding at is causing frustration. Wrangling just a few ships is exhausting; trying to coordinate a 30+ ship melee is a disastrous cat-herding nightmare come to life. I invested nearly 300 hours into a single playthrough(!) and the space combat was where I had to draw the line.

Overall, I really enjoyed Terra Invicta. It has immense potential, and one day this game could find itself in a league of its own. Sadly, I cannot recommend it to just anyone as of yet. If you're *truly* willing to put up with the awkward teenager/early access phase its going through, it (probably) won't disappoint. But if you're looking for something ambitious, amazing, consistently fun, and well put together: wishlist and be patient. Terra Invicta is reaching for the stars, and may yet find a way to get there.

Charming, relaxing, rewarding and fun.
The only downside is how fast the hours fly by while you're playing!