Recent reviews by meatcookie

Other than the unexpected name change, Before the Echo (originally Sequence) is a fun music-timed RPG game where you fight monsters a la parappa the rapper style until the end. Some of the music is really good (Ronald Jenkees bits are good synth-game music) and the features for the magic system are really interesting.

Give this a try if you like DDR, Parappa, or any game based on music, or if you enjoy games with twitch reflexes.

The only game I have ever played that, when successfully building and launching a rocket to then deploy a lander on the moon followed by an elaborate docking process once back in space led to an ambitious return to the home planet without killing any of my crewmen, gave me a TRUE sense of personal accomplishment that has rivalled real-life accomplishments.

That may sound lame to some of you who are not hardcore about gaming, while it may sound strange to you hardcore gamers who find accomplishment in successes from other games. I tell you this being a 29-year old gamer veteran of 25 long years (Tandy PC jr., TI Home Computer, Amiga, Commodore 64, and Atari 2600 for starters) who has seen many games come and go. I'm sure that Kerbal may not be a true pioneer of the sandbox sim, yet I have never met a game that has kept me riveted to my PC for as long as this one.

Kerbal can create an experience never lived for most of you who grew up wanting either to be an astronaut or a rocket scientist (or both!) and presents it in a fashion that is otherwise unattainable in any other media form. The creation process can be frustrating and unforgiving, between the thrust/mass/control coefficients and the staging management ensuring your success/demise right at the paddock, yet always gives a personal sense of enjoyment when your self-concocted combination of (loosely) held together parts engineered for home plumbing/rocketry when it finally does work out and you break that atmospheric threshold between Kerbin and space.

The graphics are solid; with a moderate gaming laptop or mediocre desktop PC, this game can still shine. The only time I have run into issues with my Ivy Bridge i7 with 670MX GPU laptop running all features @1080p is when I created a six-part space station with lighting fixtures in low orbit (125 km). This causes some choppy camera effects which can easily be resolved with lowering res or AA.

The physics are unmatched; the way each rocket adds mass with thrust, providing an unnerving sense of realism to having too much or not enough on either of these factors. This is a mechanism that other space games should take note of.

The story is unnecessary and therefore (so far) omitted. This is an exploration game with no prome directive. If Squad does finalize the game and provide any type of a campaign, it will only be a plus on an already incredible design.

The gameplay is certainly something special; you build, launch, stage, deploy, land, and dock to your heart's content! There are also some other great features Squad has done with the R&D facility and science points (it provides a heck of a challenge starting with very little to promote a scientific approach to your exploration and desire for more research). The full solar system exploration will provide countless hours of efforts to send unmanned satellites to the farthest reaches, and perhaps even manned vessels of you are REALLY amibitious.

Overall this game, as it stands, is a 10/10 even though there is still so much left for it to improve on but the foundation of what is the single greatest Early Access Game released on Steam certainly surpasses the expectations I could have ever had of it.

Get it, but don't expect a smooth experience