Recent reviews by Ruby Luftyloon

To be frank, this game isn't for everyone. A good majority of my friends refused to touch the game after spending one gaming session on a server with me. That's due to a significant learning curve to the game, which is understandable. Other criticisms involve how the developers have handled the game over the years, but it's steadily improved since coming out of early access.

For those who have the patience to learn how to play, and love sandbox building games, this is a must-play! The game has some of the best crash physics I've seen in a space sandbox game and it has improved immensely since its early access days. Keen has added a ton of additions that make it rather enjoyable, including online multiplayer and DLC packs that add a bit of flare to the game. Everything from new block designs, available skins, and even several scenario worlds to choose from. As of writing this, they're even working on an update that adds AI to the game, finally implementing some NPCs that can react to players in a more dynamic way.

I describe this game as "Minecraft in space", but of course with some key differences. Only the ships/stations are built out of blocks while the asteroids/planets are made of voxels. In survival mode, there's still mining and crafting mechanics that are akin how it works in Minecraft. Such as a the furnace (Refinery block) and workbench (assembler block). You mine minerals out of the ground, run them through the refinery, than use the assembler to craft the components necessary to build blocks.

This game was well known for having a fun and creative atmosphere to it, with custom avatars and unique worlds being made every day. It's a unique social experience that helped me slowly overcome my shyness and express a part of myself that I normally hid. Although it's a very fun experience, I can't, in good consciousness, recommend this game to new players as it stands now. Let me explain why.

Their recent decision to implement Easy Anti Cheat (EAC), caused two distinct issues.

First of, EAC by nature is glorified spyware that embeds itself into the OS in a very intrusive way. It has been known to cause many people's machines to develop stability issues, and even presents issues during installation of the anti-cheat software due to how it's coded. That's been the case with every game that had EAC implemented, not just VRChat. If VRChat staff would be willing to use ANY other DRM/Anti-Cheat solution, I would be willing to look past the other issues and continue playing the game.

Second, this is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to VRC staff willfully neglecting their community. For whatever reason, the devs had been dragging their feet for several years on implementing several accessibility/QoL features that the community had been repeatedly asking for. This led to an eventual "I'll do it myself" mentality that made certain users resort to client modding in order to address said issues. Although client modding is against TOS, client modding only started happening in significant numbers after VRC staff neglected providing adequate service for their userbase.

Their approach to handing the situation was far from professional or ideal as well. Instead of implementing said requested features, they force EAC onto their userbase to stong-arm users into ceasing use of client mods first and foremost. This caused a huge kerfuffle within the community, as several client mods that users relied on were suddenly now unusable. Then, with the guile of a politician, they announce that many of those heavily requested features are finally being implemented of their own accord, as a gesture of listening to feedback. Keep in mind, they blindly ignored genuine criticism about using EAC, the issues it'll cause, and in fact started banning users from the official Discord sever for even bringing up EAC. They double downed onto sticking with EAC for the long haul instead.

If this is how the VRChat management and dev team is going to handle things, I'm no longer going to play this game, let alone recommend the game to new players.