Info about Underspace: Official game description: JOIN THE COMMUNITY ON DISCORD ============================= More RPGs From Camlann Games ============================ About the Game ============== The spiritual successor to Freelancer, Underspace is an open-world sandbox RPG with a Lovecraftian twist, where every star system is handcrafted, and every star system has something to see or do. Jump into the bizarre galaxy of Croft, step into the role you want, and thrive alone or online with friends (multiplayer on near term Early Access roadmap). But beware! The storms rule the stars. Be a miner picking through crystallized bones of ancient star beasts, a trader hauling artifacts to far-flung outposts, a pirate robbing spacetrains, an explorer combing through lost stellar cities, or a hunter chasing down unknowable monstrosities that spew forth from the storms. Brave violent weather, eldritch beasts, and the terrors of the unknown as you make your mark in the universe. FEATURES -------- * 16 main campaign missions * 60 sidequests * 36 bosses * 114 star systems (no fast travel - all open world + lanelines for accelerated travel) * 204 stations * 533 equipment pieces to customize your ship * Player housing and extensive cockpit customization * 68 enemy types * ~12-15 hours to beat the main quest * Around 300 hours of gameplay for a completionist KILL THE STORM -------------- The galaxy is not a safe, sane place. Hyperspatial tempests sweep through space, distorting star systems and spewing forth strange hazards, even stranger monstrosities, and incredible treasures. Traverse over 110 handcrafted star systems, any of which could fall victim to foul weather. A THOUSAND DEAD EMPIRES ----------------------- Strike out into the starry unknown, and comb through ancient starcities, warped graveyards, or fields of lost wormholes. The galaxy is filled with unique adventures and puzzles waiting for a starchaser to discover and rob them. HERE THERE BE MONSTERS ---------------------- Away from the highways and deep in the most remote parts of space lie hidden challenges. you'll face off against world-eating serpents, possessed battleships, and living minefields. End the lives of over 35 unique bosses. YOUR SHIP, YOUR CHOICE ---------------------- Fly, paint, and customize over 60 different ships. Outfit yourself with over 500 pieces of equipment. Choose your race, build your character, and try not to get eaten by a ghost train. EVERY STAR A STORY ------------------ Even in the face of the great storms, life goes on. Befriend or befuddle over 40 different factions, all with their own alliances, goals, and preferences. Pursue random assignments, or discover hidden stories and questionable motives in over 45 unique sidequests. EVERY STORY UNIQUE ------------------ Strip asteroids of their precious resources, fabricate technology to sell and utilize. Ship over 50 different types of cargo to over 200 stations, or pirate it off the imbeciles who stray into your territory. From dashing hero to dastardly hellpriest, experience the galaxy the way you want. Release date: 10 Apr, 2024 Categories: Open-World Exploration, RPG, Space Flight Simulation, Real-time Combat, Lovecraftian Horror, Trading Simulation, Ship Customization, Cooperative Multiplayer - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Freelancer spiritual successor (weight 1): Players consistently praise the game as a spiritual successor to Freelancer, often calling it 'Freelancer 2.0' or 'Freelancer for the 2020s.' It successfully captures the original's arcade-like space combat, exploration, and trading mechanics, while adding its own unique elements and improvements. - Highly enjoyable early access (weight 0.96): Players are highly enjoying the game in its current state, finding it fun, playable, and mechanically sound. Despite being in early access, it feels complete with core features, and the active developers are frequently updating it, showing great potential for a polished full release. - Rich content and exploration (weight 0.38): The game offers a vast amount of content, including a huge galaxy to explore, a captivating storyline with twists, and a wide variety of missions, puzzles, and events. Players find it highly addictive with plenty to do, ensuring long play sessions. - Ship customization and variety (weight 0.13): The game provides good ship customization options, allowing players to visually personalize their vessels with colors and decals. There's also a decent variety of ship types, each with distinct designs, and players can upgrade them with various weapons and components. - Active and responsive developers (weight 0.08): The developers are highly active and responsive, consistently communicating with the community on forums and Discord. Their passion and frequent updates are seen as a positive sign for the game's future. - Original alien species (weight 0.04): The game features highly original and well-designed alien species, contributing to the unique lore and overall appeal of the universe. - Rapid progression observed (weight 0.04): Some players reported experiencing rapid progression, quickly acquiring powerful ships and large amounts of credits early in the game, which might impact balance. - Creator's passion (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the evident passion and dedication of the game's creators, which shines through in the game's design and development. - Chinese language support (weight 0.03): A Chinese language patch is available for the game, making it accessible to a wider international audience. Common complaints: - Missing or poor voice acting (weight 0.41): A significant number of players are disappointed by the complete absence or poor quality of voice acting, including AI-generated voices. This negatively impacts immersion, makes dialogue hard to follow, and contributes to a feeling of incompleteness. - Clunky controls and UI issues (weight 0.32): Players find the controls unintuitive, janky, and unreliable, leading to a frustrating experience. There are also issues with controller compatibility despite being advertised, and the UI is described as messy and overwhelming. - Severe performance and optimization issues (weight 0.23): Players frequently report significant performance issues, including lag, choppy frame rates, and colossal FPS drops, even on high-end PCs. Optimization is described as terrible and in its early stages. - Poor station and on-foot experience (weight 0.17): On-foot station interactions are limited, unrewarding, and feel like a waste of time due to long, empty paths, invisible NPCs, and excessive cutscenes. The walking sections on planets are also seen as barren and unnecessary. - Fails to meet Freelancer's standards (weight 0.16): Players frequently compare the game unfavorably to Freelancer, noting that it falls short in terms of polish, graphics, story depth, combat mechanics, and overall satisfaction. - Outdated and poor graphics (weight 0.16): Many players criticize the game's graphics, describing them as outdated (reminiscent of 2003 or even 1998) and blocky. This visual quality is particularly disappointing given the reported performance issues. - Unfitting and poor music (weight 0.15): The game's music is widely criticized for being unfitting for a space game, often described as odd, generic, or more suited to other genres. The lack of ambient space noise is also noted as off-putting. - Inconsistent difficulty and mission bugs (weight 0.15): The game suffers from an inconsistent difficulty curve, with sudden spikes that make it hard for players to gauge their readiness for missions. There are also reports of missions not updating or completing correctly. - Confusing progression and unclear objectives (weight 0.12): New players find the game confusing and unclear about what to do next, with little in-game documentation. The visual design can also be overwhelming due to too many objects and colors. - Display and anti-aliasing issues (weight 0.08): The game has issues with anti-aliasing, offering only blurry FXAA, and suffers from fluctuating screen resolution. Display problems at higher resolutions also force players to downgrade. - Frustrating combat encounters (weight 0.08): Combat encounters can be frustrating due to enemies instantly destroying the player's ship, being too small to hit, or having disproportionately high speed and flexibility. - Causes motion sickness for some (weight 0.06): Some players experienced nausea due to ship handling, low framerates, and the game's general look, even with anti-motion sickness options enabled, leading to refunds. - Unsettling NPC character models (weight 0.06): NPC models are described as nightmarish, uncanny, and out of place, with unnatural animations like unblinking stares and limb-less rotations. - Problematic map and waypoints (weight 0.05): The map is finicky, making it difficult to set waypoints or find quest-related areas, often requiring random clicking to reveal invisible zones. - Boring and slow travel (weight 0.05): Traveling in the game, particularly with highengines, is described as boring and slow, with insufficient speed boosts to make it engaging. Gameplay feedback: - Cosmic Horror & Eldritch Themes (weight 0.52): A significant aspect of the game is its cosmic horror and Lovecraftian themes, featuring eldritch monsters, mysterious storms, and a pervasive sense of dread that adds a unique twist to the space exploration genre. - Freelancer-like Gameplay & Controls (weight 0.44): The game is frequently compared to Freelancer, particularly in its core gameplay loop, arcade-style space combat, and intuitive mouse-driven controls. It builds upon these foundations while introducing new elements. - Fun, Intuitive Combat (weight 0.22): The combat system is praised for being fun, fast-paced, and easy to learn, with intuitive controls that make dogfighting enjoyable. The campaign also features satisfying boss encounters. - On-Foot Station Exploration (weight 0.11): The game includes on-foot sections within stations, allowing players to walk around, interact with NPCs, and engage in first-person exploration, adding another layer to the gameplay. - Dynamic Economy & Trading (weight 0.1): The game features a dynamic economy with trade good tracking and mechanisms to prevent exploitative trading, encouraging players to find optimal trade routes and engage in commerce. - Early Game Experiences (weight 0.08): Reviewers noted specific early game experiences, such as navigating to bases, finding murder investigation quests, and encountering wormholes that transport them across the galaxy. - Varied Side Missions (weight 0.08): The game offers a good variety of side quests that go beyond generic fetch missions, including unique tasks like smuggling, providing diverse objectives for players. - Open-World Sandbox Freedom (weight 0.06): The game provides an open-world sandbox experience with an arcade feel, giving players the freedom to choose their activities, whether it's trading, battling, or exploring. - Meaningful POI Discovery (weight 0.06): The design of Points of Interest (POIs) encourages meaningful exploration, as not all are automatically discovered, and some lead to quests or provide a sense of wonder. Performance notes: - Long Save Load Times (weight 0.03): A notable issue is the excessively long loading times for game saves. This significantly impacts the player experience by creating frustrating delays. - Playable on Low-End Hardware (weight 0.03): Despite general performance concerns, some players have found the game to be playable on lower-end hardware when settings are adjusted to their minimum. This indicates some level of scalability. Recommendations: - Early Access: Promising but Unfinished (weight 0.9): Many players acknowledge the game's early access status, expressing a mix of current enjoyment and anticipation for future development. They often recommend it with caveats, suggesting it's worth supporting now for its potential, but also advising others to wait for more polish and content. - Desire for Multiplayer (weight 0.02): There is a clear desire among players for the inclusion of multiplayer functionality, indicating it would significantly enhance the game's appeal and longevity. - Expand Eldritch Theme (weight 0.02): One specific piece of feedback suggests that the developers should further develop the eldritch theme in the game's art and audio design, implying it's a unique and appealing aspect. - Motion Sickness Not Game's Fault (weight 0.02): A reviewer clarifies that motion sickness, if experienced, is not a fault of the game itself, suggesting it's a personal issue rather than a design flaw. Other player notes: - Dedicated and Responsive Developer (weight 0.42): The developer is highly praised for their responsiveness, dedication, and active engagement with the community. Players are willing to support the game's development, often citing the impressive scope for a solo project. - Rich Lore and Writing (weight 0.39): The game features rich and intriguing lore, often with Lovecraftian themes, and well-written dialogue. The world-building is a highlight, though some players note awkward exposition in the introduction. - Strong Atmosphere and Aesthetic (weight 0.21): The game's atmosphere, aesthetic, and unique visual design are highly praised. Players appreciate its ability to create a sense of mystery, tranquility, and even cosmic dread, utilizing elements like fog and unique structures. - Abundant Content, Some Grind (weight 0.11): The game offers a substantial amount of content for an Early Access title, with more planned for the future. However, some players feel there is too much grind, which can make the game feel easy. - Limited Language Support (weight 0.06): Players have noted the current lack of localization for several languages, specifically Russian and Portuguese (Brazil), indicating a desire for broader language support. - No Microtransactions, Nuanced Characters (weight 0.06): The game is noted for its lack of microtransactions and its nuanced approach to characters and populations, avoiding simplistic moral absolutes. Emotions: - Satisfaction (weight 0.23): Players are highly satisfied with the game's strong resemblance to 'Freelancer' and its ability to fulfill a long-standing desire for a spiritual successor. The engaging gameplay loop, fun combat, exploration, and continuous enjoyment contribute significantly to this positive emotion. The game's current polished state and active developer communication further enhance player satisfaction. - Frustration (weight 0.11): Frustration stems primarily from technical issues such as poor performance, bugs, and optimization problems. Players are also frustrated by the lack of voice acting, which makes following the story difficult, and by janky, unreliable controls. Inconsistent mission difficulty and unclear objectives add to the negative experience. - Disappointment (weight 0.11): Players express disappointment due to the game's unfinished state, despite a long development period, and numerous technical issues like poor performance, outdated graphics, and sound design. The absence of voice acting is a significant deal-breaker for many, contributing to a sense that the game does not meet expectations. - Excitement (weight 0.11): Excitement is driven by the game's unique blend of space exploration and Lovecraftian horror, offering mysterious and unpredictable discoveries. Players are thrilled by the potential for future development, including new content and features, and the overall ambition and diversity of the game's environments. - Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players enjoy the core gameplay loop, which includes engaging combat, exploration, and a variety of activities. The game's similarity to 'Freelancer' and the cosmic horror twist add to the overall fun factor. Frequent updates and the amount of content available also contribute to sustained enjoyment. - Hope (weight 0.06): Hope is centered on the game's future potential, with players expressing optimism for continued developer support, frequent updates, and the addition of key features like voice overs and multiplayer. There is a strong desire for the game to be polished into a truly great successor to 'Freelancer'. - Appreciation (weight 0.05): Players appreciate the developer's consistent updates, active communication, and responsiveness to community feedback. The developer's dedication, understanding of the game's strengths, and the quality of writing and lore are also highly valued. - Anticipation (weight 0.04): Anticipation is high for future polish, the full release, and the addition of highly requested features such as voice acting, VR support, and co-op modes. Players are eager to see the game reach its full potential and become an S-tier title. - Nostalgia (weight 0.02): Nostalgia is strongly evoked by the game's resemblance to 'Freelancer' and other classic space exploration games. Players feel a sense of familiarity and fondness for the game's ability to capture the essence and atmosphere of these beloved titles. - Love (weight 0.02): Players express love for the game's unique concept, particularly its Lovecraftian flair and art style. The overall enjoyable experience and the game's genre contribute to a deep affection for the title. - Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration is directed towards the game's creators for their rapid progress and the unique setting and atmosphere they have achieved. Players are impressed by the overall quality of the game, especially considering it is not a AAA title. - Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from the unrepresentative difficulty system and the inability to understand dialogue due to excessively fast text speed. The presence of unfinished content also contributes to player confusion. - Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is primarily caused by the complete lack of voice acting, which some players feel diminishes the experience significantly. Sudden difficulty spikes and the absence of an autosave feature also provoke anger, leading to a feeling that the game is a waste of money. - Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism is based on the game's ongoing development, its solid foundation, and its clear potential. Players believe that with continued work, the game can evolve into something truly great. - Awe (weight 0.01): Awe is inspired by the game's cosmic dread atmosphere, unique visual experiences, and impressive visual effects. Encounters with unique events and horror elements contribute to a sense of wonder and amazement. - Joy (weight 0.01): Joy is experienced when the game successfully fills a nostalgic void, particularly for fans of 'Freelancer'. Continuous updates from the developers also contribute to a sustained feeling of happiness. - Gratitude (weight 0.01): Players express gratitude for the developer's hard work, responsiveness, and ongoing support. The dedication shown by the development team is highly appreciated. - Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement comes from the unique and often farcical implementation of Lovecraftian themes, particularly in interactions with characters like the head priest and gods. These elements provide a lighthearted and entertaining aspect to the game. - Trepidation (weight 0.01): Trepidation is caused by the game's cosmic horror elements, which create a sense of unease and apprehension. This emotion is a direct result of the game's successful implementation of its horror themes. - Curiosity (weight 0.01): Curiosity is driven by the game's current state and its future potential. Players are eager to see how the game will evolve and what new content and features will be added.}