INSOMNIA: The Ark Review Summary

Immersive, unique atmosphere and visuals: The game's strongest aspect is its immersive and unique atmosphere, visuals and sound design. Reviewers consistently praise the detailed environments, art style, and overall aesthetic, often drawing comparisons to titles like Fallout and BioShock. This creates a captivating experience for players.

Engaging story, lore, world-building: Many reviewers found the story, lore, and world-building to be engaging and well-crafted. The narrative is often described as complex and intriguing, with interesting characters and quests that contribute to a deeper understanding of the game's universe. The story and setting provide motivation to keep playing.

Classic RPG elements implemented well: The game incorporates classic RPG elements such as branching storylines, diverse interactions with NPCs, and non-linear quest design. Quests often require players to piece together information and solve puzzles, rewarding exploration and attention to detail. This provides a sense of player agency and freedom.

Fun, challenging combat mechanics: The combat mechanics are generally considered fun and challenging, with a variety of options for both ranged and melee combat. The AI is competent, and the game requires careful play and strategic thinking. Some reviewers note that the combat can be brutal but rewarding.

Diverse and satisfying equipment: The game offers a wide array of weapons, armor, and equipment, allowing for diverse character builds and playstyles. Many items have unique appearances and sound effects, adding to the overall immersion. The sense of progression when acquiring better gear is satisfying.

Game is buggy and unpolished: The game is plagued with numerous bugs, glitches, and crashes, many of which are game-breaking and prevent progression. These issues range from minor inconveniences to major problems that require save reloads or even restarting the game. Many reviewers express disappointment and frustration with the game's unpolished state, with some feeling it resembles an early access title or an abandoned project.

Poor/incomplete English translation: The game suffers from poor or incomplete English translation, with missing text, untranslated elements, and awkward phrasing. This makes the story difficult to follow and hinders immersion, especially for non-Russian speakers. Some reviewers also mention a lack of voice acting, which further detracts from the dialogue experience.

Clunky and unbalanced combat: The combat system is criticized for being clunky, frustrating, and unbalanced. Reviewers mention issues with hitboxes, damage registration, enemy AI, and overall feel of the combat, making it unenjoyable. Some reviewers also note that the game's difficulty spikes too early, making it unsuitable for less skilled players.

Outdated/uninspired graphics and animations: The game's graphics, animations, and overall art style are often described as outdated, inconsistent, or uninspired. Reviewers note clunky animations, generic environments, and a lack of visual polish, leading to an underwhelming and unimmersive experience. Some reviewers also point out that the game's visuals do not match the advertised style.

Lacks essential convenience features: The game lacks essential convenience features such as a waypoint system, mini-map, or clear quest markers, leading to aimless wandering and difficulty in tracking objectives. Tedious inventory management, with items not stacking automatically and a lack of sorting options, further exacerbates the problem. This results in players spending excessive time navigating menus and maps instead of enjoying the gameplay.

Fallout-style exploration on space station: The game features a semi-open world with a Fallout-style travel system across a large space station, including random encounters, diverse environments, NPCs, quests, enemies, and looting opportunities. The setting blends advanced technology with an outdated feel, creating a unique atmosphere.

Complex story requires extensive reading: The game features a complex story and world with numerous factions and characters, requiring players to read extensive text and dialogue to fully understand the lore and their role. The main storyline offers around 60 hours of gameplay.

Frequent, diverse mini-games included: The game incorporates various mini-games for actions like hacking, lockpicking, repairing, and disarming mines. While not particularly innovative, these mini-games are diverse and appear frequently throughout the game.

Limited and unbalanced weapon variety: The game's weapon variety is limited, with multiple variations of the same weapon types offering only slight stat differences. Some reviewers noted the absence of certain weapon classes, such as assault rifles, and found that a pistol and shield were sufficient for most encounters.

Awkward cover-based combat: Combat emphasizes cover due to high bullet damage, but there is no standard cover system; players must create their own cover by crouching behind objects. The lack of a dedicated cover system and the need to stand up to shoot can make combat feel awkward.

Performance and stability are inconsistent: The game suffers from significant performance and stability issues, including stuttering, frame rate drops, crashes, and optimization problems that persist even when adjusting graphics settings. Some players report smooth performance, while others experience issues even on capable hardware, indicating inconsistent optimization. The game's performance appears to have worsened post-release for some users.

Companion AI causes fatal errors: Fatal error crashes can occur due to issues with companion AI. This can interrupt gameplay and cause frustration.

Broken achievements present: Some achievements in the game are currently broken, preventing players from unlocking them. This can be frustrating for achievement hunters.

AMD processors require config change: The game engine is not properly configured for AMD processors, requiring users to manually adjust configuration files to achieve optimal performance. This is an inconvenience for AMD users.

Small subtitles at 1440p: The game has UI scaling issues. Specifically, subtitles appearing above NPCs are too small at 1440p resolution, making them difficult to read.

Consider only on deep sale: Despite its flaws, some reviewers suggest the game might be worth considering at a heavily discounted price, especially for those patient enough to tolerate the bugs and willing to use workarounds. They recommend waiting for substantial patches and updates before making a purchase.

Game appears to be abandoned: The reviewer expresses disappointment that the game appears to be abandoned by the developers. This concern raises doubts about future improvements or bug fixes.

Poorly executed combat system: A significant drawback of the game is its poorly executed combat system. This issue detracts from the overall experience and makes the game less enjoyable.

Monitor updates before buying: Reviewers suggest wishlisting the game and monitoring updates. This allows potential buyers to make a more informed decision based on the game's progress and improvements.

Artbook DLC is recommended: The artbook DLC is recommended, particularly for those who appreciate dieselpunk art. This suggests that the game's art style and visual design are noteworthy.

Unique dieselpunk space station setting: The game is a dieselpunk/steampunk open-world RPG set on a technologically advanced space station with a rich lore, multiple factions, and a unique atmosphere reminiscent of Fallout. The setting includes unexplored depths, mysterious diseases, and blends eastern philosophies with modern cynicism.

No updates, fan-made patch: The game has not received updates since 2020, and the development house has essentially ceased to exist, although developers were thinking of a future for Insomnia. A fan-made patch exists to address bugs.

Handcrafted locations, crafting system: The game features handcrafted locations and a crafting system with many recipes, adding depth to the gameplay experience.