Info about Gaia Beyond:

Official game description:
  
**Gaia Beyond is a handcrafted 2D Action-RPG, an exploration mix built around fighting, mining and trading.**
Your decisions are footprints...
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within a vast non-linear solar system. Forge alliances among numerous factions and develop relations with hundreds of NPCs. Focus on trading and personal interaction or embark on science missions – hunt down pirates and collect their bounty. Infiltrate dubious factions and uncover secret plots and dark menaces.  
**
*   Explore an immersive and dynamic real-time solar system - two centuries after the devastation of Earth  
*   Dive into the Caduceus storyline with 10 missions and discover the truth behind the Ganymede Flu  
*   Enjoy hand-drawn graphics in 4K resolution  
*   Original soundtrack by Miguel Johnson  
*   Find and master over 100 individual sidequests  
*   Choices do matter - beware the consequences! Decide the fate of characters in the world  
*   Fight pirates, evil bosses, mutants and secret alien ships!  
*   Mine dozens of raw materials to craft or buy over 100 new spacecrafts  
*   Upgrade your ship with devices, shields and powerful weapons  
*   Discover a wide range of ship types, from shuttles to capital ships  
*   Hire and command mercenaries  
*   Constant expansion of storylines, sidequests, customizations, ships and features - prepare yourself!
**  
To deliver a seamless and unique experience, we created our own engine - presenting a massive 2D Open World in realtime, with no loading times inbetween. Every part of the universe is alive and active at every moment.  
There you are, human.
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At the face of a habitable planet way outside the Kuiper Belt, inquiringly gazing at the same stars as the rest of the living species. Everyone? Doesn’t look like we will ever find out.  
The past is shadowed by war. Generations of humanity have fought on the edge of survival. First against themselves – until technology started to rise, created to serve their innate greed for dominance. During Earth times, self-inflicted catastrophes kept humanity struggling and finally forced the big departure. And yet, here they are. Split up all over the solar system, living separate realities under various conditions.  
Everything is different – and actually nothing ever really changed. A new mindset of unity, awoken by the end of the Machine War, is facing hard times. Beneath the curtain of false peace and hope, bad blood had always remained. Old and new enemies are rising again and humanity will have to face its greatest trial, yet. Will you be part of mankind's downfall or guide the system into a brighter future?  
It's in your hands.  
And then there's us
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We love gaming and we always wanted to realize our own vision of a good game. Back in 2011, this project was started with the motivation to unify the "good old" mechanics that had been around for decades and give them a nice polish with today's visual and technical standards.  
It was influenced by games like Fallout 1 + 2, Diablo, Grand Theft Auto, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Escape Velocity, Deus Ex & Co. Creating a game only half as good as those titles is a real challenge, but we will make the best effort to create something you'd enjoy!

Release date: 20 Aug, 2020

Categories: Action RPG, Open-World Exploration, Real-time Combat, Resource Management, Economic Simulation, Vehicle Customization, Single-player Story, Faction Management


- 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:
- Polished, fun, and visually appealing (weight 0.94): The game offers a polished and engaging experience with appealing visuals, immersive music, and a user-friendly interface. Players can enjoy a wide array of ships and weapons, enhancing the fun and replayability.
- Intriguing story and characters (weight 0.29): The game features an intriguing and well-written storyline with engaging characters and branching narratives. Players can choose to follow the main quest or explore the world freely, adding depth and immersion to the gameplay experience.
- Vast universe to explore (weight 0.19): The game features a vast universe to explore, with a large map and many secrets to uncover. This encourages exploration and discovery, providing a sense of adventure and preventing boredom.
- Freedom in gameplay choices (weight 0.16): The game provides a variety of activities such as mining, trading, and bounty hunting, allowing players to choose their own path. This freedom, combined with the game's core mechanics, creates an enjoyable and engaging experience.
- Great and immersive soundtrack (weight 0.14): The game features a great soundtrack that enhances the overall experience and creates an immersive atmosphere. The music is well-suited to the space setting, with soaring classical strings and grungy electric and synth instruments.
- Homage to classic space RPGs (weight 0.11): The game is reminiscent of classic space RPGs like Space Rangers and Freelancer, capturing the feel of old top-down space sims while feeling new and relevant. This evokes nostalgia for fans of the genre while offering a fresh experience.
- Rewarding RPG progression system (weight 0.1): The game features an RPG progression system that rewards most actions with experience, influencing dialogue options and actions. The sandbox nature of the game allows players to progress at their own pace, with a primary focus on dialogue and quest-heavy adventure.
- Responsive and fun combat (weight 0.1): The game features responsive combat and flight controls with keyboard and mouse, making combat tense and fun. The top-down combat can at times feel almost like a ballet, adding a unique element to the gameplay.
- Ship building and customization (weight 0.07): Players can obtain blueprints for larger vessels via scanning, allowing them to build them. The feeling of obtaining a good blueprint, gathering the necessary materials, and constructing a ship provides a significant sense of progression and satisfaction. There are more than 60 ships available.
- Open-world space ARPG (weight 0.07): The game offers the same fun gameplay of SPAZ but with no restrictions - you can fly anywhere on the map, try any questline, earn money however you want, fight pirates, collect space junk, join a trading guild, explore space and discover ancient derelicts you can plunder or follow the main questline and just enjoy the story - it's all up to you.
- Rewarding flight model (weight 0.06): The flight model balances realism and accessible fun, featuring 4D thruster controls, a max speed, and no deceleration. Mastering the flight model is rewarding and keeps smaller ships viable.
- Countless side quests (weight 0.06): The game includes a main quest along with countless side quests and delivery missions, as well as factions and events. This provides a lot of content and variety for players to enjoy.
- Russian text localization (weight 0.05): The game includes Russian text localization, created by an enthusiast, Yuki. The translation is integrated into the game, allowing players to select Russian in the settings.
- Trading and resource gathering (weight 0.04): There are several planets, moons, and space stations to visit for buying and selling items. Players can shoot asteroids into pieces and sell the resources for profit.
- Good mod support (weight 0.04): The game has good mod support and offers freedom to do everything you like. This allows players to customize their experience and add new content to the game.
- Detailed and visually appealing backgrounds (weight 0.04): Backgrounds in space stations and planet facilities are good and of consistent quality. The space background texture is detailed and visually appealing.

Common complaints:
- Unfinished, buggy, and lacks content (weight 0.77): The game is plagued by numerous bugs, incomplete features, and a disjointed, unengaging story. Many reviewers feel the game was released prematurely, resembling an early access title due to these issues, despite being a 1.0 release. Some reviewers mention an increase in bugs since release, and the persistence of old bugs.
- Bugged and confusing quests (weight 0.59): Many quests are bugged, uncompletable, or lead to dead ends. Quest progression is also hampered by poor tracking, unclear objectives, and side quests that can fail without notification.
- Poor or missing localization (weight 0.55): The game suffers from poor or incomplete localization, with some languages missing entirely or containing significant errors. This makes it difficult to understand quests and follow the story, especially for non-English speakers.
- Clunky controls, deadly collisions (weight 0.32): The game's flight model and ship controls are clunky and unforgiving, leading to frequent collisions and difficulty maneuvering. The autopilot is unreliable and often causes crashes, while collision damage is excessive.
- Poor trading, imbalanced economy (weight 0.24): The trading system is rudimentary and unbalanced, with static NPC inventories, limited funds, and few opportunities for profit. Hacking is an imbalanced way to earn money, making other activities less rewarding.
- Simplistic combat, poor AI (weight 0.2): Enemy AI is simplistic and unintelligent, often crashing into asteroids or easily defeated by circling. Combat is also simplistic, often involving just holding down the fire button.
- Underwhelming skill tree (weight 0.17): The skill tree is underwhelming and lacks depth, with some reviewers finding it nonsensical or incomplete. There is a desire for more extensive skill trees, such as for trading or specific weapon types.
- Poor gamepad controls (weight 0.12): Gamepad controls are poorly implemented, with limited functionality and awkward mappings. Some functions still require keyboard input, making controller support feel incomplete.
- Limited ship and weapon variety (weight 0.12): There is a limited selection of ships and weapons, with little variation between them. Big ships are unwieldy and difficult to control, while mining in capital ships is challenging due to short laser range.
- Lacks documentation (weight 0.09): The game lacks documentation such as manuals or a wiki, making it difficult for players to learn the game's mechanics and features.
- Slow, tedious travel (weight 0.06): Travel feels slow and tedious, even with the fastest ships. Ship handling is also described as heavy and difficult, making exploration feel like a chore.
- Ineffective autopilot (weight 0.06): The autopilot feature is ineffective and unreliable, often described as an "auto suicider". It simply flies straight and struggles with pathfinding, leading to collisions.
- Low-quality character portraits (weight 0.06): Character portraits are of low quality, with limited options for the player and frequent reuse of NPC portraits. This detracts from the otherwise strong art style and breaks immersion.
- Underdeveloped factions (weight 0.06): Factions feel underdeveloped, lacking meaningful questlines and actions that impact faction influence. Some reviewers also noted potentially problematic characterizations of different factions.
- Poor combat balance (weight 0.06): Combat balance is poor, with some weapon types being objectively superior. Some reviewers found the combat too easy, even at the start, while others desired more combat encounters.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core gameplay loop and freedom (weight 0.4): The core gameplay loop revolves around mining asteroids, trading goods, completing missions, and interacting with NPCs and factions. Players can choose different paths such as trader, pirate, or bounty hunter. These activities allow players to earn money, explore the world, and progress through the game.
- Ship variety and customization (weight 0.29): Players can acquire and upgrade ships with various weapons, shields, and modules. A wide variety of ships are available, and blueprints can be found to craft more. However, only a few weapons are upgradeable.
- Top-down arcade-style combat (weight 0.17): The game features top-down, arcade-style combat where players strafe, dodge projectiles, and utilize various weapons. Combat requires anticipating enemy trajectories and exploiting blind spots. Controls are similar to Asteroids.
- Story and quest-driven gameplay (weight 0.09): The game features a main storyline with multiple paths and numerous quests. The game world is dialogue-rich, with NPCs offering advice, items, and side quests.
- Slow-paced gameplay (weight 0.07): The game is slow-paced, with a focus on decision-making and exploration. The heavy reliance on dialogue can further slow down the pace.
- Realistic ship handling (weight 0.06): Ship handling is affected by inertia and mass, requiring consideration of Newtonian physics. Ships lack dampeners, increasing the risk of collisions, especially in asteroid fields.
- Lack of rewards (weight 0.05): Exploration is time-consuming and doesn't provide sufficient rewards. Combat also does not provide many rewards.
- Functional enemy AI (weight 0.03): Enemy AI is capable of detecting allies under attack, providing aid, retreating when damaged, and chasing the player when healthy.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent game performance/stability (weight 0.12): Reports on game performance are mixed. Some players experience smooth performance, while others report memory leaks, crashes (especially in trade menus), and bugs that impact gameplay after extended sessions. The inconsistency suggests potential hardware or configuration dependencies.
- Fast boot-up on Windows (weight 0.02): The game boots up quickly on Windows 10. This is a minor positive point, but not a significant factor in overall gameplay experience.

Recommendations:
- Promising but needs more content (weight 0.69): Many reviewers acknowledge the game's potential and enjoyable aspects, particularly its engaging world, dynamic combat, and RPG elements. However, they also point out that the game feels unfinished, like an early access title, and requires further development and content updates to reach its full potential. Some recommend purchasing to support the developers, while others suggest waiting for more polish.
- Not recommended currently (weight 0.14): Several reviewers actively discourage purchasing the game in its current state, citing significant issues and a lack of content. Some suggest that there are better alternatives available in the genre, recommending players avoid this title until substantial improvements are made.
- Wait for future updates (weight 0.07): A few reviewers suggest waiting before playing the game, recommending players postpone their experience until the main quest is expanded or the game receives further updates. This indicates a concern about the current length or depth of the main storyline.
- General positive sentiment (weight 0.06): These clusters contain very little actionable feedback. They consist of emotional statements, thumbs up, and general encouragement, without providing specific details or constructive criticism. Therefore, they receive a low importance score.
- Successor to Space Pirates/Zombies (weight 0.04): The game is seen as a spiritual successor to Space Pirates and Zombies 1, particularly appealing to players who enjoyed the original but desired a less restricted map and story. This comparison highlights the game's potential within the top-down space opera genre.
- Consider 'Endless Sky' alternative (weight 0.02): One reviewer recommends "Endless Sky" as a free and well-executed alternative, despite its lack of controller support. This provides a direct comparison and a readily available option for players seeking a similar experience.
- More ships needed (weight 0.02): A reviewer specifically mentions the desire for more ships to purchase in the game. This suggests that expanding the variety of available ships would be a welcome addition for players.

Other player notes:
- Incomplete world and limited content (weight 0.07): The game world, while vast and potentially rich in lore, currently feels incomplete.  Reviewers question the availability of content such as maps, ships, modules, and weapons beyond the initial offerings. This suggests a need for more content to fully realize the game's potential.
- Dystopian Sol system setting (weight 0.06): The game is set in a dystopian future within our solar system (Sol system). The setting features terraforming projects, sealed domes, and station-cities on major planets and moons, creating a unique backdrop for the gameplay.
- Handcrafted 2D graphics (weight 0.04): The game features handcrafted 2D graphics with a dynamic space background, built on a homegrown engine. Gameplay essentially involves moving and interacting on a flat plane.
- Developed by small indie team (weight 0.03): The game was independently developed by a small team of only 3 people without external resources. This highlights the passion and dedication behind the project.
- Missing mod support (weight 0.03): The game currently lacks mod support. Reviewers suggest that adding modding capabilities could significantly enhance the game by allowing community-created content and customizations, extending the gameplay experience.
- Point-and-click adventure story (weight 0.02): The story sensibilities are grounded in the point-and-click adventure genre. This suggests a focus on narrative, puzzles, and character interactions typical of that genre.
- New quest chain in development (weight 0.02): A new 10 mission quest chain is in development. This indicates ongoing efforts to expand the game's content and provide players with new challenges.
- Placeholder art evokes imagination (weight 0.02): The art looks like quickly created placeholder art but evokes imagination. This suggests that while the art may not be highly polished, it still manages to capture the player's imagination.
- Nonsensical point (weight 0): The point 'Vibrations in a vacuum' is nonsensical and does not provide any meaningful feedback about the game.

Emotions:
No emotions}