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Monday, August 1, 2022 5:01:48 PM

Blastronaut Review (Razorflamekun)

I'll give the low-down on this game really quick since it's still in early access:
BLASTRONAUT is an exploration/mining game with some twists: Delve into deep caverns with multiple different biomes and even increasing danger as you go, but take care to remember your way back, or else you'll lose that hard-earned loot!
Pros:
Sprawling world - World is procedurally generated and is endless. You can continue mining along the surface if you want the easy loot, or you can dive down to find better loot. Repairable buildings, trading stations, quest stations, and other machines spawn on the surface while exploring.
Crafting - Pretty good crafting system, with some good beginning options with a lot more to come.
Biomes - As you mine ever deeper into the earth, new and ever more dangerous biomes will start to spawn, with greater rewards and strange creatures to deal with. Manage the risk/reward system and get out with the right loot! Be careful with your mining tools, lest you kill yourself with them!
Graphics - The graphics for this game are pretty good for the type of game it is.
Active developer - The developer is very active with making changes to the game and fixing bugs.
Cons (These cons are subject to change due to the ever changing landscape of the development of the game):
Bugs - As this is an Early Access game, expect there to be a fair few bugs in the game. Expect these to be ironed out over the course of the Early Access period.
Difficult early game - The early game is very punishing up to and until you find a machine that you can use to buy more max health and get to the second biome. If you die at any point, you have to go back to where you died to collect your loot (if the death tax setting is set to the default, 50% of the loot you were carrying will be lost). There thankfully is a marker that guides you to the location of where your loot was dropped, but if you die again on the way there, that marker is replaced with a new marker, which leads me to my next point. (Expect this to be ironed out over the course of the Early Access period)
Remembering where to go - This is the biggest issue I have with this game right now. Unless you have a photographic memory or you just mine down below the base you spawn in at, you are going to get lost both on the surface and while you are digging. Since the surface is endless, you can just keep running and you'll never reach the end of the map. This can create some bad situations where you run for a while and then just start to dig down without much thought into it. This is easily remedied if you just dig nearby a "home station" or the main base you spawn in at.
This leads me to my second point of this con: Once you start digging, you'd better remember the way back up, and retain enough fuel to make it back to the last fueling station that you saw (and hopefully fixed) so that you can refuel.
The developer has stated that they will figure something out to help you remember your way in the game, so expect this con to be resolved as the Early Access period goes on.
Price point: The current price point of the game is a little bit steep. I think a $14.99 base price for the game would be good, but I'm still fine with paying for the game at it's current price. This is more a matter of personal opinion than anything else.
Overall, while you might be looking at the wall of text that is the Cons section of this review, everything in that section should be resolved over the course of the Early Access period, and because of that, I can easily recommend this game at full price! Have fun!