Dinkum Review (scradam)
Update:
It looks like the game is getting better. Not good enough to flip my review or try the game again yet, but it's getting closer. Keep up the good work, James and/or KRAFTON!
- and no, I don't mind if some company in Seoul bought the game and my personal info. If they continue to work on the base game, that would be great. If they elect to instead add content in the form of bunches of nickel and dime DLC instead, I may or may not flip my review. We'll see. Congrats on the sale though, James! I wish I were as persuasive as you in getting so many people to buy and leave such positive reviews for an extremely mediocre game, and then cash out.
Original review:
It's unpolished and the amount of content is low. I would have held my negative review to myself if the game were rated at ~75% positive, but I had higher expectations of a 92% SteamDb rating. Most of the positive reviews were left when this game initially launched in early access because people assumed this was just a small taste of the final version, but after 2 years, I think it's time to be a little more critical. James is definitely still working on it, but the amount of progress that's been made in the 2 years since early access started gives me concern for the final state since it still has so much further to go.
We need somewhere to put collected bugs and fish with the shops being closed on Sunday and not open in the evenings. - or unlock the ability to sell stuff on Sundays and evenings somehow.
Multiplayer should have a 'save-on-disconnect-or-exit'. The days in this game are really long, and it sucks losing progress for something silly like not pressing a key after the day ends to start the new day, when the players agree to end the game after the day is out. The game bugs out often enough that this feature is sorely needed.
Moving buildings is punishingly expensive for new players when they realize they made the game worse by placing things out in BFE. A lot of similar games just make moving buildings free.
The game feels fairly small for being procedurally generated. It would be really nice to have at least 3 more biomes that could be unlocked by travel (e.g. by boat or balloon or something), and allude to the existence of the biomes early-on so players have something to look forward to in that 'this small island isn't all there is'. The mine is a good start. Do that again at least 3 more times.
The license system is grindy and not gated well. The cost of licenses increases and the ability to quickly earn license points diminishes the longer the player plays the game. A player can really screw themselves for a while if they 'skip' certain cheap licenses in favor of more expensive ones. I suggest changing it to something like a tech tree UI, but there's other options.
The game generally lacks a strong sense of progression and reward. The current game feels more like a sandbox/simulator for people who just like to decorate. After only 15 hours in, it started feeling like "I guess this is just about all there is." If there is more to do that new players might not be aware of, the game needs to give players a clue there's more to look forward to. e.g. a calendar UI for the seasons, a collection UI for all the things a player has yet to discover, etc.
You could say "It's only a $20 game! Lower when on sale!", and yeah, that's pretty cheap, indeed. I'd gladly pay $30 for the game if it had more to it, but as it stands now, I feel like I just wasted 15-20 hours of my time getting my hopes up, and the price tag is nearly moot.
The engine (on top of Unity) James has built for the game is a strong foundation though.
Keep at it, James, and I'll flip my review positive or at least remove it.