izigame.me

Got this one because of all the good reviews and appearently i'm just that big of a sucker for paradox games...
And after just a few hours i felt it..the "oh no...this is Banished on Mars, innit?" moment of realization...
So, sadly, i can't recommend because:
- Maybe i'm just fatigued of Tycoon and sim/builders but yeah, it's just the same you saw a million times before. Get power, get water, get food, get 2 Basic and 4 Special ressources. After a handfull of hours i was almost at a point where i could just let the colony simulate self sufficiantly and click through the research tree. But thats no fun because..
- Theres no feeling of progression. I probably haven't seen every little building and tech but yeah, it just didnt make me want to achieve all of it. The build menue is like "Hey, look what you COULD build if you research this and that tech!" But researching, as far as i could see, doesnt take ressources, just time and workforce, so its just a matter of waiting arround. Riveting. You know why factorio or satisfactory needs you to build stuff to consume for research? To give you a feeling of progression, and so they do very well.
- As far as i know, Europe consists of more than 4 nations. Just saying. And, this is a huge nitpick and petty peeve of mine, but why do gamedevs (or other mediacreators in that regard) have absolutely no sense for german names. People havent been named Adelheidt, Siegfried, Hermann, Ottilie etc for DECADES. I mean, i know people in the US don't name their kids Abraham, Cuthbert or Maud anymore so just google "Popular German/French/Italian etc" Names ffs...
- The building system is clunky and the hexagonal method of placing things, please....it forces everything to have a weird and at time unpractical shape. Why do tunnels between domes take up so much space for the hatch inside the dome? why isnt the tunnel attached to the outer wall? i have a hard time believing that "Triangle inside circle" is the most efficient way of building things in space. or mars. or anywhere.
- Colonists have traits. Cool. Half of which you will filter out because well, i think Elon would agree that alcoholics, mentally unstable, physically unfit, erradic, idiotic, senior etc. people aren't the first choice for colonizing an uninhibatitable planet. Why on Mars (ha ha) would you choose someone with these traits? Because you so desperately need an engineer and the others that applied insulted your mom or sth? So your choices are effectively made for you because there are like 5 positive, 5 negative and 5 neutral traits. yaaay. Never played Rimworld, did you?
- There is no joy in just watching the simulation like in cities skylines or sth like that. The buildings and vehicles all have this uber-futuristic cutesy look to them which really makes you wonder why making drones look cute or chairs that lift you 5m in the air to float at a bar where a choice by your engineers like thats important, when on the other hand the risk of malfunction, and death are supposedly a huge danger? You know why NASA doesnt build Mars-Rovers to look like WALL-E? Because thats not helpfull in a dangerous environment. So i really dont feel this looming danger like in e.g. frostpunk when i look at my colonists having an alcoholic beverage on a floating loungechair listening to housemusic.
- AI is Banished af...people moving into houses in a dome next to their mine where they work. So they ARE able to travell there without transportation. but onve there, they would rather starve then return to the dome where a grocer exists. When i built a smaller dome to connect the two big domes via tunnel, they wouldnt work there now because there is no shuttle? so they could theoreticaly just walk over inside domes and tunnels....but no, they want to fly in a drone because they just want the risk of dying i guess.
- What made me quit for good was a quest (or story-event whatever) that went like " There is a private-corporation rocket full of rich people trying to stay alive forever in cryostasis or sth (So..Jeff Bezoz and frens?) on the way to mars and they rely on you supplying them with valuable ressources regulary. They will give you MUCH MONEYZ for that!" And your choices are Sure, Sure but we dont want payment or Nah, thanks (so...letting them just die in space? or havent they launched yet? It's unclear). The answer you should give, beeing "Who authorized you to get us involved and why would you think we would do that when we are barely making it ourselves (apparently)" Is missing so your choices are like effing Fallout 4 "Yes, Goodie-Twoshoes Yes or Nah." You never played Crusader Ki..oh..wait.
Tl;dr: Weird AI, Weird design choices, kinda boring and univolving.