AETHUS

This game was fun for a single playthrough. I played it through once and doubt I'll ever play it again. The problem with this game is that gameplay is too guided by the story. The story has explicit instructions that tell you exactly what to do. Just follow them and you beat the game. All the resources you need for more advanced constructions are only acquired by following the story through. It is also impossible to explore the map without following the story. That said, I think the game is very impressive. I got 46 hours of enjoyment out of it. If the developer added the ability to play on other maps that weren't so strictly tied in to the story, I would get many more hours out of it.

Overall I liked the game, but I found myself getting bored at points. * Too much running back and forth. You are often exploring and realize you need a specific item, and then you need to go back to your base to craft it. Or your inventory is full. Or you need food. The game has some travel shortcuts, but you still run a lot. * Mining is not fun after the beginning of the game, but you need to do it for the whole game. You unlock upgrades that make mining faster, but the higher-tier resources are slower and heavier, so it cancels out. * You can use automated miners, but they are too slow and each one unlocks too late. You usually need resources from the next tier to unlock the miner for the previous tier, but by the time you collect all those supplies, the previous tier is less relevant. Miners produce resources too slowly to progress through the main content, so they are only useful if you occasionally need older resources later in the game. * Inventory and production chain management is tedious. Thankfully, most crafting stations auto-pull from most inventories, but refiners have to be fed and collected from manually. * There is no map. I would have liked one to more easily plan running routes, especially for the Epsilon, Mu, Theta, Kappa area. I wish those bases had more memorable names too, since I struggled to remember which one was which. The environments, exploration, and story are good, but I found the remaining gameplay was needlessly tedious, as if we just needed something time-consuming so that the story didn't complete too quickly.

Man what a awesome game this was :D Just finished it and made it to 100% completion as well :) The graphics were pretty solid. Music as well was nicely done. Gameplay was greatly done. The voice acting was blissful to listening to with their accents. The different areas of the game was fun to explore and find out different locations and different materials to gather. I really enjoyed the story from start to finish. :D The mining with your robot friend was a nice touch and upgrades were good and easily enough to obtain after getting enough credits for them. You just have to farm enough ores among many other things to craft things and build your outpost. Which was fun to do. The challenge of game was well done with oxygen not being unlimited in the underground. The only QoL thing that I missed was as you were refining minerals/ores and such. You weren't able to craft things from those refining stations, unless you move it storage/containers. However there was unlimited space in those refiners, So you only pick the ore/plants/jewels that you required to craft from the crafting station. And leave the rest. The Drone idea was great. However it felt like it was bit too late into the story to be that useful. But always nice to have extra materials of things to spare. Make sure to read what you eat in the game incase you want 100% Since there is an achievement that requires you to eat nothing else but a vegetarian diet. So no fish nor meat. There was some nutrient bar or something that wasn't vegetarian, So make sure to read, before you eat it :D Probably the only missable achievement in this game.

Great little indie game. Maybe not as replayable as some. Maybe not as much automation as some. But I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the voice acting, the artwork, music, atmosphere, and world building. I look forward to whatever might come next from Pawsmonaut.

just finished the game, really enjoyed my ride ! but GRANDPA ! COME HERE ! WE. NEED. TO. TALK !!!! voices are great, story are great, gameplay is really cool, many QoL are hjere the game is not here to punish you, quite the opposite, Well done ! And thank you :) (it says 39H for completion, but i dont shut down the pc, that would explain the 118H ^^)

All I can say is ....Wow...I did not expect to get pulled into a little game like this. I judge a game by the way I feel at the end when it is all over and I have to say I was stunned at how good it was.I am an old gamer and this game made me feel like I was playing Parasite eve or Legend of Zelda for the first time. You did a fantastic job and I thank you for the experience.

Great game, great story! Not an automation game.

Very pleasant, cozy, and relaxing game. There's plenty to build, collect, and explore. The crafting system is surprisingly deep, though it becomes quite grindy toward the end when every upgrade requires expensive resources. The voice acting, however, was the real highlight. It hit a nerve I didn't even know I had. I absolutely loved it. Maeve's voice is incredible—she could read an encyclopedia to me, and I'd probably fall in love.

I'll try to keep it short. The game has Subnautica vibes in some ways. So, if you like exploration, base building, and a rich story, you should definitely give it a try. It's a perfect example of how small indie studios and solo developers are trying to save the industry. Personally, I had a lot of fun playing it over the weekend, and I loved all the little details the game has to offer. I'm not a professional critic, so I don't want to bore anyone reading this review with a step-by-step analysis. Yes, there are probably some things that could be improved and polished. But in a nutshell, the game has really good lore, a pleasant, non-violent atmosphere (instead of the usual "kill them all" approach), and lets your brain relax for a few days-or even longer. All I want to say to the developer is: thank you, great job, I want more.

Really surprised with how engaging this game was. It was nice to have a purpose and a story blended together with a tech tree builder game. Felt rewarding to keep going for the next clue and next area to see what was next, or to solve a required task. I give it a 9/10 for being a really solid tech adventure game.