Fragmented

So I went into Fragmented expecting more or less nothing. I've seen a lot of Ark and Rust-like games and they rarely bring anything new to the table. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually pretty enjoyable. Pros: -Crafting is reasonably complex, but not overly so. -Resource farming isn't overly arduous, drops and locations are predictable and markable on the map. -Ranged combat is decent, gunplay is smooth, responsive and quick. -Heavy focus towards group/squad-based play. -Building system is solid, with a reasonable variety of structure options of various types/appearances/purposes. -Graphics are excellent for this stage of development. -Survival aspects make themselves constantly known. -There's no really bad choice when it comes to skill focus (except maybe melee). -Raiding/pvp/base defense are reasonably balanced (but still skewed towards the defenders). You're not likely to lose your base in a 30 second offline raid. -Game's pace is pretty well thought-out and progression is steady and rewarding no matter what style of gameplay you prefer. -Developers are very open to feedback and discussion, actively engaging the community. (after reporting a bug at 8:00 AM EST, I received a reply from a developer in less than 15 minutes. Now that's service.) -Monsters have some cool features like adaptive behavior (passive/aggressive/etc) based on who/what they kill and when/where/how often. -Experimenting and testing new skills and content is fun and finding new uses for things is actually very enjoyable. Cons: -Some content isn't yet fully supported by the game at this point. Vehicles are temporarily disabled, and player pets don't have fully implemented AI (or so it seems, though they will defend your base). -Gameplay is addictive at first, but slowly wears down into the endgame due to lack of endgame content. -Raiding in PVP is exceptionally difficult right now, due to weapon damage against structures. (The devs have stated that this is a work in progress). -Graphics are nice but some are clearly incomplete with placeholder textures. Certainly not what UE4 is capable of at its peak. -Monsters are limited in type. There are currently about 5 different enemy types. -Survival can be absolutely brutal sometimes in Normal mode where your items drop on death. -There are still some fundamental bugs with the game (losing your armor on death, monster AI, etc) -Currently a very small playerbase, especially on PVP servers where guilds are a central focus. -Melee combat is lackluster. Ranged combat is fun against players, but repetitive against monsters. -Monster combat AI is still very basic with even most boss monsters easily confused by terrain, other monsters, or shiny objects. -Crafting, while well thought-out is quite kludgey still. You'll find yourself clicking the craft button a lot (or holding enter). (Update: It's been stated that this will be addressed very soon) -No in-game voice chat (yet). Overall, I like the way this game is going and I'm going to keep an eye on it as it progresses. I wholly endorse supporting these guys and my only concern for the welfare of this game is that the developers might burn themselves out from their rapid development process, or that it might simply get abandoned when "The Repopulation" makes its comeback. I don't feel that either of these scenarios are LIKELY, but these sorts of things are always a concern with any Early Access game. Regardless, it's got my vote. Thumbs up, guys. UPDATE: I've played the game since this review, but with less frequency than when I first wrote it. I still feel that the game is going in a positive direction, but has a long journey ahead of itself. Such is the way with early access games. The development team still regularly updates (With fairly sizable updates) and I actually enjoy reading the feature lists weekly/bi-weekly. It seems to show a steady line of development towards a game that's enjoyable and playable. To defend my position on this game, I want to note that this is NOT a throw-away account by any means (as some comments have suggested), nor am I in any way associated with the devs. I'm active on the forums for the game and I like that the devs seem to listen to the community. I only have one review, because this is the only game I -wanted- to review. If you read the review and still don't want to buy the game, then don't buy the game but I don't believe anything I said in my review is either misleading or inaccurate. The game at this stage of development -is- flawed in many ways, but this is how early access games work. Starbound (which I also own) has been in development for 8x the time. Rust (which I also own and play) has a much better funded development team, and still updates with only equal frequency. At this stage in development, Rust Experimental only had the thompson, two biomes, woodpiles and rocks. Keep in mind that with early access products you're not paying for a completed game, you're paying to SUPPORT THE DEVELOPERS. If you feel, after playing this game, that it's not going the way you want and that the devs aren't listening to the community or developing the game, don't fund it... but I don't feel that this is the case here. Each update is slowly pushing the game further away from an ARK clone and towards something different and creative. Everything starts somewhere.

When I first noticed this game in my library I couldn't help but think "uhh wth is this I don't remember getting this game." It was at that point I learned of the current news for The Repopulation. I decided to check the game out and see what this was all about. After messing around for a bit in the game and just sort of getting my bearings (as this was just before it was officially released) I decided to table the game and come back to it as I saw a good amount of potential. And yes the potential is very much there. Within the month or so I was away (mostly due to real life) the game updated dramatically. Many of the early bugs and glitches were quickly fixed. The developers keep in quick and continuous (almost inhuman) contact with the player base and help quickly address, duplicate, test, and fix problems that arise. Watching this game develop is like watching an interactive trailer for The Repopulation. As far as gameplay goes: It is a toned down MMORPG leveling system. 50 total levels with 8 skills that each max out at rank 10 requiring an increasing number of points to upgrade. Each level unlocks new recipes and some skills offer passive bonuses. There is a degree of specialization due to the nature of the system meaning you can not unlock rank 10 in all 8 skills. Unlike other survival games base construction follows a different formula, and honestly it is one that for the game and the lore makes sense. Buildings are prefabricated with only foundations and walls being individual structures. Unlike Rust or ARK you are colonizing a planet. In other words the foundations are for multiple structures with which to build entire settlements, not single fortresses. This allows for the development not just of a major base but entire cities if properly constructed. This moves the clever design of a single base into the clever design of an entire settlement area, which I find to be a unique and interesting touch. The planet has the typical biomes: Forest, Desert, Artic. Each biome offers similar and specialized resources. The fauna in each biome alters as well as their levels. Some creatures are found all over, other mostly in one area, some in certain spots of all areas. The Flora is the same way. All flora and fauna has their uses in some of the recipes making each useful and not just pretty filler to look at. Weapon progression also makes sense. You go from simple melee weapons to more complex melee weapons (if you desire to) to ranged weapons. While there might need to be a slight balancing relating to beam pistols and rifles, the progression is appropriate. There are explosive weapons as well that are mostly used for pvp encounters and base sieging. Armor, while useful for combat and looks, is not a major necessity aside from climate conditions. This I find to be absolutely great. While most people will opt for some form of armor. The armor with the best protection might not help you so much in the desert environment and cause you to overheat. This creates some sense of diversity in the armors allowing for there to be some differentiation. Combat can be somewhat clunky in the sense of animations. There are some graphical errors when equipping ranged weapons that can easily be fixed by zooming the camera out and back in. Without knowing that trick, though, it can be frustrating to deal with at first. While games such as this are always going to be easier with a group. Fragmented allows the individual to be able to play the game. Both casual and hardcore players can both handle themselves alone on this hostile planet. With various server styles as well as a single player experience, there is no segment of the gaming populace that is left out. All in all the game still has its rough edges but is light years ahead of other titles in similar stages of development. The communication between the developers and players alone makes this title a should buy if you are interested in survival games and MMO's. The similarities between Fragmented and Rust and ARK are only superficial in the sense that they occupy the same genre. The underlying mechanics and stylizations in both level progression and settlement management bring this game into a new area. While Rust and ARK are individual survival games, the quarks in Fragmented shift the game to the survival of the entire species. The resetting of the narrative into that framing alone moves this game away from Rust and ARK on all but surface levels.

I technically recieved this game for free (more on this in a moment), I tried it out and it was labelled as a survival game, I logged in, I survived, I never needed to move, there was abundant "berries" and a river, right next to me, respawning mobs that were easy to kill with a stone knife, right next to me. I figured that this was maybe just a new player area and that while exploring I would run into trouble, I spent a little while gathering some stuff, resources for some buildings, a waterskin or two and I set out, within about 10 minutes I had reached the edge of the map and had never needed to bother gathering resources as they were everywhere. I cannot reccomend the game because of this, a tiny map, servers with a max of 40 people yet barely enough room for 10 because people just build at the respawning mobs and that's it. Now onto the technically free part, a while ago I paid a lot more money than this "game" is currently being sold for into a "kickstarter" for a game called "the repopulation" Labelled "star wars galaxy fans can finally come home" it had big ideas and for a little while looked to be taking off, I never logged into it for a few months, then one day went to have a look at how it was comming along, after several client updates, I couldn't connect. I go to the website to see what's up and the game has been abandonded, oh they say it's not, we are given a key for this game on steam and we are told that this is just a testing ground for the new engine, that we are still getting the mmo that we paid for. I never even got an email to tell me of these changes. So if the devs are telling me that this is just a "testing ground" for the mmo game on a new engine, then why do you want to buy this? Why buy a "test" for another game? They are not being honest somewhere in there. They have taken a lot of money from people on the promise of something good, they then don't even bother to let people know, they even change the webpage, you type in "the repopulation" and you get this game. They have already taken a lot of money and are now asking steam users to give them more. I would advise you to steer well clear of ANYTHING from these devs until it's a fully released product or chances are you will feel robbed like I and so many others do.

I wish I could recommend this game. I am a fan of the survival genre, and have sunk over 130 hours into empyrion (sci fi survival) and when I saw this I was excited. It looked like a similar game to empyrion with better graphics. The game looks good in 3rd person, I'll give them that (though the 1st person models and animations are just horrible), and the world is hostile, with plenty of mobs. It's far more action packed than most survival games, as you will find yourself fending off creatures with alarming regularity. Now, if it was just dense packs of critters, I'd be less critical, but the respawn timers on those mobs are... short. Like, really, really short. A large part of survival games is gathering resources. When you need to stop gathering on a stone because the same mob respawns 4 times 3 foot in front of you... it's a problem. when there's then issues like the creatures not entering any space that overlaps with your base structure (which is to my mind an overly simplistic build technique which requires large amounts of raw materials to produce large structures in one go, everything seems template based which really limits creativity) allowing for easy kills if you dont venture from your base (you can retreat back to safety, upon which the mobs start runnung away, allowing for easy, 100% safe kills), respawning materials every time you log out and back in again, the dense packs of creatures and ridiculously fast respawns mean it's all too easy to fall into a trap of barely venturing from the base until you get strong enough and have gathered enough resources to build better weapons... which still suck. This can quickly feel more like a chore than fun. To my mind, this feels like a survival-lite. It's limited building/crafting options will appeal to those who want to get up and running quickly, and maybe my problem was I was playing solo. It feels like it's designed for groups of people working together watching each others backs whilst one person gathers for the group. Even the base pre-fab was a huge area, seemingly designed to be populated by multiple people/buildings. The pre-fab designs and the constant, constant, constant respawns quickly got the better of me though, and I'm afraid I have requested a refund, and felt compelled to warn off like minded people. One of the other reviewers has called this the best sci fi survival on the market. I'm sorry, but I cannot agree, and I'm going back to Empyrion for my sci fi survival fixes

Warning: Do not buy, abandoned game. Fragmented is an abandoned Early Access survival game set in a sci-fi setting on an alien planet where you must build structures and survive alien monsters. While it had every chance of some success, the developers pulled the pin, took what was left of the money, and ran. In typical character, Valve left the game on the Steam store anyway, because consumers come last.

So what are you getting if you buy Fragmented a game developed by Above and Beyond Technologies? A test bed for another game that was supposed to be made / kickstarted. You can gather some resources (mine rocks, punch weeds and wood) and make about 10 premade structures, a few different types of weapons, armor, crafting stations and an APC. Not much else. The game has static spawns that stay in one small area that will agro on you, on a static small map. As a test bed for another game, and given to me free it was all right. I wont go into details but the other game (The repopulation) was delayed for a year, supposed to be switched to Unreal 4 engine pretty much never happened. Fragmented the alternate release was made and sold instead, with The Repopulation being sold back to Idea Fabrik. Nice little scam right? Made money off of the kickstarter backers, closed the servers down, started development of Fragmented sold it, then sold the original game (The Repopulation) to Idea Fabrik. This might never have been the intention but this is what happened. Stay away from this developer " Above and Beyond Technologies" and any future projects they work on.

From my original impression, the game is fun and exciting. I enjoyed discovering the new area, learning how to craft and the idea of rediscovering knowledge. The creatures are very well done, as is the rest of the world. I enjoyed the mechanics of the tools and weapons, even up to the end. However, the game seems to lose the plot along the way, leaving you wondering what happened to the rest of the game. Maybe it is due to the lack of experience from the team that made the game, or perhaps the lack of funding that led to them giving up and leaving an unfinished product on the market, but this is more like a demo than a full game. I would recommend this game if the developer continues to work on the unfinished mechanics of the game, giving it more than just an amateur programmer feel to it. As is, it currently is not a full game, and demos should not cost money, especially if there is no finished product at the end. In short, the game is a fun start, but it is not a full game in the slightest.

Total piece of garbage. Devs wanted a cash cow so they abandoned The Repopulation and stuck us with this steaming pile. The only redeeming feature is that it was free. Sorry to any of you who spent your money on this 'game.' The devs just wanted to milk you so they slapped together a bunch of crappy Unity assets and called it a survival game. It should be removed from Steam.

Abandoned very early on. Multiplayer servers were recently shut down. There is no reason to play this and it's only left on the store to scam people. Stay far away from this game and anything the developers make. All their games have been abandoned.

Requested removal of game from Steam services - this game is vaporware that had never reached full release and was supposed to be a test / precursor to Repopulation. Developers officially ended support in October of 2022, and this review is being made more than a year later in December of 2023 where Steam has allowed sales to continue despite official servers and support discontinued more than a year ago. Uncertain why Steam allows this scam to continue on their library, but this may be telling of whether you should continue to support the Steam platform or look elsewhere...