Very much a 'mixed' review. Short version: intensely addictive, but not very satisfying.
I picked up this game when it first launched in early access several years ago, was highly impressed with it and recommended it to all my incremental loving friends. Now that launch is finally here, we collectively dove back into it, and while nearly all that we'd initially loved is still there, the ability to complete the game and start NG+ somewhat oddly added a sense of hollowness to the experience.
The gameplay is an astounding dopamine drip for a while. There's numerous major subsystems and mechanics, over three dozen resources, over a hundred different attributes you can progress without caps. There's many different spells, spell modifiers, items, research paths, and alchemical formula to be found, far more than you can get in a single playthrough, so every unlock is exciting and each playthrough distinct. There's *constantly* something you can be doing, upgrading, optimizing. I found myself frequently playing for far longer than I intended, with the enticing distractions so multitudinous and exciting.
The problem is, after victory and several NG+ cycles, none of that stuff actually seems to matter much. No matter what special rules the NG+ might be applying, or what unique random spells or items you rolled, the unlocks of systems and resources always happens in the identical order every time, and you need to do the complete tour to win the game. Every subsystem more or less needs all of the others in order to be fully progressing, which felt like a neat bit of integration initially, but in practice meant that trying to specialize much is actually mostly a mistake. Yes, you can try and emphasize being a Druid or a Storm mage, and the resources that benefit directly from your choice will feel empowered. Except, if you leave everything else lacking, then your progression overall will still be stymied, most likely including your ability to feed back into your specialty. Everything is just so interlinked that it almost feels like nothing actually matters all that much.
None of those optional, may-or-may-not show up spells, artifacts, or other toys end up mattering much, for largely the same reason: none of them can be truly lynchpin. Most of the systems hosting them tend to reward mastering as many different spells or whatevers as possible, the particulars of limited importance. The NG+ challenges, which impose randomized debuffs to particular subsystems and required specializations in a new run, end up effectively being the same way. You're still going to have to progress whatever the particular debilitated mechanics are, you'll just do so slightly more slowly. I kept trying to find excitement and satisfaction in these special conditions, but I found I was mostly just getting sucked into chasing the bells and whistles of upgrading so many different little things, without any choices or situations being of actual importance.
Now, the problems that I'm talking about are actually pretty damned universal to the incremental genre. They're almost always on-rails experiences, chasing the moment-to-moment highs while following a prepared path through the game's features. I think where I find things disappointing is that Orb of Creation really seemed like it could have been capable of transcending that limited vision, and indeed might have actually been intended to, until circumstances limited the developer's ability to spend much time on the project.
What is there is *absolutely* a blast, and difficult to put down, as my playtime will attest. It's got a depth and polish to most of it that's still very rarely matched in the entire incremental genre. If you enjoy the genre, it's absolutely a must play, I think. I'm just left feeling like the bones were there to have potentially been far greater still.
