Rodina

I've owned this game since about 2017; learned of its existence from the "Catch That Ship!" challenge video by NerdCubed. It truly is fantastic, on a level all its own. There's something awe-inspiring about standing outside of your ship, looking at a nearby mountain that, only moments ago, took you mere seconds to fly away from in your ship, but would now take an hour or more to reach on foot alone. It's got a sense of scale that I don't think any similar games I've played have captured in a way that comes close. The art is simplistic, but that's far and away from being a detriment - excellent visual direction keeps the various elements of the game feeling cohesive, while only using as much as it needs to communicate to the player what they're looking at. Alongside the option for retro-style pixel scaling, the "low-poly" art has an immense charm to it that works so well for a game whose end-goal is "Daggerfall in space". The score of John Robert Matz is truly excellent as well. I've sat in orbit around planets for hours, awestruck by the deep brass and droning strings of the planet closest to the sun, Perun; to the haunting chill of the synths and bass that accompany the cold winds which bathe the planet farthest from the star Zorica's comforting light: Morena. Frantic scores set the tone for the combat, while the ambient tracks of the space between give the player room to breathe. Dynamic transitions keep the music as seamless as the rest of the game itself, and Matz deserves the highest praise for the composition. The writing stands on its own as well, with potential hours of material to read, scattered among the thousands of asteroids, ship derelicts, and planetary outposts in this singular solar system. For all the time I've put into this game, I'm fairly confident I haven't found all of it, and while the story is incomplete, I eagerly await the day I can experience the whole of it. The game supports modding as well, if that's something that tickles the fancy of anyone considering buying this game; scripts are written in Lua, and the developers have kindly provided a Blender add-on with the game files which allows for exporting objects in Blender to the proper format. I'm not sure how much more I can say of the game, save for this: If this game looks like something that would interest you: there's a demo. Give it a try, and if you like it, buy it. It is absolutely worth it.

Better than Starfield

It's a super raw space game, the massive scale of everything is made palpable by how fast the game allows you to move contrasted by how insignificant you feel moving outside your ship. Yeah the graphics are programmer art but that's what allows the game to be this monumental. If you can bear the polygons and are not bothered by the glacial pace of development then give it a go.

a stickshift spaceship. what a time to be alive

Development is at a snails pace and Im convinced its just so steam doesnt hit it with the "No update in a while" warning. There is literally no reason why this games updates are so slow and minimal. The flying is cool but there is nothing to do but that. Combat sucks.

An interesting game. In development for a long time with comparatively little progress to show for it. The game has an interesting yet unfinished narrative, novel mechanics and beautiful music. The framework is there, but that's mostly what it is - the narrative is delivered in a way that gets tedious very quickly. Zipping from planet to planet, asteroid to asteroid to progress the story. If 5 years from now the game's story was finished and you had to start from scratch with no changes to how the player progresses the narrative, I might be put off from picking the game up again simply because it ended up becoming boring. I leave a positive review because it's a unique experience - it was perhaps more impactful when the game first released, but regardless, any developer who is willing to provide refunds beyond the two-week-two-hour timeframe deserves a fair shake. I won't be asking for a refund because what's currently in the game is interesting and has enough potential to keep me waiting - however long that might be.

RODINA is a game that defies the standards of the industry and even indies. the developer has been working on it part-time for 12 long years, toiling away at this herculean task. you are not just buying a game with RODINA, you're supporting a man's dream. even going past this, the game is fantastic, although it is still just not complete. the atmosphere, and the music, deserve immense praise. i don't think i will ever forget the first time achieving orbit in RODINA. the somber tone, the orchestra, and those 7 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ piano notes.

please come back <3