Space Salvager

Ill change the review to recommend the minute the game is playable. This game has alot of heart. Its also a game I have been waiting to play since I was 16. However it is riddled with problems. Since I got the game (about an hour) the game has crashed 8 or 9 times due to a null refference exception. Additionally the tutorial was vague at best and really doesn't do anything to help you understand what you are meant to do. My gamepad didn't work with it at all. Additionally there is no options menu, no way to configure anything and the whole experience feels rough and incomplete. Yet despite this I actually really want to recommend it and the whole game has a charm to it I like. It reminds me of games I used to play in the late 80's early 90's. And as a result I find myself forgiving everything except thoose damn game crashing null reference exceptions which just make tthe game unplayable. Once the dev has made the game stable, old school gamers may find this is the deep space experience they are looking for.

Ok, this game has quite a bit of unpolish and feels alot like a Student project at first glance. But overall its not nearly as bad you might think. 1.)The graphics are not very good and the jump portals look like somthing from 1995. But that isn't game breaking at all. I play plenty of games that don't rely on flashy graphics. Don't let that turn you off. 2.)There is almost no tutorial at all. This is quite a turn off at first because you have no idea where to start or how to maneuver the galaxy. I definitely think that even a single page over view would improve a lot of people's views of this game. But an hour into it so far, I'm getting the hang of things. 3.)There is no story to this game. But I don't necessarily need story to enjoy a game. This is an open-ended game where you do what you want. Coming from someone who never plays the story lines of fallout or elderscrolls games, that doesn't bother me. 4.)The enemies are usually in certain sectors which is nice because you aren't always hounded and can avoid combat if you're not ready. But if you stumble across a sector with enemies, prepare to fight 16-1 odds. i frequently see 20+ enemy swarming me, and at this point in the game, I just run. They are smaller and weaker than you, but are much faster than you. 5.)This definitely has old-school feel and the soundtrack is quite nice. Nothing mind-blowing but subtle and not annoying. Overall, I'd say if you like open-ended games that have a nice old-school arcade feel and can look past the lack of frills, give this game a try. I bought it at full price and I can see myself playing more of it. If you buy this, let these few nuggets of advice be your tutorial: 1.)Don't even attempt combat until you have a better-than-starter ship and weapons. you'll get creamed. Missions that say "Clear a certain area" are combat missions. 2.)Sometimes when you are trying to go to a destination, the blue marker on your hud can be covered over with other markers (like asteroids). Just pivot your ship in place until you see the name of a place and a distance, if you have a mission you are doing and you are looking for a jump to get to the next area, the little words that pop up with have your destination underneath in brackets so you know it's the right one. 3.)Missions are TIMED and even though they give you plenty of time to complete them, prepare for a couple missions to expire before you get the hang of travel. 4.)From what i can tell, you can't sell your you can't sell your ore you mine. The ship parts can only be trashed after you buy a better one and the ore is used to actually build your new ships. You do this under the Manufacture tab at space docks. 5.)If you plan to build you own ship, Mine, mine, mine. And have a home base to dump your ore off to. Then when you have enough ore to build, you know where all fo your stuff is. I kind fo wish there was a "set to home" feature. 6.)For beginners, transport missions are especially good because they force you to learn how to travel. After a few of these, you'll have no trouble. 7.)Mining missions are cool because you get money for simply clearing out an area of asteroids and then get to keep the ore! They don't even want it. So it's basically the space version of an old person paying to rake their leaves. 8.)Watch out for Asteroids! When you're going full speed, they creep up on you in a hurry and you'll smash inot them.