Stars Reach

Probably better to wait until this game gets out of early access and/or they've had chance to put in more content and improve performance. There's a lot still labelled "WIP" (work in progress) but whilst on the face of it the game looks like it was released too early I can see (with a programmer's eye) that the main engine is pretty much complete and that whole tranches of issues are likely to be cleared up with single or rapid fixes on the server side, I can see why they've put it in EA now, it's not to rip people off! The only way to really test a system running thousands of players is to run it with thousands of players and the architecture is interesting, with a lot of work going on server-side. Just be aware that this is nowhere near a complete game - but I suspect development could go quite rapidly (the estimated EA time until release of 6 months hints at this as well). There's also a fair bit of the old SWG DNA in there which is no bad thing. But this is an MMORPG - expect the usual screaming for the usual reasons.

I played this game on launch into early access and I said to myself: If they keep communication open, they can weather the storm of a rocky launch. It is a rocky launch. There are lag issues. They have patched the game and will patch it again, working toward more stability and improved gameplay mechanics. The game is vastly improved stability wise from launch day. While it still needs work, this is a very promising sign of things to come. The roadmap is very ambitious, but it's not impossible and the team has already demonstrated a passion to do it properly, re-arranging the roadmap as bugs occur to make early access as enjoyable as possible while still updating the game in significant ways beyond bug fixes. Development is strong. I am confident we're going to see something special here. The game was pricey on release. This is the price I would expect for the finished product and it's certainly not finished. I would recommend this game at a discount - Unless you want to support the development team and that's a choice detached from this review. I had my doubts. I do not anymore.

If you've ever played an MMO in Beta, this will feel very familiar. Yes, it's rough. Yes, it needs improvement in all kinds of areas. But, this is what Early Access is for. I'm here for what this could become.

I almost never write reviews, but I felt like I had too. If I set aside the bugs, I can see the goal. I can see the shadow of SWG reimagined. SWG's original design was arguably unrealized and failed in the early 2000's due to a complexity that this game tries to realize and build on. I'd argue SWG lingered because of Star Wars fans and the underlying lore that directed and inspired players to sift through the bugs and complex systems, Stars Reach doesn't have that to rely on and to be honest didn't try all that hard to instill in the first 2 hours either. The comic book style/theme felt about as dated as the animations and graphics. What's sad is if that was all that's wrong with it, I could recommend it. The problems here is that it's put one too many nails in it's own coffin, at this point in time. The game feels like something from 2010ish, and with less bugs and a few more things to do I think it would have survived back then. My biggest issue with the game is that it felt like nothing is intuitive, polished, or even engaging. The skill system isn't even part of the tutorial, and arguably didn't matter because it doesn't adequately explain the skills you're learning or how to utilize them. reinventing the wheel is great, I was on board, wanted to learn how this new system works, but there was no direction or explanation to direct me. Then there's the worlds... Yes there's more than 4 but aimlessly floating through space and wormholes from one system to the next is the more unengaging discovery system I could imagine. And I think that's an aspect of the issue. Exploration has to be rewarding and hold your attention. I don't care that the worlds are small, but I do care that they're generally boring. I collected an entire inventory of random junk and honestly had almost nothing I could do with 90% of it other than sell it to other players who may or may not have a better idea of how to utilize it? I think Quality of Life wasn't a statement that was ever considered when writing the user interfaces of this game, because every interaction I made with the UI made me not want to use it. Descriptions were generally useless, mechanics of how to navigate through it were unintuitive, I couldn't tell you the details of what I was looking at on almost any screen. Some of SWG's best and worst features were back. Wounds and dancing... I always understood the intent, but could I get anyone to dance for me on launch... no, and to be fair, asking a stranger to dance for me feels very awkward. The part that made the UI worse was that more than half of it was WIP this left me confused when trying to figure out crafting and frustrated while trying to find a fun skill to work towards because there wasn't anything. The big skill tree works because I can set goals to work toward, but when most of it is not implemented, what's left to work towards? Then the bugs were bad. Especially for the low player count at launch. I get day one bugs, but I think at one point my server crashed I lost 10 minutes of progress (not the worst thing) but then to spin up a new server to join took 5 minutes of confessing loading screens and my character in a general void. Other bugs included the grappling gun misfiring, it only worked when equipped to a random slot. floating through space where I got stuck only going backwards and up for some reason. Numerous visual glitches, some obvious and some I'm assuming because it's the only explanation to why certain things happened, and at least a dozen more that I couldn't tell at the time if it was a bug or if I just didn't understand what to do. On performance... I mean a good chunk of the time the game did run, but not well, and it's to the point where I couldn't tell you what was a bug and what was just lagged responsiveness. One or two of these general issues, I could understand, tolerate and potentially recommend this game in spite of. The Idea is good, but it's not ready for the general public, and I didn't pay $30 to spend my free time writing up endless bug reports, so at this point I can't recommend it. I'll give it a month. Watch to see what happens and if it improves, maybe I'll try again, but for now I'm gonna sit just under 2 hours and refund if overhauls aren't around the corner, and it doesn't seem like they are.

The controls for building your Homestead are wonky at best and result in loss of building structures. Very common metals are depleted and mining them results in servitors killing you. This used to be solved by harvesting Hexavine, but apparently they removed that from the game leaving you basically screwed. the missions are glitching horribly. the servers aren't dropping as much anymore, but they are lagging horribly. the loot box puzzles used to unlock higher rarity loot boxes are confusing and convoluted the crafting material stats need an explanation as to what the differ values effect. over all, this game currently has WAY too many issues need to be resolved. when some of these things start getting resolved, i might be able to recommend it, but in its current state, it falls flat.

game had so much potential but feels rushed and half complete.. refunding it instantly. Sad, was really looking forward to this!

This game looks like lots of fun, but... Do not waste $30 on the minimum pack and for sure dont waste $80 on the pack that gives you everything in the $30 pack to support the game with an extra 50. - The names of items you need to progress are not named the same in the missions as they are in the skills and both are different from the items themselves in some cases. - It is not clear how to get your first free homesteader so you can build your base but if you dont get 1 on the first character you make your likely screwed and will have to spend hours doing monotonous missions to earn 20000 coins to get a homesteader or just never enjoy the base building content which is a good 80% of the game and 100% of progression currently. - The skill tooltips do not clearly explain the skills so you understand what you are spending your hours of coin and xp to get. - The item tooltips do not clearly explain what is needed to use an item or why you cant use it. - The missions sometimes give rewards but say they are giving you something else, example you get a starship key that unlocks the portals from the newbie area to the regular play area... - If you want to log off one character and onto another you have to quit the game and start the game all over again instead of just going back to the character select screen. - The help/tutorial videos made on youtube by the DEVELOPERS do not match the game at all right now as all the naming doesn't match and some of the skills are just gone now, or if they are there they are not clearly tool tipped so you know what they do. - The anti griefing statements should be completely ignored because players 100% grief each other by covering base entrances or building up mountains around bases so people cant get into their own base without dying from fall damage or having to dig tunnels to get to their own base. - There are no vehicles, space bases, or space ships in the game at all so ignore all those videos that stated anything about that existing. They are all locked behind WIP skills. My view is that the developer spend time making a time sinc so you would HAVE to pass your 2 hour refund window before you figure out how bad it is. There are MASSIVE time sincs all over the place that take way longer than other games of the same genre. I have bought $5 indie games that were alpha that were more finished than this early access game. If it used to be playable it is very nearly not playable in its current state.