Suborbital

every time i think i'm at the last step, i find there's another and i love it, don't think i'm ever gonna be able to beat it tho

This is an incredible space survival game- squinting through the darkness, desperate maneuvers, desperate grabs for safety, nothing is easy. This reminded me a lot of one of my favourite games, Outer Wilds, in that it thrusts you into a mystery, leaves the world completely open to you, and that it expects you to die and try again repeatedly. It is quite difficult, as you really can't see well at all. Everything is lit in only one plane from a single source, and anything that is in shadow is not visible at all. This means that every new frontier you feel through blindedly like a newborn, but also that areas you've been and things you've done feel easy and you move through them quick. This cosmic darkness is probably the primary driver of difficulty. I like it, As I said, I interpret it being hard as 'expecting you to be able to do more each time'. You are working with some limited resources, and as you learn specific areas and tasks, you can streamline these maneuvers. The best parts of this really are like Outer Wilds. There is no respawn. My biggest criticism is that other mechanics directly prevent playing like this. I tried this, skipping past some quest markers to jump straight to a different section. The brilliancy is that many areas are naturally gated, by oxygen, or light, or by quest markers. However, there are places where it is hard-shut and it's contrived. 'Further analysis is needed' to open a bloody crate. Regardless, this is absolutely ripping with potential, and I'm massively enjoying my time with it. The darkness and difficulty suffuse with a properly grim space-accident tone. Soundtrack is great. I truly believe that the small change to remove hard barriers would completely open the game up, and make it more explorative than linear. Dev if you're reading... <3

Sub orbital? erm more like sub optimal.

really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good, but PLEASE add a button to respawn. waiting for your oxygen to run out as you drift through space is pretty, but it gets annoying, especially while you're learning the controls. also, steel is really difficult to get in the early game. keep in mind if you want to buy it, it is difficult. a ton of fun, though!

Have NO idea what I'm doing 99% of the time and can't see most of it. Very Dark

Slowly trundled to my ship, it crashed, everything went dark so couldn't see anything, inventory doesn't have and won't let me build the oxygen tank, seems to be nothing else to find, locked in a room simulator. Maybe I'm thick but feels more like this needs some onboarding.

suboptimal