System Ascension: Idle Core

First the pro, because it's worth calling out - this game is gorgeous. Kudos to the art team. I can't comment on the music because I muted it immediately as I'm playing my own. Now for the negatives: * The machine upgrades don't feel meaningful - unlocking a later machine is often less efficient from a cost/benefit standpoint than upgrading an existing one and the impact for each upgrade is *tiny* compared to how much the price for the next upgrade jumps. * The cost jump for machines between the first and second area (that's as far as I've gotten so far) is huge, without a comparable jump in income. * The machines tell you how much they earn you per "cycle" right now (which seems to be about 11 seconds if I counted my Mississippis correctly), but your total earn rate is shown in energy per second. Pick one and stick with it please. * The upgrades aren't in a "later upgrades are always better" order, yet it doesn't tell you what effect an upgrade will have before you purchase it. You need to provide that information. Or better yet, do the math for us and show us the cost to benefit ratio. * The tech upgrade screen pops up a red warning when you first open it saying that you should make a decision when it's worth it to cash in your energy for tech points because it resets all of your machines. That's cool, but it then hides all of the upgrades except for the first one so you don't know if it's worth waiting until you can afford more than one upgrade or not, or even how many tech points you need to be able to get more than one upgrade for cashing in your progress. * The tech upgrades use your current energy balance instead of being gated on total earnings, so you're incentivized to not make progress on your income to afford tech upgrades. * This is minor, but the voice lines are really quiet, even with the voice volume maxed out. * When running in the background or minimized, upon bringing it back into focus it pops up a box saying that you've been away and that your progress was slowed to 12.5% - why?! This is an idle game! Why are you punishing players for actually idling in it? That needs to go immediately. * The sound effect when backing out of a menu is obnoxious * You can't click and hold to generate energy, you *must* click repeatedly, so an auto-clicker is a must. There's no game designer or producer listed in the credits - they could really have done with having one.

This really could be a fun game, but 1. There really isn't much idle about it. The minigames require constant attention (5-30 seconds) because extremely little can stack up and be claimed from them later 2. The main game loop hits a terrible wall just after Chemical 3. The Turrets are just useless after you get the laser, and getting through a single wave can take 30 minutes for a 25% cumulative upgrade in a period of the game when thousands of % mean nothing It just isn't balanced. Seeing as I'm the first reviewer after 2 days, I think this game didn't take off and is being abandoned, at least on Steam. Maybe I'm wrong, I hope so. It has a lot of potential. 2/5 - Fix the balance and actually make the game idle.

It started off strong but isn't honestly much of an idle game as it requires constant attention for all the minigames. A lot of it feels like style over substance.

This is a fun Idle game, it starts out like a normal clicker game, the prestige system will be used early on and go down a path of upgrades and game changer. At first you will see the % upgrades, followed by tabs (speed, amount). Then there are some special unlocks, like the planet view with Life upgrades or defense game with an automated cannon. There are also other upgrade system like the gems you mine or doing your daily clicks. The main clicker "levels" can also be automated. Each of them has a different mechanic as to how they work and what upgrades you should buy to make progress. Although the game has explanation boxes pop up I haven't found a way to open them again for reading. Another matter I dislike is that if you work on another screen and you see a focus pop up, your first click will be ignored and window needing confirmation and showing what your away gains are pops up. I missed so many focus because of this :(

the beginning is enjoyable as a idle game. the prestige loop, middle and endgame feels like it drags out even for a idle game the game has a abrupt ending that felt disappointing to me.