Terrene - An Evidence Of Life Game

[h1]Welcome[/h1] I am someone who grew up with a lot of (actual) floppy disk games and stuff like that. Back then there was no such thing as DLC or updates to keep someone coming back. A game had to be hard but fair and stand on its own merits in order to make it worth a purchase. Think about any time you have been playing a roguelike, RPG, JRPG, ARPG, or Action game and have received a big upgrade, character gets stronger, you feel stronger. This is what I am trying to convey here. In order for a game to feel worth it to me I need to feel like that game respects my time as a gamer, this is even more important the older you get. [h1]What is the game[/h1] Terrene is a awesome combination of Albatross Wirehead and Justwall Gamings passion for making simple but fun games. Terrene in its first form was a fraction of what it is now but with just as much charm and addictive gameplay. The developers talked about an update, I really can't stress that enough, [i]an update[/i]. What we received in the steam release is essentially Terrene 2. You are an astronaut exploring other planets for resources, on your journey you will encounter many alien creatures and the more of the planet you mine and the more of the aliens you kill the angrier the planet will get. Like a hive mind (or a wanted level from GTA) the enemies will become more aggressive and larger in number. The resources you gather from these planets will go towards a few things: • Upgrading your character • Hiring/improving a pet named Cyberpup • Improving/buying new weapons • improving your ship hull/weapons [h1]A Slap of Realism[/h1] I know it says this product was received for free and that is true but the reason why I got a copy is because I was a massive fan of the first iteration of this game. It is really fun and addictive if you played old flash games like Motherload or experienced Risk of Rain 1 coming out for the first time. You can see the passion and attention to mechanics in every bit of the game. [h1]What stood out?[/h1] • The music was absolutely spectacular (Justwall from the dev team actually is pretty impressive with music all on his own. Check out his stuff [url=https://ffm.to/wep_dissolve] here [/url]. The music in this game fits the atmosphere and mood of the game really well and while it sinks into the background it never gets annoying evening beyond hours of play. I loved hearing all the different tracks in the game. • The enemy designs in the different biomes kept things feeling fresh and interesting. Some of them are a real pain in the arse. I mentioned some things to the devs and of course they jumped on my valid feedback right away. They really care about what they have made. [b]• You can play local co-op with someone controlling Cyberpup! This is actually huge because whether you are having some beers or playing with your kids it is fun to jump in and help our astronaut in need with ease. You have a couple tools at your disposal to help the main character and it is a really sweet addition to the game. Why they aren't selling this game for $15 CAD I will never know. [/b] • This game seems to have what is essentially limitless growth. You never stop mining faster, you never stop killing faster, everything you do makes you stronger until you are a mining god and every planet bows to you. • When you finish all you need to do on the planet you can warp drive to a completely new planet with bosses and stuff all over again so the replay value is absolutely there. All in all what I will say is that the developers truly care about what they have made and they get excited at the thought of making the game better. I tried to get them to charge more for this game as I think it really does deserve it but they are adamant that this is what is best for you folks. If it means more people get to play then I am happy about it. They tossed me a key and the first day I had it I put in over 8 hours. If you like supporting good projects from good indie devs who care then buy this game right now. This ends the short and sweet of it. --- Now for those who like a little extra I will continue my review to say that since those 3 dashes I have put 45 hours into the game and it has only made me love the game more. No, this isn't some massive space adventure with a huge story it isn't going to shock you with a overarching plot or anything like that. The game is simply fun and addicting. I want to clarify how much has changed in this game. The best way I could describe the previous itteration of terrene (which was still awesome) was that it was concept of what could be. The Steam release of Terrene is what it was meant to be and it is just fantastic. You start out weak and while the gameplay loop doesn't adjust drastically it picks up enough to keep you on your toes. Eventually you can become a god and harvest planets for everything they have. Wait... What is that?!?!? A giant spider has made a nest inside the planet! You gotta take care of this situation boss! We can't be letting no spiders take reign on OUR planet! I died. Well damn.

What I liked about this game: - Collecting minerals and digging tunnels is fun - Exploring deeper into the caves and taking out hives is fun - The return trip to the orbiter is long but its eventful - Getting to the orbiter and buying upgrades after bringing a big load of minerals feels good - The [spoiler]sky boss and the space snake [/spoiler] boss are fun to fight What I dislike about this game: - Very low amount of settings. You can toggle fullscreen, turn off sound and music (completely) and disable the robots speech, but that's about it. -[strike]I can't hide the controls panel from the bottom of the HUD, sometimes it gets in the way of where i'm trying to look[/strike] (EDIT: new option allows you to hide the controls list!) - "ooh, whats this big cave over here?" And while I'm tunneling towards it, "Astronaut was killed by [spoiler]sarlacc pincher[/spoiler]" - For me in the beginning - middle part of game, the difficulty was increasing a bit too fast, around threat level 3 I had trouble surviving because the small enemies were able to take off 60% of my health in one hit. But after upgrading life support and weapons, it was less of an issue. What I want to see improved in this game: - The map. I would like to zoom in on it and see where are my tunnels. Right now you can't really see them. - The "hover mode" on the shuttle is awful. Half the time it rejects me launching into flight mode because its too close to the ground, got my shuttle wrecked a few times because of an incoming group of triple shooting enemies and this. I would suggest better mobility in hover mode. - [strike]The underground mini-bosses[/strike] (EDIT: The unfair boss i was complaining here got a change so that it no longer kills you without warning) Conclusion: I got this game because it reminded me of those 2D mining flash games I used to enjoy playing more than a decade ago. Plus I like to support indie game developers. Descending down onto the planet, starting to dig for resources, making sure you have enough coal, fighting off some enemies, exploring into caves, retreating to your ship, returning to the cave, taking out the hives, exploring even deeper and mining a huge load of gold and diamonds before returning to the orbiter for a break is a fun experience. Even though this game has some issues, I'm optimistic that some of these are going to get fixed. The recent patch was a step in the right direction. Even then for the most part the game remains quite fun.

Fun 2D exploration game. The side quests do well to break up the overall grind, and you get that sense of achievement as your suit, weapons, and ship become more formidable due to the fruits of your mining labor.

Great game with a good looking lo-fi aesthetic. You get to pilot your own ship and land on asteroids and planets to plunder them of their resources. The music and over all ambiance is great. I really like the miniature gun battles with the strange local fauna. It gives me the vibe of playing a prequel to Starbound on Atari. I would actually say the atmosphere is better than Starbound.

Grind elevated to art. They made a game that is 100% grind, but it's so much fun that the grind becomes the goal. Terrene is a very cool game. It is a spiritual successor to Evidence of Life, which I loved. This is a very similar game, but while it does a lot of the same things, I feel it does them all better. Please don't place too much emphasis on the amount of time I played it, as I have also been playing the via itch.io version for some time. I love the exploration and mining elements, combined with the planet and spaceship setting. It also has some of the most satisfying sound effects of any game I have played in recent memory.

This is a really fun exploration/crafting game. Character upgrades, Ship Upgrades and more. You can explore tons of planets, all inhabited by crazy monsters (Bouncing pigs?) that attack you as you harvest valuable resources. Highly recommended to give this game a try!

Very cool game! Spent several hours on the first planet alone, and every planet has unique enemies with different attack patterns, which makes the combat dynamic across sessions. The game itself plays like Terraria & a classic space shooter game, without the building aspect of the former. Reminds me of one of my favorite childhood games Solar Jetman (NES), but with much better / more intuitive controls. Fast paced action perfectly complements the grindy mining. My only real gripe is the amount of Biomatter needed to warp; when i had finished all other goals i still had 50% of the biomatter left to collect. I think 2000 would be good for balance, alternatively, make it more common so you reach the goal a little faster.

*edit* Ooh! A new update, seems like it improves a lot, I'm excited. Haven't played it yet, but I think it's wonderful how much care is being put into this game, I'm all for it. [outdated old review for reference] This was pleasant. I've seen and done just about all the major stuff I can, and can now mine through planets with ease. After finishing my first planet I was already finding myself very overpowered, but that's just because I kept to the lowest level planets. To anybody else playing I would recommend going for tougher ones, like going up by at least one level each time, so it still has some sort of stakes. For some things that I might have enjoyed it more for, maybe if the biomatter limit was a pinch smaller, and I also would have liked some more unique rewards for beating some of the extra stuff like the space station, labyrinth, and glitch maze, Maybe even depending on the level of the planet you're on. I do wish the pistol modifiers stacked in the inventory, as building up a mega powerful pistol could be really rewarding as an incentive for keeping on going though planets.

Terrene offers the charming nostalgia of old-school pixel art games while featuring a much larger world for players to explore. Accompanied by great music, you'll dive into this large world and hunt for treasures to get more and more upgrades. Thanks for this nice game.

It's a fun game. I'll probably eventually have to force myself to stop playing it, which is high praise. It reminds me a little of the Amiga/DOS game Jetpack. Fantastic music and satisfying sound design for things like shooting/collecting/mining. Very important in a game like this with simple graphics. I guess my only issue is that I wish there were some kind of in-game reference for crafting recipes. Let me know if I'm missing it, I always leave comments on. It's budget and it feels like it, but if you get into exploration/crafting/Metroidvania it's definitely worth the money. I honestly despise crafting in games, and it still works for me.