Unstrong: Space Calamity

Another long and fun collectathon. This time with an emphasis on gravitational platforming and some space travel. More weird characters and weird comedy (in a good way).

Unstrong: Space Calamity is a poorly made console ported Unity based 3D third person platformer. There's some kind of cartoony/outer space theme here, but it's difficult to get into because of some really severe design flaws. It's unclear if this is even a complete game as the last news from the developer is that this has just entered beta testing... but the game isn't in Early Access. (Edit: Apparently it's "finished", which is even WORSE given the absolute train wreck state of this failed game). The controls are the most obvious problem. Like, extremely badly done controls. There is mouselook, but not mouse control, so this is awkward and it comes across as if the developer never saw a PC before. Mouselook is also ultra sensitive and I couldn't see a way to invert the mouse. That's probably a result of the sloppy console port. But it gets worse of course... movement keys aren't WASD, you have to use arrow keys to move. So arrow keys + mouse. That's actually infuriating. With your hands pushed all the way over to the right, how are you supposed to use the other keys for jumping and so on? It's evident zero playtesting of this console port was ever done. The cel shaded art style looks okay but some of the assets are a bit low poly. There's some graphics tweaks, but you can't change the resolution (edit: from anything but "low", "medium", or "high", whatever that means), so there's no guarantee you'll be able to get this to run at native resolution on your display, an unacceptable technical fault. This is really so badly done you can make the argument this console port is unplayable. It's impossible to recommend. [quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote] The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says: [quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote] Well there's a lot to unpack here, as apparently the developer is new to video games and has only just heard about them. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, anyway. Alternative explanations for their preposterous response aren't as kind, so we'll go with the nice one. > Mouse sensitivity settings are in the Settings menu > The controls can be set to WASD in the Settings menu > The keys can be configured in the Settings menu > When using mouse control, there is no need to use other keyboard keys than the directions, unless you want to access the menu Nowhere in my review did I say this wasn't possible, but we must question why the developer didn't use a sensible control scheme in the first place... well, my mother always said we should assume incompetence before malice. Either way, that's not going to help sell this dumpster fire to anyone. Also, mouse control doesn't move the character! You MUST use the keyboard for this... talk about ridiculous. The fact that there's no mouse control in the menu is a damning indictment of the sheer incompetence of this developer. > The resolution can be changed to various levels - low (480p), medium (720p) and high (1080p) Great for anyone who's still using a 480p, 720p or 1080p monitor from 2006 when they became mainstream. It's 2022. Those options are not reflective of a modern gaming PC, so my review stands on this point. It's unclear why the developer wants to draw further attention to this defect. > The game is complete and isn't a beta That's an embarrassing admission given the shoddy state of this failed game. It's also highly misleading, because the last news update for the game STILL says the game has just entered beta. Did the developers fail to tell both people who played the game that it's no longer in beta? If this isn't a beta, that makes this train wreck even worse. I was giving the developer the benfit of the doubt here, but clearly I was wrong to do that, so I've amended my review in light of their admission of failure. The developers pointless response here should serve as confirmation of the content of my review and a solid additional reason to avoid this badly made console crapfest. But since the developer is so keen to draw attention here, I had a look at SteamDB to see just how much people enjoyed playing this... haha. Nobody did. The Steam player counts are an unmitigated disaster. The game only ever had 2 different people play it at the same time, just once, at launch, around a year ago. Since then, only one person fires it up every month or so then immediately deletes the game. What a complete and utter joke. The developers woeful attitude, trying to shift blame to reviewers and gamers for the glaring defects in the game is surely a contributing factor to this being one of the most unpopular games on Steam. Even Unity asset flip scams have higher player counts. You can't make this stuff up. I'd like to thank the developer for drawing further attention to the massive defects in the game and the magnitude of failure. Absolutely do not waste your money on this game. Edit: The developer has doubled down on their misinformation campaign. As I already proved, the developer completely LIED about misinformation in my review. Every point I've made is 100% verifiably true. This appalling behaviour from an increasingly unethical developer compounds the problems here. Because no information has been corrected, as my review remains wholly accurate, the developer has absolutely breached Valve's guidelines for developers, and continues to do so.

I purchased this game off of a indie bundle site of 9 games for 99 cents and this was one of them. The game was a little confusing at 1st but after awhile I got the hang of it. I have always liked platformer games since way back in the Commander Keen, Jazz Jackrabbit, original sega Sonic etc. The only issue I came across was trying to work out the settings and not being able to select with my mouse and had to use the keyboard and it was a pain. I personally enjoyed this game and I would highly recommend this game for those who enjoy these kind of games. Sad that heart chain kitty was not part of that bundle deal I got as I probably would enjoy that as well. Go try the demo out and buy this game, support your indie developers!

Kinda liked this game. Could use better bg music.