We are definitely the baddies

The controls are annoying, especially for a game I only want to play twice. I also wish it had achievements so I knew what scores are reasonable to achieve. High score: [strike]1003[/strike] over 50k. The game is a bit more interesting than I originally thought... one particular mechanic was very subtle in the older versions. However, I still think the game is pretty dull. One of the main mechanics, [spoiler] generators, is mostly just "everything costs +100 salt" with extra steps and fiddling with building placement. Since this is a major mechanic, the game feels shallow while also being overcomplicated and finicky. [/spoiler]

I get that the joke is that this system is very wasteful. And it is! That also makes it very frustrating to play! Nothing is tutorialized well so you're gonna burn your first run or two trying to figure things out, but once you do figure things out, it's very simple and straightforward and not really that engaging either. Ships attack so infrequently that turrets barely feel worth building and other than that it's just setting up pipelines tediously and watching a number go up. It's not even a puzzle game like the other cosmos 9 games, it's just a strategy/tower defense game really. It's not... bad, but I cannot imagine ever choosing to play it again, and you don't get much bang for your buck here. As for the bundle as a whole... it really feels like a game jam that they're making you pay to play. Half the games are either tech demos or just feel... unpolished, and they're all a bit too far on the short side to be particularly engaging. And there's no real cohesion between the graphical design or the controls meaning the whole "console" gimmick doesn't really hold up. The whole set is definitely a bit overpriced and even at the 50% off price point I can't say it felt worth the time I spent with them all. If you do have to get any games in this pack, Triga is probably worth full price, Linelith and IFO are pretty cool albeit a bit underdeveloped and probably worth it on sale, and maaaaybe Tendy and Frequency Dissonance are worth it on sale but those are hard to recommend otherwise, and the other four are either too tedious or too underdeveloped to be even worth your time, so I'd give the bundle as a whole a pass.

The fact that generators can only power exactly one building, means that every other building just is a bit more expensive and requires a few more clicks to set up. If they could power more buildings like two or three, and they had limited range, then there would actually be some strategy involved in placing them. As it is now, generators could be removed without affecting anything. There are also a bunch of UI and UX issues, but fixing those won't help since there isn't anything interesting to do. Figured out everything there was by the second run, and then it's just a matter of how quickly can you click to build more labs (and their personal generators...). It saddens me, because this could be a fun game in theory, even without adding much complexity.

Garbage pipe system and no meaningful choices, just networks of a basic building setup, pipelines and defense.

Boring, single-solution, finicky controls, ugly, and generally all-around bad. There's the vague notion of something interesting here, but it's just that: vague. Not even suitable as a joke/cheap game. Mostly just feels like a student project.

Extremely basic RTS. There is nothing more to this game than what the screenshots show. Interactions with the mouse feel unresponsive.

no...

This was more of a hard sell to me than I expected. It probably won't resonate with you as much as the other games in the CosmOS 9 bundle. Firstly, the gameplay isn't particularly engaging, and the lack of instructions that works for the other games in the bundle doesn't work as much here. Since this essentially isn't a puzzle game, it's not structured as one and thus you as a player are thrust into this open map with just a few basic hints to guide you, and their effectiveness is limited. The "threat" of random ships coming to attack your production line is also so infrequent and sparce, you'll hardly have to build any turrets. The one positive I guess is that managing to construct a full production line is kinda satisfying, especially if you like idle games, or seeing a number go up on the top of the screen. It does cap out at 99999, which is easily achievable in less than the 15 minutes of playtime, so you'll end up waiting for the clock to run out near the end, doing nothing but placing the occasional turret/generator combo. Look I had some fun playing this, and enjoyed my experience, but I still need to be fair when reviewing this game so other people know what the game is like before getting it. I'm really sorry.

Fun game. Not very complex in principle, but every game is as complex as you want to make it at the end of the day. it reminds me a bit of playing wonder race in Age of Empires 2, in that I want to get a pen + paper out and figure out how long it takes for tech buildings to pay themselves back. It's a game that is upfront about the fact that it is short, so I don't understand the negativity. I've enjoyed the couple of games I played, and I could see myself coming back to try and get as high a score as I can. Conclusion: It's good fun.

The factory must grow