Desolation Seed

Vision: 10 The story and design is incredible. I really, really want this to be a successfully put together game. It blends nostalgic 90s tech horror with extremely relevant, current affairs, at least extrapolated a hundred years or so. The idea behind being this mech/augmented human, traversing this bleak world, annihilating belligerents, tagging humans, and reconnecting networks, has the markings of a truly enjoyable experience. Execution: 4 There are currently a combination of too many bugs and/or poor design choices. The score is largely given for the impressive, immersive, and atmospheric visuals, videos, and audio. The game is crushingly difficult. I don't know if this is by design, it's early access nature, or bug issues. For example, I can often hear I am being shot from somewhere, but due to nothing suggesting where it is coming from and absolutely zero spatial sound, and nothing visible, I can't fight back. I was at one point very far away from an enemy I engaged but even at the other end of a football field, I could still hear it's gunshots right inside my own head. When items are dropped - which is infrequent, they are often very hard to see. Also, where are the items? How do we get them? So far I've found only two boxes of ammo on the ground. Having very little feedback from walking, shooting, getting shot, and more, makes the experience very sterile. I trust more sounds, and better reactions will come along in time. Other strange processes are opening doors. Did I activate it? Not sure, several seconds pass, I traverse. More feedback is desperately needed on interactions. There are several screens you will see as you open and interact with things that show a X in the corner - these do nothing, simply a graphic, and very unintuitive. I also don't currently understand progression. I go into a world, and it appears to be perma-death on whichever mode I choose. However, if I have picked up the rapid fire upgrade, I have it permanently? Also, my ammo count carries through each play. Summary: This could be a classic crust game. The story, design, music, ambience are all amazing. The gameplay is lacking, crushing, and unpolished. I appreciate it's early access, and I will not be refunding. I want to support this game and others like it. My view is this would all be a lot more fun if we were more of a Robocop character, laying out heavy fire, blowing things and people up, and seeking the Server District on our noble mission. Right now it feels like I'm a naked man holding two guns, spending my time peeping around corners. Sadly, right now, I cannot recommend it, even to hardcore fans of this type of content. As soon as it's updated more and ready, I'll amend the review.

Ville Kallio would be proud. Clearly has big influence from Cruelty Squad and Psycho Patrol R. Obtuse, bizarre, borderline unfair, and on the nose messaging. Definitely an acquired taste but if you're a fan of CS and PPR this fits right in. Waiting to see how the future updates improve.

This game is a zoological fkfest with finger fking in it. if you buy this game, you are basically ferraro's fkk toy. because this games been in development for 4 fking years, and this is what came out. he conned us all we are all his slave. be a good goy and the game for full price. And itll be fking good.

Gameplay is unintuitive, enemies either miss or insantly kill you, your weapons barely hit where you aim,ui makes no sense. World is cool and the story is very interesting, playing as a server farm robot collecting humans to use as storage and for energy was a cool premis, but maybe when the gameplay is fun I'll try again.

its a promising start but if you arent a diehard james ferraro fan i suggest waiting until it leaves early access

This game is genuinely unplayable. I have no idea how you guys did it. Start with ZERO ammunition, not a single control is explained and there isn't even a tutorial. If one of you has an answer to this I BEG YOU to tell me. Because I genuinely have no clue how the ♥♥♥♥ you played this game Graphic's nice though

{[b]Spoulers. ahead.[/b] and [b]TLDR[/b]: i find the game quite fun, there are some issues i personally have, primarily with how enemies sometimes spawn, minor gripes with parts leading up to the ending, and with experience, finding the game to become a little easy [ambiguous if this is a positive or negative due to how it was originally]. BUT this is still an early access game, a lot of the more egregious bugs i'd encounter on day 1 have been ironed out and the devs are regularly updating the game with patches. i found myself wanting a little more from the game, being able to complete it in just under 2 hrs, but content updates are set to come too, so i await eagerly what those entail :} } i'm still thinking about desolation seed. there are definitely still issues but even from day 1, despite any bugs i encountered, after completing the first area and connecting the first terminal something with the game clicked with me. like oh yeah i like this actually . the overall gameplay loop is quite addicting. having wide open areas where u have to fend off combat drones, and entering Nest areas to tag humans 2 buy more stimulants to aid ur survival , while continuing with ur goal to connect the computers to [spoiler]the world parliament[/spoiler] servers. visuals, atmosphere and sound design / music as well are also Damn Awesome as expected from a project involving ferraro. i initially had trouble properly adjusting to what the game demanded of me. when starting out i knew there were ways to use stimulants having read the steam page and the intro seq, yet it didn't register just how they would be obtained... i eventually figured this out, the whole left side of the inventory menu, but that was a lot of frustration attempting to raw-dog levels without any kind of aid and having low ammunition lol. pretty sure that's just me being a bit slow tho. i definitely think the controls of the game should've been stated somewhere from the start, if not customisable, i had to learn to geotag humans from someone mentioning it in the discord server [this is however stated in an area very close to the beginning area that i never visited on my first playthru, so just a silly thing on my part lol]... when you have everything figured out however it is quite a fun experience, and the default controls feel natural enough my main gripes with the game having gotten accustomed to it now is with enemy spawning. starting off with the drones, they are deffo ideally taken care of with shooting from afar. it's understandable too that the game will give moments in which you have to fight them up close, tho i believe perhaps in some of those moments u kinda need like 0.01ms reaction time so to not get hit by them. there is that area just before [spoiler]commercial district[/spoiler] with two drones that are right around corners, those can be Damn Bausterds to deal with if you're not ready. later on in the final regular area with two Nests before you make ur way to [spoiler]server district[/spoiler] , there's a drone at the entrance that just conjures itself out of thin air in front of you. How Da Hell Is That Happening... the humans kinda have issues spawning in appropriate places; they're kinda the bulk of my complaints in this general topic. a lot of the time their placements are fine and optimal for catching you off-guard but some guys end up being placed within floors or ceilings. in some wide open areas i'll hear them taunt before a shot and i cannot for the life of me find where the shots are coming from. there are moments where i feel like they will spawn from kinda cheap places, like i just left an alleyway and you're directly behind me. or i'm going to enter this apartment room and you're gonna conjure yourself from the direction i had my back facing. oh yeah and also... the directional audio is complete opposite of where enemies actually are. u can hear a taunt from ur left speaker and the enemy is on your right. i have checked, and yes i am wearing my headset correctly... :p i've lowkey began adapting to that a bit Lol idk if there currently are any more endings to the game as of yet ? in the final area [spoiler]server district[/spoiler] there are places and happenings which could imply alternate routes, [spoiler]like the exit marker appearing when tagging all of the humans in the building, that 1 secret room behind the final terminal on the top floor, or just the fact that the main ending is called Path A...[/spoiler] i kind of found myself wanting a little more from the [spoiler]Path A[/spoiler] ending? [spoiler]the video sequence is pretty cool and has an impact but idk, preceding that you kind of fly around in this new drone mode 4 a bit and Release The Worm.[/spoiler] perhaps the climax of it all is kind of diminished for me as well cos idk if this is intentional either, but when entering the final [spoiler]server district[/spoiler] room [spoiler]with the pipe bomb throwing guys,[/spoiler] i stop being able to take damage and cannot shoot anymore? disabling and re-enabling my guns can allow me to shoot again, but the inventory isn't accessible either... it just kind of takes out any kind of challenge in that final moment, and maybe that screws it up. so thats another thing. [spoiler]that flying mode[/spoiler] could potentially be expanded upon in future content updates, from following this game online for a lil while that used to play a larger role in gameplay? it could be cool 2 see it's been said the game is going to receive further content updates with this early access period , and it has been getting consistent patches in general from player feedback; if you played on day 1 it's most certainly gonna feel different if you play right now. now that i am used to the game and have played it over a few times, i've overall enjoyed my time, and i'd deffo like to see new elements added to it, so it's great that there can be more of the game to come. you can play the game as-is in one sitting, my latest playthru taking just under 2 hours. i found myself kind of wanting more of the game because of this, maybe more levels or smthng else lel. hot take ? with these updates or as time's went on i'm lowkey finding the game a little easy... certainly not Actually Easy, you still gotta be vigilant, think about how 2 deal with situations and use what u find wisely, but i also found myself stockpiling abt 5 or 6 lots of ammo throughout a majority of the game. it's deffo easier than it was on day 1 at least, though i hadn't had hours of experience with the game on day 1 lol. i don't know if this speaks to my own skill or the game actually becoming easier with updates, only throwing this out there... despite it all, the premise and gameplay is pretty cool, and this is deffo a positive addition 2 my steam library. the theme is Damn Depressing, surviving out there can be tough... and that stuff can be really fun. the devs r deffo putting a lot of care into listening 2 player feedback w these latest updates. i'm eager to see what those content updates could entail! with the time and feedback the experience for both new and experienced players can be seriously upgraded, and already whats here is pretty great. if you're up for putting up with a kind of intentionally and unintentionally rough time, give it a shot ! if you only want the intentional part of Rough Time then you could let it wait a lil until its either further thru early access or its @ the full release. but this game is definitely progressing

The most immersive and hyperreal virtual experience i had in ages. This software has an extraordinary vision and bold execution, only a few other could compete with. Virtual late stage 21st century exposure therapy software for treating PTSD.

Setting is amazing, art is fantastic, game plays like an oiled up chimpanzee on ice with a severe concussion. No mouse sens settings and the hitboxes seem to be slightly off, no menu for keybinds or explanation for anything. The tightlipped controls approach can work but with the mess of issues also impacting the game, leading to a difficult unenjoyable heap. When I perform well it feels more like a fluke or the game finally deciding that it wants to behave, instead of me actually getting better.