Exark

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Very enjoyable. Has a lot more potential to be amazing with some QoL improvements and UI/clarity improvements, but in it's current form already worth it imo. Especially for just an occasional run here or there. Does suffer a little bit from one strat to win all, but I'm sure that can be expanded on down the line.

Autobattler City Builder Roguelike! What's not to like!

Exark has a lot going for itself and stands out with fresh mechanics in the genre. Ultimately, I would like to give a mixed review and heres why: Unfortunately, the game is way too easy. Won my first run, hesitantly put in some additional difficulty modifiers, aced the next one, boldly cranked up the difficulty to maximum, lost on the very first flight, adapted, won on the next try. Each was with a new house (slightly different mechanics), which should have made it harder as well. To be fair: I played dozens of auto-battlers and that probably "helps" to overcome higher difficulties. Still, I like brain-teasers and this, unfortunately, ist not one of those. The idea of having your production as your health is really cool and refreshing. Being able to decide, whether u even wanna go aggressively or not is also enticing. I must admit though, that I always ended up doing both - investing just a little in military lets you finish most of the enemy ships easily. Just concentrating on military was not worth it, because there are just too few enemy ships to sustain your ressources. Additionally, upgrading your buildings in a run needs to be revisited. Usually one of the best ways to boost your build in the genre, in Exark you mostly only get a single-digit production boost, while being able to give permanent stat boosts in the hundreds via other means. One last thing: the performance drops pretty fast when your build really gets going, which is pretty annoying and makes the endless mode a chore of watching a slide. Might also be my modest rig, but its usually sufficient for indie games. Overall, I enjoyed the couple of hours I put in so far. Will revisit after some patches, because I see a lot of potential in the game.

Really enjoy learning all the different effects from buildings, relics, items, etc. and how you can combine them to make an unstoppable ship. The random shops do a good job of making each run feel different than the last, where you might find yourself favoring a certain tag over others or using different buildings. Really fun to play around with all the combinations!

GOOD: The core gameplay loop of this game is AMAZING. It has a good variety of engines you can build and it's super SATISFYING once your ship pops off. BAD: Needs a few QOL updates like optimization (it can lag a bit) and an overhauled tutorial, since some of the game's mechanics aren't explained well. VERDICT: If you enjoyed games like Monster Train, The Bazaar, or Backpack Battles... GET THIS GAME!

Slight learning curve, But losing makes every subsequent run more thought-provoking. I quite like it. You feel like a super genius when you pull out a crazy combo with synergies.