Stars Reach

Just found out to own a base in game you will need to pay a sub on top of buying the game. Non subbed players will not be able to own their own base. In a survival crafting building game.

Uninstalled--Very incomplete, even for an Alpha. Stars Reach has some interesting ideas, especially its terraforming, crafting, simulated environments, and player-driven systems, but at this stage it feels much more like a development build than a game ready for paid Early Access. Stars Reach's player base is DEAD, and it has only been four days since its release. WTF?! Steam needs to share responsibility for dead Early Access games, and companies abandoning games like Amazon's New World. Players put up the money and take all the risk. If development stalls or the game is abandoned, we are left with an unfinished product while Steam keeps its cut. Why should players carry 100% of the risk while Valve profits either way? Early Access should not mean, “Give us your money and accept whatever happens.” Steam profits from this system and should be accountable when developers take our money and fail to deliver. When are players going to stop accepting this en masse? Ok, I'm off my soapbox and onto the review. One of the basic UI rules I followed as a software developer from the 1980s onward was: try not to put something on the screen that the user cannot actually access or use—especially menu items. Stars Reach repeatedly violates that principle. The skill interface, for example, displays portions of skill trees marked WIP (Work in Progress). Showing unfinished, inaccessible functionality directly in the normal player interface constantly reminds the player that substantial portions of the game simply are not there yet. There are other signs of the same problem. Systems are incomplete, content is thin, parts of the interface feel provisional, and the player population is already very small for something intended to be an MMO. I say this as a retired software developer and someone who has been gaming since 1976: Stars Reach was released prematurely. I understand what Alpha and Early Access mean; I do not expect a finished or polished product. But there is a difference between an unfinished game and a game whose basic systems and interface still openly expose development placeholders. There may eventually be a very good sandbox MMO underneath all of this, but right now it feels as though I paid to participate in an extended development test rather than bought an Early Access game that was ready for players.

Plays like a pre alpha. Very laggy, constant jerkyness, cant see other players models just a shadow thing, it needs a LOT of work.

First off let me say that despite me initially thinking about giving a negative review I will probably continue to play this game a lot. I've been with the game since the kickstarter early playtesting groups and I am hopeful the devs will eventually fully fix and polish the game. As it sits now the game is more in a playable alpha state than an EA or even beta state. I completely agree with the discussions and other reviewers that say the EA release was rushed and the game should have been playtested and fixed quite a bit more prior to the release. That being said games like this are expensive to develop, especially considering the eventual scale and such that the devs are aiming for. It would be my guess that Playable Worlds would also agree that the EA release was a bit premature, however by pushing into EA they open up at least some income stream for the game that they can then use to continue to develop. Am I disappointed in the state of EA release? Sure Will it stop me from continuing to play? No Should you buy the game right now if you want a polished mostly bug free EA release game? Also no Most of the negatives are likely going to be from people who either never playtested and are just now playing for the first time, or those who are going to compare it to SWG and are mad that its not. I myself would give it a neutral review if I could, but and preemptively leaving positive because I'm confident and hopeful the devs will treat the continued development right. I fully expect a No Mans Sky situation. Over promise and under deliver at release but turn into a success over time.

Bad stuttering unit collision with small plants that shouldn't have it making some areas impassable lots of players have no heads, or fractal like bodies game lags when you swap tools tutorial is absolutely worthless. when you get out of the tutorial you just do missions from a kiosk, no just going off and building as advertised. you don't manage anything other than your tool battery bar game is no where near an early access state

The developers are focusing on the wrong things, which will ultimately make this game fail. There are three major issues that really must be solved before anything else. The Graphics Most people are probably going to take one look at this game and never give it a second glance. It looks like a hobby project by a new dev who is just screwing around. The character models are so juvenile that it gives the impression that the game is for little kids. And the animations are just awful. The UI/UX I don't understand this. There are so many ways to make a pleasing and coherent UI, yet the one they have literally looks like it was thrown together in paint. The three resource bars look like engine placeholders that are used for prototyping. The Clunkiness This may be the worst offender of all. A lot of games have gotten passes, or haven't been judged as harshly, simply because they control well and feel good to play. Here it feels like you don't even Want to keep playing because of the friction and fatigue from controlling it. Magnifying this issue is the absolute extreme lag. There's not a lot to be said regarding this, it just shouldn't be this bad and for some reason it is. I've followed this game for a long time. Played and loved SWG on launch, and seriously want to see its resurgence. I believe the devs do as well, but it seems they are completely ignorning the most important things to make a successful game. They've had 40 million dollars in funding, and over 8 years of development, and this is what they have to show. There are solo games with tiny budgets that look and play drastically better than this. There's just no excuse for it.

I can't recommend this game in its current state. I'm the sucker who spent 70$ + to back this project. I guess I thought it was much further along for such an outrageous price tag. I am coming from SWG, No mans sky, and so many others. I'm not sure what these guys are thinking, but good lord....27 hours into this mess and I still can't figure out how to place a proper home, Build any of the refinery's, Place said refiners in my homestead...What a disappointing mess. Also if you want to fly a cool little saucer around forget it. The game tells you that your given a spaceship key, you then end up having to EVA to portals...super bland boring and dry. Oh and get ready for a massive inventory overload with 0 way to store much of anything like valuable recipies you may be trying to hold onto, or resources your tired of carrying around on your toon. Like I get it....Its Alpha...But guys WTF

Frankly I'm embarrassed for the studio that released this game in such a state. This would be a reasonable attempt at a free playable alpha weekend but it's certainly not ready for widespread release. The UI is terrible, optimization is terrible, animations are terrible, interacting with the world feels amateurish and barely functional... the words "train wreck" come to mind and I can only assume this was pushed out by an abusive publisher and hopefully not the people actually working on the game. In any case, it's ugly and broken and barely works and in no world is it worth the price being asked.