Stars Reach

I was a part of the alpha, and this is not bad for a first day Early Access release. It (mostly) works, has many bugs, but IT IS FIRST DAY! Give the devs some time to cook. 7 hour edit: Having given it a bit more of a shake, here's some more in depth. The starting area should have been handled better had more resources dedicated to it on launch. I have noticed lag in crowded areas. Combat can be a bit janky, jump and climb are inconsistent and abusable. Graphics and engine are unoptimized, so it runs rough. There are issues, but those that are game breaking are being addressed. It's early access, the warning is on the label. Don't judge a game on its first day Early Access release. Or first year, if you look at Final Fantasy 14, where they literally had to nuke 1.0.

[h1]7 Days Post Launch[/h1] [h2]The Good:[/h2] The world simulation is amazing for an MMO, terrain can be manipulated to different states. Dirt can be turned to rock to become more cohesive, allowing players to dig without their holes filling back up from the surrounding terrain. Rocks can also be eroded into sand/dirt if needed. Rocks can also be heated into lava that flows as you would expect it to. This is all calculated on the server's side and is generally quick to render in real time. Terrain can be terraformed in three dimensions giving players almost too much freedom to alter a planet's terrain. Building system is simple and functional, but can be used to make some non-cookie cutter structures that feel unique to each player. Given more time players will begin to create more complex structures, as was the case in previous playtests prior to Early Access. Crafting is complex and satisfying to engage in, and the complexity is conductive to players specializing and trading with each other. Wild wormholes open up in a space hub that allows players access to fresh worlds that can be harvested for resources that might have been long stripped from the stable worlds. Players are free to use these wormholes to travel between planets and space, and between different space systems. I also think what lore is currently in game hints at a promising new IP. Devs have also been very vocal with the community in the official Discord, if that is something you are concerned about. [h2]The Bad:[/h2] Early on players spawn on a tutorial planet Haven and Crucible, these are instanced starter zones that can give the impression that the game is instanced. Haven does not allow players to interact with the terrain, which also hides one of the biggest strengths of the game away from those unfamiliar with the game. Players will find that past these planets the game is interconnected in one shared ecosystem that provide freedom of movement. Devs plan to change how the tutorial planets are engaged with in the future, but this will not be soon. [strike]Bugged crafting recipes are currently blocking players from crafting more advanced equipment for tools and combat gear. Devs are reviewing crafting recipes and plan to fix these issues soon. Storage crates are bugged so storage caps are quite easy to hit, Devs are also planning to fix this in a patch soon. [/strike] The Mission system provides variable rewards but the missions are simple and repetitive. This is planned to be worked on at a later date. Currently planets are 1km by 1km and feel a little bit too small. Devs plan to expand to 4km by 4km, but this is not planned to be done anytime soon. Missions and creatures can provide loot boxes that give access to resources and recipes, but rarer loot boxes require puzzles to be completed that are cryptic and can result in no loot if failed multiple times. Chat box is also very simple and limited in scope, there is no linking items in chat. Grouping and guilds are also not yet in the game, but guilds and partying planned to be added prior to end of early access. [h3]As of Early Access Hotfix 8.4.5 the bugged crafting recipes and storage crates have been resolved. I will remove the strikethrough portion next Tuesday[/h3] [h2]The Ugly:[/h2] [strike]Servers keep crashing, but restart automatically with minimal rollbacks. More populated servers tend to accumulate memory leaks faster that result in more frequent server crashes. Devs have identified a couple memory leaks that they plan to patch soon.[/strike] Combat is also fairly simple, and depending on the difficulty of the creatures being fought, will be over in seconds. The lower difficulty mobs will be dead before they even engage, and the tougher creatures(with the starter equipment) will kill you in one shot. Creatures will become more powerful the longer they are left alone, so if a planet fails to cull these creatures regularly, new players might find the planets to be deathtraps. Devs do want to do a combat pass but I do not think this is planned to be done soon. [h3]As of Early Access Hotfix 8.4.5, the server crashes seemed to have been resolved, server stability so far seems to be fixed. I will remove the strikethrough portion next Tuesday if the memory leaks continue to be managed.[/h3] [h2]Tl;dr:[/h2] Stars Reach is a promising sandbox MMO, and I think that Playable Worlds have a very promising vision and the required skills to pull it off with time. If you want a game that is near release, then this game is not ready for your attention just yet. If you want to get in early to a sandbox MMO with a lot of DNA from early Star Wars Galaxies and do not mind very rough edges, then purchase the base game. Even if you're not ready to purchase the game because of the above issues I would suggest throwing it on your Wishlist or following it and keeping an eye on this. I will try to update this review on a weekly basis.

This game is boring. You are pigeon-holed into grindy fedex quests in order to get land to build on. There is literally nothing to do until you can build on your land. Even then Its not looking good about things to do. The game loop is heavily flawed right now because it locks all the fun behind a massive wall of boring busywork. Frankly I just don't want to do it. And there are so many annoyances in this game I don't even know where to start, so I won't. Games are supposed to be fun, and this isn't. It looks like ti could be but if there is any fun to be had in this game the devs are hiding it.

Combines the best parts of Star Wars: Galaxies and Everquest Next/Free Realms.

Really fun sandbox MMORPG ! Very unique with the way the world reacts to the players. Hoping we see 1.0 This game needs to exist!

I had high hopes for this game but it's just not ready. I lasted about 23 minutes as it was boring and moving seemed sluggish. Might check back in the future but right now it a PASS from me.

Very saddened by the state of this launch, I was expecting far more to do than what is offered. While I get the SWG similarities... this game is so far from playable and so much missing I cannot recommend it. I refunded just under 2 hours, and am very bummed by the chance to play this game I've watched for over a year.

I've been dreaming of a game like this since minecraft came out. I liked minecraft a lot but every time I played on some public server or MMO mod server they were invariably hosted by a crew of greedy dorks selling VIP priveleges and loot boxes. Also even on servers like that they're small scale and don't interact with each other. This game is like if all minecraft servers were networked and shared a persistent economy and server side characters to prevent (or reduce at least) cheating. There's also a super complex world sim going on here under the hood. I think people have barely scratched the potential during testing and in our couple days of EA. I started last night and played all day to day. There's plenty of early access jank and a lot of the systems need to be fleshed out but there's already a good amount of game here. I explored 20 worlds running basic missions and building up some currency and resources while looking for a place to put my first homestead ( a secure area other players can't modify) and I had a ton of fun. Combat is simple arcade fun, kill ♥♥♥♥, loot pops out, collect power ups, hunt down creature spawners. Some of the things i fought were even blowing up the terrain leaving little craters all over the sand. Good times. Haven't got into crafting at all yet but it looks rich and complex. Every single ingredient / resource has multiple stats. Iron from one planet is different than Iron from another etc. Anyways I'm hooked after a day of just wandering around solo. A small group could totally jump in right now, pick a planet, and start building a city. I think each player gets 3 homesteads so small groups can claim quite a bit of space. I don't know how many planets or systems are currently in the game but it's set up so they can just keep adding new ones as needed and deleting old ones we've chewed through like locusts. I really really hope this can get some traction and Playable Worlds can keep the lights on because this is something special and there hasn't been any innovation in online large scale multiplayer experiences in a couple decades. Time to go build a shack at the base of a mountain and go full DwarfMode for a week. I dig it.