Stationeers

Can't recommend because of the clunky UI, which apparently isn't clunky by accident. Most new players will spend way more time fighting it than accomplishing their goals in the game. This may look like a base building game, but it's really a menu navigation and (tiny--two active slots) inventory micromanagement game. Even players who are used to the interface and use it well could likely do far more in the game with an interface that works more like most other games in the genre.

Stationeer is an amazing game held back by lack of breadth. To be clear, it is a truly stunning system of a marvel of software that has managed to create such a satisfying and immersive engineering experience. Managing fluids, gasses, temperatures, materials... all of it comes together for a very satisfying (if very difficult) gameplay loop that is absolutely engrossing for hours and hours of play. The problem is that, once that loop is mastered, the game *very* quickly runs out of steam. This is probably an aspect of the Early Access nature, but man, it does suck setting up a self-sustaining box with enough water and potatoes to survive indefinitely and then going... 'now what'? Engrossing sandboxes often have this problem, but they can usually stave it off for longer and immerse the user in more systems on the way. For Stationeers, there's so much more that there just isn't reason to explore. Hydroponics is an extremely deep system but I had plenty of CO2 for plants from venting waste tanks into the base and one stack of Ice seems to last my water needs for a month. You can mollify this by throwing more curveballs at yourself - Vulcan start, Brutal start, etc - but once you understand the systems, it's really not too hard, and you lose imminent goals. Rocketry and trading add, but they don't feel necessary. TL;DR great game, just give me more reasons to do things. I want to set up waste gas filtering and collection and distribution systems because there's a real gameplay reason to that I have to address, not because there's no reason to do anything else.

Overall Summary Stationeers has huge potential and looks like a dream come true for engineers on paper. In the beginning, it runs relatively well, and building a small base is quite fun. The problem arises when you move into the late-game phase. The game runs on the Unity engine, which proves to be a terrible choice for a simulation of this scale. As soon as you build a massive base with fully automated production, the game literally falls apart, leaving you with nothing but constant bug fixing instead of fun. PROS: *Great Start: As long as you are building a small, simple base without heavy automation, the game is stable and very enjoyable. *Detailed System: The physics, gas mixtures, and the need to manage every wire and pipe connection are very satisfying at first. *Potential: The concept of the game is amazing; it is only held back by its technical execution. CONS - Why I don't recommend the game: *Poor Engine Choice & Catastrophic Optimization: The Unity engine simply cannot handle this game for larger projects. Even on a processor like the i5 12500H, a fully automated base becomes unplayable. If you don't own an absolute top-tier CPU like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, you can completely forget about expanding to a huge base. The bottleneck isn't your PC; it's the engine itself. *Broken Logic & Random Explosions: With heavy automation, the logic chips start failing. Controllers stop responding and fail to shut down machines like the Ice Crusher. The result? Pipe pressure spikes, gases get completely stuck (they stop moving entirely), followed by a random explosion that tears half your station apart. *Unfinished Mechanics & Vehicles: Vehicles are in a disastrous state. The rover is barely controllable, and when you are sitting in the seat, you can't even press the button on the dashboard. The ships and rovers you see in promotional images do not actually work in game. *Terrible Material Transport: The game lacks a proper transport system for long distances. You have to solve everything by dragging endlessly long chute networks just to gather all your materials in one place, which is extremely impractical. *Tons of Bugs: On top of the logic and gas issues, you will encounter bugs associated with the trader, which once again result in random explosions and destruction. Conclusion If you are looking for a game to play casually and are satisfied with a small base where you do everything manually, Stationeers will entertain you. But if your goal is what this game is supposed to be about—a massive, fully automated station where things get made without lifting a finger I absolutely do not recommend this game. Until the developers optimize the game properly, fix the broken logic, or change the engine altogether, the late-game phase is nothing but frustration and unplayable stuttering. It is still in Early Access, I hope it changes

Stationeers is the sort of game that cheerfully steals your entire evening (and often several of the early hours) and then has the audacity to make you thank it. You sit down thinking "I'll just fix the airlock" and suddenly it's 3 hours later and you're deeply invested in an air conditioning system that would make a RL HVAC tech nod approvingly. Or maybe you're just redesigning your base for the fourth time because the pipes weren't tidy enough. It's deeply immersive in the most dangerously satisfying way. If you like thoughtful problem-solving, ugly-beautiful bases, and the quiet pride of a system that just works, this game is for you. Just don’t trust it. It’s always waiting for you to forget one tiny thing...

TL;DR: the construction process is artificially tedious, which makes the whole game a bore. I like the idea of an operationally complex game. in which there are interesting variables to control; e.g. the programming of airlock pressure settings. That could be interesting. But the construction process is artificially tedious. Example: to build one glass airlock door, you need to install a door kit, then use one tool to install plastic sheets, then a different tool to install glass sheets. All of these steps are required. Tools need to be swapped by holding left-alt and the click-dragging to move from the tool belt to a hand. There are no hotkeys. Objects are fully rotatable, but the sensible rotation isn't the default (looking at you, furnace). A bad rotation means getting out a different tool to deconstruct and try again. There is no indication that an object will clip another until it's been built. The "construction realism" isn't realistic. The basic material used in a lot of places and forms (e.g. for walls and furnaces) is "iron sheets", which is not realistic if taken literally, so it's already a simplification; it might as well be called "solid matter". But having it there, and the generic "door kit" that can be glass or plastic or many other forms is already a simplification of assembling the sill and lintel and supports, then panels, then an opening mechanism, then the control panel, etc. So the authors have already bought into some simplification of the assembly process, just not enough. If the mass of tools (8) were replaced with a universal tool (or hotkeys!) and the construction process were streamlined to that the many "kits" actually assembled the finished object, instead of needlessly adding tedious make-work steps, then it might be possible to enjoy the operational complexity. But until the construction is simplified, I'd rather watch paint dry.

A nice relaxing game to pretend to vacation on another planet, building your dream home to view the beautiful alluvial plains and valleys of Mars in its rusty glory. NOTICE OF VACATION WARRANTY NOT COVERED BY AS FOLLOWS: Choking on the wrong gas mix Pressing the red button Not pressing the red button Pressing the green switch Not pressing the blue switch Losing sight your base at night fall Turning the valve counter clockwise Turning the valve further counter clockwise Forgetting the Lock out/Tag out procedure Shorting out the entire base Charging the wrong battery Pulling the wrong lever Losing your wrench/crowbar Forgetting a glass sheet placement Losing luggage in a storm Dialing in an extra zero Improper Safety hat usage

Legitimately one of my favorite games of all time. If you love automation, hard simulators, space, programming, or gas management (oxygen not included) you will probably like this game. It has a steep learning curve, so I highly recommend you go watch some YouTube playlists like Rhadamant or Largely Unemployed before you purchase it, so that you don't buy it, open it up, suffocate/explode yourself 15 times and close it to never reopen, because this is a diamond in the rough. This is not and has never been a profit cow for the developers, I believe it has always been a money sink for them, throughout the whole 9+ years of development, but it is a passion project for them and they're still releasing regular updates that are constantly making the game better. I give this an 11/10

Caution : ALOT of the things in the screen shots are NOT in the game. I got this thinking we would have (or at least get at some point) shuttles and rovers with an interior like the screen shots but they do not. This is even worse for the loading screens! From what I've seen online this is not due to it being EA its cut content they have already abandoned. This is not a game about exploring, its is about building a station. Despite how the screen shots imply. Clues in the name DO NOT trust the promo images With that out of the way this game is fantastic, its nerdy as hell, loads of interesting projects you will find your self losing weeks into. I will say you require a certain level of autism to appreciate this game, but thats true for all the best ones. They say survival is hard, but its really not, within 10 hours you will have survival mastered, and that's where the fun begins! Automate, renovate and excavate your way to anything you like! Learn how to make rockets, phase shift your gases to make liquid fuels. Spend 6 hours on YouTube trying to piece together bad tutorials that expect you to have a PhD, its frustrating, its colluded, but once you figure it out the dopamine is real. VERY real