There's not many steampunk themed games as ambitious and immersive out there, so after reading the interesting "drillship" idea of this one, I decided to jump into it. And after literally devouring it in 24 hours played in less than a week, I have to say that I'm definitely satisfied with my experience.
This is an early access indie game, and a quite ambitious one, so of course there's some jankiness to expect. But despite of its few minor annoyances (like destroying an enemy drillship, and just when I was going to scavenge the remains another one spawned in place, erasing all the loot, like, wtf), this is a pretty solid game that managed to keep me really hooked.
The execution of the idea (managing, improving and expanding a drillship, equipping it with weapons and diverse modules to unlock better equipment, plus being able to reach further underground) is really well done. Even the enemies (steampunk/teslapunk robots) ended having more personality than I anticipated (what's going on with the tanks sounds lmao), and their variety actually felt well thought of. You can end up with a really long drillship full of heavy weaponry, or go with a more compact one with fewer but strategically located efficient weapons. Of course, greedy me, finished the game with a moving fortress, and it was really awesome.
Combat is nothing especially complicated, but again, this game excels with its simple approach: different kinds of enemy specializations, different types of actual steampunk and teslapunk looking weapons with a few ammo variations to let you approach every combat situation as you consider (though in the late game there's only one viable way to destroy tesla towers, that block every single incoming projectile except bullets), and there's some real satisfaction in breaching into an enemy drillship, be it force-bruting your way into it via demolishing its defenses, or sneaking into it and destroying it from the inside. Pretty epic, I must say.
Personally, the only negative point I can see is how exploration feels bland and boring, since the island repeats the very same formula for the different zones, just changing resources and the level of abandoned tech you need to advance. The "hidden" loot in abandoned villages and places is pretty simple and uninspired, just breaching into a building's cellar, then finding the same crates with one or two useful thingies. And the landscape doesn't offer anything special either. But yeah, that's about it, and considering how well developed the main mechanics and ideas of the game are, I'm not even complaining about this part to be honest. Devs focused their efforts in the main formula, and it feels awesome. Some parts of the game feel "rustic", but that reminds me of some old indie legends like Mount & Blade: Warband, where everything was as janky as one could imagine, but the main idea, atmosphere, and the core gameplay formula were just glorious. It's kind of similar here with Volcanoids.
So, yeah, I totally recommend this game. And personally, I'll be following this dev team from now on, because having a good original idea, then executing it well and with good taste, aren't two things we see everyday nowadays unfortunately. Plus sign me in for any immersive steampunk game, anytime. This makes me think about how fun would be to play a game like this one, but managing a ship, a submarine, or even a flying machine in a similar way. Well done, Volcanoid team.
