This game is good and has potential to be a 1000 hour amazing game, i’m at just over 100 hours and finding things to do that aren’t redundant is difficult. I’m going to give 3 positive, 3 negative, and some possible recommendations for making the game epic.
positives:
- The build mechanics are a great foundation for something awesome.
- The fish are great to look at while swimming around.
- i like the initial story and premise of the game.
Negatives:
- for an exploring game where you have to leave your main island, your plants die while you are out. you can plan around it a bit, but this requires shorter trips or replanting.
- all the islands seem the same with few minor exceptions.
- the islands force you to build on the outer edges of the island and limits the creative building aspect.
Recommendations:
Islands:
Most the islands seem the same in size, foliage and design. So i would love to see something like a super large island where you would have to find it and make it your main base building island with medium islands around it getting to smaller island the further you get out. This could play into the recommended story-line change as well. This would help to avoid making 3+ main islands in order to explore all island or not being able to get to all. its sort of wasted islands as your really don’t need to visit all in order to complete all achievements or finish the game.
building:
The build mechanics are a great base, but could be made a lot better. The wedge piece is hard to fit into builds and id like to see 45 deg ones to be able to expand on the build possibilities. perhaps make it so you can have indoor stoves, bring in your crafting stations, and decorations. Basically expand some of the features of what is there. i love building and this could be a big part of the game.
Different storage boxes that have more capacity. Possibly being able to use or create a shipping container for storage.
Farming and resources:
The farming here could be expanded and the water requirement hinders the exploring a lot. i get annoyed having to wait for it to rain or to constantly fill water collectors for days before being able to go explore for 2-3 days before having to come back to dead plants and no water where they should be good as rain would still fall even if you are not there.
local fauna should replenish as well. we should be able to just plant anywhere on the island or create a farm island where we plant there and come back to check and collect those resources. This could help expand play time and promote the main aspect of the game of exploring.
There should be a way to grow or obtain all resources. Perhaps add new materials where you can scrap some of the sunken ships or pars from the ships to build a ship vs making rafts.
Fish should provide different amounts of food and should be equivalent to the size of the fish and could possibly be unique to that fish, rather than general meat products.
Cooking could be expanded on. Farming herbs could help make dishes that provide better options and change how long it will last. Smoked meat should last way longer than the cooked option. a general 24 spoiled limit means lots of wasted food. Spoiled food should be used to make soil or have some sort of use in the game.
Sunken ships are often stuck in the rocks, coral, or each other. making them lost resources and boxes.
There should be a better way to transport on the rafts that doesn’t obstruct the view. Perhaps making ships out of logs or planks, you could attach storage or have built in storage. This will help with exploring a lot.
exploring:
The motors are also slow or the same speed as the sails and have no real benefit currently. I think the chopper should have one box attached on each side or an attachment slot for different sized boxes. making it a more versatile option. Being able to attach to a dock and build dock pieces.
Story line:
The ending sort of sucks. not going to spoil it, but could be way better.
I would insert multiple ending goals vs the one way to end the game. With one large island, this could help form a new story line and goal. Escape via plane, escape via boat, or build a island and become sustainable and get the attention of passing planes/boats. Find living survivors that join your island and help on the island for farming.
You could land on an island near the big island and have a boss on the big island to kill before you are able to build and use it. The island neat that large island could be the ones with the most resources to build on the main island with more crashed ships on the outer smaller islands.
One story line could be to build a lighthouse. Perhaps make a radio to be able to call for help or trigger an event where you get trade ships to your port.
Spoiled food could be used for food growing or fish food. make pigs tamable and fish tanks to grow fish for food.