Recent reviews by Zaloko

It's been well worth the wait! GSC did not disappoint with this new iteration of Stalker. Don't let the intro(tutorial) fool you as it does feel a bit linear. Once past the tutorial the zone has never been so fully realized, so much to explore, all the artifacts and loot to hoard. Has been a little unstable on launch though, but not enough to make it unplayable. The devs have been quick to polish up a few sharp edges with updates as well. If you're a fan of the series or into open world looter shooters you shouldn't be disappointed!

A new take on the automation genre. Starting out with little more than a platform, drifting out in space. But there's a lot more out here than just an empty vacuum. Ore asteroids flying by, reminiscent of Raft style resource nabbing. Trying to snatch up the good ones before they're lost. More physics interactions happening than with most automation games, even if some of them seem to defy what we see in our universe. With a colony sim aspect that comes creeping along mid to late game that seems pretty intriguing. Being able to build up a huge space station/ship, grow a thriving colony on an 'asteroid planet', or a wacky combination of both. A couple different paths one could take as they're researching through an already fairly large tech tree.

The multiplayer side of things seems to be having some day 1 issues. Singleplayer is running great however, hopefully that's enough to tide people over till the devs have time to fix up the netcode. The game overall feels well made, with nice graphics that still run well on older hardware. Optimizations seem decent for what you'd need for a big scale automation game, without negatively impacting visuals.

I had tried the demo a fair bit ago. So far I'm very pleased with my singleplayer fresh start in the early access release of the game. Really looking forward to the multiplayer getting fixed up, and dedicated servers.

If you like automation games, and space games, it's a great indie tittle that steam could certainly do with more of lately. And a great price to boot. Biggest reason a new player should wait on picking this up is if they need multiplayer immediately. Follow the game, check updates, and hopefully really soon it'll play as good in MP as it does in SP.

Have fun building overly elaborate space factory colonies!

An amazing open world rpg, that turns into a city sim late game. Assuming one makes it that far. Unlike most city sim games where a player is restricted to a small build area, this game allows you to play on the whole map. Send out a scout, a raiding party, or a trade caravan. It all happens in real time, all groups being simulated. (It doesn't simulate everywhere at all times of course, but if the player has a character somewhere, the world will come to life.) A world in ruin with a mysterious past. An unforgiving and harsh land. But if one searches far and wide enough, they might find fertile land, ready to be homesteaded.

If the genre suits you, check it out. This is one of the best indie titles to come out in recent years.

A fun block based survival game, with some village sim drizzled on top. First impressions weren't super great, with some crusty sound effects, mostly during dialog events. Graphics aren't amazing either, but the style is consistent and pleasant enough to look at. The gameplay is really where this game shines. Fair balance for resources acquired/consumed. Solid progression. Lots of exploration to be had in this universe. After finally buying the game, it did leave me wishing I'd gotten it sooner. A good sign I believe. Give it a shot if you enjoy the genre!

I heard ya like memes.

Seriously though, this is a pretty interesting experiment in game development. Surprisingly compelling if you get sucked in. Unusual in that it supports not only full body tracking but also has a nonVR mode, the full spectrum of pc gamers. The VRChat community is creative, perhaps rivaling something like Garry's mod. Give this a shot sometime should you get bored of typical games. Good for a few laughs to say the least.

Avorion is a game that manages to stand out in a crowd, a very crowded scene of sandbox space sim games. This game is a contender in it's genre, especially considering it's small dev team of three.

A lot of content in the game is procedurally generated. Procedural content likely done to help make up for lack of manpower some larger teams have. However, there is enough variance in the random generation to keep AI ships from looking too samey. The art style behind the procedural ships blends well with the more static art in the game, like planet & star backgrounds. Top it off with chill ambient music to help round it all up and provide that perfect space vibe. The game also has dedicated server hosting in case space starts to feel a little too lonely.

Many tools exist to expand what ships can do beyond flying. Turrets of many shapes and sizes exist to give the player a fighting chance. Mining beams for asteroids and ship debris. And when those tasks start to feel tedious one can hire an AI captain to take over a vessel. Even the act of fighting can be automated with hangers full of customizable fighter ships.

Progression from early game to endgame is strong. There is also the potential to spend many hours in the late game building up your own space faction infrastructure. Many types of player built stations exist, but do take a decent time investment to get going.

Everything about this game's development has appeared very professional. Clearly a passion project for those involved. Even with a steam library overflowing with space games, Avorion is one of the few that I find myself coming back to.

A strong, albeit lesser known, title in the Terraria genre. Polished combat mechanics and solid character progression raise this above many of the others in it's class. The game offers a good bit of exploration as the player tries to solve for all the unknowns on this alien planet. The story isn't fully finished (as of this review) but what is in kept me intrigued. While the game starts you out with little more than the clothes on your back, progression is still made fairly quickly. The inventory system is a bit of a throwback to the days of Ultima Online but gives strong enough inventory filtering to make it easily manageable through early to late game. At such a reasonable price I'd say it's a must buy for any fans of this genre.