Recent reviews by VulpusTumultum

There were mods that did a bit similar (allowed children etc) but I think there's something to be said for an official version that modders can then build even wilder stuff off of, and it is useful for people who may not want to download mods that need framework mods that ned library mods, so I still feel this is another worthwhile purchase for people who have already put 50-100 hours into Rimworld, as is my general rule of thumb for Rimworld DLC's.

Like Ideology, I think Biotech adds more than enough to be worth the $20, and I have no regrets on shelling out for it, I've put hundreds of hours more into Rimworld since buying and installing it, and I really would not want to go back to vanilla, or even vanilla but just with mods, I do feel like things have been very well integrated here, especially since the patches that linked up with Ideology a little.

Possibly my favorite RimWorld expansion, (though Biotech is right up there too,) this is the official DLC that added some real spice to the game- in vanilla RimWorld it can be a little difficult to make different colonies really feel different, but creating an ideology really gives colonies flavor and not just in a 'it is easier to run with cannibalism and not have everyone go bonkers' way.

As with my Royalty review, I put forth that putting $20 more into a game that at this point I have played over 4K hours in is akin to just tipping the dev team for all the years of hijinks and havoc they've provided me, and I will note that getting the expansion then opens the floodgates for even more mods from the community to further tweak and tune your playthroughs.

If you've put in 50-100 hours of vanilla Rimworld and enjoyed it, I suspect that you'll find this a worthwhile expenditure as you will likely wind up putting in 50-100 more quite easily.

So 19 hours in- I feel like I will get my money's worth. It has an interesting take on a colony builder, though I did feel after a while there could have been more mechanics or production chains or event types (especially event types). I got my first non-demo colony to about 600 people and a decent military force, filled the tech tree almost completely out, and will probably play a bit more in time. It is not my favorite 'Banished-like' but it scratched the itch when I just wanted a change from my usuals in aesthetic and some mechanics. I may be done playing it for this weekend, but I will definitely play it again in my game rotation.

Mechanic I hate most: Fishing boat repair is micro management annoyance, I wish that I could unlock some kind of auto-repair or to auto build new boats if I just let 'em wear out.

Mechanic I like the most: I am one of the apparently rare reviewers who LIKES the turn based tactical 'card' combat system! And I like it a lot, as it does give a threat to the town or way to pillage resources but is faster than a true RTS and combat is always my least favorite part of a game where my personal focus is on building the colony or city and surviving/thriving.

Basically if I want to play a military RTS I will play a miilitary RTS but when I want a Banished-like I really prefer that to be a backseat issue, and I think that Land of the Vikings really handled that well for me. A game about vikings with no combat would've been a bit weird perhaps, and I find their system a good compromise.

A chill passion project game- sometimes I am just Not In The Mood for the harshness of RimWorld or Dwarf Fortress, and Clanfolk has enough differences over-all that it's a fresh as well as relaxing take on things. At least at the time of my typing up this review it's relaxing, and I'm hoping the dev doesn't actually add any combat to it or makes it opt-out-able, because while I do welcome more complexity as it develops, I want it to remain the game for when tactical brain is not online and what I want is a small-scale ant farm that just needs me to lay out where things go and priorities and let it all happen, occasionally marrying someone off to keep the population manageable.

The dev has done a wonderful job, the art is quite pretty, very relaxing in and of itself, and I love the new food crops that were introduced in the latest update. While admittedly some of my 800+ hours played is time where I left the game running but paused when having to do other things, the majority of those hours have indeed been me enjoying it, which made it a steal for me at the price it sells for for hours of fun.

I love me a good city/colony builder, and sank thousands of hours into Banished- Ostriv is a darn good 'Banished-like' that's been worth the money already despite being Early Access. That it's a single dev project hasn't held it down, and you can tell it's a passion project.

The old Ukrainian inspired setting is great, I love all the supply chain mechanics so far- and while it's a little more chill right now than Banished, it may be getting harder with more complexity being added.

(Really the way it's 'more chill' is that if you go bankrupt you are always saved by a 'loan' but to be fair balancing economy in this game to NOT go bankrupt is something I struggle with anyway so it's just as well lol)

My favorite mechanic is the vegetable gardens that some village houses you place can build- where if you give them enough land you can buy back excess veggies to sell in markets yourself to those who live in the smaller houses and row houses.

I admit my least favorite mechanic is the automatic generation of paths/roads along very traveled routes, just because it does make it tricky to try and have decorative green areas, you have to be quick to fence them off with the decorative fencing.

But all in all, despite being early access, I've played over 300 hours of the game in the couple of years or whatever I've owned it, and Alpha 5 guarantees I'll be putting in hundreds of more hours. So I consider that plenty of bang for how much it sells for, even when not on sale.

Yet another review noting that it may seem a little overpriced, but I enjoy what it added, and I already had over 700 hours logged into playing Rimworld when I shelled out the extra $20 for the DLC, and I've played over a hundred hours since getting it- so, frankly, I've gotten a lot of value for my money and I think of it almost as more of a 'tip jar' expenditure all in all.

The psychic stuff and new factions/way to leave planet are fun, I like the mechanics for the psychic abilities and the new objects and clothing, it all goes well with the hundred or so mods I also tend to play with.

I'd rec it, though maybe would say play just the base game first, if you put in over 50 hours of base Rimworld, you'll probably find this another worthy $20

The build pieces are useful, and I love finally having jaguars, but there are SO MANY South American animals that could and should have been in this pack, like giant river otters, ocelots, and sloths, to name some of my personal favorites.

That being said, this game is of course not made just to cater to me and the animals I desire to have, but still, while I appreciate having this DLC, it feels like the price was a little steep considering how many new objects were just color variants, however useful color variants are when there isn't a recolor/painting system.

I do not regret getting it, even if I'm not absolutely thrilled, so I'm giving it a thumbs up, and recommend it to compulsive-obsessive zoo sim players like myself, but I hope Frontier does listen to all the people who do want more animals in/as future DLC.

I watched some enthusiastic Let's Plays of this game before buying and bought it on sale, so I came in prepared for some bugs and with a decent idea of how to do the things the tutorials aren't terribly helpful explaining, so you might take my recommendation with a grain or two of salt.

I love sim/management games, and enjoyed a good 40 hours of sandbox play before trying the campaign, where I ran into my first truly frustrating and game-breaking bug/pathing issue that made me quit the campaign for the moment in disgust. To me that's pretty much worth the $24US or so I spent on it and its current 2 pay-for DLCs.

I definitely will play more sandbox from time to time, trying hard mode, setting little personal goals, maybe even exploring new DLC if it adds features I like, and isn't prohibitively expensive.

I wasn't too heavily invested in the campaign to begin with, but it was fairly fun and interesting up to the point I hit my first truly major bug. Alas, it looks like the campaign does not play well with the Pit DLC when new chapters load, and I probably won't try restarting a campaign game until I hear there's been attempts to fix the problems I had, because I like the extra space a basement allows for tavern space optimization.

Really enjoying it- usually I only like this style of game (judging by my experiences with the Diablo franchise for the possibly inevitable comparison) when able to play with friends, but I am actually liking Torchlight 2 even when solo, the out of the gate difficulty adjusting means I don't have to run through it all once to even just get a bit more challenge, so I haven't had to overplay it and haven't gotten tired of seeing the same things over and over in quite the same way.