Tag: Early Access

Goblin Cleanup – Early Impressions

This dungeon is closed for cleaning. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Goblin Cleanup

Developer: Crisalu Games

Release Date: To be announced

A co-op cleaning game where you have to clean and rearrange a dungeon before the next adventurers come to complete it again.

As evidenced by my Powerwash Sim and Crime Scene Cleaner love, I have a bit of a tendency towards a nice, cleaning, task simulator. I am always so grateful when another game pops up like this and they are good. The line between compulsive and boring is surprisingly thin, it would be so easy to misstep, but this demo – along with the other games I mentioned above – sits on the compulsive side.

The game is planned for an Early Access release (no date at the time of writing) and that makes Goblin Cleanup all the more exciting to me. This was a great, fully functional, polished demo that showcases the core concept of the game. Community feedback will inform the direction of the rest of the game and the functionality of the demo makes me have confidence in the developers to really deliver the content.

What I mean by that is everything just worked so well. Goblin Cleanup is a twist on the genre where your job is to clean away the blood and gore of heros and adventurers that have fallen in the clients dungeon. Through the grime you will be both avoiding and resetting traps, placing the furniture back where it belongs and wondering what the heck happened to make such a mess. It is user friendly, snappy and there was only one mechanic that I would have liked an upgrade for.

The traps add a new idea to a tried and tested core, adding a slight order of operations puzzle to ensure maximum efficiency. After all, you don’t want to trip the crossbow to shoot you point blank because you didn’t move a piece of furniture earlier, spilling your own blood and meat over your freshly mopped floor. Navigation is also part of the fun, finding the best way to get the furniture to where it belongs without stepping on a pressure plate because you couldn’t see in front of your feet, because you were carrying furniture. Each dungeon has a large amount of levels, allowing you to experience the journey that the unfortunate heros themselves would face, with interesting winding level design and no way of knowing how to navigate until you try it for yourself.

I can’t speak for the co-op experience as these types of game are a solo endeavour for me, but it is certainly going on my wishlist as a podcast/tv show companion game. I only played 2 levels but I am sold that this is a fun time, worthy of it’s place in the genre. Adding magic to cleaning is an angle I didn’t know that I needed.

Demo Length – 2+ hour
At a glance
+ Another fine example of the genre with its own twist.
+ A funny concept.
+ Plays smoothly.
+ User friendly.
+ Compulsive.
+ Stays on the right side of fun vs tedious (so far).
+/- I did not get as far as levels with enemies yet so I can’t comment on whether that adds a fun challenge or frustration.
– My one problem was walking backwards and forwards so much to get fresh water, I could have used some pockets for my slimes.

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Astronomics – Demo Impressions

We’re bringing the factory to you.

Astronomics

Developer: Numizmatic

Release Date: Coming Soon (Early Access)

Top-down action and space exploration meet asteroid mining automation! Command a faithful crew of bots and get to work in the asteroid belt. Impress your employer, upgrade your equipment, fight off pirates and save up for that ticket to Earth so you can finally come home… for the very first time.

Astronomics isn’t your typical automation game. Where often you would expect to build from a fixed base outwards, mining ores, constructing and optimising your structures, in Astronomics, we bring the factory to the asteroids.

This game is all about collection. The more resources that we collect, the more one time use machines we can build to speed up collection. The more that we then collect, the more we can bring back and sell. The more that we sell, the more we can upgrade our machines to speed up collection, and so on.

The overall goal is to buy a ticket to earth, which is gradually done by taking a percentage of our earning. These are earned through expeditions. As the player, we get to take a look at asteroids that are close to our base spaceship (space base? base ship?) and make our choice which ones to deplete based on how much time they will remain within the radius of our reach.

This game isn’t going to be for everyone, but I particularly wanted to highlight it as it has a satisfying loop. My favourite part of automation games tends to be the beginning, with the task of getting established. Once things progress, they can sometimes become too complex or too stagnant for me, both of which inevitably cause me to lose interest. Since in Astronomics you are always visiting new areas, you get to do the beginning part over and over, with the progression from manual labour, to commanding an entire workforce of robots.

In Astroneer I enjoyed driving around collecting scrap. In Sea of Thieves I enjoy sailing around collecting treasure. This is a game about collecting, but this time with tools, and I will be keeping an eye on the development through Early Access and beyond.

Demo Length – 50 mins
At a glance
+ Expedition based gameplay.
+ Growing your team feels satisfying.
+ Going to new spaces and making priorities on the fly.
+/- A slow start (for me this made upgrades feel very valuable but won’t be for everyone).
+/- I didn’t have many interactions with Pirates so I can’t say how balanced is feels.

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Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure – Demo Impressions

A spark of great potential.

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure

Developer: Massive Miniteam

Release Date: 24 April 2024 (Early Access)

Design automated workshops for your odd and adorable Sparks to carry and craft everything, including more of themselves! Lead your squad of Sparks into combat. Explore a strange fantasy world, in single player or online co-op. Unearth the ancient mystery of the Sparks!

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure combines the automation and optimisation process of games like Satisfactory or Factorio, with the crafting and creature collecting of games like The Wild at Heart into an expansive yet cozy package. The generous demo provides a lengthy look at what the game aims to be ready for its Early Access release in April.

After a slow start, Oddsparks begins to shine as it reveals the star of the show – Sparks. Sparks are mysterious little forest friends that seemingly exist to serve you. Whether moving ever forward on a predefined route carrying anything in their path as they go, or following you around ready to harvest resources or even fight, these valuable little critters are the heart of the game.

In any automation game, the freedom to be able to relocate your buildings and constructs, make changes to your set up and alter and rebuild paths without penalty is crucial in encouraging creativity. This game allows for that perfectly. As I unlocked new things and discovered new areas I was free to experiment with my set up which, in my opinion, is half of the fun of the game.

The game (at least as far as I got) is set in two areas. The village, and what I will call the wilderness. The village is where the NPCs live, giving you tasks in order to help you learn the game while drip feeding story and flavour. The wilderness is where you will do your building. It is large, full of resources, and potentially more dangerous the further that you go.

The village itself is the weakest point of the game for me. I was never excited to return, only going back because I had to hand in my quests but never looking forward to it. There was a disconnect between me and the dialogue that didn’t allow me to connect with the characters, making it feel less like a home base and more like a chore to return.

I am looking forward to following the development of Oddsparks and very interested to see what changes – if any – are made throughout Early Access. While it wasn’t a home run for me, I did stop playing the demo early as I was sold on the full game. That is a sign of a demo doing its job!

Demo Length – Long
At a glance
+ Simple rules.
+ Encourages creativity.
+ A great mixture of game genres.
+ Glad it is going into Early Access rather than full release.
– A little too talky for me as I was not invested in the dialogue.
– I never wanted to go to the village.

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Picturesque Perseverance

Satisfactory.

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