Cosmonautica
Cosmonautica is a quirky and unique blend of space trading and crew simulation. Cast off! Are you ready for some hilarious adventures in outer space? Start by boarding a washed-up space cruiser and fulfill your destiny as an aspiring captain on the hunt for fame and fortune. Cosmonautica combines elements of space trading and crew simulation to create a unique experience. Only if you take good care of your crew you will be able to succeed. Do you have what it takes to become the best trader, smuggler, pirate or even space taxi? It’s your choice! Simulated Galaxy – Cosmonautica offers a detailed and amusing trading simulation gameplay that challenges you among others with pirate attacks, diverse quests and unique crew members. Explore a dynamic and procedurally generated galaxy. Every game is different!
Steam User 112
Not quite as bad as the negative reviews would have you believe. It's clear that a lot of planning and work went into making it, but it isn't as polished as you would expect an AAA studio to do (Which, the developers are not.). For the price, which I got on sale, knowing full well that the game was 'as-is' and likely would never see any additional patches to fix any problems, I've had a lot of fun playing the campaign thus far. So, as long as you have reasonable expectations, this can be a fun game, even if problems do exist. I also admire that the developers made an announcement that they wouldn't be able to fix the problems; it's hard to face facts, but it also takes guts to throw yourself to the wolves, and I can respect that determination to be perfectly honest. As some developers take the money and run without a word.
Now, the game itself plays itself out in space, within the grain of older trading games in terms of trading; nothing fancy here. You've got exports and imports, and you basically know the prices. The game keeps track of what you paid for products, so you don't necessarily need a spreadsheet to 'win' at trading. I found it easy enough to make a profits trading without resorting to one.
I do plan to update this review, as I continue to plod along the game as I have time, but I wanted to put this up to let people on the fence know, that it isn't quite as bad as some reviewers have claimed for me personally.
Updated, June 25, 2017
Combat, is tricky to learn. You really don't get a tutorial for the first combat opportunity you have. I found myself losing every fight, and not really understanding why the enemy ship was seemingly bugging out every few times I'd shoot at them. I have an 85% hit chance, but an entire volley misses because it jerkingly moves out of the way. I realized the button I thought was to change 'orders' with my flight, was actually the mechanism to dodge with, the same one the AI kept using and messing up my volley. Once I had that figured out, I started doing a little better, but I'm honestly still failing repeatedly - it is all about timing, and I am apparently pretty horrible about that. I found ramming to be too unpredictable to use, most of the ships I've fought have ran circles around me.
Research, this game is all about researching - but researching takes money and time. It's actually quite a challenge to balance the ship needs, crew needs, and of course, your bottom line. (Profits) I've found marginally higher success in having a smaller crew that dual role, instead of more crew members, because the additional crew eat away at profits and dirty/damage up the ship in the process. But, it is also harder to find these highly specialized people. I've found it difficult to justify adding skills to crew on leveling, because of the random choice of skill it hands you, so once you find a crew that has the appropriate skills, keep them alive at all costs.
Again, I'll continue to update this review as I progress.
Updated: July 12th, 2017
Did not get to play as long as I'd have liked recently, but I've progressed further into the campaign with no game-breaking bugs to date. I have had a lot of research get completed as well as realizing just how hard it is to make money with a good crew. I still haven't managed successful combat yet - but I've gotten pretty good at disabling pirates and running away.
One thing I've really noticed is, it takes a long time to build up money if you don't metagame. (IE: Play the game, find the best ways to make money, then play it again from the start for an easier time) I tried 3 different methods to help speed up getting money - and to the point I really failed at them. I was able to research the robotic helpers for cleaning and repairing, and the medical pill dispenser, that ended up being my real problem. Pretty much if you aren't pulling huge profits they are mandatory. Between one of each, and a pilot/scientist you can cheaply get all the research while hauling cargo in the safer systems. Once you get some of the science lab upgrades things get easier, but I really found the cargo hauling to be the most reliable if not tedious way to make money.
If you do manage to get yourself into a situation where you've went into the red (negative balance) one of the simple ways to get out of it is to do "0 cargo" hauling missions - they don't pay out much, but they save you considerable anguish with taking loans.
I hit a wall in the game; I'm grinding cash to go forward at a pace I can't justify spending; I could finish it, but I had a computer breakdown that took me away from playing for an extended amount of time, I just haven't found the desire to finish the grind.
Steam User 75
The game scratched my itch for an trading and exploration game, but i feel like i reached the bottom to soon.
I enjoyed the 9h of gameplay i got out of it so far. The graphics and animation quality is very impressive, and I like the design work very much. Buying resources, travelling and reselling them for a profit feels good. Ontop of that, there are missions on every planet, e.g. to transport people to a certain planet. However, the variety among these missions is extremely limited. It feels like they are always the same ~10 missions, no matter which planet.
I also do not quite understand the point of the additional solar systems one can travel to. They have certain shifts in the distribution of resources you can buy and sell, but offer nothing new at all otherwise. The quests are the same, the goods are essentially the same as well.
Also, I got through my games - so far - without requiring any weapons what so ever. I think forcing the player to aquire some weapons as defense would be a good idea, i.e. by throwing the player into combat every now and then. This happened for me once, but i could easily flee without any repercussions. This is a shame, because forcing more combat on the player could be a way of disturbing them from the much more efficient strategy of peacefully buying and reselling expensive goods.
There are still a good number of bugs, too. From missing planet names in the main scenario mission descriptions to a straight up crash (happened once, and was mitigated by the apparently very regular autosaving).
I only had 2 different ships, I never did any hacking, I avoided combat without any problem. And still, I do not feel too much incentive in going those routes either, because I don't expect to find anything new.
Sid Meier's Pirates created depth through Diplomatic relationships, progression of the main character (becoming the best pirate, avenging your family), and showed variety through a number of minigames. Both variety and depth are unfortunately lacking in Cosmonautica.
In total, I do not regret having spent 10Euros for an enjoyable 9h of gameplay. And maybe, if some variety is added until release or after, I might revisit it for another 10h. So I would still recommend to anyone who likes space adventure and economic games.
Steam User 58
"FTL" meets "Freelancer" meets "Redshirt" came to mind when I first sat down with "Cosmonautica". Like "FTL", you can obtain crew members and assign them tasks. When you're not watching your crew members go about their daily lives, you'll be traveling, trading, and ruining someone's day a-la "Freelancer". The art style and humor reminded me a bit of "Redshirt" in that it seemed cartoony and light-hearted. In addition to a campaign (not yet available), players will be able to procedurally generate a galaxy via a sandbox mode. My experience was rather limited due to the problems I had with the early build I played, but I'd give it a "thumbs up" for the potential alone. I, of course, reserve the right to change my opinion in the near and immediate future as the game is still under development. The game will launch at the retail price of $14.99, but you can grab it on Steam's Early Access program for $9.99.
Steam User 39
A fun, quirky game that offers players the opportunity to trade, smuggle, be a taxi, fight battles, manage a crew, and purchase/upgrade new ships ... IN SPACE! Here's a quick breakdown:
PROS
-Nice graphics, very polished and cartoonish
-Very catchy soundtrack
-Plenty of research options and the ability to upgrade your ship, find new solar systems, etc.
-Each crew member is unique in their own way in appearance, personality, and attributes
-Missions to earn money in a variety of ways
-A decent main quest to follow instead of just flying around aimlessly (if that's your thing, there is sandbox mode, too.)
-Each planet and solar system is unique in its own way and consumes, produces, and has a ban on different things
-Some Sim-like aspects to your crew in that you have to provide for their needs to keep them happy and working
-Fast forward time speed option to cut down on long trips for the impatient player in all of us
-The game doesn't take itself too seriously and has humor throughout
-The devs are active, helpful, and take their players concerns seriously. They want to make the game worthy of praise
CONS
-Still pretty buggy and crashes occasionally, but not to the point of making the game unplayable
-The missions are very repetitive and predictable
-Space battles aren't that exciting
-Moderate learning curve
SUGGESTIONS
-Would be great if there were diplomacy options or the chance to establish your own production/trading stations
-The option to create a small fleet or galactical trading empire would be a plus
-More weapons and room options
-Much larger variety of missions
All in all, if you like economical sci-fi simulators, this is a pretty sweet game. I'm sure it will develop over time to be even better. It's definitely a good start. If you liked Sid Meier's "Pirates!" or Firefly, definitely pick this up!
7/10 stars
Steam User 30
If you're on the fence about picking up this early access game, let me alleviate some of your concerns. This game is brilliant. You do a couple of things simultaneously in this game. You manage your crew from hiring and firing to promotions and providing for their needs aboard your ship. You manage your ship's layout from recreational rooms to passenger seating to cargo space and even bathrooms. You manage the way you make money from taking missions from space stations to just figuring out profitable trade runs to killing pirates. There's also an overarching story line to follow as well.
The nuts and bolts of this early access game in its current state as of 18Oct2014: Gameplay of about 3 hours right now. Researching new "stuff" is limited to just expanding the parts of the galaxy you can travel to. You cannot research new rooms or ships yet. The story took me about 3 hours of farting around to get through and that includes purchasing the most expensive ship (all ships were 10k regardless of size or capabilities which is very easy to get right now). Keeping in mind that once more content is added, you will be able to research new ships. The game works flawlessly in its current state and is very fun to play. I'm chomping at the bit now waiting for the rest of the content to land.
Keeping to the genre this game falls into I would give it a 5/5 in its genre.
Steam User 28
Cosmonautica for a early release game is suprisingly fairly well poilished. You will embark as a fledgling trader and slowly build up wealth allowing you to upgrade your ship and hire on new crew;than buy a better ship only to better upgrade it and hire on more crew; all the while attempting to find the best trade routes to make more money.
Pros:
- Graphics are well done, having a cartoony look/atmosphere to them. While at first I was kind of taken back by it but quickly loved it especially as you start finding all the underlaying humor and quips at famous movies, punch lines, and even the dev's add in their own humor with the writing in game.
- The witty humor and comical movie referances really add a refreashing change to present games. I personally enjoy actually reading the mission briefings and alerts because there is always a light hearted feel to it. I've found this has actually made me enjoy the "montonity" of doing trade runs, transporting passangers, smuggeling goods because there is always some underlaying humor written.
- The music is enjoyable and envelopes you into the atmosphire of the game.
- When you load the game, there is a ticker on the bottom of the screen that the devs update including a ETA as when to the next patch/update can be expected. This I EXTREAMLY love because this lets you know that this game is being continously worked on and re-enforces that the investment you put into the game is actually valued.
- The tech tree is enjoyable and adds a nice twist to the game.
- You are able to customize your ship from the inside,(and external coloring as well as ship name) allowing you to have a real visual of what the ship looks like inside.
- On the topic of being to see inside of your ship, you are able to actaully see your crew go about doing their duties and performing defferent actions. Nice touch.
- Crew members will gain exp allowing you to invest points to improve their current specialty, or you can try unlocking two other possiable skills they posses. They also may have secondary skills, either being good or negative. Plus crew histories are a wee bit comical to read as well.
- You are not limited to just one solor system, there are others out there, how ever, you need to research them first before unlocking them.
Now before we continue onto the cons, just remember this is a early access game and it does seem the devs really do care and are striving to produce the best game they can produce.
Cons:
- No campaign (yet). Sadly there is only a tutorial mode or sandbox mode atm. However there is a campaing button but it is greyed out but it states it's coming soon. Really hope they release it soon but I'll keep playing the sandbox mode for how, still a lot to do.
- The time passing in game seems a bit quirky. One game play movement was slow and it'd take me a few days in game to get from one planet to another, but later in another game play, it'd be crazy fast. I really don't know if it was from upgrading to a newer ship and researching the engines to improve them (now that I think about it, that may be the case, but I digress)
- NO SAVE FEATURE? Come on. There "is" one, when you quit the game, but I'm not used to that. I wish there was at least a choice in the options to either be a "realistic save" (save only upon quit) or "normal save" (allowing you to save when you want. This being said, there were a few instances where the game had crashed and somehow the game saved before being close, resulting in me being spawned into a space port but the money I made selling goods was in my bank and upgrades to my ship were intact.
-With no campaign so there is'nt any end-game content. HOWEVER, it IS still very fun and I actually do enjoy playing this game so...keep that in mind
All in all, for $10, this game is well worth it's weight in salt. I whole heartedly recommend this game. Just keep in mind it's EARLY ACCESS, so be ready for a few bugs and issues. Other than that, download and enjoy!
Steam User 32
Game is pretty awesome. You are captain of a space ship. Hire crew, provide ferry services, fight pirates, deliver cargo. Your crew have various preferences and will form relationships. If they do not share preferences they will not get along. There is a strategic need to find crew members that are compatible with one enother. There is an RNG factor involved in this. Several different styles of ships with several upgrades - cruisers (speed), fighters (guns), freighters (hull space) - each of these categories have several upgrades. All in all the game is very light weight, quirky, and fun.