Oxygen Not Included

So I've played this game a bit.
A lot of people are saying this is a hard game, and while I don't disagree, I want to clarify the difficulty comes from the learning curve. Like most colony sims, it is a cliff: there's a bunch of mechanics that are not really explained well in game, and you have to rely on tutorials to fully grasp them.
Once you understand the mechanics, the game is brilliant. There's no random enemies or events, and the game gives you as much time as you want to tackle new projects and deal with its difficulties. That's part of the beauty: if you end up in a bad situation, 90% of the time it's because you put yourself there. The remaining 10% is because there's a cool steam vent that's overheating your base, so watch out for those.
The replayability of the game comes from the worldgen seeds and traits, and the different starting asteroids. The former changes your run slightly, making you adapt to the lack of water sources or giving you an opportunity with extra oil reservoirs; The latter can completely change your build order and meta.
I speak of replayability, but you can just run with the same save for months. Run a colony for long enough, eventually the game turns from a survival colony sim into a sandbox vanity project simulator.
On a side note, the game is regularly updated. Free QoL updates come once or twice a year with balance changes, and small-ish DLCs are planned to be released periodically. There's also some incredible animated shorts released every once in a while, which is pretty neat as well.
I honestly don't think I can convey how truly unique this game is. It has carved a niche spot in a niche market that I don't think another game could possibly fill. 10/10 would and WILL sink another 2k hours.

As an engineer and physics teacher, I find it a pleasure to write a review for "Oxygen Not Included." This game has captivated me for over 600 hours, and for good reason. It’s one of those rare titles that can make you lose track of time, often at the expense of a good night’s sleep, thanks to its deep and engaging base-building and management mechanics.

The gameplay and art are top-notch, as expected from the creators of "Don’t Starve." The game’s incorporation of real-world physics, chemistry, and even a hint of biology sets it apart from typical base-building titles. Concepts like denser gases sinking, thermal conductivity of materials, and gas flow mechanics aren’t just visual flourishes—they’re crucial to mastering the game’s systems. I’ve even recommended it to some of my students as a fun way to engage with these scientific ideas in a practical context.

One area that feels like a missed opportunity, however, is the game’s approach to electricity. While it introduces the concept of transformers to manage potential differences, it falls short of incorporating more sophisticated concepts like series and parallel circuits. Given the game’s 2D aesthetic, I believe the addition of more realistic electrical systems could have been a natural and engaging fit for players to experiment with.

Make no mistake, this is a challenging game. Your duplicants (the characters you manage) will suffer and perish in various ways—hunger, heat, and oxygen shortages, to name a few—until you master the balancing act required for survival. Problems often reveal themselves too late, forcing you to start over from scratch. But therein lies the charm of "Oxygen Not Included": every failure is a lesson learned. The experience of rebuilding from scratch, armed with newfound knowledge, makes for an incredibly rewarding gameplay loop.

For those who enjoy base-building games, I wholeheartedly recommend "Oxygen Not Included." It’s not always a smooth ride, and losing a base after dozens of hours can be disheartening, but the lessons learned with each restart make every new base a little smarter and more efficient than the last.

The expansions are promising, though I’ve only scratched the surface of the newer ones. Mods, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. There’s a rich modding community offering everything from quality-of-life improvements to full gameplay overhauls. Personally, I’m a bit of a purist, preferring cosmetic mods over those that make the game easier. The only caveat is that mods often break after updates and require patching to work again.

All in all, "Oxygen Not Included" is a meticulously crafted, mentally stimulating, and sometimes brutally unforgiving game. If you’re up for the challenge, it’s well worth your time—just don’t be surprised if it ends up taking more of it than you expected.

This game is helping me through tough times.

Ever since I was little, I have always been looking for activities to fill my time, whether it be drawing or playing various video games. I've never wanted to be alone with my thoughts. As I am approaching 21, I need that more than ever. This game is not only providing me with an escape but also helping me find motivation to solve difficult problems in my real life.

"Oxygen Not Included" can be very daunting to a new player, I won't deny that. However, this game gives you all the tools you need to be successful, and being able to make mistakes and grow from them is a fun and engaging process. This is crucial because, just like in the real world, you are going to make mistakes along the way. The game rewards you for never giving up. Even if you fail one colony, you always learn something new to make the next one even stronger. You will have dupes die, feel that loss, and feel like there is no way of pulling your colony back on its feet. However, you can never lose unless you give up, which I think is a mindset I didn't fully understand before playing.

Not only that, but the community is still thriving. You can always find ways other people tackled hard problems, which never fails to fill me with inspiration. I find myself constantly asking how I can implement various newfound builds and ideas into my colonies to make them even slightly more efficient.

This game is extremely rewarding because you are playing against yourself. The main obstacle is your lack of understanding and fear of messing up. If you can conquer that, you can conquer anything this game can throw at you. You just need to push yourself.

Thank you, Klei, for teaching me this, and thanks for making an awesome game.

Oxygen not Included is a great survival simulator with a robust set of map and character options allowing everyone to play to their own tastes. The dev team is highly involved and constantly adding new content to keep older players engaged while, at the same time, they continue to make small balance adjustments to keep play even. As someone who started playing this game back in the before times, I really appreciate their work on it. The game is fun, the difficulty ranges from challenging to relaxed, the humor is right up my alley, and the DLC is high quality and affordable. I rarely post like this, but Klei deserves a pat on the back and an attaboy. Good job, and thank you for an amazing game.

Nearly 1200 hours and counting. I can't believe this game even exists and I dread the day I may not be able to play it. Honestly it's a base building colony game with so much depth, freedom, and complexity to thrill a wide range of gamers. Beyond that it lets me express creativity and pushes me to problem solve in a way that truly satisfies.
Maybe not for everyone but I truly think this game is a marvel and I've encountered few games that rival it's longevity and charm.

One of my favorite games of all time. Unlike other colony sim type games, ONI doesn't offer simple solutions to all the problems you face. You need to actually think. For example, when heat becomes a problem, you can't just build an air conditioner and call it a day. This game has the Law of Conservation of Energy (for the most part). You need to actually figure out how to move the heat somewhere else or convert it to another form of energy. This makes the game challenging but also incredibly rewarding when you actually succeed in overcoming a challenge. And of course, the game's systems are built so well that your success will likely create a more complex challenge that you'll need to overcome later.

Oxygen Not Included isn’t just a game for me—it’s been so much more than that. During one of the darkest, most painful times in my life, it became my escape, my distraction, and honestly, my reason to keep going.
There were days when it felt like I couldn’t handle the weight of everything happening around me, but this game gave me something else to focus on. It’s not just about building or surviving; it’s about creating something out of chaos, and that’s exactly what I needed.
I don’t know where I’d be without it. This game has kept me grounded when everything else felt like it was slipping away. If you’re looking for something challenging, rewarding, and unexpectedly comforting, I can’t recommend Oxygen Not Included enough. For me, it’s not just a game—it’s been a lifeline.