Volcanoids

FOR ROCK AND STONE

I played and beat the game in around 13 hours with a friend. It was good fun, but surprisingly short. We were expecting a little bit more to be honest. The game is also highly repetitive in terms of technology upgrades/stages and story check points/objectives. Without any spoilers, you do destroy the same thing four times and win the game. It was disappointing that there were no increased challenges at these points.
By the end of the game your ship becomes highly automated and you rely a lot on bots, which reminded me of Factorio, in a good way. You can call bots and turrets to your location to fight for you, use mining drones, set your ship to automatically scrap, smelt, build, and dispense the items you want/need. I just wish that there was a little bit more to it after that.
I know the game is in Early Access, so I hope that they continue to add to the game. Not just small things like this new teased tesla weapon, but maybe something you can do after the game is over? It just becomes a boring sandbox. Any sense of victory is dampened by the fact it was so easy and that you didn't really do anything new or different to win.
If the game releases in its current state (very buggy, laggy, missing textures, holes in the floor, massive spelling and grammar errors) with an increase in price? Don't bother. If the game adds in more content, and not just small stuff but actual game changing updates, and stays at around $30 bucks I think it is well worth getting. If nothing else is really added to the game, just some new weapons, and cosmetics and stuff, perhaps get this game when/if it goes on sale if you really like the looks of it. It is really not as much of an open world survival crafting game as you might imagine, and as it might be. I really hope it is able to reach the potential I can see it has.

As always,general ratings first followed by the review :
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
Volcanoids is an exploring survival game,that can be enjoyed single player or coop,where you have to survive volcanic eruptions,build up a huge drill and fight off bad evil robots,which is all pretty simple after all,but it's way more than that.
Graphics wise,the game looks pretty nice,especially details on the weapons and inside the drill,with all the engines,clocks and machinery working,all the explosions and effects are quite decent,the first few volcano eruptions are also quite exciting but then you get used to them.
As sound goes,it's also pretty ok,everything has it's own effects,you can pinpoint easily where something is or comes from,the atmosphere could be a bit better tho,especially after an eruption,but there are still updates coming out so there is still time for improvements.
Now gameplay,that's where it shines. It is really fun,the way you develop your own drill or if you prefer,you can go and capture the robots drills,but for me personally,developing my own was way more fun and seeing all the improvements,the way it gets better,stronger and way larger than you'd believe initially,it was the thing that really got me to like the game.
You can farm resources all around the island,go underground and get different,rarer ones or just farm robots,which if you want,you can also raid their drills,but that's a bit harder and riskier. Weapons are great,fun,tho you will absolutely need explosives once you advance into T2 , the enemy tanks are a huge pain otherwise.
Modifying your drill is easy,you just use a wrench,slap a furniture there,a chest here,maybe upgrade the tracks,add a turret or a refinery,everything is just smooth and easy to learn and get used to. A big plus is that you can automate most of the production and research,so you just use and expand the drills cargo space and you can then use drones to farm for you or fight alongside you while the workbenches do the work for you in the drill,as long as you are not underground,hiding from an eruption.
Combat is nice,hitboxes are pretty good,some fights are harder than you'd initially thought (again,COG tanks),reinforcements can come from pretty much anywhere,so do plan a raid properly and grab some armor with you. The max tier is T3 right now,but who knows,maybe later on there will be even more added,but the game does end once the final mission is done,so if you want to enjoy the game more,save before going for the last mission so you can return to it and still farm/develop or have fun before.
If playing online,there will be more robots and they will spawn faster,but they will still be manageable,no big deal. I played with a friend,it runs great,missions are shared,everything is shared,it was a fluid and very good experience. Had minor bugs,some loot was stuck in the ground and some mobs despawned before I could loot them,but that was all.
Overall,Volcanoids is a great surviving explorer,that is awesome in singleplayer and very fun online. There are sales quite often on it,but i'd say it's current price is easily worth it for how fun it can be and i'm sure there will be more updates later on.
If you liked the review and want to find even more content,reviews or just support me,you can do it on my Patreon : patreon.com/SteveAnton97

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☑ No lore
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

I went through this game in easy mode to learn the ropes and tricks of managing a drill monster... was fun... really didnt expected much from this game but it delivered everything from a satisfactory point of view, combined with an easy going shooter with really basic mechanics and physics.
+ Steam punk theme everything, I love steam punks theme... So much advanced technology with so basic copper gears and levers everything :D
+ You got to make an efficient drill monster and manage your energy and resources while producing all the gear you need to kill all those robots all over the place.
+ Weapons have different bullet velocity, really well done. Straight fast, lobe slow, electric beams and so on
+ Defensive turrets effective only vs certain types of weapons, so you need to mix and match what your opponents can throw at you.
+ (finally and the biggest +) No game crash or strange bugs during my entire gameplay experiment... *tip hats* its really REALLY! incredible from games nowaday, for an independent studio who are their own publisher.. WOW, you guys put to shame any large box who pretend to be programmers... will definitely look for other or later products from their list.
- Dont try to jump with your character, he CANT do it!! :P its feels like your character weight 400 pounds... but he can run like a marathon dude when he still has stamina (thats really a tiny minus mark here, would be easy to fix)
- Graphics are a bit low resolution but heh, I guess, its a work in progress, its good enough for now I think but definitely expect to see an improvement there (no big deal there either)
Im ready for the real tryout now on regular difficulty see if I can do it again :D

Remember watching the development on TikTok a few years back. Bought it back then to just support the dev as i saw he really does a ton of work around it.
Kinda forgot about it until recently, and the game changed A TON, its a really nice game with a affordable price, has MP and lots of customization and stuff to find out.

I can finally add inches to my own drill. My testosterone is through the roof.