About 40hrs in: SINGLE PLAYER review: I'd give this a solid 8/10 and expect it to improve to a 9/10 as more and more rough edges get sorted. This game is heavy on combat (in a good way). People are right to compare it to Palworld and Craftopia. Early access worrries? The dev is active on reddit and responds to people. And by respond, I mean he actually digs through their save file and figures out what bug is happening and fixes it. So far, I've only had 2 crashes after near 5hr play sessions. AAA titles tend to crash about then too. Either I'm lucky, or the dev has fixed most of the major bugs for single player. (a lot of games struggle to get stable multiplayer, AAA included) With the current rough polish, it is worth my money. I've bought several recent games that claimed to be complete and felt broken. This is sometimes a little jank, but it isn't broken. It's playable and fun. It doesn't feel empty. The systems work. There are points where quests reach a "will continue in a later patch" point. But world feels like it has continuity with itself (no immersion jarring mismatched placeholder objects or odd starkly empty sections so far). The game starts with a tutorial semi-free roam location & story which I enjoyed. Then you get dropped into the real game and will promptly discover you don't know how to build and combat isn't fluffy kittens. Fortunately, you probably died very near your 1st spawn/fast travel/shop location. That leaves you focusing on base building - so you get that a bit figured out a bit while avoiding combat. Then you realize the combat has very rewarding items! Basic gameplay is going on explorations and missions, filling your inventory, then quick teleporting back to base and focusing on that for a while. Unlike harvest moon, etc, you aren't forced to get everything done quick before the store opens. You decide when it's open or closed. You can wonder off for days leaving it closed as you explore. You can open it in the middle of the night, when customers sometimes bring in unwelcome guests... Exploration and unlocking fast travel beacons is highly encouraged. Getting to the lady who increases inventory size is a game changer - and also setup to reward exploration and trying things. (nice gameplay loop connections) A few final thoughts and a major helpful tip to avoid where I felt stuck (but wasn't, just didn't understand): Palworld starts off more fun. Both games connect gameplay loops into each other well. Mechanizing and pal catching synergize. But Pal's building itself isn't fun/satisfying to me. keeping them from getting stuck quickly lends to utilitarian efficiency vs creative and pleasing. Saleblazers starts out cludgy, but ultimately feels more rewarding to build and see the fruits of your labor. Combat: While it sometimes feels like it need more refined polish, it overall works. I found myself switching back and forth between blades and guns. While you do get stronger, so early areas get easier, this game keeps you from becoming complacent. You might be getting casual about it as you use reach or aim to easily pick off enemies. But that complacency turns to a desperate panic moment, when a dagger wielding enemy knocks you down and interrupts your attacks (just like you do to them). Dodge roll, Block! Block, Block, get the counter timing right -whew. Countered, letting me swing my slower bigger weapon or reload. So far, it hasn't rolled off like Palworld does near the end. (I haven't reached endgame yet) If you pay attention, you will notice the enemies don't all just charge you dumbly. Outlaws feel like - playing Outlaws! (Where are you marshal, marshal?) Other enemies flee, unless you get too close. Or turn your back for too long... or aggressively charge outright. It's not going to win any game awards, but so many games cheap out and don't do this. It stands out to me. Now for those tips: 1. Once you have a build hammer: (ds4 square button)/use/interact button changes the floor tile assignment. This is very important to building your store, as it controls where npc's can walk. 2. Save the trash! Also, consider trashing sell-able items. (if that seems upside down, you'll thank me when you understand) Use the fast scrap all button when your inventory is full while looting. 3. There is a chance the items you craft will be of a higher quality. Sometimes this is worth it vs loot. 4. (where I got stuck for a while) if your crafting stations aren't crafting: it needs the input resources slots emptied! I thought somehow I was quest progress locked on making a forge. Nope. I just had other resources blocking all the input slots, so it couldn't take all the resources it needed to actually build. 5. Yes it's worth 2 stage refining your wood as longer burning fuel. 6. (Until this gets patched to better) fast placing tree seeds etc: (combo of controller and mouse) if you try to drag the stack from your inventory, it drops the whole stack. 2 ways I found: 1 so-so method: grab the stack and use right click on empty inventory spots to leave single items. then quickly drag the single items. method 2: place the the item in your quickbar. select it, then open inventory. mouse clicks out in the world now drop single item instead of a stack. You can click a bunch, close inventory & move a little, then quickly toggle inventory open again to be able to click drop more. 7. final tip: related to the need for many trees: make a circle of regular bamboo (haven't tried buildings) and place a bunch of the big bamboo inside. Now it can't fall over, so all the drops end up close. Just go around the inside of the circle cutting only inside bamboo. then cleanup the stumps and replant.
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