Solarpunk Reviews

[h1] ☀️🌿 Solarpunk 🌿☀️ [/h1] I picked up Solarpunk together with my bf because we were looking for another game we could just chill in together. That's pretty much exactly what we got. Solarpunk is basically a mix of survival, farming, exploration, automation and base building, but without most of the stress that usually comes with survival games. Instead of constantly fighting monsters or desperately trying not to starve, you're building your own little paradise on floating islands above the clouds. You gather resources, grow crops, build stuff, generate energy through solar panels and wind turbines, unlock new technologies and build your own airship to explore the world around you. [b] Gameplay: [/b] The gameplay loop is simple but incredibly addictive. You always find yourself saying "let's just do this one thing real quick" and well, ya know what I mean. One moment you're gathering wood, the next you're redesigning your entire base because something wont fit in well. The progression feels rewarding and there is always something new to unlock, build or discover. I especially liked that the game gives you a lot of freedom. There isn't really any pressure. You can just take your time and play however you want. The multiplayer is a lot of fun for us. Building a shared base together, dividing tasks and exploring new islands felt really relaxing. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3744740139 [b] Graphics:[/b] Easy but yet beautiful. The character design could deserve some more depth, same as the animals, especially the pigs (and their creepy eyes) The floating islands, the greenery, the flowers, the lighting, the clouds. Everything is bright and cozy looking. I know people call every second game "cozy" nowadays, but Solarpunk genuinely deserves that label. Sometimes I found myself just standing somewhere and looking at the scenery for a min because it simply looked nice lmao. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3744741255 [b] Sound: [/b] Calm, relaxing and never annoying, very easy and light designed. Combined with the ambient sounds of nature and the wind around your island it creates a peaceful atmosphere for me. [b] Things I'd love to see improved:[/b] Even though I really enjoyed the game, there are still a few things I'd love to see added or polished in the future. For starters: Please let me pet the farm animals. You can't give me adorable animals and then not let me pet them. That's illegal in cozy game law. There are also still a few small bugs here and there, especially involving the animals and sometimes while flying with the airship. Nothing game-breaking for us, but definitely noticeable from time to time. Also the achievements are broken if you play together, only the host will get them, which is fairly annoying, especially for achievement hunters like me. And one feature I would absolutely love is being able to properly fly together with friends on the same airship. Since I played most of the game with my bf, it would've been amazing if we could both hop onto the same airship and travel around the world together instead of feeling a bit separated during those moments. I really hope that's something the developers consider in the future. [b] Final Thoughts: [/b] Solarpunk feels like a game for people who are simply tired of stress and like a base-builder survival game without fighting mobs and things. Just you, your floating island, your crops, your little cozy home in the clouds and a beautiful world waiting to be explored. I have a genuinely lovely time with it, and despite a few bugs and some features I'd still love to see added, I can absolutely recommend it. If you enjoy cozy builders, farming games, exploration and creating your own little piece of paradise, Solarpunk is definitely worth checking out. [quote] If you enjoy my reviews, follow my curator pages: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45761053/]Starpatch on Steam[/url] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43807398-SoleSurvivor/]SoleSurvivor Reviews[/url] [/quote]

I give this game a thumbs up but it’s a reluctant thumbs up. Here’s why. The game is fine. It’s average. It’s not broken, it’s not complicated or badly designed. But it’s a reluctant thumbs up because I personally don’t feel it’s worth its asking price. There’s simply nothing new or innovative in its gameplay, its graphics, its sound, its idea or pretty much anything. With the gameplay loop being really simple and kinda boring overall the game is just okay. But that’s why I still gave it a thumbs up. Because technically it did what it set out to do. It’s a fully finished game doing exactly what it advertised. So it gets its thumbs up. It’s not broken, it’s not trying to be anything fancy. But it has average graphics, average sound design, average gameplay mechanics, unoriginal idea and overall it’s just, okay. There’s not really a whole lot more I can say about it without going on a long tangent so I’d rather just say, this is an average game that’s slightly overpriced. But if you’d like a more in-depth review with actual gameplay then I encourage you to check out my review on my YouTube Channel (link below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyqlUKQz4w Otherwise, thanks so much for reading and I hope I was able to help you spend your money wisely.

A bit of a let down. The game advertised itself as a cozy survival base builder with the ability to automate. Which are my three favorite genres, so I was very excited leading up to released. What they delivered could be better described as a wonky base builder with semi-automated chores and an annoying hunger meter. On the base building: - A ton of really cool assets - Placement controls are terrible - None of the assets you would think snap snap, and there's no grid - You can't build downward.. why? - Inventory management is probably the worst I've seen in the genre On the progression: - HURRY UP AND WAIT - Majority of the upgrades require resources that you have to farm. These require seeds which the game only gives a finite amount starting out, so you're often forced to wait with nothing to do. This is infuriating. - Same is true for animals and building materials - I got to the point where I could build logistics drones to help automate, but then realized how long I'd actually have to wait in order to obtain the necessary resources... On survival: - Actually a joke. You have health and water meters which are primarily satiated by berries for the entire early-mid game. You have to grow these. By waiting. There's nothing to do when waiting. - Hardly any depth to food system On farming: - What do I do with excess produce? - Why is it so hard to obtain seeds even in late game? On automation: - You can't fully automate anything. You only make chores easier I'm 16 hours in. I've reached the second to last tier, and I honestly have no desire to continue. Usually the dopamine from progression is what fuels me through the genre, but I can NOT bare to twiddle my thumbs any longer. The game is not worth it in it's current state.

I really wanted to like Solarpunk, but I could not. I had it on my wish list for very long, both me and my girlfriend, we were very excited to play it when it launched. We read the notes before buying but it still left us very disappointed. A big part of is this disappointment is the fact that I watched the "Watch before buy" video on the steam page and after launching the game and starting to play, I felt like I already knew everything and there was nothing new I could discover because there is not much content at all and all content there is, was already shown to me in that video. We did not encounter many bugs at all and the graphics and atmosphere is beautiful but the game feels more like an Early Access version 0.2 rather than a full game with the amount of content and mechanics. I also want to stress that for cheaper than this game, you can buy either Schedule 1 or Valheim, both which have tons more content. I understand that both are different types of games, but for the price of this game it just feels lacking. Even though the world is beautiful, it is empty. I hope to come back in the future and buy this game with more content as right now it is far from being worth it.

There's just next to nothing here. It feels like an empty, very early access game as far as what's in the game. Calling this 1.0 and pricing it at this amount gives the impression that it's more than what it really is. What is here is pretty cool, and pretty fun. I've encountered no bugs, and it runs great. It deserves credit for that. I like what *very* little is here. I wish there were more. But man is it an empty, empty experience. Very little content, zero worldbuilding of any kind. I guess it's "solarpunk" because it says it is, and because you can build solar panels? If you want to play a game like this, frankly, there are just much more fully fleshed out options out there for the same price or less. Other survival crafters at this price point (or lower) have vastly more content. Others have more world building or reason to actually care about the game. Other "chill" games at even lower price points have far more to do. This feels like paying much too high a price for an alpha version of a game. If this were 10 bucks I'd still have to think about whether or not it was worth it.

nice chill game to relax on, but i just cant overlook the fact the Moon rotates opposite of the Sun, the sun goes behind a horizon that isnt there, AND NO STARS AT ALL. This concludes my Autistic Space Rant

I think expectations can sometimes kill a game before it even has time to shine. Big kudos to the dev for posting what to expect from this game prior to release because it really helped me go into this experience with a level head. First and foremost, [i]this game's primary focus is relaxation and creating.[/i] Either solo or with others. This review will be from a solo player standpoint. I persoanally HATE player made tags for games. It can sometimes be misleading. This game is very light on the "survival". Your tools break and you have a hunger/thirst meter. There is a cozy mode where upon exhaustion, you don't lose your inventory and everything decays slower. This is the mode I am playing on because why do I want my game to mimic the chaos of real life XD The character creation is just awful. The options are very limited and not all that appealing. That being said, you play the game in first person view, so you barely ever see your character. The starting area can be a bit slow and limiting with resources but the gameplay experience really opens up once you build your aircraft and start expanding your workstation. This game is all about discovery, collecting and crafting. The more you collect, the more you can craft to unlock more gear and supplies. There is no story but I do like how there is a tiered unlock system in place for crafting. It gives you something to work towards despite the very open world, sandbox feel. I was starting to get a bit bored with the starter floating island. So if you don't give this game enough time to unlock the other features, you will be really underwhelmed. I just unlocked my airship and the other islands offer a bit of change of scenary with new vegetation and new resources to collect. This is a slow burn type of game. You need to take your time AND give it time to be able to exerience all it has to truly offer. I am playing it on the steam deck and it runs just fine. I have no issues with the graphics or controls. My only gripe is with building. It can be a bit fiddly with navigating the outer edge of the scroll wheel and the placement of items takes a bit of patience. I imagine it is a lot easier on KB+M, but it is not unplayable. Just needs some work. If you are looking to chill and build your dream self-sustaining sanctuary, then this is for you. But if you are looking for a fight-for-your-life, fast paced survival game, you will be sorely disappointed. I think the dev did a great job with the promo videos for this game, so make sure to watch them all before you buy to see if this game is a fit for you. This game is by no means bad, but I don't know if I would recommend it at full price. Update: as much as I was enjoying this game, the aircraft is starting to really become bothersome. Flying it is a bit cumbersome with controller and I am constantly crashing it, which aborts the whole mission. There needs to be a proper landing dock and maybe some auto assist with landing. And as I’m gathering more resources, I am starting to notice how annoying organizing everything is because A) storage capacity is too small B) stacks of items are capped at 16, which is just insane. Just some QoL issues that could use improvement because it’s starting to affect gameplay.

I really wanted to like Solarpunk, but in its current state it feels less like a finished release and more like a rough early access prototype that somehow got pushed out the door. The game is extremely buggy, the systems feel shallow, and after the initial “okay, this looks pleasant” moment wears off, there just isn’t much to actually do. It has the structure of a survival/crafting game, but without the depth, polish, or sense of progression that makes those games compelling. Everything feels undercooked. The worst part is that it doesn’t even deliver strongly on the “solarpunk” fantasy. The name suggests something imaginative, ecological, optimistic, and distinctive, but the actual game feels generic and empty. It has the aesthetic in the loosest possible sense, but very little personality or substance behind it. A lot of it also has that “vibe coded” feeling: features are technically present, but they don’t feel thoughtfully designed or properly integrated. The result is a game that feels assembled out of basic genre pieces rather than built around a clear vision. Maybe this will become something worthwhile after a lot more updates, but as a released game, it is honestly hard to believe this is considered finished. Right now, it feels buggy, barebones, and unfinished. I would not recommend buying it in its current state.

This game makes me wish Steam had a 3rd option between recommend and not recommend. I don't want to say I don't recommend it, because it IS fun, it's pretty, and it feels like it has soooo much potential. I spent hours in the demo and I was so so so excited for this release. But I can't quite say I do recommend it at this point, because this is supposed to be the 1.0 full release. And it feels more Early Access than some actual Early Access games I've played recently. There are game-breaking bugs, and the world feels so barebones and empty. It's not a lack of NPCs - I can fully enjoy a solo game without needing other characters around. It's the sheer lack of worldbuilding. You wake up alone (or with your friends) on an empty island and there is just 0 explanation. I'm 20 hours in and there's nothing to tell you how you got there, why you're alone, why the islands are floating, or what happened to the world. No interesting architecture from a world left behind, no notes, no story, just a single crashed airship that you take to make a new one. The airship controls are janky at best and require both a learning curve and luck of the draw. The docks can rubber-band you all the way across the map in a split second, or refuse to recall your airship when it crashed 10 feet below. Animals get stuck on their own feeding troughs and freeze in place. Opening the game to host multiplayer can teleport you across the map and leave your airship behind. Progression feels artificially prolonged by watching plants grow. And I get that the devs don't want people to just rush through to the end in 2 hours flat, but at least give us something else to do while we wait other than micromanaging the animal feeders. The only differences between the islands are the shapes and what singular new resource you can exploit. The fact that it's a 1.0 and not Early Access is kind of insulting. It feels like the devs got tired of working on it and just said "screw it." With no roadmap and no further updates promised, I unfortunately feel like I can't recommend this game. If the bugs were ironed out and there was at least a few hints of the apparent lore of the world (that they want you to buy a whole book for), I would fully recommend it. But as is, it feels like an unfinished start to something that could have been better.

Edit: Downloading some mods makes it a bit more bearable, so I'm giving this another try this way. Still think many things needs to be fixed with the base game before I can give it a thumbs up. I played the demo of this game over a year ago during Steam's Next Fest. I really enjoyed the short demo, and was really looking forward to release with "so much more to come" (their words). I went in all excited to finally play it again, but after playing for a few hours, I could hardly notice a difference between the demo and now. We can now go to other islands, but they feel just as empty as the first island. I thought to myself "well, I guess it's early release, so more will come". Only after a few hours of playing did I go to the steam page and realize, no, this is actually the full release. I'm sorry... what? To make it easier, I'm gonna write a list of things I like, and then things I don't really like. The good: • The artstyle is pleasant to look at. • Building a house is nice, I really like all the roof options, it excels there compared to most games with house building honestly. • It performs well, both on my mid-range PC and the Steam Deck (which I barely tried, but it looked to run well on medium settings). The not so good: • It feels extremely isolating. I've only played solo, which of course makes it even worse, but I don't think even multiplayer would save this from feeling isolating. Being on a small island by yourself, no NPCs to find, the closest area you can visit with the ship has a damn robot that sells you blueprints. I would've preferred a human or other living creature to give it a small bit of life. • Flying the ship is not the greatest experience. I also insta-died because I had a minor crash, while the ship seemed to be completely fine by the little bump. Other islands don't have docks (at least not the ones I went to, with the exception of the shop place or whatever it is), and lining up the ship well enough to be able to jump off and back on again is unnecessarily tricky. I assume a dock can be built, but that's yet another thing to spend lots of materials on. • Speaking of materials, things are often too expensive to make, so I feel like I have to farm for materials all the time and get little out of it. • Hunger and thirst go down quickly, so farming is both necessary and annoying. You have to water way too often, so it's essentially a speedrun to get electricity and sprinklers for it to become at least more bearable. • Things take a lot of electricity. One generator outputs 120w, and one drill takes 120w, so one drill needs a generator by itself. The generator also only has 12 minutes of uptime, which you get from inserting ~16 wood. Every 12 minutes you gotta insert 16 wood if you want to keep the electricity going. Or, you can go the solar panel route, which is what I use for my crops (separately from the drill), but it only works during daytime, and will not work if a cloud is blocking the sun even partially (+1 for slight realism?) • Customization is really limited. A handful of hairstyles, a few color choices for the clothes, and TWO SKIN COLORS? IN A FULL RELEASE? You also can't turn your character around during customization, so who knows how these hairstyles look from behind, until your friend sends you a screenshot. • I haven't tried multiplayer yet, I was intending on doing so tomorrow after trying it out myself first (I enjoy taking my time soaking games in solo first), but according to reviews it has issues. The biggest issue, which seems to be an odd design choice, is that only 1 person can use the ship at a time. I would've wanted to be able to explore the skies WITH MY FRIEND. The only way to do so is to build another ship and fly close to each other. However, you can't dock two ships at the same dock either, so you would also have to have two docks. If an island has one dock, good luck player two. It apparently doesn't have any kind of chat system either, which might be an issue for some who don't want to rely on other services. • Just the fact that it feels like an early access title, but is a full release prices way too high for what it is. Had I known of these issues a little earlier I would've refunded, but I'm too far past the 2 hour point now. I was too excited about it to wait and see what other people thought before buying it, and I can regret that now. I might try to play a little more, but unless they actually improve greatly on this, I don't see myself putting many more hours in. Very sad, considering how much I looked forward to this.