Human Extinction Simulator Reviews

A pretty interesting game on the concept that lacks a bit of sould and frankly a bit of fun. Well realized though but I would not recommand at this price

Not Bad. Quite complicated tactic turned based game. No saves during game process, that is pitty

No explanation of where a ship will end up with what facing or any given ship can attack with any given facing. Very unintuitive, and the tutorial is absolutely worthless. Other reviews are spot on with their criticism - the mechanics make no sense and there is no explanation as to why anything works the way it does, despite whatever icons show up on a given hex. Avoid, it's mobile-tier garbage that shouldn't exist on Steam. Due to the way that the game works, this is basically a restart scenario simulator. Absolutely terrible gameplay design intended to waste your time. Plenty of better tactical space simulators out there. Hard pass.

A lot of the negative reviews on this game are from people who have played it for 2-3 hours and I can understand why but I think they need to give it a bit more time because it is a real fun strategy game if you can get over the initial hump, which is the 3rd level. It took me a few attempts to beat it and a couple of hours but when I did it was a Eureka moment in terms of how to play. Each ship shoots in a different way and moves in a different way so none are alike in terms of how you should attack with them and certain weapons do damage to shields or hull so you do have to think about placement but once you get your head around the game mechanics it is not that difficult. It does require you to think strategically and plan your actions but it is a strategy game so I'm not sure what people expected. A lot of the reviews have focused on no undo button but again it's a strategy game not a trial and error game! To me, it's kind of like the Sid Meier's Ace Patrol series but if that game had a full squadron of many different airplanes that you would take to the skies. Or a battle isle/Historyline game (for the older gamers!) If you like something that requires you to think about your actions and consequences on a chessboard type arena then you will like this. If that kind of stuff frustrates and you don't have the patience to fail then you will not! The Negative side is that the tutorial missions are a bit week and there is no help guide, which would have really sped up my understanding of how the game mechanics work and how the ships work! So the first few missions require some trial and error in understanding how to play, which will put people off (because of the lack of an undo button) but once you get past that it's a great strategy game. Is it worth £14.99? Depends how much you like strategy games. I bought it on sale and I'm not sure I would have taken a gamble on it given the negative reviews on here. I have really enjoyed playing it so would probably pay full price knowing what I know now! Or chuck it on your wishlist and wait till a sales on!

- forced tutorial sucks - music was good - seems buggy or something I don't get about clicking - Still wanted to play it though even though it was forcing me to play a tutorial - might try it aGAIN -god i hope I didn't pay 19 bucks for this shit

I'm quite enjoying this game. It isn't as hard as people make out to be, if you hit space bar and make sure all your ships end their turn in a hex where they won't take any damage you will do fine. Hitting the enemy can be a bit of a challenge but I find the AI will fly into one of your weapon arcs more often than not even though they probably could have avoided them. There is a trick you can do where you fly a ship in front of another ship (doesn't work with fighters) and they won't be able to move and become a sitting duck, which is definitely useful if you want to do a map in a short number of turns. The presentation is also very good, I think it's a great game.

This is a very good game, well worth the $20. I am about half way through the campaign. It is decently hard, but only in that you are required to take a moment and think about the consequences of your moves. Most of the missions I have been able to finish with all bonus objectives on the first try, it is not punishing. It is an interesting take on space combat. Each ship has its own movement and firing patterns, so it does take a moment to learn. Some ships are mobile enough that you can reliably dart in and out of combat with no problem (aided by the overlay which shows you which locations are safe to end your move.) Some ships are powerful but slow, and you need to plan their route and make sure nothing impedes their course. It does remind me of chess, but more complicated and with some computer assistance to plan your moves. The campain has offered a variety of goals so far to keep things interesting, and I am now carefully weighing which ships to choose for the next campaign (and finding that balance is decent, and some ships I had disliked are becoming more tempting once staying power across an entire campaign is taken into consideration.)

I had high hopes for this game after reading some of the other reviews, but after playing it for a few hours, I found it to be an exercise in frustration. My main issues center around the ship movements and the weapons firing arcs. It is impossible for any of the ships Ive used to move backwards or rotate 180 degrees. This results in having to loop around in order to fire at your enemies, much like you would in a sea battle piloting an old sailing ship. This in and of itself wouldn't be so bad but when combined with narrow firing arcs and blind spots in your weapons' field of fire, it becomes irritating very quickly. It's not at all unusal to have an enemy ship in the hex directly adjacent to you 30 degrees left or right of center and not be able to fire at it. Also, many of the weapons are only effective at certain ranges or against either shields or the hull (not both). That combined with the limited movement and firing arcs results in your capital ships being almost useless. Because they are so slow, it seems almost impossible to move them into a position where you are pointed in the right direction, at the right range, with the right weapon to hit your target. And even if you do manage it, you will get one shot before spending another 3 turns looping around to try to get another. Oh, and did I mention that you are always significantly out numbered? I dunno... I got through the first couple of missions, but I just didn't enjoy it. If the movement were more free or the ship weapons could be customized, I might have liked it more.

I wanted to like this game. And honestly with an undo button or some other way of seeing where a ship would end up after moving I would have liked it. Instead, this game is an exercise in frustration. Your ships get to move twice, and may shoot before the second move. Logically, your first move should be to where you can take your shot, and the second to a safe spot. The game helps a little by showing if you will take shield, hull, or destruction if you end your turn in a particular hex. But, way to many times after making the first move to take a shot, all remaining possible moves end in destruction. All that can be done is restarting the whole scenario, replaying all moves which go exactly the same, then trying a slightly different move. I have no hope of this being resolved as the developers appear to have abandoned the game.

If this was a 2 dollar mobile app, I would recommend it. It's somewhere between chess and checkers with spaceships. It feels more like a puzzler than a tactical game, victory requiring just the right sequence of moves. There isn't much room for error, and no save options. There's no customization, no ship designing, and no editing loadouts; any of which would have added a little spice to an otherwise bland 2D experience. It's not a bad game, just not worth the price.