Notrium Reviews

Notrium is a game that's very dear to me. The very first version of it I played was 1.2, which I got off a CD that came with a gaming magazine back in 2004. I had no idea what I was doing, but it captivated me so much that I spent quite a few sleepless nights playing through it and figuring things out as I went (I still didn't have internet at that point so I was pretty much on my own). I won't claim that Notrium is the first of its kind, but it's definitely one of the oldest survival games out there and I still consider it to be one of the absolute best, especially when you take into account that it was a freeware game made by more or less one dude called Ville Mönkkönen. [h1] STORY [/h1] The gist of it is that your spaceship gets destroyed by missiles as it passes by the an alien planet and you're the only survivor. Your job is naturally to find a way to escape. The neat thing here is that you get 4 playable characters to choose from each with their own story that progresses via journal logs the longer you survive as well as 6 different endings. It's nothing phenomenal, but deep narrative isn't the focus here. [h1] muh grafix [/h1] Honestly this is mostly nostalgia speaking, but Notrium looks timeless to me. I loved how it looked back in 2004 and I love how it looks today. I have no idea what this artstyle is called, it might be a Finnish thing, because Crimsonland looked almost the same back in the day and I loved how that game looked too. [h1] MUSIC/SOUNDS [/h1] There isn't a whole lot when it comes to music. You have a track for the main menu and 3 ambient tracks that play during the game. The general ambiance is great. The weapons sound satisfying and so do the aliens you encounter. The music can get repetitive, because none of the tracks are particularly long. Personally I'm fine with it, but Notrium is extremely easy to mod (I'll get more into that later) and adding new music to the playlist won't take you more than a few minutes. [h1] GAMEPLAY [/h1] This is where Notrium truly shines. It's not filled to the brim with hundreds of "features" that mostly devolve into busy work. It's simple, to the point and highly replayable. You have 3 difficulties to choose from. On easy you only have to worry about finding food. on normal and hard you'll have to deal with your body temperature as well. I generally recommend starting on easy so you can get a feel for how things work, then moving on to higher difficulties. As I said before you get 4 characters to choose from and they all play different. The human, the alien, the android and the psionic. - The human has to worry about food and temperature as well as building different tools and weapons in order to survive. I recommend you start with him. - The alien burns through food a lot faster and can't carry as much nor use a lot of tools and weapons, but is extremely deadly in close combat. Over time it evolves by either surviving long enough or killing other species and thus gains more abilities (you'll eventually be able to start your very own xenomorph hive). - The android is very strong, can use the same tools the human can, doesn't eat and cares little for temperature, however his energy is constantly draining and you'll have to find ways to replenish it and extend your capacity. - The psionic is the most unique character and I highly recommend you leave him for last. He barely needs to eat and his energy regenerates on its own. However he can't carry any items (there's a way to get around this MUCH later in the game) and combines different tokens to use his psionic abilities. You'll be spending your time exploring the planet and scavenging for parts to build the things you need to survive and escape. Crafting is done on the fly from your inventory. You can also dismantle things you find into their parts and use them for something else. You'll survive by eating mushrooms (keep an eye on the name as some of the big ones are rotten and will damage you), alien corpses and rations (which you can find or create). Your body temperature can be regulated by warming up near fires you find or start, hiding under trees, using thermal/ice packs or a certain armor. A really neat feature Notrium has is that every time you start a new game the map locations are randomized. Map layouts and enemy/item spawns are completely random (with a few exceptions). There's also a day/night cycle and weather effects that affect your temperature and can damage or heal you. Combat is similar to a twin stick shooter, keyboard/mouse controls only, though. You'll have to pick the right weapon for the job as some enemies are very resistant to bullets. There's a ton of things to do and with different characters and the random elements the replay value is high. Like I said, Notrium is very easy to mod. It comes from an era when most people didn't feel the need to encrypt the sh*t out of everything and it had a small, but very dedicated modding community. You can easily tweak things as you desire. All the data files can be opened with a text editor, are neatly arranged and are very easy to understand. There's an ingame map editor too. Once you're done with the main game I highly recommend going to Ville's website and grabbing UberWaffe's Werivar Mod. It adds a fifth playable character, a ton of new content and vastly expands what's already there. It's a genuine expansion pack. [h1] FINAL WORDS (no TL;DR this time) [/h1] I adore this game and can't recommend it enough. For a single man project from 2003 it's incredible and it's still incredible nowadays. I only have one personal gripe and that's with the Steam version. Now version 1.3.4.1 is the last freeware version of Notrium from 2005 and I consider that one to be the definitive experience. The Steam release removed an option or two, added a few small additions and made the game widescreen. However in the process the camera was broken. In 1.3.4.1 it would stop at the edge of the map as you approached it, but that is no longer the case. Now the camera will always be centered around your character so every time you reach the edge of the map you get to see the black abyss beyond it. I guess it's not a big deal if you've never played Notrium before, but for me it's a HUGE immersion breaker hence why I've replaced the files in my Steam folder with 1.3.4.1. The game works perfectly, you just can't unlock achievements. Now don't get me wrong, you should still give Ville 2 bucks because he absolutely deserves them (hell I'd say it's criminally cheap considering how good it is), but I generally recommend you go with 1.3.4.1 instead. You can easily find it online.

This game, in a way, changed my life, because it influenced how i perceive games in the first place. I became an indie dev and developed my own game based on the inspiration Notrium and few other games gave me. So i really owe a lot to this game, and hope Ville is up to make many more great games!

Notrium is a top down survival game that was originally freeware (you can find the free version [url=https://gamejolt.com/games/notrium/3799/download/build/211998][b]HERE[/b][/url]. The developer Ville Mönkkönen re released this commercial version back in 2015 as a special edition on Steam. I played the original Notrium for months when I first got a copy of the freeware version. I loved the variety of environments you could explore with Notrium and the challenge of surviving by scavenging for food and supplies as well as the crafting aspect and the day and night cycles. Another interesting aspect to the game was deciding which character to play because each has its own strengths and weaknesses, for example the captain relied heavily on weapons, partly because he was the weakest of the characters. The androids characters were really strong, but couldn't heal themselves until they found healing units that were scatted when the space ship crashed. The alien was an excellent hunter. This latest edition includes a new character that is psionic . Also, Notrium was the first randomly generated game I'd ever played; which at the time, I thought was ground breaking and absolutely loved the concept as no two games were the same. This gives the game a lot of replayability. Also, there was (and still is) an extensive fan based modding community involved with the game, which will extend the games life even more. You can start this special edition of Notrium either via the tutorial, which is advisable, especially if you haven't played the original previously; or alternatively you can jump straight into a new game. Taking the tutorial gives you two choices Basic and Psionic training. Basic training as the name suggests gives your character the skills to survive after crashing on this inhospitable planet. I won't into detail about the tutorial, except to say it's basic, just introducing you to the various key bindings, using energy and describes the coloured bars located at the bottom of the game area that indicate your health, food, amount of energy etc. Your progress is kept in a Journal which can be accessed at any time by pressing the J key. When you start the main game (after the tutorials), you find yourself plunging towards the planet , with you controlling your escape pod following the destruction of your space ship. You can use either the WASD or arrow keys to control your decent and avoid incoming missiles; if you're hit more than four times you die. Once you land you need to find food and shelter. You can freeze or overheat depending on where you are on the planet and you will constantly be looking to replenish your various reserves of food and energy as well as searching for items to craft that will help towards your survival, such as a scanner to find other objects, which is made from a broken radio and other objects; it tells you how to make this in the tutorial). As you progress, you'll come across various environments such as Tundra, Jungle, Desert etc. The game starts when your ship is attacked while passing the planet Notrium and you crash land on the planet. you have a choice of several characters to play from an alien stowaway, the captain of the ship, an android medic or engineer; plus as mentioned above a new character that is psionic. Each character usually sees a different ending to the game, though there was some overlap between characters. Game play involves searching for materials to build suitable weapons and other items that will help in your survival. Sadly, as yet, there is no Steam workshop, despite the availability of a level editor and access to a guide for modifying the game, however, you can add mods by installing them into the correct folder. Some of my favourite mods were Wazzal II: The Final Dawn, UberWaffe's Werivar Mod and the side scrolling mod Impalable eidolon, which you can find [url=https://www.instantkingdom.com/notrium/][b]HERE[/b][/url]. The main difference between the original freeware version and this Steam versioapart from the additional character is that it includes cloud and auto saves, which I find very useful as well as hints, that were definitely not included in the original. This makes the game more survivable; especially when beginning a new game before you have crafted any survival gear such as weapons, also the game includes Steam achievements which always help keep most of us interested; at least until we've got all of the achievements. For me though its the moddable aspect of the game that is important. This particular game although a top down survival game does have a side scrolling mod mentioned above available.

Notrium is, quite possibly, one of, if not the first modern survival game. It predates every other game in the genre that I know by a few years. Everything is here: You've got to eat, keep warm, or keep cool. You have to explore, and find resources to craft things with. The environment is hostile. There are different biomes with different challenges. Notrium does everything Don't Starve, The Forest, Subnautica etc. do. And it did it way before anyone else. And it was free. This is just part of the reason why I don't understand why nobody ever seems to have heard of this game. How does one game predate the rise of an entire genre, do it this well, but is so obscure? Because if you're reading this, and you don't know what Notrium is, all I can tell you is that it does everything you expect from a survival craft-em-up. In fact, it does more. It has several wildly different classes to play, and it has multiple endings. So yes, it's a little rough looking. It's been 15 years, and it was freeware from the start. And some of the alien sound effects sound like the creator purred into the microphone. But when you get down to it this game laid down a set of rules that has remained unchanged, and if you enjoy that particular set of rules, you will enjoy Notrium. And be honest, is 2 bucks really that high of a price for a fascinating glimpse into gaming history?

Notrium. I don't have words for this game. Probably one of my most favoured games of all time, I can't believe it's on Steam! I dropped the $1.99 in about a second! Notrium is a survival game. You play as one of 4 characters from a crew that crashlands on an alien planet. Your goal is to survive, be it that you find a way offworld, or take presedence over the locals and become ze' ubermanche. There is the Human, Alien, Android and Psionic. I personally prefer the Human and Alien to the other two races, because of the amount of gameplay each presents. Notrium hits the "Survival" Part right on the money. You constantly have to moniter your temperature and hunger, as well as focusing on the whole NOT DYING part. I sincerely hope Ville releases workshop for this game, due to the huge amount of moddability. Someone modded this into a side scroller guys! How crazy is that? Insanity aside, $1.99 is a small price to pay for a game with this kind of content. Definitely worth the time you'll spend dying over and over again.

This classic game is definitely worth playing to any survival game enthusiast. In fact, when it comes to futuristic survival games, this one is a pioneer. It covers multiple races with distinct gameplay strategies, crafting, a nicely written back-story and loads of aliens to kill... or be killed by. It's also moddable to the point enabling the creation of expansions to the original game, or just something completely different. Although its introduction to Steam and the improvements available in the Special Surprise Edition (™?) are a fresh breeze to the game, this version brings the same spirit of the freeware versions from 2003 and onwards. In fact, one of these earlier versions of Notrium is open-source. Hence, my greatest inclination of buying it here is to support the (very) nice developers behind it. It's still worth every cent.

>Be me. >Very bored. >Suddenly remember notrium, the game from almost two decades back, you used to play as a kid and maybe even one of your very first pc games. >Google it in hopes to play it again. >See it's actually available in steam. >Joyfully pay the 1.99€. >Literal tears of nostalgic happiness.

Notrium is a survival game from a time when survival games wern't really a thing. You get multiple difficulties, multiple races(Each race has its own playstyle) and multiple ways to go about your survival adventure each time you play. It's been many years since I've put a lot of time into this game so it's difficult for me to break down each element in the review but I'm sure someone else will do that later. I just want to let you know that this is an upgraded version of an already quality game that I spent many hours enjoying in the past. It's also fully moddable with some impressive mods already existing.

A hidden gem of the early indie game scene, Notrium has finally come to Steam. This game was doing survival in a hostile world long before Minecraft popularized the genre. Crafting, alien landscapes, multiple playable races, solid modding community, the works. An incredible game, more so for the time it was released, it still holds up today. For the incredibly low asking price, this game is highly recommended.

Notrium is a game I played extensively 12 years ago. I played it for hours as a kid because it was quick fun, had exploration and crafting and a vibrant community with extensive mod support. I taught me the basics of modding which later got me interested in programing. The game is still as fun as I remember, but the community is quite gone -- which is where Steam comes in. I can only imagine what kind of mods steam users would make. Until then the base game and original mods will keep you busy!