Farlight Explorers Reviews

Farlight Explorers JUL 2017 This game has a lot of potential. My guess is that it's someone's passion project, as the updates have been slow but steady since it first came out on Early Access. ---------- The short version: It's a little like factorio but in 3D and with far less enemies. The ideas are very similar: Extract, Refine, Assemble, Research. Find new (different) resources and repeat. There is a pseudo-storyline which will likely be expanded on later, and additional game mechanics like founding and creating your own colonies, and small-scale military conflicts. PROS - Lots of depth. I'm ~20 hours in and I'm only just ready to leave the first planet. - No really. Content-wise, especially if you're an efficiency fanatic like me, these elements will probably see you get your money's worth. - Trains - Building automated factories to achieve your goals - Grind* CONS - There are some bugs, and some people have crashes. I've encountered one crash, due to a buggy machine (fixed when I removed it). - Placement of certain wires and pipes can be fiddly and time-consuming, no idea if this will change in future - Overall, it's a bit rough around the edges, especially the interface - Grind* *Love it or hate it, I guess! --------- Long version: There are three possible starts, and on each one you can choose anything between full creative and full survival with options in between: 1. From scratch. Empty galaxy. 2. Someone built a Singularity Gate, so colonies are available to build. Trade is possible. 3. Colonies, Trade, and Battles are all available from the start. If you start from scratch, you're on your own. You have to extract resources, set up machines to transport and refine them, and assemble them into intermediate (construction) products, or components for research. The research machines in particular require recipes that require 4-6 machines for one ingredient, so be prepared for some trial and error while you work out where the possible bottlenecks are. Once you've peaked on the first planet, you'll have to explore other planets to get additional materials. You'll normally start on an Iron/Copper/Coal planet, and have to venture elsewhere for things like Titanium, Vanadium, Oil etc. I like this mechanic, as by the time you've assembled a spaceship, fuelled it and done enough research to start the tech tree, you've probably created a spaghetti mess that you'll be happy to leave behind. So, grab your essential resources and set off for another planet! Start again if you want, or just extract and refine what you need and return it to your starting planet. It's up to you :) If you're starting from scratch, the idea is to get enough resources to build a singularity gate to allow colonists into your galaxy. This in turn opens up the colony building, which looks like another game in itself. Truthfully, I've yet to build the gate and explore this mechanic, as well as the battle mechanics that come even further into the game. But having played this far, I like what I see. Yes, it's rough around the edges. There are fiddly things that could be easier, the interface is a little clunky, and you may or may not experience crashes. But if you like Factorio, and crafting games, and feel like branching out and trying something different, then I can't really argue with the price that this is being offered at. As I've said, it looks like someone's passion project. It appears to be a single person developing this game, and it's been updated not often, but fairly consistently since release. You might not be able to get over the interface snags at first - I know I struggled. But it was worth the effort, and I'm glad I fired this up again to see how it was doing. 7/10 and I look forward to seeing what happens with this in the future. (6/10 if you can't get over fiddly interfaces)

This game hasn't really updated at all. To anyone wanting to buy this game, just go somewhere else. The UI is still the same from a few years ago. The charactor movement is terrible, try to select anything from the inventory disappears. I was really hoping that this would grow and evolve into a better version, if I just gave this enough time. Three years later, it hasn't. So I'm stepping down and away from this game, and let it go.

Ok, I am an old gamer. I have been playing games for a long time ( 30+ years). Most recently I have adopted alot of early access games. Farlight being the most recent. Although the overall rating on this is mixed you will note that most of the recent reviews are positive. Most of the negative reviews are about content, bugs and crashing. "It's early access!!!" Now on to my experience, if you are familiar with Factorio and like the concept you will most likely enjoy this game as well. I will give a "+" for the graphics over Factorio's 2D sprites. The environmental models need some work but over all satisfactory for the current state of the game. Mechanics take some getting used to, and the help screens could be written better. There is a nice guide available that is a must read to get you started. I bought the game on sale (recommended), at full price I am not sure I would say you get your moneys worth. If you adopt the attitude that you are going to encounter bugs, and crashes - it's pretty good. Has a decent concept with tons of potential. The game gets updates regularly and the developer seems keen on getting feedback and improving the title. I give this a thumbs up, and look forward to seeing more. Remember it's early access so you will, and I did run into bugs and crashes. I offer my support to this title because I think it has some promise and will keep an eye on it as it develops.

For those that are into hardcore survival with a space theme this game is not quite what you are looking for at the moment, think space engineers but less complicated. Still it does fill a unqiue niche in the genre and even in its current alpha state is extremely addictive. If you are a early access support of games this is definitely a jewel to have in your library. What it does right. - Being able to hop from planet to planet with realtive ease is a beautiful and sadly rare thing amongst games of this genre but Farlight pulls it off. - MINING! omg the countless hours you spend whiddling away for resources to build your next stick! Not here pal, mining is automatic, just plop down a extraction drill, throw in some power and let the goodtimes roll. It should be noted that you can still mine by hand faster than a extraction drilling platform initially. but put 10 or 15 of these puppies up and being able to focus on building is a huge plus in this game espcially when the monotony of placing pipes and wires and conveyor belts takes up a considerably chunk of time. - Production is pretty streamlined at the moment. X amount of water and power will get you pretty much everywhere so the only real micromanaging is making sure you have ample amount of supplies. - Bugs, the dev works hard at crushing game bugs as you can follow in the forums. Surprisingly enough for a EA game i have only once ever had a game crashing bug, Most have been minor annoyances that you can write off as early access. What the game still needs work on: - Content. At the moment the only real goal is to make a huge production ship capable of making everything and fly to planet to planet strip mining the planets dry which does not take long, maybe 5 hours if you are new to the game. Then thats it, end game. If i understand right there is only one guy making this and while hes peddling his production content out fast as his little legs can move, impressively so, being able to crank out more for a very creative game would help him generate a larger fan base. Maybe hire one or two people extra.

Dev abandonned the game for another one (Farlight commanders). This is what Satisfactory looked like in Alpha 0.0001, but he didn't even try to compete with it, and just goes "Srew it, i'm gonna milk another game type instead". Do not buy, as it will not have more updates.

Wait a minute... Abandoned game, buggy mess, half feature correctly implemented if at all, and they... anounce a new game.... Stay away.

Pretty good design vision, sadly quite unfinished and now being abandoned to work on a new game. Current state is definitively not worth its current price, so unless it's on 90% sale and you are fine with buying an unfinished product that is very unlikely to be completed, don't buy it.

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW I am generally not one for the whole survival, crafting, thing. I am much more interested in base building/management games. Luckily for me, outside of the irritation generated by having to deal with oxygen and food, which is a minor inconvenience, this game is much more a game of base building and management than it is of survival, and even crafting (though crafting is for certain a core element of the game). Once you get past the basics... electricity, oxygen, food... you are left with the goal of building a starship, which is a pretty significant goal. And to do so efficiently, you must leverage the power of automation. You manage the process of digging up the necessary materials, transporting them to a storage facility, and then removing them from that facility in order to turn them in to ingots, plates and gears to craft the next elements of your base, or star ship. The game gets you in to the flow quickly - though the tutorials need some tweaking. They break immersion and are incredibly irritating and seemingly unavoidable. Since they are delivered through, and stored as some form of email, simply notifying the user of new tutorial content would be highly preferable. Within two hours, you are, however deep in the process of trying to build a mighty automated infrastructure, and figuring out why your robot arms are tossing your newly crafted ingots 20 yards away from where you want it. The game is intelligently designed, and presumably combat and other threats will present themselves as you expand your search for the necessary elements for your next goal. There are no lack of bugs - however... placing a battery may teleport you at high speed a good 100 yards away from your base for not obvious reason. Indeed, random teleportation results are common and irritating, but overall not game breaking as everything seems to be as you left it when you finally make it back to base. The night-time element is just annoying. I get it's "value" to the game in terms of simulation and immersion, but it does nothing but encourage you to stand near your oxygen generator. A way of speeding up time at night might be a very nice feature for those who just don't plan to do much while the outside is dark. The controls are a little bit of an "acquired" taste. A reckless player may well delete their storage facility and every one of those hard-earned items. Deletion should not be possible on an item that contains other items. This is a simple fix and one I am shocked the developer didn't consider. Overall, though, the game is a reasonably well-designed and executed, though I would wait for a sale where it's closer to $10 than $20 in it's current state. The full retail price may well be worth it when the game goes to final release, but this early access version is hard to justify more than the $10-12 range. First impressions video for Farlight Explorers https://youtu.be/PqWi_rqT3V4

Ok, big area of frustration. There are two games. The new version and old version. It took me about 4 hours of gameplay before realizing most construction materials don't unlock after a time.... they simply don't exist in the "new version". This game is so underdeveloped that it shouldn't even be purchasable as early access. I would NOT recommend it to anyone until it's a LOT closer to completion.

UPDATE: It's been more than a year since I wrote this review, and the "many things wrong with this game" still stands. The game has new features, but with old bugs still around, it just makes things worse. Save your money and maybe give it another year. -- I recommend you to watchlist/follow this game and track its progress. But I can't recommend a purchase at the moment. There's many things right with the game, and many things wrong. I hope I can clarify them in this review. Note that it is definitely early to judge, but not early enough to get a good intuition about the game's direction - which is what worries the most. -- Farlight Explorers is best described as a 3D Survival Factorio (with smaller production scale). Your goal is to guarantee your survival by building your life support systems - get Electricity to make Water, get Water and Electricity to make Oxygen and Food. Your goal is also to extract the most ore from the planet's veins, and build your base and spaceship in order to explore space - there's currently no more goals due to the early state of the game, but more are planned. My comments about aspects of the game: - GRAPHICS: The game looks amazing for a single-man team. The artist deserves praise - I really love his style. - SOUND: There's a single song which loops, and the sound is fine but needs mastering. When turrets fire, they'll definitely give you a heart attack. - INTERFACE: The interface is fine and easy to understand, but could do with a lot of work. There's an insane amount of typos, and building machines is not really symmetrical as one might expect (so it's very OCD unfriendly, beware :P) - BUGS: There's the usual bugs, but you can get around them by making saves or reloading an autosave. I didn't encounter any game-breaking or save-corrupting bug, though, which is good. Some bugs are really worrying, currently. Like using conveyor as you would in Factorio (or as the game makes you feel free to use) will slow your game below 10 FPS, and that's worrying giving that this should be one of the main parts of the game: building machines and transport systems. About the gameplay: - BUILDING uses the "snap" system a lot of 3D games use nowadays. Build a floor, then you can "snap" the next floor tile to the existant one. However, building right now can be really annoying and very time consuming due to the "snapping" bugging around. Building your SPACESHIP follows the same system, which makes it very customizable and cool (and VERY time consuming). - RESOURCE GATHERING AND MACHINES: The planets have Ore Veins which you can build automated Extractors in. Then make use of robot arms and conveyors to take the ore to Furnaces to make Ingots. Then to Hydraulic Presses to make Plates. And to another Hydraulic Press to make Gears. It looks really good and feels really satisfying when you're done building, but it is rather time-consuming and buggy. - SURVIVAL: The constant need for oxygen will make you want to spread Oxygen Dispensers all around your base - and you can do that. Having this survival requirement is pretty cool and very interesting in the beginning - if you don't build fast enough, you'll end up dead. - SPACESHIP: There's no reason to fly your own space ship at the moment - it currently works more like a teleport. You can't fly in space, and your ship jumps directly between planets. You CAN "plug" your Spaceship into a base and share electricity/water/oxygen with it, which is great...but is too much work, and you'd be better off building the necessary buildings on the ground instead. So maybe it will become more useful at a later time. - EXPLORATION: There's different types of planets, but most of them have a limited area. So won't be exploring whole planets, but small parts of them. However, with a big number of planets, this won't be an issue, but it's good pointing out. Some resources are only available on some planets, and that's really cool. It would be amazing in the future to transport resources between planets and different bases! CONCLUSION: There's a ton of potential in Farlight Explorers, there's no denying. The game went through a great transformation this year, which made it look really good. The developer is definitely interested in developing it. It looks nice, it plays nice, it feels nice. But that's not enough when talking about Early Access titles. There's two reasons I cannot recommend buying it. First, it's too early to believe it will be made into a full game. Second, because there's no clear direction or road map for the game. It could become an actual 3D Survival Factorio, or something much more limited and not as freeform as expected. This would mean you'd be investing in something expecting a certain game, and end up with something completely different. It's dangerous, and hard to trust in. There are suggestion lists and all that, but all organized and discussed by players. The dev does read and reply, but still there's no guarantee what will be done and what won't. So I do recommend for you to watch it. All that I said above can be invalidated at any moment. A clear roadmap and direction would make it MUCH easier to trust in the developer's vision and tag along with him, but the best advice is to watch it from a distance right now. All the best for the developer, though - I'd love to see this becoming successful. Thanks for reading!