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This is not good game design, especially when you factor in how slow resource gathering is, even when using upgraded facilities.
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RNG decides how often you are attacked/struck by disasters.RNG decides if you have enough resources around your camp to progress.This is something even a developer alluded to when a player asked why all his metal reserves had run out before he was able to research metal excavators, the well-meaning developer informed the player to explore the procedurally generated map to find a randomly assigned colony, to check if they had any sheet metal while warning that RNG also decided the trade goods any single colony had to offer. This is the one area where Surviving the Aftermath has constantly gotten worse as the game has developed while RNG and procedural generation are great tools to ensure replayability, without reasonable restrictions, they can render playthroughs impossible to complete. While this may have been done to give Surviving the Aftermath a unique look, I feel the original textures and models were better. Visuals.Ĭity builders rarely have good graphics, and Surviving the Aftermath is no exception while I am particularly fond of the artwork used for events and quests, overall visuals are muddy and generally unappealing.Īs development has progressed, the visuals have taken a back seat, with many of the early beta models and visuals being replaced with less visually impressive ones. While I feel the developers have made several major mistakes along the way and Surviving the Aftermath is less enjoyable now than it was in 2019-2020, I cannot deny their dedication or determination to make Surviving the Aftermath a worthy successor to Surviving on Mars. Iceflake Studios has been diligent with Surviving the Aftermath updates, releasing twelve content updates, four enhancement patches, and six additional major updates in response to community feedback. I feel being able to play as one of the other factions (bandits, cultists etc.), each with a unique building aesthetic and passive abilities, would make Surviving the Aftermath far more immersive and, by extension, replayable. Surviving the Aftermath has multiple NPC factions, such as bandits, cultists, and other survivor communities however, players only have access to the unnamed survivor faction, which grants players the ability to name the community and set its motto and heraldry. While not overly engaging, these small questlines help make the mid-game more enjoyable, as once you have scouted and scavenged everything for miles around, exploring the world map feels more like a chore than anything resembling fun. That is not to say there is no story content there are several quest chains that lead players to explore locations on the world map, however many of these are best described as simplistic and normally only involve moving a specialist to a tile and choosing from a few options, such as using brute strength as fighter or stealth as a scout specialist. Surviving the Aftermath does not have a narrative campaign however, players can customize the world, such as choosing the level of destruction, resources available and leader ideology.
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The most recent DLC, Shattered Hope, released in November 2022, has just 21 reviews on Steam, with a whopping 19 being negative I feel it’s time for Iceflake Studios to move onto something else before their reputation is tarnished beyond repair. This could signal that development on Surviving the Aftermath will end within the next 12 months. I am a fan of Frostunk, so that is saying something!Īs of February 2023, Surviving the Aftermath has two DLV available, both of which suffer from low review scores and low sales. Unfortunately, the overreliance on RNG ensures that Surviving the Aftermath is, at times, punishingly difficult regardless of the difficulty setting, making it one of the most artificially difficult games I have ever played. While there is room to better your strategies and management technic, the learning curve is approachable for new players and casuals alike. Surviving the Aftermath is not difficult to learn. Surviving the Aftermath began out as a promising title however, two years of overdevelopment has reduced what was an excellent title, to a merely passable one.
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