Introduction
Most recently, on July 30, the wonderful game “Oxygen not Included” from the Canadian studio Klei Entertainment, which developed such games as “Don’t Starve”, “Griftlands”, “Hot Lava”, “Invisible Inc”, was released from Steam early access.", "Mark of Ninja" and so on. “Oxygen not Included” itself is a survival simulator in a space colony, where the player must, controlling duplicates (colonists), equip a self-sufficient base, while the player cannot directly interact with duplicates but only give them instructions and set priorities. And at first glance it may seem that the game simply copied all the mechanics of “Rimworld” and differs from it only in theme, but if you delve a little deeper into the details, you can understand that this is not so.
Quick Facts
The game appeared in early access on May 18, 2017 on Steam, and after 2 years of transformation, the developers announced a release date of May 28, which was later postponed to July 30. Lead game designer Johann Seidenz admitted that "Oxygen Not Included" was influenced by games such as "Dwarf Fortress", "Prison Architect" and "The Sims". The graphics, in turn, as in “Don’t Starve”, are drawn by hand and are very pleasing to the eye.
Reviews on Steam are very positive and most of the negative ones relate to early access problems, which have now been successfully fixed. The game supports Russian, English, Korean and Chinese. Other languages can be downloaded in the workshop, as well as several modifications. The price of "Oxygen not Included" is relatively small, only 12.49 USD on Steam and 6.99 USD on Epic Games Store.
Gameplay
Before starting a new colony, https://lasvegaswincasino.co.uk/ the player will need to choose one of two game modes, “Effortless” or “Survival”. In the first case, the game will go like clockwork, and any problems will not require an emergency solution, you can calmly think about everything and calmly continue playing. If you nevertheless decide to choose the second mode, the game will no longer allow you to calmly observe the development of the colony, and all problems will require immediate solutions. Of course, some parameters such as immunity or morale of duplicates can be adjusted when choosing a mode. The next thing you need to decide is which asteroid you want to settle on.
In total, I offer the player a choice of 9 asteroids with different features. So on “Oasis” almost everywhere on the map the temperature exceeds the norm, and in turn on “Rime” the opposite is true. Also, each asteroid has features (2-4) that will affect the generation of the world and which can be replaced with others using the random selection button. We have passed half the way to the start and the most difficult thing remains, to randomly select three selected duplicates with whom you will start. The process is labor-intensive, since you cannot independently choose interests or characteristics that greatly influence the game. You can only press the selection button hundreds of times in the hope that you will come across someone who cooks well and does not fart at every opportunity. Once you have decided on the team, you can name the colony and click the “Go” button.
Congratulations, it’s all just begun. I’m not going to make step-by-step instructions for the game, I can only tell you about the primary tasks of the game. The first is to reach a time rift, the second is to colonize the asteroid. Building a rocket in itself is not an easy task, but making sure it reaches the most distant object on the map… And to colonize an asteroid you will need to: survive 200 cycles, maintain a morale level above 16, print 12 duplicates (yes, they print them) and build a great monument, the most resource-intensive building in the game. What is the gameplay?? At first everything may seem easy and even boring, but the most interesting is yet to come. After a few cycles, your base will begin to run out of oxygen, and it would seem that the problem can be easily solved with one oxygen diffuser, but it consumes algae, which will sooner or later run out and you will need to either look for ways to extract algae or an alternative way to extract oxygen. And this is just one example. Fortunately, developers offer hundreds of different solutions to solve problems. So to get food you can either fry dirt or raise different animals. This is the gameplay of the game, to support life on the asteroid until it becomes self-sufficient through geysers, funnels and flights into space.
Game mechanics
"Oxygen not Included" is filled with a lot of unique mechanics. Unlike other games of this genre, OnI has a side view of the game, while its analogues most often use a top view. Also, one of the main features is very high-quality physics, and you can write abstracts on the thermodynamics of the game. It is well-developed thermodynamics that allows you to create all sorts of miracles, such as boiling oil with minimal electricity costs, or cooling water from 91 degrees to 23. Another interesting mechanic is morale. Your duplicate will begin to experience stress if his morale is too low, and when the stress indicator reaches 100%, the duplicate will either cry or destroy everything around him, depending on his reaction to stress. It’s details like these that make OnI, in my opinion, one of the best representatives of its genre, but we shouldn’t forget about the disadvantages.
Cons
As you may have noticed in the photos above, the game is not fully translated into Russian, and if you speak English other than “Hello, nice to met you”!“If you don’t know anything, it will be difficult for you to understand the details that the developers did not have time to translate. Another disadvantage is that the game requires a lot of time and desire to create, so if you are looking for a game where you can press buttons without straining your brain, OnI is not for you. And the last negative that I could get to the bottom of is the monotony of the game. Even in the above-mentioned “Rimworld”, the game was diluted by attacks from raiders or rabid squirrels that could destroy the entire colony. Here, the only thing that can kill you is your stupidity, for example: you forgot about the lack of oxygen, food, or simply your duplicate closed itself somewhere on the map and you didn’t have time to do anything.
Pros
The game is very replayable because the world generation is always changing and every time you have to adapt and change tactics. Another plus is the sea of content and different ways to achieve the same goal. Experiment as much as you want and do something new every time.
Conclusion
This brings my first review to its logical conclusion. I give “Oxygen not Included” my strong eight, since in pairs the game begins to seem boring. I recommend the game to everyone who likes the genre and those who want to try something new, but if you are not from this category, you most likely will not like the game. If I’m interested in you, here are the links to the game on Steam and EGS. Write your opinion in the comments and if you want more reviews of other games. Have a good mood everyone.