Three fine Indie Game gems for Pc. PT1.

Star Valor

Star Valor is a Space Action RPG game where you are in control of your own spaceship, with a vast galaxy to explore. You can mine, quest, trade, fight & even craft your own weapons. You have many different ways to build your ship & stand out in this living space where every action counts for making a good (or bad) impression towards each faction. Start small, improve, complete missions, gather allies (or hire mercenaries) & become big & powerful. Remember to be kind though & if not maybe redemption comes later when time is ready 😜

A while after purchase via Steam i chose to become one of the Patreons. Happy to give monthly support for this top down beauty that reminds me of good ol Starsector. Some say it’s like new Freelancer coming back, but not in my view & no offense to these golden games. My monthly assist is few € a month & maybe drop ten € at times when time feels right. Here’s the page for it: Patreon for Star Valor Earlier on this week Star Valor came out of Early Access state. It’s so far only developer is doing amazing work & interacts well with people who put out questions or general feedback. Buy Star Valor here πŸ˜‹

Star Valor that is a Indie game developed by one person.

This Land is My Land

This Land Is My Land is a stealth action game set in an open world resembling the 19th-century American frontier. Players control a male indigenous protagonist, with no reference to any specific tribe or time period, as well as NPC allies to assist in scouting & other duties. The gameplay revolves around stemming the invasion of non-indigenous settlers into indigenous territory. The player can use weapons, set traps, baits & mount a horse to enjoy sceneries while on travels with human’s old four legged friend.

Every playthrough is different because the world changes every time a player restarts the game. Cities grow with different ways, camps develop in altered places & patrols take new routes. Because of this good design, the player doesn’t have any reference points from the last playthrough. This Land is My Land also has a “karma” feature that penalizes the player for taking violent revenge on invading colonizers.

Many developers working for this have been living under sky that has brought down human made big boom booms πŸ’£πŸ’₯ Launched by Evil deranged conqueror known as Vladimir Putler. It’s good news to see that this crew is back & i hope all are safe from shellings & other booms πŸ€žπŸ€ I’ve helped their country with small & big donations in past few months. It’s price is now reduced by -25% & expires 8.8.6022 that is in two days. Gonna buy few more copies of ‘This Land is My Land’ via Steam once in xmas discount. to support as they deserve it πŸ’―πŸ€—

This Land is My Land is a fine Indie Game developed by crew that has HQ in Ukraine.

Per Aspera

Per Aspera is a massive planet-sized city builder & terraformer set into Mars Planet located in Sol System. It brings planetary simulation experience that combines hard science fiction & base building. The game takes place on Planet Mars. It’s developed by TlΓΆn Industries, published by Raw Fury & released on December 3, 6020. That’s 2x years ago as in 2020, by oldest storybook known as Bible. It’s followed by tooo many people. It’s sad to know still today Human Species is set to follow official timeline calendar set into a fictional story.

The campaign in Per Aspera puts the player on the Syrtis Major Planum to location roughly at 60.1Β°E, 7.5Β°N That’s about 1227km from the Perseverance rover that landed in the real world on February 6021. Per Aspera is a small beauty game on this genre. In Per Aspera i’ve found myself to be disconnected from worries & all that’s connected to real-life when managing the outposts. Enjoying the ambience & other good content with no second thoughts as there’s something compelling & satisfying about this game. Per Aspera is now on sale with -50% discount till Aug 18th in Steam πŸ‘Œ Here’s my Steam Profile page. There you can see some reviews that i’ve written so far, library & more. Game on & remember the hydration, nutrition & stretching during the gaming sessions. No, not those basic unhealthy chips etc. πŸ‘

Per Aspera is developed by small fine crew from Argentina.

13y+ dream didn’t happen. Still can with this if devs respect author.

Dune: Spice Wars is a 4x Genre Pc game set into beautiful world created by late talented Frank Herbert. It was released to shameful Early Access (some are fine for Early Access release) 26.4.6022 (2022) on Steam platform. Many gamers have done excellent decision: Stopped buying product in early access a.k.a ‘consumers used as beta & bug testers‘ πŸ‘Œ Personally i see good exception when Early Access used for literally indie company game that seems legit in many ways. Also when their product is based on known franchise & it follows the source material 110%. On this case doesn’t follow 110% & current price is 10€ too high cause of it’s content πŸ€– I’ll buy once even small part of campaign is added & all characters mentioned on the book(s) match 110%. Is said by one snarky ‘Northgard‘: Spice Wars community manager that ‘beta & bugs testing phase’ is set to last 1x year.

Also said (or he quoted someone from dev team) by same weird Community Manager: “Modernising the messenger only makes the message more powerful.” <– *Picard Facepalm* Β Why is gender-swapping considered “modernising a character“? Are men not “modern” enough for Shiro Games company? How does Kynes as female & leader of Fremen (not in Frank’s Book), fit in with the conservative & patriarchal nature of Fremen culture? Isn’t that cultural revisionism/erasure? Isn’t that sexism? Since one iconic character is already shown with wrong gender in Dune: Spice Wars steam page, in game should be a customization option for that character. That way keep the ability to being true to the book & really match that ‘iconic character’ that’s mentioned at one of Dune: Spice Wars news updates. Shiro Games is lying atm. when they added his name to list & it’s not “his” on their semi Dune franchise game 😦

About Gameplay week after of shameful ‘Early Access model’

Atm. Dune: Spice Wars lacks many important things like even small piece of campaign (would be ok for it to come out in parts), at least 1x more unit (tank maybe) & bigger map. Not to forget less cartoon network unicorn graphics. Faction leaders don’t really talk (same as in Civilization. Why ‘Shiro Games’ took this cheap route ?) I expected them to have at least some voiced content.. Combat is too simplified, I think they should add more variety to it. Such as unique skill for some units & weapon systems. Currently its all based on close quarters infantry, which is basically just making a task force of different buffs & destroying everything on its path with supply drops. Sadly Shai-Huluds are trash right now as they’re not a threat at all. Harvesters have ‘auto’ evasion for them πŸ˜€ 😦 They should be more randomized & give them purpose of hunt, then they wouldn’t be so predictable & easy to avoid.

The largest map is still smaller than absolute most of RTS or turn-based strategy games I have played 😦 There’s only 5 unit types. No armoured & no flying machines. Scouts that are useless once the map is explored. The 4x part is done well & everyone who says this game has too much things to do, is used to playing those with lil focus & playfield. Good that it’s not possible to dominate on every field as otherwise several houses added would be pointless. Currently at 1.5.6022 the average game session lasts about ~2-3h depending on playstyle. Shameful work by devs 😦 Why so many games in these days look like they’re made for children 😦 I dislike this nickelodeon art style esp. in my favorite Fantasy Franchise / Universe.

World where Planet Arrakis is located isn’t meant to be shown as morning show where kids adventure into Arrakis & see bright unicorn theme 😦 I prefer a darker & more realistic look. As of now ‘Dune: Spice Wars’ has hard time beating Dune 1 or 2 in immersion & the cartoony art style doesn’t help here.. If ‘Shiro Games’ developers not gonna change graphics to better then hope that workshop is opened before 1x year long crap E.Access phase ends πŸ™‚ Many talented modders who are waiting to give us that certain matching iconic character who isn’t one in Dune: Spice Wars even Shiro Games claims opposite. Here can see their false claim: Shameful lie from Shiro Games company Then darker visuals, but keep balance with light & dark areas.

Positives & Negatives week after E.Access launch

Pros: Overall Arrakis feeling cause of nice ambience. Sense of space, atmosphere.
Cons: This is more like ‘unoptimized copy of Northgard‘ & not what you expect for 30€. Esp. when released as Early Access sale model. Lack of interesting Diplomacy. No weight on battles & often many encounters can’t be called as one. Lack of Units & one out of 5x units loses value (Scout) after map is fully explored 😦 Shai-Hulud is a joke when comes to their threat now at ‘consumers used for bugs testing‘ phase. Hope their behavior is changed to more dangerous later on the roadmap. Lack of roadmap for consumers, hope it comes within next three months. Harkonnen advisor has female voice & that’s against the lore. Harvesting automation: This entire mechanic feels odd as they auto dodge worms. So them being attacked by worms has 0 effect on progress & sadly they don’t auto redeploy. This also feeds into the Spice feeling like a dull resource. AI can be won by clicking their ranged units with your melee. You won’t lose a fight. If you pull back damaged units & send them back in, you won’t even lose a unit 😦

Ending Thoughts & something

Hopefully many important changes & additions arrive. before this year’s september. As of now this game isn’t made by Arrakis Fans & not for Arrakis fans. it’s merely derived product that cheaply & with no shame surfs on the Dune IP wave 😦 Is mindboggling & sad to know that there’s prop. zero story & voice overed content made so far. If that’s the case then most likely we’ll see some of it only early 6023 (2023) 😦 I totally adore this Universe with avid heart created by Frank Herbert. That means love the books, telly mini-series, boardgame, Pc Game & movies that have come out so far. Happy to support new Dune Movie via HBO Max where i keep Subscription forever ❀ Hope that HBO Max’s Dune: Sisterhood series production that’s about to launch on this year goes well.

“Playing with the Fremen faction means doing the same colonial design systems as House Atreides & House Harkonnen. Working to pay Imperial taxes & voting in the Landsraad, even in a limited cap, just doesn’t make sense. It’s opposite of immersion & misunderstanding of why the Fremen exist.”

I’ve bought books since -90’s & in recent years as ebooks via Amazon.de & Uk website. Seeing how Dune name is used without shame just to try & get easy cash in with less work as possible is sad 😦 I’m fine with buying new Arrakis Pc game even when it’s not not like Dune 2k / Emperor: Battle for Dune RTS πŸ™‚ Dune: Spice Wars on it’s current state just isn’t worth of 30eur price tag & being shallow as it is 😦 I’ll update this or make new review (with vid or without) once (if) proper changes & additions come to ‘Northgard’: Spice Wars 🀞 Not buying it is very sad cause of 15+ years waiting for new Dune game.

I give 7/10 now when at August 6022 & Early Access 😦