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Version 1.22.77.0 (Early access)
This game was purchased and we received no form of compensation for writing this review.
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Volcanoids is currently an early access title on steam
About volcanoids is a first-person, base building survival game. Set in the steampunk era, you take on an expedition to a forsaken island that you once called home. But sudden eruptions triggered by a mechanical race of beings turned the wondrous place into an apocalyptic wasteland. In order to survive the island’s natural elements, you have to outsmart these creatures and capture one of their drillships. Use their own technology against them as you upgrade the machinery and reclaim your homeland.
Volcanoids Fact Sheet
Early Access can be a tricky bet.
I have been watching this game for a bit now. It is one of those early access titles. I just wasn’t sure as those have been a few that have just underwhelmed or simply cut and run. I get that Early Access Games bring high hopes some even feel like we invested part of ourselves into the game shipping out our hard earned money into a game that sometimes is just unplayable. Lucky this isn’t one of those titles. The developers seem to be well engaged with the community. Going as for as to even put a suggestion system that is easy to use over at https://volcanoids.nolt.io/
My path through
Spending the weekend playing through the first few events learning the ropes on upgrading. It has felt tedious at times and others I don’t notice the time flying by. The drillship you are in charge of requires you to upgrade to progress the story.
This drillship you are in charge of, is used to Safely go underground out of harm’s way during eruptions from the islands volcano. Surfacing to gather resources and at times forcing you to fight the enemy “COGS” . These conflicts increasingly get harder as you have to manage your own personnel resources for raids, including ammo, health packs and weapons to fight increasing more difficult drillships. Timing these raids is critical as once you start your attack the ship can flee. Which in turn forces you to restart all over again. Also quick note death in this game forces you to load a save no instant spawn back to your ship.
Points for style and theme
Holding on to it’s theme for everything we have seen so far. From Houses to your drillship everything has the feel of being run by steam. The color scheme done in mostly flat and brushed finish. That every piece of equipment is that is placed is usable in some fashion. That is huge plus with me to often games like this are filled with more decorative items with no function
Key Features
- Mobile Base Take the vantage point, stay safe underground or choose a material-rich location and explore. The drillship is a one of a kind base that serves as a factory and armored mobile base.
- Deadly Environment Experience the tension and thrill of surviving volcanic eruptions. Time between each eruption is your most valuable resource. Use it to roam the island gathering materials, finding new technology and utilizing production.
- Mechanical Menace Deal with a hostile race of robots that use the volcano as a source of energy. Their units are scattered all around the island’s surface as well as below it. Plan ambushes and destroy structures that trigger the volcano.
- Base Management Take control over your drillship with many different stations and gadgets. Automate production, research technologies, set up defenses and turn the drillship into an unbreachable powerhouse.
Plot and Story
The story behind this game is simple and the development team have left themselves as wide as they want to be to expand on it or not. You’re on an island tasked with figuring out why the volcano is erupting all the time and making sure your enemy “COGS” is thoroughly disrupted.
The Good and Bad of it
Summing up this game about all the good and bad. This part can be tough with an early access title. An easy thing to dive into push all things you don’t like just to be critical. You can also over hype things the boost the expectations higher. This game in its current form is highly playbalbe from the start. Having plenty to do from the getting your first drillship and tweaking the layout of the interior systems and planning your raids.
Although sometimes that game comes off as a choir with most of your current missions all about raiding the enemy drillships for tech Bringing it back and researching it. Most of the time the total engagement was only a few minutes long. Game does get laggy on my system mostly around the time of the volcano eruptions. Weighing this against the game has a whole does have only small impact in what think about this game
Our rating 8 of 10
Falling in at a solid 8 out of 10 for an early access title. I have not been this thrilled with a title since first time playing Kerbal Space Program. Having only very minor issues I feel the direction of the game is a positive thing. The game play is well thought out.The extreme attention to detail with the artwork, animations and item functionality really sets this game apart.
About Volcanoid Studio
Volcanoid is an independent, Prague-based studio named after its first title. With Volcanoids, the team is looking to bring something truly new and unique to the survival genre fans while keeping up to the open development philosophy.
Team
Tomas Rampas Lead Designer, Art Director
Ondrej Petrzilka Technical and Programming Lead
Richard Rampas PR and Marketing
