Buying Early Access games
Sep. 23rd, 2022 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiroseSo, there was some thoughtful commentary during a youtube video on Slime Rancher 2 which got me thinking.
There is a certain risk in buying games in this state. It's why you'll see games in Early Access status on Steam state that this game is not finished and some things may be missing/the game may be very buggy, and why you should evaluate what level of finished you're willing to tolerate from the game and the people who make it.
I had My Time at Portia in fairly early access (Alpha 4.0.8) and it was a bit rough around the edges (they had the general mechanics down but not all of the content) but quite playable. It was a good game then and it is now. My Time at Sandrock is in a similar position to early Portia - the frame is there, it's playable, romance is a bit rough to put it politely but it's there and I know marriage will be a thing eventually. They just had an update a few weeks ago that added a bunch of new missions (along with a new NPC), which is quite typical of how Pathea handles things. I was willing to put down money for Sandrock because I saw that while Pathea made mistakes (boy, did Pathea make mistakes....) they fixed them. They got better. My Time at Portia is not perfect, but it's a good game, and I have every confidence that Sandrock will be even better.
With Slime Rancher 2... well, a day after release it's basically the original, finished Slime Rancher with a few new slimes and some changed mechanics, which understandably some people are not pleased about, and I can understand their frustration. Had this been a finished game, I would not be pleased either. But Monomi Park added a bunch of improvements to the first game even after 1.0 was released and has generally been pretty responsive, and so I'm good with the current version (0.1.1) being just version 0.1.1.
There is a certain risk in buying games in this state. It's why you'll see games in Early Access status on Steam state that this game is not finished and some things may be missing/the game may be very buggy, and why you should evaluate what level of finished you're willing to tolerate from the game and the people who make it.
I had My Time at Portia in fairly early access (Alpha 4.0.8) and it was a bit rough around the edges (they had the general mechanics down but not all of the content) but quite playable. It was a good game then and it is now. My Time at Sandrock is in a similar position to early Portia - the frame is there, it's playable, romance is a bit rough to put it politely but it's there and I know marriage will be a thing eventually. They just had an update a few weeks ago that added a bunch of new missions (along with a new NPC), which is quite typical of how Pathea handles things. I was willing to put down money for Sandrock because I saw that while Pathea made mistakes (boy, did Pathea make mistakes....) they fixed them. They got better. My Time at Portia is not perfect, but it's a good game, and I have every confidence that Sandrock will be even better.
With Slime Rancher 2... well, a day after release it's basically the original, finished Slime Rancher with a few new slimes and some changed mechanics, which understandably some people are not pleased about, and I can understand their frustration. Had this been a finished game, I would not be pleased either. But Monomi Park added a bunch of improvements to the first game even after 1.0 was released and has generally been pretty responsive, and so I'm good with the current version (0.1.1) being just version 0.1.1.
