İncelemeler

• gamedeal user

  Nov 22, 2022

  Helium Rain is a space trading and combat game whose main draw, in my opinion, is its "realistic" economy, where every action taken by every ship affects the economy in a real way. If farms don't grow food and ships don't transport that food, people starve. Supposedly. Every ship must be built from materials mined and processed from planets and asteroids. Etc. It sounds great for a nerd like me, but the execution is so bad. First, the economy itself is broken. The world spawns with a bunch of companies who have large cash reserves, but if you just sit back and watch you'll find that the economy soon grinds itself to a halt. The AI doesn't actually know how to play the game, it seems. You start from nothing and make money, while the AI starts with lots of cash and loses it all. Basically, you need to personally keep the economy running, because it won't work without you, and not just in the sense of you paying money into it. If you order a ship, you pay a fee. This fee should cover the cost of the materials needed to make the ship, plus profit for the manufacturer. Even after you pay for your ship they can't procure the steel or whatever to make it. So you need to buy the steel too, and the fuel, and the plastic... and personally deliver everything. But soon they become so strapped for cash that they can't even afford to buy the steel from you, so they can't make your ship... even though you gave them the cash for the ship up front which should more than cover the cost of materials! It makes no sense. (I'm guessing what happens is that the AI company that owns the shipyard just spends the money on whatever rather than reserving it for the product I paid for.) It's really quite tedious running loads of materials all over the place when the AI is supposed to be doing that. I want to sit back and focus on building an empire, not running another load of plastic over to a shipyard that can't keep its affairs in order. I donno. The idea is cool, but it's just not fun for me.
• sapincher

  Nov 23, 2022

  A little into year 2 (10 hours of gameplay) war breaks out and it goes from being a peaceful trader game to immediate destruction of your fleet and everything you built. Had just figured out the unintuitive UI for my 2nd auto trading route when main fleet and all my light warships just got annihilated. Manual combat is just completely useless. It went from being a super fun game to a completely unacceptably unfun game in minutes and that's not cool.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 20, 2017

  Great game so far. I only scratched to surface of its features but for now here are some pros/cons and I'll probably update this in time: Pro: - Really motivated developer: Quick response to issues(bugs) opened in their bug tracker - Quite a lot of tutorial contracts which will introduce features step-by-step without forcing the player to actually complete them - Very stable game - Dynamic economy Cons: [strike] - Minor con: It is playable at 4k resolution, but some menus will get quite small, so I would advice to play in 2560x1440 for now [/strike] Fixed with the latest patch :)
• gamedeal user

  Aug 23, 2017

  A remarkably unique take on the space trading genre, Helium Rain is doing Early Access right. You'll find bugs, typos, all the old favorites, but the developers are extremely receptive (they even have their own Redmine server you can log and track bugs in) and quick to turnaround fixes and enhancement. Past the Early Access considerations, you're left with a very compact, but utterly hypnotic space trading/combat game. "Compact" because HR eschews the current trend of "fifteen trillion stars!" for just a handful of planets and sectors, but those planets and sectors are never without plenty to do, from running simple courier missions to building space stations, developing a trade fleet, commanding an economic empire. Fly one ship while the rest of your fleet is own doing your bidding (and hopefully making some money while they're at it.) For me it's almost reminiscent of something like Euro Truck Simulator 2 in that regard. Except in space. And with guns. On the surface, look at the screenshots. The washed out, high-contrast colors and dreamlike music confer one of the most "chill" space games I can remember. The clean UI is occasionally fiddly, occasionally brilliant, and while it might look a bit too much like your cable box UI, it does the job and continues to improve. Even this early, I find it one of the more compelling space games in my library. And unlike some games that provide an entire galaxy but leave you wondering what to do next, more than once I've forgotten what I'd planned to do because something else more interesting came up, and then forgot I was doing THAT because something even more interesting than that came up. Even while you're blissing out to the celestial look and feel, you'll never be bored. If any of this sounds good to you, and you don't mind the vagaries of Early Access, I'd say, hit that Buy button immediately.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 24, 2017

  Interesting space sim/space trade game. I like that the setting is much more sci-fi than other space sims that fall more into space-fantasy (X3 or X Rebirth). Graphics are up to standards and controlling your ship is hard, as the game strives to have realistic physics (so you got inertia and no friction, your spacecraft won't slow down until you hit the backburners). I appreciate the Linux support I'll update this review later, but so far, it gets a thumbs up from me.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 24, 2017

  Stable engine with nice graphics and which supports high DPI and high refresh rate (120Hz with vsync in my case). Nice music and nice tutorial / progression. I've seen maybe 30% of the game and I like it _very_ much, I like the gameplay in general, the trading mechanics, the fleet automation (with commercial routes) and got a taste of combats. It's a dream coming true to finally have a promising Elite / Frontier successor, with cool devs and thank you so much for supporting Linux. Much better than the assholes team of Elite Dangerous.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 25, 2017

  HAVING PLAYED MORE SPACE COBAT/TRADING GAMES THAN I CARE TO MENTION SINCE THE MID 80's STARTING WITH THE ORGINAL "ELITE", NOW AT JUST OVER 70yr OF AGE I FEEL QUALIFIED TO PASS MY OPINION. HELIUM RAIN IS A DIAMOND IN THE MAKING, AS WITH ALL DIAMONDS IT DOES NEED A LITTLE POLISH, BEEN PLAYING ABOUT 6hr. AND HAVE GOT USE TO THE INTERFACE AND SHIP MOVMENT, THE NEWTONION MOVEMENT IS A JOY AND THE CHALLENGE OF DOCKING IS GREAT [ DONT BOTH WITH DOCKING COMPUTER IT WOULD SPOIL THE FUN ] ONLY CRASHES I'VE HAD WAS WITH THE KEYBOARD COMMANDS INTERFACE, TRY TO CHANGE THINGS TO MUCH AND IT GET CONFUSED AND CRASHES. I FEEL THE GAME CAN ONLY GET BETTER. ONLY THING THAT'S IS A LITTLE FRUSTRAING IS THE SMALL WHITE RETICLE, IT COULD BE BIGGER AND COLOURED. THE DEV'S SEEM KEEN TO IMPLIMENT IMPROVEMENTS, PREHAP THEY WILL MAKE AN OLD MAN EVEN HAPPIER. KBTHETOAD
• gamedeal user

  Oct 16, 2017

  Chris Roberts should give Deimos Games half his millions. The game is fantastic. Don't get discouraged by the grinding in early game, it gets much more complex and diversified as soon as you get a fleet. There will definitely be some hauling to get through first, but manual docking takes only 10 seconds once you're used to it and seeing your progress in that task will make it very rewarding, even without a HOTAS. Or you can buy an autodocking technology to make it as easy as a click, but in my opinion, it just lowers the potential and depth of the game; if you're into space simulations and piloting, then no need to make money faster by doing more trips thanks to the autodocking, it's not a competitive multiplayer game, take your time and play each trip. Hauling is more fun in HR than in Elite from my perspective, and fortunately it won't be your main task for weeks. At the beginning, after a few hours, I thought myself that this game was beautiful and felt great, but unfortunately was going to be repetitive and lack content. I'm happy to say it proved me wrong (but the game can definitely use more content of course), however it all depends on how you play and how you expand your colony, it's possible that the game could evolve in more or less interestings ways depending on your actions. As soon as you get a fleet, it is much easier to make money since you can specialize a ship into trading (and the trading routes system is complex enough, I was expecting something much simpler, very good surprise here), or start using fighter ships with contracts that tend to pay better rewards. Overall, the money/docking ratio increases quite fast as soon as your fleet and company build up, and the diversity of the gameplay as well. The UI looks great and is actually convenient once you mastered it, but it takes some getting used to. A few more hints on where to find specific functions would help sometimes, it's not always obvious that the warning about missing components for building a ship would be in the orbital map for instance, or that you'd have to go check the shipyard in its sector screen to know what is missing, I was initially just looking into my Company screen to check the status of the ship I ordered. More filters in the Economy screen, and a way to show which stations buy what in that same screen would be useful, as well as a Search field for specific ressources in the Sector screen. But all that is really rather minor, the UI is already nice to use and feels a lot less crippled than Elite's sy-fy/immersive UI for instance. So if the beginning of the game looks repetitive and boring to you, try to hang on, it gets better and the game has a great potential. I have played or backed many space sims, from KSP to Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen or Rogue System (very recommended if you are into hardcore DCS-like sims). KSP is a jewel, but is admittedly quite a different game. Helium Rain is the game I didn't see coming, and yet it's the single best space opera I've played so far. Beautiful, several things to do, good flight models that feels just right, real physics (no cap on velocity as long as you keep burning; only saw it in KSP and Rogue System so far), deep if you care about the company system, real sandbox with an impact on the world, and I have to add that the orchestral music is beautiful and fits perfectly the pleasant ambiance of the game. Playing this game feels like watching [i]2001: A space odyssey[/i]; not that the music or assets are similar, but your brain and eyes will feel the same. If you are into space sims and not necessarily intense shooters with fancy effects everywhere, you will like it (even the fights are nice, much calmer than fights in other space games, and it's not a bad thing). If you're into intense shooters, think twice, but give it a try, you may like what you'll see. If you're into trading, you may like it, but you will have to go through some piloting first. In any case, don't expect an AAA game with 52 billions stars or a mix of FPS/Fight/Exploration and 160M funding, but do expect a game beautifully made with a great attention to the details. The game is not expensive and is well worth that price, or more. The team have opened their source code, have a public bug tracker (with visible progress), communication is great, and their first game is good, it's encouraging to see development going this way. There is a minor bug in the current build with UE4 on Linux with AMD mesa drivers, basically there's no bright sunlights on my computer. Sad. And then, looking at screenshots and videos, I realized I much prefer the game this way, looks more realistic and just more "space" when the bright anodized paints are more subtle in the shade. Now I'm not sure I want the bug to be fixed!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 27, 2017

  Helium Rain is a must-play Space Economy Sim for fans of the genre. If you enjoyed X³, Elite:Dangerous or EVE Online, or if you just wanted to build your own industrial empire in space, I’d highly recommend you give Helium Rain a try. [h1]What do I get to do in this game?[/h1] You start out in a scrappy little shuttle, hopping from station to station, flying with 6DoF and Newtonian flight physics, and spinning and lining up your ship to perform docking manoeuvres. For those of you who prefer more economics and less flying, Autopilot and Auto-dock are also available. You’ll work your way up towards purchasing freighters and building a trading fleet, making money hauling goods from A to B. As you buy low and sell high to corner the market, you’ll amass enough wealth to start building your mines and factories of your own, cutting your competitors out of the market. But beware! Pirates and less scrupulous corporations won’t stand by watching idly. You’ll have to invest in your own defense fleet to escort your haulers and protect your assets from the greedy paws of others who are after your hard earned coin. [h1]Pros:[/h1][list] [*][b]Economic simulation:[/b] every good and asset in game is produced by a factory, supplied with goods produced elsewhere. [*][b]Fleets:[/b] the game is built around the player owning multiple fleets spread across the system. You can choose to micromanage or set up preset trading routes [*][b]Flight model:[/b] No speed limits: you can accelerate as much as you want, just remember that you’ll need to decelerate unless you want to overshoot your target and drift into space. At your disposal are forward/backward thrust, pitching, yawing, rolling, and lateral/longitudinal strafing. [*][b]Dev feedback:[/b] The game is actively being worked on and the developers regularly provide feedback both on here and on the game’s website. [*][b]Graphics:[/b] The game has a beautifully polished aesthetic going for it. It adds a lot of character that really make it stand out from the crowd.[/list] [h1]Cons:[/h1] [i]Not so much cons, but features that still need a bit of dev love before the game leaves Early Access:[/i] [list] [*][b]User Interface[/b] has a few niggles here and there that begin to manifest in the mid to late game when you have large amounts of assets to keep track of. Especially noticeable is the lack of a Journal recording your cash flow. [*][b]AI corporations[/b] feel like they lack differentiation. Shipyards will gladly take orders to build fighters for pirates, only to the summarily attacked by them. Peaceful corporations seem to just turtle and amass wealth. [*][b]Simulation speed[/b] begins to slowdown in the end game due to corporations expanding without enough resistance.[/list] [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Personally, I am a dozen hours into my first playthrough in the first 2 days of buying the game. I’ll still play Elite:Dangerous for the combat, atmosphere and immersion of the spaceships, and EVE Online has its niche as the MMO for space economies, but Helium Rain has established itself as my go-to option for single-player spaceship economy tycoon empire building.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 27, 2018

  Well, this game is clearly a labour of love. Beautiful graphics, though there is room for improvement here - i.e, Rayleigh and Mie scattering in planets with atmosphere would improve realism a lot, and dirt, contamination on the glass surfaces, similar to what you see when peeking outside into a docking mechanism when a bright reflection or the sun scatter the light on the surface of the panels. Don't let this put you down, As far as gameplay goes, there is a huge potential here. Extremely deep, with realistic physics, this promises to be a catastrophic time sink, capable of throwing entire countries into negative GDP. If you like scifi in any way, just buy it. If you're a penguinista, the linux version is rock solid as well, at least so far. Highly recommended, and many kudos to the developers for a great work.