Reviews for Glean

[Raptorial]

This game makes me sad.
Good that you cited motherload but this is just short of what i expected.
Mining is just the same.
Artifacts and research add a good twist but the inventory system is just bad. Very hard to distinguish what i have and what i need without flipping through half the tabs.
The world system is ok but the constant damage, low starting heat res and the sudden deaths due to gas are annoyinig as heck. Also the lack of an evident save button lost me a few hours of work.

Bottomline: Its a good take on motherload but i would prefer motherload over this.
Maybe streamline the gameplay and somewhere the player can just chill out mining... maybe then i would try again. Just my opinion... :|

[HareTrinity]

Weird. I normally find mining games like this utterly addictive, but this one really missed its mark with me.

That all the in-game computer interfaces are red doesn't help work out which of the multi-coloured rocks are which whilst you're using it. What was needed in order to create modules and what I already had just looked much the same. Much as I got the Farscape reference it didn't make me want to help the bot at all, plus the music quickly became irritating. On top of this there was no real risk, since normally in mining games it's the loss of fuel or running out of space that forces you back to the surface, but in this game BOTH of those problems were crossed out with THE SAME gameplay mechanic. This would be fine if something else replaced that element of challenge but nothing did.

Some more colour, comedy (might as well if you're going to do a parody plot), or risk might have made it more fun. Still, the graphics were nice and apparently other people managed to get into it, so some stars for that.

[cyberleon]

All my 5 for this! Completely upgraded everything to max, and had quite some fun with it. Although, there are some issues that made me feel a bit lost during the game:

- getting new recipes by picking up resources: Sometimes you have nothing left to upgrade due to Question-marked Items and nothing to research. At the moment, you add a new recipe after collecting a special amount of a resource. Unfortunately, the player can not know which resource it is, and how much of it to get. Giving a hint like "collect 16 stacks of light titanium" as a mini-quest to unlock the recipe would help a lot. In order to not let the window flow over with such hints, only show one of them at a time.

- I kind of feel completely homeless. This is because the Planets i visited vanish completely. Instead, give the option to replay a planet which was already visited, and leave a mark if a quest item was already found on it.

- The next step in developing this game should be weapon systems. These weapons should not affect the terrain to much, instead they should be used against monsters which should lurk in the depths.

SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING

- Desining the last level, which might give some Information about what happend to mankind, should lead deep down into the planet, maybe even close to the magma. Then, when down there, extending the level horizontally, and finding a few (or many) other quest items, would give the game a new kick: try to use the minerals you find to keep yourself alive, while temperature eats your health. Teleportation impossible due to electro-magnetical Interferences. This also would finally add a use to these refill cans and repair kits, which i didn´t need to use once during the game.

- to ShadowDragon8685 s last comment: An automatically "build your item in one click" Option would be a nice idea for a device which has to be researched!

- As already mentioned, your ship is old. And so is the robot in it. Doing research and creating new equipment should not be possible instantly, but take some time. Adding loops of first 2 researches, then 3, then 5, then 10, could be the upgrades of the research facility, same for equipment creation.

- The Robot is nice, and he also has a nice inventory! Why not add another inventory, where his equipment can be (has to be) manually replaced! Old equipment could be recycled.

- These fat gemstones you find in great depths look gorgeous! Unfortunately, there are to many of them, which drastically reduces their value for me. Also, they are to easy to spot with the minimap. The minimap Information should be drastically changed, we can see to much with it! Only minerals within the sight range should be added to the minimap.

- The "way back to surface" wind from the capsules annoys when it s under your ship, sometimes it s hard to reach your teleport or refill station. I recommend to stop giving us this wind, we have the teleporters early enough to get back to the surface. At least let the flow end like 2 blocks under the ship.

- To easy mapping: several Quest items are simply to easy reached. Instead, add some hand-made-maps where quest items are - these maps could be quite difficult mazes, something like the tutorial but much larger - and with lots of dead ends :)

- Item destroyed: "The inventory got full last block, sorry, this block of titanium will be eaten by the cash, muarharhar *nomnomnom*. " Instead, let it fall to the ground, so it can be collected later! It could of course break into smaller pieces.

- When monsters are added, dropping stones which crash down on them - and onto yourself, if u aren´t careful - could add another bit of spice to the game!

So much,

just my 2 1/2 cents,

I hope you will keep up with this game!

[ShadowDragon8685]

Well, I played Glean all the way through, upgraded all my subsystems completely.

I must say, the story is actually not bad. The gameplay, though, takes waaaaay the hell too long for what story there is, especially given that there's nothing in this game more hostile than a dripping glob of lava.

This game either needed a lot more story, or it needed to have its gameplay condensed. I've been playing this game for like, three or four days, a few hours at a stretch.

Anyway, somehow I suspect that there will be a sequel in which John Carbon (of Mars?) goes to that planet and the heat mechanic gets replaced with a pressure mechanic which will, of course, require him to build all-new equipment for himself.

I know you're going to invoke the Bag of Spilling. Just, for the love of god, come up with a good REASON why this little badass strip-miner loses literally everything he has, okay? And make the next one better: either make it shorter, or make the story a lot longer and come at us faster, and add some kind of adversity other than your own stupid mistakes. John Carbon was surprised to find that carbon could be the building block of life, perhaps he's unfamiliar with organic life altogether? If so, wildlife might be a strange and terrifying challenge for him to overcome.

Oh, and while I did like the "build devices upon your devices" things, it got old fast having to manually construct all the parts to build a part to build a part to build an upgrade. You should keep it so you can do that, but have a system in place where it will automatically and recursively comb through your inventory, come up with a final tally of what you will need to build your final intended device/upgrade, and let you build it all with the press of one button.

[Averrath]

Pretty good game the graphics and designs oddly gave me a odd reminder of the Legos Rock Raider game i used to play when i was younger. Would have been a little more fun if there were monsters in the game.