Lies Under Ice

This game is a disjointed mess. It tries to be too many different things at once and ends up sucking at all of them. The only thing I found mildly entertaining was the base building, but even that seemed to have little to no impact on the story. Romance options are so sparse that entire part of the story could be cut with little to no effect. They seem to be thrown in as an afterthought more than anything. Example, my RO comes up to me in the first third of the story and admits she is cheating on me. I break it off and there are zero other chances to start a new romance or even rekindle it w/ the cheater. Again, this was in the first third of the story, so you interact w/ your former RO and other potential ROs, but the option to pursue them just never appears again. Other characters are so forgettable that I found myself skipping through large blocks of dialogue just to maybe get another chance to run my damn colony instead of blabbering on with (Insert weird ethnically appropr...

I rather enjoyed this one. It's an interesting setting, you have a lot to do, and the various directions the story can go are intriguing. It's held back by some really unfortunately poor tracking of variables that led to a confusing climax and ending. For example, there was a character who I sent back to Earth who randomly showed up in a later scene. The epilogue was a mess. There were 3 or 4 different ways that a VERY SPOILER thing could have gone, call them A, B, C, D. I managed to negotiate a way towards A, but in the epilogue the first page said B happened, then the next page of the epilogue contradicted the previous and said C happened. Similar stuff went on across the board in the epilogue, like some characters who I'd gotten along with and supported all game were said to have moved to Io because I had spurned them. It all made for a rather disappointing ending, since it didn't reflect how any of the events had actually played out. Maybe with some bug fixes it'll be a terrific ...

Really cool concept, but the choices seem irrelevant to the colony's development. A simple, non-spoiler example of this is that prioritizing which modules to build is something that comes up often, but doesn't seem to change what actually gets built. Admittedly, I could be wrong about that, but there is a bigger problem: the ending is just a complete mess. I won't spoil what happens except to say there is a massive disconnect between the situation at the end of the story and the start of the epilogue.

49/51 on this one. Ending and events are odd. Story loses track of itself.

The premise is great, it's just unfinished and buggy. The moment the world-building seems to go somewhere, it drops right off the cliff. Story looks like a good roadmap for a 3D game.

It has cats. All romance options suck, however. I also wish I could outlaw cultists in my colony.

Cool story! This one made me go back and play the author's other title, Trials of the Thief-Taker. Just surface level, but I think this story does a better job with world building and that sort of thing, whereas the other title maybe did a little better regarding character interaction. I love the idea of setting up a distant moon base, the struggles that come with that, and the surprises you find there. Almost feels like Frostpunk in a way, given the conditions on the ground there. Some interesting characters, at least one with a very unique backstory. The time span of the story due to the nature of space travel times and so on, necessitates a number of time skips. This allows you to see the development of the moon, as well as distant events back home, which is awesome. What seems to suffer just a bit, maybe, is the character interactions over this span of time. There are great moments with various characters, it's just that they are often months or years apart (which happ...

The game does feel authentic in putting you in the position of managing a colony, especially on the back of managing factions, as there are plenty. Story is pretty solid, though I feel there is somethings that can be improved in the epilogue, to give perhaps a flavor to what factions won out and which did not. I enjoyed the personality implied of the characters, and how it did not take away from the backdrop. SPOILER WARNING: I will also say, though, that the ending felt a bit...malign, in application. Perhaps it was due to the idea of needing some grandiose conflict to round out the story, but I wonder if maybe it could've sufficed with the what was present at the start? I will give it another run through to see if the ending and the chapters change a bit more based on certain decisions. But overall, I laud this story.

Nice interesting story. Realistic colonization with a bit of extraordinary life to make it more interesting.than lifeless Mars or Moon.

I’m not even done with it…. One of the best games I’ve ever played in my life. No pictures, no music. I have adhd, this should be a problem. This should be a MAJOR PROBLEM. I don’t write reviews for other games I like. This game… has made me laugh, has made me pool for outsider information who have no clue wtf I’m talking about to try to make better choices and they are of no help, has made me break down in tears on multiple occasions, has made me have to take a few minutes to walk away, has made me have to shut down my computer and come back to it after a few days to rethink my entire stance on humanity and who I am as a person and what my values entail… I have NEVER been more emotionally invested in a game in my life (I see you, ttg’s walking dead), and… let’s cut this short, I didn’t want this position, I would have gladly given it up to anyone but a capitalist, definitely the other scientist, he’s tops! We don’t need money! But only crime I’ll actually i...