Ice Caves of Europa

Wow! The most athmospheric and challeging simulation I have played in a long time. Really makes you feel like being on that ice moon, exploring anomalies under the ice. Great graphics and a dry sense of humour. But navigating the probe is very very challenging at times (I recomment using the X-Box controller): Disengage auto leveling, so you can point the laser up- or downwards at a steep angle to vaporize and anylyze samples... but disengaging auto leveling also means that you are then applying thrust which moves you sideways and thus away from the target above or beyond you. Same thing for fighting against the currents of vents in tight spots. Normal thrust in auto leveling mode may be too weak, but manoevering manually at the required high speed easily crashes you into the next cave wall. Took me 8h to complete the game story. A bit abrupt ending and some wheels with a wheel are still turning in my head. Hope there will be some future DLC or follow-on story. But I will surely repl...

The gameplay is you controlling a drone flying through narrow passages (specifically, the ice caves of Europa) gathering mineral samples, melting ice barriers and watching cutscenes. It's short (just over 2 hours for me for the story mode). The biggest challenge is that the drone is very difficult to control with keyboard, especially on "unstable mode" that is required for one of the tutorials and one of the trickier narrow passages. The negative review is due to an underwhelming story and difficult/ borderline impossible drone control if you don't use a dedicated controller.

I saw this game at PAX AUS 2018 and wanted to give it a try since I like fine-control vehicular gameplay and aircraft. I stood there for a while and didn't get the chance, I had more to see so I grabbed a card and left. Had I played it there I might have been able to tell the developers a few things, but I digress. Straight away, there are no ambient sounds or general sound effects except for some menuing sounds and using the laser. No sounds for impacts, no sounds for the thrusters, no environmental sounds. Sure, okay, sound doesn't travel through a vaccum. But you would still get *something* coming through the hull of the vehicle from the engines and impacts. Metal is not a vaccum... But maybe the robotic vehicle doesn't have a microphone because why would it need one? Well, I can hear the laser for some reason. That's probably the only sound that is coming from the environment. Not to mention the robots already have full AI personalities, so why wouldn't they be able to hear a bit...

Mesmerising. The ice caves are spooky, enjoying this game, and can't wait to see what happens next...

You can die but you can't save. Basic UI feature missing; your classic incompetent design. I expected a smart and peaceful game, not some irritating 3rd rate arcade.

Surprisingly fun game....I try to only leave negative reviews but I really like this one...1200+ games this one is only the 7th game I've enjoyed enough to play thru twice....and the only game I've played a third go around....