AETHUS

“The gameplay loop is solid and the whole experience feels very polished, especially considering it's from an indie developer.”

“As you start out you will be making short trips below the surface to gather resources before returning to your base to process and craft with those resources, these resources can be used to build more parts of the base which through other mechanics enables upgrading your air supply and inventory limit, and even open up new access routes, all this together forms the core gameplay loop: descend below surface; gather resources; return to base and process the resources; craft items and upgrade your suit to allow delving deeper on the next run.”

“Great gameplay loop, great story so far, incredible voice acting.”

“Not too grindy, the dev clearly took into consideration what breaks other games (things like automation etc. for resource collection). I do recommend it and the story is really engaging.”

“Solid story, interesting progression, mining and producing loop is just right - not too easy, not too grindy (and adjustable through the settings, too).”

“I've played a lot of survival crafters and this one has struck a great balance of gathering, exploration, and crafting to feel engaging but not too tedious, and enough story to make it flow and have a sense of purpose without becoming a drag.”

“The visuals and sound are amazing and really blend together to give you a true sense of being in the environment.”

“Great polish, amazing voice acting, beautiful artstyle and graphics, engaging story, varied environments, I could go on and on.”

“The art style is beautiful, and the few cinematics genuinely elevate the experience.”

“Last but not least, the music is a master class in game music.”

“The game has great music that is subtle in the right places, great story with some serious gut punches, great characters and characterisations, great crafting, great exploration, great upgrades to facilitate that exploration, and a fantastic build up to a nerve-wracking climax.”

“The music is actually ridiculous how good and catchy so many of the songs are and it’s executed with a beautiful low-poly art style.”

“The banter and back-and-forth made me laugh a lot, and there were plenty of moments where I caught myself laughing out loud.”

“The customization and base building is well-balanced and enjoyable, but where the game really comes alive is the voice-acting and writing; the characters I have encountered thus far have been intriguing, funny, and charming in their own right.”

“Voices and writers for Maeve and Roland did a fantastic job, full of character, wit, and humor.”

“Performance-wise, I had almost no performance issues and only one graphic issue (scaling quality had to be changed to Nvidia image scaling to avoid some distant LOD flickers), and only a few crashes that didn't result in much progress loss.”

“What really impresses me is from a technical standpoint: it's an Unreal Engine game that really feels like it's gotten a proper optimization pass, because it runs like butter on a below minimum-spec rig without the textures turning into a blurry mess.”

“Excellent visuals, top notch voice acting and zero bugs or performance issues (in fact, my fairly mid-range PC has been performing like a champ with all settings on high - extremely well optimized game as far as I can tell).”

“The game has really good lore, a pleasant, non-violent atmosphere (instead of the usual 'kill them all' approach), and lets your brain relax for a few days—or even longer.”

“Aethus has heart, and it was clearly built with integrity—from the solid voice acting and atmospheric light and sound effects to a subtle but perfect soundtrack, thoughtful story and attention to detail.”

“The alien landscapes and underground caverns are designed with bold shapes and atmospheric lighting that highlight the mysterious nature of the environment.”

“There is enough content to see the full questline and most of the maps, but replay value is limited unless you enjoy optimizing routes.”

“About the only thing it's missing is full automation of resources, and maybe replayability (the levels are all pre-gen, to allow the story to be told), but I have 20 hours in the game and I'm just getting to the last area, so it's well worth your time and money.”

“It looks like there will be a lot of replayability due to the way the materials are utilized, meaning you can scrap and rebuild your base in another area without losing out on any materials.”

“Aethus managed to make me curious enough to keep exploring, clever enough to make me question what I thought I understood, and emotionally invested enough that the final revelations actually mattered.”

“The characters grow on you a lot to the point where I felt emotionally attached to them by the finale, the mysteries compel you to keep exploring and building, and each log feels like a glimpse into a hidden history not meant to be uncovered.”

“Overall, the game hits above its weight as a buildy-crafty-explory experience, but absolutely blows all competition out of the water with the addition of an engaging, complex, and mysterious storyline with full voice acting and genuinely emotional moments.”

“The end result is stable and bug free so far!”

“The game is well crafted, with no major bugs or issues so far (not bug free, but nothing breaks the game or saves).”

“Very well made, I haven't encountered any bugs so far, runs great on my Legion Go, and it's a game that draws me in during a time when the majority of games can't hold my attention for more than 1 hour.”

“This is a finished game with no microtransactions, no planned DLC, and a real story and real ending.”

“There are no microtransactions, no feeling of a rushed release — just a complete and polished experience.”

“The devs' stance on no microtransactions or purchasable cosmetics easily made me buy their supporters pack.”

“Great character development and progression.”

“The banter between them never got old for me, and their character development was stellar.”

“Finally, character development was surprising.”