Dual Universe
- September 27, 2022
- Novaquark
- 184h median play time
There's a decent space sim buried within Dual Universe, but you'll need to do a lot of digging to find it.
Get on SteamDual Universe is a sandbox MMO set in a continuous, single-shard universe, allowing for a seamless player-driven economy and massive cooperative or PvP battles. Players can gather resources, craft and trade items, construct stations and spaceships, and explore or colonize the infinite procedurally generated universe. The game features a unique in-game programming language, allowing for customization and automation of ships, stations, and more.
PC
Windows
Cloud
NVIDIA GeForce NOW
Reviews
- The voxel building system is incredibly detailed, allowing players to create unique and complex structures and ships.
- The game offers a vast sandbox experience with endless possibilities for exploration, crafting, and customization.
- The community is friendly and helpful, providing support for new players and fostering collaboration.
- The game suffers from performance issues, including lag and bugs that can disrupt gameplay.
- The subscription model is seen as excessive, especially given the current lack of content and engaging gameplay loops.
- Many players feel that the game is directionless and lacks meaningful objectives, leading to a repetitive experience.
- gameplay120 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 78 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay in this title features strong ship building and flight mechanics, offering players a high degree of freedom and creativity, but suffers from a lack of engaging gameplay loops and significant bugs, such as server lag and freezing. While the real-time skill training and detailed tutorials are appreciated, many players find the initial grind and limited solo gameplay options frustrating. Overall, the game shows potential but feels unfinished and underdeveloped, making it hard to recommend without reservations.
“I enjoy the game mechanic where skills are trained in real-time.”
“Gameplay - unmatched level of freedom in design and creation.”
“The physics engine adds a layer of realism to the gameplay, making it feel like you're truly in a weightless environment.”
“A simple game mechanic like this shouldn't be having issues like this in a 'released' game.”
“I can't wholeheartedly recommend this game in its current state to everyone, as there's just not enough of a gameplay loop for most folks yet.”
“What I found is that it is abysmally underdeveloped in features and the core gameplay loops are not nearly engaging enough for $15 a month.”
- story82 mentions
- 5 % positive mentions
- 85 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of depth and engaging narrative, with many players noting that it offers minimal scripted content and repetitive missions primarily focused on delivery tasks. While there are some PvE elements and a talent system, the overall experience feels more like a sandbox for creativity and building rather than a structured story-driven game. Players seeking a rich narrative or guided quests may find the game lacking, as it leans heavily on player-driven content and grinding for resources.
“PVE was just added along with the reintroduction of two planets, totally redesigned, complete with story arc tie-ins to the PVE.”
“This is a short story about how I played DU – a game with so much wonderful potential, that is destroyed by its own developers (NQ team).”
“Like in EVE, it has similar game mechanics - the same skill leveling system, almost everything is player-crafted, and the economy is based on resource digging, mission running, and so on.”
“There are loads of things you can build in the game and your creativity is really the limit; however, there is no good storyline, hardly any content unless you just want to mine and build all day and then go lose it to PvP where only like two large organizations exist for PvP and those two organizations control all of the resources that are available to be retrieved for the high-end game materials known as plasma.”
“The only scripted missions in the entire game have been bugged or not working since launch.”
“Boring missions, PvP never got implemented the way they promised... There are a few PvE missions, but these feel like they are just shoehorned into the game for the sake of it in order to give people who aren't into PvP something to do (aside from building).”
- optimization58 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 34 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many players reporting severe performance issues, including crashes and lag, particularly when flying in populated areas. While some users noted improvements with high-end hardware and specific settings like DLSS, the general consensus is that the game remains poorly optimized and buggy, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences. Despite some hope for future improvements, many players feel the current state is unacceptable for a subscription-based model.
“But when I put DLSS on the ultra performance mode, it made it pretty smooth.”
“Flight in this game is surprisingly deep, given you can design your ships, referred to as constructs in-game, and configure most aspects of their flight performance.”
“I have played enough time now to say that performance is great, no crashes, Newtonian physics makes the space travel realistic and fun.”
“I don't think this game is worth 15 a month, it's terribly optimized and you will lose ships just because something is not loading correctly.”
“Performance is abysmal.”
“This game is extremely buggy and unoptimized.”
- graphics48 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's graphics receive mixed reviews, with some praising the stunning visuals and recent improvements, while others criticize them as dated and plagued by bugs and lag. Players note that the graphics can be taxing on hardware, especially during intensive activities like mining, and express a desire for better adjustable settings. Overall, while the graphics have potential, they are often overshadowed by performance issues and inconsistencies.
“The graphics are stunning with the latest run of planetary improvements, lighting, and visuals.”
“You can't expect 'AAA' graphics in a voxel-based game, so while it might not look like some of the other titles out there visually, in my opinion, it holds its own with its own visual style.”
“There used to be a lot of graphical bugs and lag back in alpha and beta days, but it seems they worked out the vast majority of those issues.”
“It will disappoint with its embarrassingly dated graphics, its lack of content, PvE, and PvP.”
“The game is extremely buggy, and with any minor increase on graphic settings causing awkward lag.”
“The graphics are bad, it's like there is a permanent fog upon everything.”
- atmosphere32 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in the game is described as immersive and dynamic, with realistic physics that create a sense of tension during atmospheric entry and flight. Players appreciate the tutorials that help them navigate the complexities of building and flying ships, though some note that the transition from atmospheric to space flight lacks significant improvement. Overall, the atmosphere is engaging, with a mix of excitement and challenge, but some players feel that certain aspects, like atmospheric combat, still need development.
“Gliding through the atmosphere with thrusters off to save fuel while almost maintaining speed and altitude is pretty chilling for me.”
“Atmosphere - 8/10 (for now, planets a little barren, but I doubt it will stay like this through the end of development).”
“What a player that understands the mechanics will tell you is that they were traveling too fast when they hit the atmosphere and the ship started taking massive damage and burnt up with little to no warning (it can be instant if you're going fast enough). The same thing can be said for newer players when they go to fly their newly constructed ship with shiny new parts and it handles weird or crashes.”
“Flying, although it is certainly no flight simulator, can be quite fun at times; equally, it can be quite unforgiving too if you enter a planet's atmosphere at too high a speed.”
“I like that it feels like I'm entering the atmosphere and going to burn up or crash if I do it wrong.”
- grinding32 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and frustrating, with many expressing that the increased resource demands and management issues detract from the overall enjoyment. While some appreciate the building and farming mechanics, the overwhelming focus on grinding, coupled with persistent bugs and limited gameplay loops, risks alienating a broader audience. There is hope that upcoming updates will address these concerns and introduce more engaging content beyond the current grind-heavy experience.
“Some of their changes were needed and have worked out well, while others cause nothing but frustration and increase how grindy the game is.”
“From day 1 of playing this game, I have felt nothing but being choked off from resources and the game is designed around just being an all-around tedious chore.”
“Butchered fun aspects of the game by putting grinding everywhere (limited number of building core, taxes, ...).”
- stability24 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and performance issues, particularly during critical moments like ship travel. Despite some enjoyable mechanics, many players find the experience frustrating due to unoptimized graphics and terrain errors, leading to significant gameplay interruptions. Overall, the game appears to remain unstable and buggy even after several years of development.
“The game mechanics are fun, until you realize that to get anything decent you need to travel to a different planet and that without a steady income the costs will lose you your plot. The game also freezes/jerks at the most awkward moments. I've just had an issue of bringing my ship back into orbit and then the game freezing for a couple of seconds. When it unfroze, my ship had crashed on the other side of the planet from where I had actually entered. I spent the best part of 3 hours to get there only to find the ship is missing and lost in the planet. There are no in-game DM for support; it's a big loss for someone who is just starting out.”
“Thought I would try again with release; it is basically just as buggy. Upkeep, ore gathering, etc. are all much worse off with the new systems in place.”
“The game is extremely buggy, and any minor increase in graphic settings causes awkward lag.”
- humor12 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is derived from the absurdity of its mechanics and the developers' reactions to player feedback, with users finding it amusing that negative reviews can lead to account bans and support ticket issues. Many players highlight the comically poor execution of the game, which adds to the overall hilarity of the experience.
“It's funny I ended up buying a month just to see if I could progress more than the weekend demo.”
“Hilariously enough, despite such a low player base, you'll be hit with 'pending operation' quite a lot, unable to do anything at seemingly random.”
“People get banned for hilarious reasons, even if it's a disagreement on a forum post where the devs get upset about things that their player base doesn't like.”
- music4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 75 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally considered lacking, with many users expressing a desire for the option to play their own music through the screens or monitors, indicating that the current soundtrack is insufficient.
“It would be nice to use the screens/monitors and allow us to play our own music. The current music is dire.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight a strong emotional impact in the game, with players expressing deep connections to the narrative and characters. Many users encourage others to read through the reviews to identify those that genuinely reflect the emotional experiences of long-time players.
