Helium Rain
- October 11, 2018
- Deimos Games
- 10h median play time
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Get on itch.io Store"Helium Rain" is a single-player space simulation game that allows you to manage and expand your own space corporation. You'll explore, trade, and battle your way through a vast, procedurally generated universe, with real-time physics and advanced AI. Your choices will shape the fate of your company and the political landscape of the galaxy.
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Helium Rain offers a unique blend of space trading and combat, reminiscent of the X series but with a more streamlined and user-friendly interface.
- The game features a dynamic economy where player actions have real consequences, making trade routes and resource management engaging.
- The visuals and atmosphere are stunning, providing an immersive experience that captures the essence of a lonely space colony.
- The user interface can be clunky and unintuitive, making navigation and fleet management cumbersome, especially as the game progresses.
- Combat can feel unbalanced and frustrating, with AI factions often prioritizing the player's destruction over their own survival, leading to a lack of meaningful conflict.
- The game lacks a compelling narrative or end-game objectives, which can make the experience feel empty and repetitive after a certain point.
- story114 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 82 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimal and largely serves as a backdrop for its sandbox gameplay, with contracts and missions that lack depth and narrative engagement. While the setting of stranded colonists in a desolate space environment is intriguing, players often find the missions repetitive and uninspired, leading to a feeling of emptiness in the universe. Overall, the game is more focused on simulation and economic mechanics than on delivering a compelling storyline.
“The setting is also sensible for the near future, a bunch of colonists stranded on a system far away from home struggling for survival in the void around a bountiful gas giant is a much better story to show the desolation of space than galactic empires warring for power.”
“The story is set up as much as it needs to be, and you're free to make your own thereon.”
“There appears to be a story/plot that you can follow, but seems to be ultimately an optional contract to start.”
“There is no 'story'; this is not 'Wing Commander', 'Starlancer', 'Freelancer', or 'The Darkening'.”
“It's weakness was a totally devoid plot and story.”
“Without detailed lore and storylines, it just feels empty and lifeless.”
- gameplay78 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
Gameplay in this title is a mixed bag, with many players finding the initial exploration and mechanics engaging, but later stages becoming tedious due to long travel times, cumbersome menus, and a lack of compelling interactions. While the game features beautiful graphics and some unique economic and diplomatic mechanics, it suffers from critical issues such as poor UI design and a lack of depth in its trading system, leading to a sense of emptiness in the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, some players appreciate the potential for enjoyable gameplay, particularly with fleet automation and combat, though many feel it requires significant polish and quality-of-life improvements to fully realize that potential.
“Fortunately, once you get a separate trade fleet to control, the game shows some approaches that give it a unique feel. It explores some economical, traveling, and diplomatic mechanics that do not exist in the X series and are fun to play with.”
“This game is brilliant; the tutorials are integrated seamlessly and are almost effortless. The gameplay is both relaxing and rewarding, and the graphics are excellent thanks to Unreal Engine 4.”
“Overall, the money/docking ratio increases quite fast as soon as your fleet and company build up, and the diversity of the gameplay as well.”
“The moment-to-moment gameplay on display here is as empty as the vacuum of space and as barren of any joy as the actual sectors you will be traveling to and from in this game.”
“Helium Rain has very poor functionality with most of your time spent navigating menus, very little customization, poor transactional gameplay with little interaction, activities such as combat occurring before a player has a chance to react, practically no story, and poorly designed ideas - for example, a space moon with windows on it housing multiple 'stations' - parts of which destroy your ship if on auto-docking.”
“All in all, after your operation acquires enough complexity, gameplay becomes too much of a chore to put up with, at least for me.”
- graphics64 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are generally praised for their stunning visuals and clean design, with many reviewers noting a polished aesthetic and impressive space environments. While some players find the graphics to be slightly lacking in complexity or variation, the overall quality is considered high, especially with the use of Unreal Engine 4. However, there are suggestions for improvement, particularly in ship interiors and lighting effects, to enhance the visual experience further.
“The graphics, worldbuilding, and even the scientific rigor are outstanding.”
“This game nails the lonely deep space colony feel 100% with the graphics, art, and music.”
“The visuals are stunning; there is a proper amount of content, no bugs.”
“Game graphics are just weird and unappealing. It's not the objects themselves; I think it is a lighting issue. Everything feels so dull, like the city of Batman.”
“Slightly light on the graphics side of things, but even Elite Dangerous evolved graphically, so with dedication and systematic updates and expansion, Helium Rain could become a serious contender in the space sim sector.”
“The space visuals are somewhat starker and colder than, for example, those of Elite Dangerous, but the quality is very similar if not the same.”
- atmosphere24 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 21 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of "Helium Rain" is frequently described as relaxing and lonely, effectively capturing a unique "hard sci-fi" vibe that enhances the gameplay experience. While some players appreciate the chill ambiance and soundtrack, others note that the game lacks a strong storyline, which could further enrich the atmosphere. Overall, the game's atmospheric qualities, combined with its ship design and flight mechanics, make it a standout choice for fans of single-player spaceship simulations.
“The atmosphere of Helium Rain gives off a bit of a lonely and relaxing vibe.”
“Wonderful lonely space atmosphere and soundtrack.”
“Then, somehow, its relaxing atmosphere, unique ship design, and Newtonian flight model combined with its modding options tipped the balance in its favor.”
“E, Rayleigh and Mie scattering in planets with atmosphere would improve realism a lot, and dirt, contamination on the glass surfaces, similar to what you see when peeking outside into a docking mechanism when a bright reflection or the sun scatters the light on the surface of the panels.”
“Still a bit light on overall story and atmosphere but this is definitely one to watch.”
“The atmosphere of HR gives off a bit of a lonely and relaxing vibe.”
- music24 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its beautiful orchestral and ambient qualities, effectively enhancing the lonely space atmosphere. However, many players find the soundtrack to be too short for a game that demands extensive playtime, leading some to mute it early on. Overall, while the music contributes positively to the experience, it could benefit from more variety and length.
“Wonderful lonely space atmosphere and soundtrack.”
“The music is a chilling and lonely ambience which has kept me feeling like a real space merchant as my auto dock approaches the next station.”
“Beautiful, several things to do, good flight models that feel just right, real physics, deep if you care about the company system, real sandbox with an impact on the world, and I have to add that the orchestral music is beautiful and fits perfectly the pleasant ambiance of the game.”
“The game is quite boring and with the crappy music I almost fall asleep at the keyboard.”
“Music is ok, standard space ambient, could use some more of it.”
“I'd like to disable the music sometimes (edit: found it, didn't look hard enough, wasn't in an audio menu but just general settings).”
- grinding18 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that the grinding aspect of the game can be quite tedious, particularly due to clunky UI and repetitive tasks, which detracts from overall enjoyment. While some players find the early grinding discouraging, others note that the game becomes more complex and engaging as it progresses, especially with fleet management. Overall, the experience varies, with some players appreciating the grind while others find it a significant drawback.
“It's really quite tedious running loads of materials all over the place when the AI is supposed to be doing that.”
“I appreciated the slow, precise docking procedure...until about the tenth time, after which it became tedious.”
“These UI tasks are tedious and subtract from the enjoyability considerably.”
- optimization12 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while many players report smooth performance and no crashes, some experience significant micro-stuttering during combat that detracts from the experience. The intricate nature of the game can lead to performance issues when new elements are introduced, but many users find it runs well even on lower-end hardware.
“Beyond my one complaint, the game runs smoothly and is extremely addicting.”
“The game already feels mostly finished and it runs great (no stuttering/performance issues, and no crashes).”
“The graphics are cool and look good, yet it runs smoothly on my potato laptop.”
“I really like the game, but I cannot recommend it due to extremely frustrating micro-stuttering occurring only in combat.”
“When that happens, performance takes a nose-dive.”
“This isn't realistic for us, in part because of the business aspect - not exactly buying-a-house grade sales - and because of the very intricate nature of the game, where every new element tends to wreak havoc on quality, balancing, or performance.”
- stability10 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while it runs smoothly on Linux with no significant performance issues or crashes, some users report frustrating bugs, particularly with ship controls. Despite these issues, many feel the game is mostly finished and performs well overall.
“It plays smoothly, isn't the buggy horror show that the recent X-series games have been, and scratches that itch perfectly.”
“The game already feels mostly finished and it runs great (no stuttering/performance issues, and no crashes).”
“Runs great on Linux.”
“The ship controls are buggy and frustrating, and the game design is lazy and unimaginative.”
“Oh well, yet another buggy game.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game has been criticized for its lack of replayability, with users indicating that a single playthrough is sufficient due to minimal incentives to revisit the experience.
“One would be enough since there is close to 0 replayability.”
