Ragnorium
- April 25, 2022
- Vitali Kirpu
- 7h median play time
Get on Steam"Ragnorium is a single-player role-playing colony simulator, set in a fantasy universe with privatized space exploration and the use of clone colonists. As a player, you must establish a self-sustainable colony, progress through technological eras, and customize your colonists' skills while surviving an oncoming Holy Crusade. Despite excellent gameplay, good visuals, and music, the game is quite grindy and buggy."
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a unique concept that combines colony management with survival elements, providing a fresh take on the genre.
- The developer is very active and responsive to community feedback, frequently releasing updates and addressing bugs.
- The game offers a challenging experience that encourages players to learn from their mistakes and adapt their strategies.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to manage their colonists and resources effectively.
- There are significant bugs and pathfinding issues that can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences, such as colonists getting stuck or failing to complete tasks.
- The game lacks a proper tutorial and clear instructions, which can make it overwhelming for new players to understand the mechanics.
- story57 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 82 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as having potential but is marred by frustrating mechanics and unbalanced missions that lead to frequent player deaths and restarts. Players appreciate the sci-fi setting and the variety of missions, but many feel that the lack of control over colonists during missions and the inability to manage resources effectively detracts from the overall experience. While some enjoy the narrative elements and the sandbox environment, others criticize the complexity and grindiness, suggesting that the game needs significant improvements to its story and mission structure.
“This game is amazing, it has so much to offer, a city builder, survival sim, but this is an RTS, RPG, city builder, resource management, and it all takes place in six brutal worlds with an awesome story.”
“Provides selective storyline objectives in a well thought out sandbox environment.”
“Missions add an interesting story element.”
“Missions give no details, so you don't know what you will fight or not fight until you actually activate the mission, which you are then penalized for if you cancel it.”
“Every quest is either a 'go here and kill whoever is around' or a 'build this thing in your base' with few exceptions.”
“The game isn't very intuitive about progressing through your clones' needs and building up structures for the community, so you'll have to go out of your way to explore menus, items, and quests to figure out what unlocks at what tech level and how to go about making them.”
- gameplay55 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a mix of intriguing mechanics and significant jankiness, with many players noting clunky controls, poor UI, and a lack of helpful tutorials. While the core gameplay loop is considered fun and offers depth, it is often marred by bugs and frustrating mechanics that can detract from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the developer is responsive to feedback and frequently updates the game, suggesting potential for improvement and a dedicated player base.
“The gameplay is solid and the developer seems to be responding to community feedback quickly.”
“Gameplay wise it's great; it's more of an indirect control than RimWorld, think of it like a Kenshi setting mixed with Noble Fates gameplay.”
“The way you control your settlement and build on the characters, combined with the cloning and research mechanics, as well as the generation system (which builds on previous playthroughs) makes for a good combination of complexity and replayability.”
“The gameplay is rather clunky, and the tutorials are not as helpful as they should be.”
“I wanted to like the game for its concept, but it's very hard to enjoy actual gameplay that consists mostly of being punished for the fact that your attention can't be in twenty places at once, preventing your clones from pathfinding into pointless fights like idiots.”
“Bad UI, the game is super slow, and there are huge game-breaking bugs that will force you to restart after 5-10 hours of gameplay!”
- graphics47 mentions
- 34 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing the blurry and glitchy aesthetic that can induce eye strain. While some appreciate the unique art style and find it charming, others feel it lacks polish and clarity, making it difficult to enjoy the gameplay. Overall, the lack of customizable graphics options and the rough visual presentation have led to a generally negative perception among users.
“It's a refreshing take on the rim world genre with a different camera/art style!”
“I like the art style; it's different and cartoon-like while having a lot of cool detail to it.”
“Right away, Ragnorium establishes a very unique atmosphere and aesthetic, and very quickly shows that it has some interesting and unusual spins on the colony-sim genre.”
“Lacks graphics options as a whole, though the graphics are pretty awful and really lack charm or any unique style.”
“Graphics are a blurry mess.”
“Can't recommend at this stage, graphics are still eye cancer inducing.”
- stability22 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been widely criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and performance issues that detract from the overall experience. Many players describe it as feeling unfinished and unbalanced, with frequent freezes and pathfinding problems. While some acknowledge the developer's responsiveness to feedback, the consensus is that the game requires significant improvements to achieve a stable and polished state.
“Too buggy, feels unfinished in more ways than one and yet released.”
“Fun concept with the research, objectives, and resources, but the learning curve gets annoying when bugs and freezes ruin a 6-hour game.”
“Pathfinding glitches out in annoying ways.”
- grinding10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and time-consuming, often requiring repetitive tasks like farming for resources, which detracts from overall enjoyment. Many reviewers express frustration with the complexity and frequent need for restarts, leading to a sense of monotony rather than fun. While some appreciate the improved farming mechanics, the overwhelming grind and minor issues contribute to a negative experience for many.
“The game is very tedious and time consuming.”
“You'll find yourself constantly farming for bandages and sugar candies, which take up most of your colonists' labor, leaving you with a couple of guys to advance the rest of the base.”
“It has a damn good base, but there are just tons of little issues that pile up and cause the game overall to just be more tedious than fun.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many users finding it unplayable in its current state and recommending waiting for updates. While some recent bug fixes and optimizations have been implemented, significant performance issues remain, particularly on higher-end rigs. Overall, players suggest adding the game to a wishlist until further improvements are made.
“My recommendation is to add this game to the wishlist and wait until the optimization update.”
“Some much needed bug fixes and optimizations are finally being made, and I can fully recommend picking up the game now.”
“It needs optimization, sure, but it's still totally playable, and the developer is very receptive to feedback and bug reports.”
“In the recent build (v1.06), it's recommended to wait until they optimize the game.”
“However, you may want to hold off on this game for a bit as it still needs serious optimization.”
“There's a whole lot of optimization, bugs, etc. to iron out, and it doesn't seem like much time has gone into that from the developer in this timespan.”
- music9 mentions
- 78 % positive mentions
- -11 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received positive feedback, with many users praising its quality and nostalgic feel reminiscent of older sci-fi titles. However, some players have noted issues with volume control, particularly during loading screens and the main menu. Overall, the soundtrack contributes significantly to the game's atmosphere and enjoyment.
“The audio and music are very good, especially the main menu music.”
“The game looks great - the story, UI, and soundtrack all make me nostalgic for older sci-fi retro titles.”
“Music, art, and mechanics are pretty good for how early the game is in development and the developers are very active.”
“Please make the music at the loading screen adjustable.”
“The UI is horrendous; there is no options menu before you're in the game, so you can't turn down the very loud music.”
“The music is overly repetitive and quickly becomes annoying.”
- humor5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's humor is a standout feature, with players appreciating the developer's quirky aesthetic, amusing voice acting, and funny combat mechanics. While some bugs add to the comedic experience, there are mixed feelings about the game's polish, especially with the developer's tongue-in-cheek labeling of the current version as 1.0. Overall, the humor contributes positively to the game's charm, making it an enjoyable early access experience.
“The developer clearly has a sense of humor, and it shows!”
“The combat is crunchy and fun; ordering your guys around is interesting, and the aesthetic is odd but funny alongside the voice of the commander.”
“It is also hilarious that the dev made it 1.0 and calls the future dev 2.0; this game is not finished and not polished.”
- monetization3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate a mixed sentiment regarding monetization, with some users criticizing the developers for perceived cash grabs and excessive advertising, while others appreciate the game's pricing and quality, suggesting it deserves more visibility to reach its potential alongside cult classics.
“He used this as a learning tool and cash grab, and plainly admitted this.”
“Now they have the audacity to post advertisements for a new game that they are going to demo 'because they have been burned by EA games too.'”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's replayability, citing the intricate settlement control, character development, cloning, and research mechanics, along with a generation system that builds on previous playthroughs, creating a rich and engaging experience that encourages multiple playthroughs.
“The way you control your settlement and build on the characters, combined with the cloning and research mechanics, as well as the generation system (which builds on previous playthroughs), makes for a good combination of complexity and replayability.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
Ragnorium creates a distinctive atmosphere with its unique aesthetic and unconventional twists on the colony-sim genre, blending familiar Earth plants and creatures into its setting. This combination results in an intriguing and odd ambiance that sets it apart from typical games in the genre.
“Right away, Ragnorium establishes a very unique atmosphere and aesthetic, and quickly shows that it has some interesting and unusual spins on the colony-sim genre.”
“The game has an odd atmosphere as well, using Earth plants and creatures.”
“The game has an odd atmosphere, featuring Earth plants and creatures that feel out of place.”
“The atmosphere lacks coherence, making it difficult to immerse myself in the game world.”
“The overall ambiance feels disjointed, failing to create a believable environment.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users found the game's UI and graphics to be visually unappealing, which detracted from their overall emotional experience, leaving them feeling frustrated and uncomfortable.
