Reassembly
- February 18, 2015
- Anisoptera Games
- 18h median play time
"Reassembly" is a single-player Science Fiction Strategy game with good mechanics, fantastic visuals, and exceptional music, but a lackluster story and heavy grinding. Players craft and customize their own spaceship, battling a variety of alien races in a procedurally-generated universe. The game offers high replayability and unique atmosphere, but can be buggy. Growth and evolution of your ship adds a fresh twist to the strategy genre.
Reviews
- Engaging ship building mechanics that allow for creativity and customization.
- Relaxing atmosphere with a great soundtrack that enhances the gameplay experience.
- Diverse factions with unique playstyles and the ability to upload and battle against player-created fleets.
- Game can become repetitive and lacks a clear endgame or objectives after unlocking all factions.
- AI behavior can be frustrating, with allies often failing to assist effectively in battles.
- Frequent crashes and bugs, particularly when managing large fleets or using certain mods.
- gameplay550 mentions
- 35 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Reassembly is centered around ship-building mechanics that allow for extensive customization and creativity, appealing to players who enjoy designing their own vessels. While the core gameplay loop is engaging and addictive, it can become repetitive over time, especially once players exhaust the available content. The game features a simple yet effective combat system, a variety of factions, and a strong modding community, enhancing replayability despite some criticisms regarding depth and end-game objectives.
“The gameplay is slick, the soundtrack is soothing, and the visuals are fantastic.”
“Reassembly is a beautiful, enthralling top-down spaceship-builder/space combat game with sturdy mechanics and an intuitive building system that deserves the praise it has received.”
“The open-world style keeps the gameplay interesting, and the ship-building aspect makes for a nearly infinitely customizable experience.”
“The only real downside to this game is that it has no end game objective outside of reaching a wormhole or destroying all the agents on the map, and when you reach a wormhole there's not much to it outside of regenerating the world and sending an agent to another player.”
“Gameplay is dull, combat is too simple, you quickly outscale enemies and everything is a cakewalk, and AI is bad.”
“The gameplay is pretty simple and can get pretty repetitive as the progression loop is pretty much the same across all factions including mod factions.”
- music452 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 1 % negative mentions
The music in "Reassembly" is widely praised for its chill, atmospheric quality, enhancing the overall gameplay experience and immersing players in its serene yet engaging environment. Many reviewers highlight the soundtrack's ability to create a trance-like state, making it easy to lose track of time while playing. However, some players note that the music can become repetitive after extended play, though its soothing nature and fitting electronic style are consistently appreciated.
“The music is smooth, serene and gets a kind of arcade action vibe when in combat.”
“Reassembly's music is an anxiety-melting symphony of synths and echoing noises, reminiscent perhaps of Minecraft or Celeste in sound design.”
“The soundtrack is beautiful and fitting and the gameplay is endless.”
“The soundtrack wasn't of any interest to me either.”
“- music, I got annoyed and turned off.”
“Every time I go into the menu to change my ship, my fleet's ships, check the map, or pause the game, the volume for the music cranks all the way up to 100% for about a second, deafening me.”
- graphics371 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 51 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a minimalist yet aesthetically pleasing 2D vector style, which effectively combines simple visuals with vibrant colors and particle effects. Players appreciate the game's ability to run smoothly on low-end hardware while still delivering captivating visuals, especially when enhanced by mods. Overall, the graphics contribute significantly to the immersive experience, making it a standout feature despite their simplicity.
“Beautiful graphics, the bright glows of ship thrusters contrasted against the black abyss of space hits hard.”
“The music is on point, the visuals are constant eye candy, and the game worlds feel very alive and inviting to explore.”
“The graphics are incredible and really bring the best out of a 2D game, offering vibrant and extensively customizable color schemes.”
“The graphics could have been done on an Amiga 500 with its very good vector graphics capabilities and would fit there very well too (-> retro style).”
“My computer has a decent processor and subpar graphics card, but the amount of lag is unreasonable.”
“Despite its low graphics quality and simplicity, it has sucked me in!”
- story157 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 76 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The game is largely criticized for its lack of a coherent story, with many players noting that it functions primarily as a sandbox experience without a central narrative or objectives. While some appreciate the freedom to create and customize ships, they express a desire for more structured gameplay elements, such as missions or a storyline, to enhance engagement. Overall, the absence of a compelling plot leaves many feeling that the game lacks depth and long-term motivation.
“This game might have simple graphics and no real story to it, but for what it is, it is really close to perfect.”
“Basically, you start as a faction with a little plot of territory in the galaxy, and must build ships with increasing size and power, collect resources, conquer and annihilate opposing factions, and eventually control the whole galaxy.”
“It is purely driven by you making a story yourself, or simply wanting to conquer the generated world.”
“No story to speak of, not really even sure if there is a 'win condition', but building your ships and your fleet is a ton of fun.”
“To sum up, this here is the entirety of your 'very positive' uninspiring gameplay offered by Reassembly: no story, no purpose, no gaming mechanism of any depth or sophistication, only mind-numbing endless grinding and upgrades.”
“Single player is utterly devoid of story; it's basically a sandbox galaxy in which various mutually hostile factions hold territory.”
- replayability151 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is highly variable, with many players praising its extensive customization options and diverse factions that encourage multiple playthroughs. While some reviews highlight the potential for endless replay value, especially with mods, others note that replayability diminishes after the initial experience, often relying on player-created content to maintain interest. Overall, the game offers a mix of high replayability for those who enjoy experimentation and customization, but may feel limited for players seeking more structured gameplay.
“Each faction is different, in shapes, in playstyle, even in AI behavior resulting in the game becoming very replayable, and the amount of possible playthroughs becomes pretty much endless as soon you take a look inside the workshop and spot the amount of ways to spice up the gameplay.”
“With fully customizable ships, being able to build them from scratch and design them with any number of variations of weapons, engines, and defenses that you want, the game really has continuous replayability.”
“The replay value is immense as no playthrough will ever be identical to another.”
“Brilliant game, but surprisingly little replayability after a certain point.”
“It has almost no replayability; there's no reason to keep playing except to build new ships, but there's not much you can do with them (except keep shooting at dumb AI enemies).”
“Don't get me wrong, I liked this game, but it is very shallow and the replayability just isn't there.”
- grinding92 mentions
- 2 % positive mentions
- 4 % neutral mentions
- 93 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game is frequently described as tedious and time-consuming, particularly when it comes to conquering territories and building fleets. While some players appreciate the ability to set personal goals and enjoy the ship design process, many find the repetitive nature of grinding for resources and upgrades to detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game appeals to those who enjoy grind-heavy gameplay, but it may not be suitable for players seeking a more dynamic or story-driven experience.
“You don't need to babysit your empire, so it's not tedious - and there's no cap to the fleet you can have, so battles are fun.”
“Suffice it to say that killing just one is a tedious process taking several minutes and the existence of an entire fleet almost completely ruined the game for me.”
“To sum up, this here is the entirety of your 'very positive' uninspiring gameplay offered by Reassembly: no story, no purpose, no gaming mechanism of any depth or sophistication, only mind-numbing endless grinding and upgrades - so do yourself a favor and move on, do something else with your life... nothing to see here.”
“It's a very grindy game, so if you don't like grinding, I would certainly stay away.”
- optimization58 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its ability to handle large fleets and numerous on-screen objects without significant performance issues, providing smooth gameplay even during intense action. However, some users report major performance problems, particularly with specific factions and under certain conditions, indicating that while the game is generally well-optimized, there are notable exceptions that can lead to slowdowns. The developers are recognized for their efforts in optimization, but the presence of game-breaking performance issues remains a concern for some players.
“Trippy physics-based space shmup where you build your own space fighters out of physics objects; the editor is powerful, gameplay is smooth, and the game runs very, very smoothly. It's generally optimized and well-designed.”
“Hundreds of ships can be onscreen at a time without the game apparently breaking a sweat. Thanks to the Reassembly developer for actually caring about performance.”
“The game itself is very well optimized; even after spawning around 150 large ships, it still ran smoothly and at a decent framerate.”
“There are game-breaking performance issues, game-breaking UI bugs, and the AI wasn't finished being programmed.”
“My only complaint is unfortunately a major one: performance.”
“The game is very badly performance optimized; even with a good computer, you are playing in slow motion sometimes.”
- atmosphere54 mentions
- 81 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its relaxing and immersive qualities, enhanced by a captivating soundtrack that complements the minimalist graphics and gameplay. Players appreciate the unique blend of strategic ship building and resource management set against a vibrant, almost organic game world that feels alive. Overall, the combination of soothing music and engaging mechanics creates a mesmerizing experience that draws players into its trippy, atmospheric environment.
“The music and style of the game are highly atmospheric and really let you sink into it while you build up a fleet of ships designed by you to take over the system.”
“It's got a great atmosphere, the galaxy really feels alive, with plants shooting their spores from one asteroid to another, all the different factions doing their business, battles raging, quiet stretches of space littered with the remains of destroyed ships, asteroid fields and wormholes.”
“The game world in its geometric minimalism is surprisingly atmospheric, almost organic, and this feeling is certainly helped by the Brian Eno-esque music.”
“Reassembly is a decent sandbox shooter that has a relaxed atmosphere.”
“It really captures the essence and atmosphere of the game, and it really fits the theme.”
“I am normally the type of guy to turn the music off and run my own playlist in the background, but the music of Reassembly (especially from the Fields expansion) felt so in place with the overall atmosphere of the game; even if I thought it was enough, I couldn't turn the music off.”
- stability47 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 91 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a significant concern among users, with many reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and occasional freezes that can disrupt gameplay. While some players find it runs well on various hardware, including low-end systems, the overall consensus is that the game feels unfinished and can lead to frustrating experiences, such as lost progress due to save file issues. Despite these problems, some users still enjoy the game when it functions properly, indicating a mix of fun and frustration.
“Runs great on any hardware, even on Linux!”
“Very good game, runs great on my potato.”
“Pretty cool game although super buggy; expect to lose twenty hours of work when the game messes up a save file.”
“It is an unfinished, buggy cash grab of a game from a developer who doesn't care to finish making this a usable product.”
“Frequently freezes on my setup (i7-920K/GTX 970); having to frequently wait up to 20 seconds for the game to unfreeze ruined my first play.”
- humor26 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is consistently highlighted as a major strength, with players enjoying the comedic elements of ship design and gameplay mishaps, such as accidental kills and amusing AI behavior. While the jokes and funny moments keep the experience entertaining, some players note that the humor can become repetitive over time, especially due to a lack of difficulty progression and multiplayer options. Overall, the game is described as "very funny," with a playful atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience.
“Jokes and humor are always present, and they host seasonal tournaments (which I just attended one and got to the semi-finals).”
“It was so funny when I would accidentally get a kill trying to go from here to there.”
“My personal recommendation is to spam the same mid or end-tier weapon to make your gunships, except for the tinkrel (purple guys) able to make their own weapons: here just make a fat-ass death-pouring valve, it's hilarious.”
- emotional10 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players express a strong emotional connection to the games, highlighting the calming and rewarding experiences in titles like Minecraft, while also noting the intense emotional investment in characters within strategic games like XCOM. The ability to create and customize in games fosters a sense of creativity and personal attachment, though some critiques mention feelings of emotional manipulation in narrative elements. Overall, the emotional engagement varies from calming to deeply personal, resonating with players on multiple levels.
“Mining in Minecraft is calming and rewarding; XCOM gives you a hardcore chess game, but suddenly you have an emotional connection to even the puny pawns.”
“Heartfelt recommendation from me.”
“The last two games that made me feel this way were FTL and Terraria.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game is criticized for being heavily reliant on ads, leading players to feel that it is an unfinished and buggy cash grab from a developer lacking commitment to quality.
“It is an unfinished, buggy cash grab of a game from a developer who doesn't care to finish making this a usable product.”
“I know I've spent far too long watching ads for Apollo-class destroyers split ships ten times their mass down the middle with a gigantic railgun.”