Unclaimed World
- October 4, 2016
- Refactored Games OÜ
- 13h median play time
Get on Steam"Unclaimed World" is a single-player Science Fiction Strategy game with compelling visuals and a good soundtrack. As a manager of interstellar pioneers, you must carefully balance resources, production, and personalities to establish a foothold on a lush and alien planet. The game features indirect control, a realistic sci-fi pioneer setting, and a simulation of alien nature, human needs, and frontier community, with inspiration from "The Settlers", "Dwarf Fortress", and Paradox games.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a unique and beautiful art style that many players appreciate.
- The survival mechanics and colony management aspects are engaging and can be fun when the game is functioning properly.
- There is potential for a deep and complex gameplay experience, with interesting lore and scenarios.
- The game feels unfinished and appears to be abandoned by the developers, leading to numerous bugs and crashes.
- The user interface is cluttered and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to navigate and enjoy the game.
- Many players report frustrating gameplay experiences due to poor AI, lack of autosave, and game-breaking bugs.
- gameplay50 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
Gameplay reviews highlight a mix of engaging survival mechanics and a complex interface that can hinder the experience. While some players appreciate the depth of managing colonists and production chains, others find the gameplay repetitive and lacking in emergent elements. Overall, the game shows potential but suffers from bugs and a sense of abandonment by developers, leading to a recommendation for cautious engagement.
“The gameplay revolves around managing the actions of your community of colonists by giving them tasks and prioritizing.”
“If you enjoyed playing the old Caesar 3, Emperor, and Pharaoh games, then this is your type of simulation game. It is much more than these games because it combines other aspects into the settlement running that make it a lot less mechanical and requires a lot more input from the player, pulling the aspects of building a town that will thrive while ensuring that you survive together into one continuous journey.”
“Between the hard sci-fi setting and survival/colony sim gameplay, the game has what it takes to attract certain players.”
“Boring gameplay.”
“Unfortunately, the gameplay loop got old for me.”
“I think it's mostly the interface which is both cluttered and has multiple layers of menus that are hard to navigate, but I also think this is compounded by gameplay which seems to involve a lot of production chains and is equally fiddly.”
- graphics42 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their beautiful art style and smooth animations, with many reviewers noting the unique aesthetics and detailed artwork. However, there are significant concerns regarding usability, such as issues with graphic settings and a GUI that doesn't effectively support gameplay, leading to frustration. Overall, while the visuals are appealing, they may not always enhance the clarity of gameplay.
“The artwork is beautifully rendered, and a wonderful change from the simplistic terrains offered in other games of this genre, and yes, there is always a dendrot hiding in those spook jungles.”
“I like the graphical style and the smooth character animations; they give a good sense of pioneering on an alien planet.”
“Great soothing music, nice graphics, and flowing animation.”
“It's clear the art style was the focus, not the actual gameplay or game itself.”
“I have spent weeks trying to troubleshoot issues with the graphic settings, in-game UI magnification, and high-resolution monitors.”
“You can't make any graphic changes in-game because the buttons to apply the changes are off screen.”
- music18 mentions
- 78 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its soothing quality and atmospheric integration, often rating it around 8/10. However, several users report significant issues, such as abrupt cut-offs and restarts that disrupt the experience. Overall, while the music is appreciated for its beauty and calming effect, technical problems detract from its potential enjoyment.
“Great soothing music, nice graphics and flowing animation.”
“Great music, cool novel control design, and enticing atmospheres.”
“However the atmosphere the game and its music creates is perfect in my opinion.”
“Game music is broken; it cuts off and restarts, and it's super jarring.”
- story16 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The game's story is praised for its rich lore and engaging dialogue, offering a glimpse into a potentially deeper narrative experience, despite having a limited number of scenarios (around seven). While some players find the story minimal, those who enjoy strategy and sci-fi elements may appreciate the unfolding narratives and unique aesthetics, though a sandbox mode could enhance the experience. Overall, the story aspect garners a positive reception, with some users rating it as high as 9/10.
“The lore is great; take some time to read the story. Some scenarios have good dialogue and events, which just gives you a glimpse of what this game could have been.”
“A few bugs, but if you persevere, you will be rewarded with a detailed survival simulation featuring unfolding story narratives and unique aesthetics.”
“If you like strategy story-driven sci-fi colony management games, you'll probably like this game.”
“Minimal story.”
“The number of scenarios and missions is not big (7 or so).”
“I do wish the developer could have made a 'sandbox' mode of the first mission just so people could get a better feel of the game and what needs improvement.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is currently plagued by significant stability issues, with users reporting numerous bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, particularly during combat and task management. While some players note potential for improvement, the overall experience is marred by an unfinished and frustrating interface, making it feel virtually unplayable at times.
“Buggy af, feels unfinished.”
“This game shows a lot of potential; it's on the right path, but at the moment it's lacking a lot of content and feels really buggy during combat. Task orders seem bugged as well.”
“The game is virtually unplayable because of the incredibly frustrating, unintuitive, unfinished, and buggy interface.”
- replayability8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
Overall, the reviews highlight a stark contrast in replayability: while some games are criticized for having limited content and map selection, leading to a lack of replayability, others, like "Unclaimed World," are praised for their vast replayability and diverse strategies, despite being unfinished. The potential for varied gameplay experiences in certain titles suggests that replayability can be significantly enhanced through innovative mechanics and player choices.
“Unclaimed World shows great promise, vast replayability, and an intriguing concept, which is that you are kind of like management, and you create orders and such, then it's up to the A.I.”
“The limited map selection was disappointing as it limits overall replayability.”
“Abandoned with little content, no support, or replayability.”
“There are always several ways to get ahead, and you can focus on different ways to survive each time, making for replayability even for such an unfinished game.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its perfect integration of great music and innovative control design, creating an enticing and immersive experience that players love.
“The atmosphere the game and its music create is perfect in my opinion.”
“Great music, cool novel control design, and enticing atmospheres.”
“Love the atmosphere.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect in the game emphasizes a gradual progression where players must first establish a solid foundation through basic resource gathering before advancing to farming. This mechanic creates a realistic challenge, as colonists' immediate food needs must be met before they can transition to more sustainable agricultural practices, adding depth to the gameplay experience.
“To begin with, you start off with basic hunter-gatherer technologies to establish a foundation for your colony. As you accumulate food, dwellings for your settlers, and defenses, your colonists can vote to establish new policies that simultaneously give you access to more advanced technologies but also increase your colonists' expectations of each category. This means you can't rush farming without first getting a good amount of food stocked up from fishing, berry picking, hunting, etc. I feel like this helps to realize the technology of the world and state of the settlement - your colonists will get upset if you look to set up farms where fields will yield crops months from now, but they need food right now.”
“M'kay... voting to have farming... m'kay...”
- optimization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game has faced optimization issues, with players reporting crashes occurring twice within a 10-hour playtime, alongside concerns regarding the optimization of character AI.
“In 10 hours of gameplay, I've crashed twice, and I feel that the character AI could be optimized.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players finding it amusing and enjoyable, though they acknowledge that it isn't flawless. Overall, many feel that the humor adds value and justifies the game's price.
“A funny game, not perfect, but I think it's worth its price.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is seen as a potential breakthrough, contingent on developers improving the user interface and icons, as well as effectively marketing to a broader audience.
