Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Intro
Stars End is an open-world survival game made by Reverie World Studios. Players begin the game coming out of cryostasis which is something they signed up for. Characters did this because they wanted to aid the Cryo Travel Corp’s mission to colonize a new system that is filled. In a new body, characters begin their life in the Beta Sector near a planet that doesn’t appreciate intruders taking over their turf. This prompts your newfound acquaintances to discretely transport you down to the planet via drop pod. Once you arrive there, you’re on your own.
Normally, this is not a game genre that I would play as survival games often focus too much on PvP. Stars End does contain a PvP component, it’s not the primary thrust. And it looked decent enough for me to take a stab at, but sadly, it has been a massive disappointment.
Gameplay
We start with a minor tutorial and a meet and greet of the people on a space station that has a bunch of purchasable supplies. Most of the items are fairly basic, but since you start with nothing but the clothes given and a couple of basic supplies, it’s fine. Anything more has to be found, pillaged, crafted, or stolen.
The starting space station is neat as it reminds me of Star Citizen with vast open spaces without a ton of interactable objects. While it looks like it is fleshed out, the station feels somehow empty. However, Stars End has many of the same basic concepts as other survival games. Collecting supplies to build a shelter, acquiring items to use or to sell for credits, and crafting weapons to hunt for food are all paramount to your success.
Additionally, it was great to find a mode of transportation early in gameplay, which makes the grind much easier. There are horses that you can find or vehicles that you can fuel and take out for a spin. It has a lot of good foundational points as a good entry into this genre. But it falls flat in many different ways.
Online Multiplayer
When I began my journey, I teamed up with my brother on a server with a moderate population. Part of the reason we chose the server we did is because, in survival games, there are bound to be PvP locations. Thankfully we never had to experience it.
The in-game chat was quite handy. We could communicate and we could see that others were playing the game - just in case. Both of us worked together to collect supplies and build our shelters. And unlike other games, when one player progresses a quest step (especially in the tutorial portion) it should count for everyone in the group. It does not in Stars End. Both my brother and I had to build our own shelters even though we were part of the same crew. Anyone part of a crew is allowed to enter each other's buildings. Even at that, the shelters had to be quite a distance away to fulfill this objective. Sadly, it wasn’t until later that I learned we could simply remove and replace the door to progress the quest. Hooray for wasting resources! *sigh*
In my time playing online, we ran into one other player when we were at the refinery. Both of us were worried that they would attack us, but since they were also new to the game, they didn’t try to attack us. Despite the fact that there were active GMs that would say something in the chat to everyone online, it was strange to come across just one other person. I wondered why that was the case.
Graphics and UI
For the most part, the UI is decent. It’s not difficult to navigate between the compass indicators, nor is it difficult to get into your character’s inventory. The game includes a mission menu, crafting menu, and vehicle menu which all contain valuable information. I found the vehicle menu particularly handy because traveling to other planets, you will end up claiming a couple of modes of transportation.
On the bottom right, there are percentage values next to icons that track your hunger and health bars. It also clearly displays your stamina when riding a horse or running. And what is great about that is the information doesn’t overtake the screen - mostly. In short, the look and feel of the game is not too bad for what seems to be an early-access game.
That said, I have some grievances with the graphics and the UI.
For one thing, Stars End has very few QOL additions that would improve the player experience. As an example, it lacks a sort button for your inventory. To add to that point, a player cannot move items on top of others to swap their locations in the inventory screen. Also, there doesn’t appear to be a player trading system either. My brother and I would share materials by placing items in a container or dropping them on the ground. When we did so, the items on the ground would sometimes vanish!
Another issue with the game is the inconsistent graphics. See, half of the world is static like the town layouts and quest giver locations (more on this later). While they do have a realistic vibe to them, not building is useful and the NPCs are often empty shells. Thankfully there are a couple of useful NPCs which can buy and sell products. However, even though the towns are set in stone, the rest of the world feels randomly generated. For example, in Clayton, a couple of trees were protruding through the floor inside a building. And in many spots throughout the planet, it felt like the game didn’t know when other assets existed. This issue doesn’t make the game bad per se, but it does make it frustrating to reach some of the NPCs or to collect useful items.
The Good and The Bad
Good Points
Stars End has a decent foundation for an entry into the survival genre. It gives players the option to have their own servers or they can play online with others. Aside from specific issues, having the ability to play with your friends makes the game more entertaining as you can collect a ton of resources faster than flying solo.
The crafting system is fairly easy to deal with as each item tells you what components are needed as well as which workbenches are required to make those objects. Not only do I like the UI of the crafting system, but I also like that players can toggle between grid mode and list mode. Plus, the crafting menu has a search function!
The building of a shelter for you and your crew is decent enough. It provides a couple of different building options like a premade shelter or you can customize a larger building through different materials like wood or metal. At first, players begin with a wooden shelter and can craft a sturdier metal shelter later in the game. And as for the assembly of the shelter, the snap-to function works decently well - at least on the buildings.
Stars End planets are quite spacious and vast. If you are looking for a source of water or food, it’s best to use your compass to find the distance to reach them. Thus, being able to acquire a mode of transportation is paramount early in the game because running around will take a long time. Trust me.
Bad Things
There are a bunch of aspects of Stars End that are not great. While the game has been out for a couple of months, it still doesn’t feel like it should have left early access.
For one thing, the game is buggy as hell. Trees will spawn inside buildings and resources can spawn in locations where they aren’t accessible. Even beyond that, objects will often disappear after picking them up or putting them down. I’ve lost valuable resources as a result of this. Also, it is too easy to duplicate certain items in the game! But that’s not the worst of it. There are all sorts of glitches where you can fall through the world. One such time is when getting off a horse when you’re character is on a hill. Since you get off the horse on the left, when the slope going upwards is on the left, you will fall through the world.
With respect to vehicles, there are several issues beyond what I just mentioned. The ground vehicles have awful traction. Do you like drifting? Then this is the game for you! As my partner said, “You could tape sandpaper to the wheels and have better traction.” Yikes! Also, some of the vehicles which are supposed to be all-terrain, can’t even make it up a 30-degree slope! But that’s not all of the vehicle issues either. Some of the vehicle handling is terrible and other vehicles don’t refuel when they clearly need to.
As for the combat, in the early game stages, the bow is atrocious. There is no visual arc to show where your arrows will land. It’d be great to have some indicator, otherwise, you waste an entire quiver on one creature which should only take a couple of hits to kill. And when you need food, having ammunition is key. Additionally, some of the creatures will despawn rather quickly. So quickly that you don’t have time to loot them for pelts! This happened a couple of times and it’s irritating.
Another point about the combat relates to yet another bug that the game has. There are times when enemies will attack you and you can’t see them. While my brother could see the trawler, I could not. And we haven’t even covered the number of times that the game thought one of us had gone offline when we were still in the game! These are points that *really* need to be fixed.
When building a suitable shelter, fences don’t snap together. Not only does this make constructing a viable shelter challenging, but it also makes it time-consuming. If the fences aren’t snapping together, then how will they create an appreciable defense?
Finally, why is there no map of the planet? Sure, we have a compass that displays valuable resources, but it’d be nice to see a real map with a legend. Even if that map is something we discover or create ourselves, it’d be helpful. And although it is nice that there are different colors to show what each resource is, I often found myself double checking which color indicated particular resources.
Final Thoughts and Summary
At this point, while Stars End has a good foundation, I’m concerned about the lifespan of the game. Some sites that have video game statistics have shown incredibly low numbers, and that is quite telling to me. Because, in order to have a successful game, a company needs to have a sales goal and they need to maintain a player base. Even though it has been officially released, I’ve found very little information about the game. Also, it’s clear from the lack of a social media presence doesn’t give the impression that Stars End is the next big hit.
Another point that is particularly concerning about Stars End, beyond the mass amounts of bugs and glitches, is that there are no reviews of the game anywhere. It’s like the game was dead on arrival - which is unfortunate. With some love and care, Stars End might have been alright in the genre. And even though the game has received some minor updates, it doesn’t feel like the game should have been released in its current state.
“While Stars End is a nice little entry into the open-world survival genre, it still feels like it’s still in a beta state, not a full-release one. It has too many bugs and issues that simply don’t hold players long enough to be worthwhile. The fact that there are no game reviews beyond some YouTube playthroughs, really gives the impression that Stars End is not a game that people should invest time in. This is unfortunate because it has some potential. Right now, I honestly can’t recommend this game to anyone."
Score: 5 out of 10
Review by: Susan N.
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