From the Depths is a physics-driven single-player and multi-player warfare game where you design and build your own vehicles block by block, using an inventory of hundreds of different components. Create anything from space ships to quad-copters, or submarines to aircraft carriers.
Definetly one of the best sandboxed games out there! In my opinon the very best. For it's Pre- Alpha stage 'From The Depths' is VERY stable offers AWESOME content. Content that allows you to build awesome vehicles, fortresses, buildings and more! This game is very well conceived, allowing near infinite possibilitys of having fun - Besides free building there is a singleplayer and skirmish missions that contain diffrent aspects of the game as in resource collecting, tactical conceived battles and even CO-OP PLAY. Not to mention the features that currently get developed. And the reason to rate this game a 10/10 (Yes! Maximum rating), to me, is that the developers work very enthusiastic and close to the community members. Whoever follows the forums will see what I am talking about. New updates in fast intervals that prove how much the developers are working on this project whilst providing very best support for any new community member. Definitely one of the best gaming experience i had until now. And not just in the sandboxie genre. The whole project is just very convincing and a 100% worth the donation. I would not regret getting it at this stage for triple the price - like i did on some other indie sandboxed games you can find out there!
Now coming to the end id like to drop another word on the stability of 'From The Depths'. Compared to other games at this stage it seems like the !few! bugs that appear are not gamebreaking at all - often not even relevant to you. The game doesn't seem to crash at all which is another heavy plus point when it comes to the gaming experience i mentioned earlier. Im playing for about 2 weeks now and the bugs were found in this time got fixed lightspeed.
I for sure made a good deal with 'From The Depths' and am looking forward to enjoy future time with it!
Thanks for this great project.
+++++
-Thoroughly enjoyable gameplay
-Can keep you entertained for hundreds or even thousands of hours (just look at how many hours me and some other reviewers have clocked)
-Hundreds of blocks to build with, from sails and harpoons to ion thrusters and particle cannons
-Huge variety of possible vehicles:
-Lots of different weapon types, many with incredible levels of customisability, for example the 'Advanced Custom Cannons' are built as a complex multiblock from ~15 different components, and then on top of that you can design the shells from scratch, with something like 30 different parts to choose from
-Plenty of different propulsion systems to suit your needs, whatever they may be
-Pretty much every major component from engines to AI controllers to weapon systems is a complex multiblock, giving you the power to adapt it to fit whatever requirements you may have; engines, for example can be built in infinitely many shapes and sizes and depending on which blocks you use (mainly carburettors vs fuel injectors) you can change its attributes, so it can be powerful, fuel-efficient or cool-running
-You can even program your vehicles and missiles with Lua
-There are lots of cosmetic options as well, with several different main building blocks, including wood, metal, lightweight alloy and heavy armour, and in addition you have 100000000 different colours to choose from
-There are many difficulty options so you can make it as easy or as challenging as you like
-The devs (although most of the work is done by one guy, known henceforth as 'Nick') are, friendly, helpful and hard-working, and most importantly perhaps, communicate very regularly with the community; Nick has made, at the time of writing this, 13,706 posts on the forums, with many of these being bugfixing-related
-The level of involvement with the community is demonstrated by most, if not all of the built-in designs (particularly Neter's factions' designs) being built by community members (although the distinction between devs and community is far from clear-cut)
-The community is also very friendly and helpful, much more so than any other gaming community I have seen
-The game is regularly updated, with many exciting changes planned for the near future
-It seems fairly well-optimised, although it's not hard to make it laggy if you try, due to intensive physics calculations among other things
-The sea and sky can look quite pretty, with realistic-looking waves, clouds and weather, and many different possible colours
-The particle effects now look beautiful
-There is a highly-functional map editor so that you can make 'custom campaigns', with a huge number of options and customisation, including custom weather systems
-The built in campaigns, along with the story missions and 'adventure mode' provide thousands of hours of quality content, ranging from missions where you play as a member of one of Neter's factions to a realistic WW2 campaign
-Very reasonably priced considering the amount of work that has gone into this
-Multiplayer! (although I've never actually tried it since the singleplayer aspect is plenty good enough for me)
-Long and detailed in-game tutorials, supplemented by helpful threads on the forum by community members
-Probably lots of other stuff I forgot
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-I hope you don't mind seagulls
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-The terrain looks pretty 'meh' up close, since it is just one of a handful of textures tiled across the map (that said, it is fairly subtle, so it doesn't really give you eye-cancer)
-The regular updates mean you will have to modify any vehicles you are particularly attached to every so often; I personally don't mind doing this, but very occasionally a big update may leave some designs unviable
-The game can feel a little buggy in the wake of big updates
-This game is HARD. It will take a long time to get past the steep learning curve, although there are plently of in-game tutorials and external guides to help you along the way. The main thing to be aware of is if you rush into the Neter campaign on higher difficulties the moment you have learned the controls, you will lose, most likely spectacularly. Take it slowly, and you will find it much more rewarding.
If you steer clear of games like Kerbal Space Program due to their high level of difficulty, or if you have very limited free time, this game may not be for you; it will take a long time to get good at this game, and you will suffer failure many times, but if you perservere it will be an experience like no other.
Overall Score:
10/10
My all-time favourite game and a shining example of how game development should be done.
Despite its early access status, bugs and rough edges, the game is so good I bought 2 extra copies ($15.95 each) for my friends. I spent almost 800 hours playing it. I even stopped playing Space Engineers!
When I played it for the very first time, I spent several hours designing missiles and watching them hitting ammo magazines on Deep Water Guard boats and explosions happening in slow motion. I didn't even notice how the hours passed, that's how much fun it was!
Most of the vessels in the game are made by the community, and they are absolutely gorgeous. Steampunk airships, WWII-style cruisers, hovering laser crafts, castle-ships, helicopters, submarines, paddle steamers, even recon satellites!
Warning: this game requires being smart. You will have to engineer your ships, design engines, build your own weapons, manage resources, and sometimes your enemies will stomp you and make you completely rethink your tactics. Your professional gaming mouse won't matter, but your engineering, tactical skills and adaptability will. Adapt or get your *** kicked by a Flying Squirrel!
This game is great. If has a lot of potential and is constantly being updated. The developer is extremely active in the community. He talks to people and actively takes ideas and suggestions from the community. This game is an awesome sandbox where your imagination and creativity is what moves you forward (or destroys you :) ). It is fun to watch as ships battle each other and fleets have epic engagements. I can't recommend this enough after getting a basic understanding you WILL lose track of time as you watch your creations battle. Also if you aren't the best with creating the game has you covered. There are TONS of pre-built designs that are already in the game. You can edit and learn from many designs. It gets a 10/10 in its current state. Super playable and I have never had it give me and major problems (I bought and play through steam).
*EARLY ACCESS* - Game still in development
If you are into voxel building games (IE. Minecraft) and want a bigger focus on PVP then this game is for you. Much deeper and customize-able than games like Robocraft. While this game does have a fairly steep learning curve and Youtube tutorial videos are practically mandatory for some of the more complex designs like setting up your own AI control of your ships and building custom weapons once you get the hang of it the game is a blast. Anything from submarines, planes, and even space ships are possible in this game.
There are some features that really make this game stand out to me that I haven't seen done anywhere else like being able to design your own custom weapons and setup your own AI to control your individual ship or even your fleet. While there is a "simple weapons" tab which includes prebuilt weapons like small and heavy cannons, a missile and torpedo launcher, and ramming weapons like rams and drills the real meat and potatoes is the Custom Cannons, Custom missiles/torpedoes, and laser weapons. Simple weapons work fine early on against smaller ships made of wood but don;t have the versatility or sheer damage custom weapons are capable of.
Custom weapons aren't simply placed on a ship but have to be built using individual components. For example to build a cannon you start with the firing piece. Then you can add different types of barrels (recoil reduction, flash suppressed, etc) and can add a component which increases the barrel gauge. Then you can add components like ammo crates, armor pen and explosive shells, autoloaders that speed up firing, shot predictors, etc. These components all modify the weapon in certain ways like accuracy, range, and dps. Custom missiles are built differently but the core idea still applies and same goes for the laser weapons.
At this point you have a great game where you can build some pretty awesome combat vehicles but they didn't stop there.
The feature that makes this game stand above most other voxel style games is the ability to create your own AI for your ships. Using an AI mainframe and a selection of different cards like target prioritization and Naval AI you can program your entire fleet or just individual ships to act autonomously within the rules you set for the ship. If you have a long range missile boat you could set it to try to stay within a certain range from its target. These are just the most basic AI functions and can get very deep and complicated depending on the design. This means not only can you create an entire fleet of ships with AI, but you can create an enemy fleet using AI to do battle against. Campaign and story missions do a good job of showing this off in single player.
You can do what you want, fight with what you want, when you want. Missiles, lasers, cannons, drills, rams, bombs, mines.. Most is highly costomisable.
This game runs in the vein of others such as kerbal space program, starmade and space engineers. The difference being is it's heavily focused on combat and fleets of units rather than a single craft. It has a steep learning curve so it can be daunting at first although there are quite a few videos and guides out there to help you on the more complicated things. The satisfaction from getting your fleet afloat and firing a hail of cannon shells and missile streaking towards the enemy is akin to glee as you watch the enemy fleet explode into little bits.
Somewhere between a simulator, rts and a fps all rolled into one, its not for everyone, but for those with a creative streak its a highly addictive mix. For those with less patience they can always use the vehicles created by others from the workshop or FTD forums to get straight into the action.
Once the co-op campaign is finished I doubt there will be any other game I'd rather play than From The Depths for a long time
This game is beautiful, and fun as hell. let's your creativity flow and and then you get to watch it all get destroyed =P. Developer is honestly one of the best and most interactive with the community i have ever seen. Oh and if you buy the game come join my clan, RAW ;P
Great game, the freedom from minecarft combined whit the physics and cannons/missels mods from gmod. A great game if you want build some huge battleships or even huge flying carries. Your ideas are the limit (and the specs of your pc :P).
Also the system requirements for this game are pretty non-exsisting so you don't need to worry about a very laggy game. (just don't build a 1/1 scale of the Enterprice of startrek)
Very fun game with lots and lots of possibilities. I'm very curious what the multiplayer will bring, I imagine it could make for some very interesting gameplay.
The art style (mainly the way the blocks look) is not 100% to my liking. At least the regular blocks look a bit too jagged to me, I'd actually prefer good old simple cubes over that.
I'm also going to deduct some points for the slightly wonky UI and controls. Keep in mind though that I'm writing this for the alpha version and its still beeing improved.
In fact, seeing how fast this game evolves is incredible. I don't remember playing any other game with such a high amount of community involvement as far as new features go. Incredible!
I give it a very solid 9 out of 10 (Would be an 8 in it's current state but I'm 100% positive that things will continue improving so the 9/10 are perfectly justified).