Hadean Lands

I had so high expectations of this game, but in the end I found it very unsatisfying. I mean, the implementation is super. However, the ending is unsatisfactory. It takes a lot of work to finish the game, as it's big. You spend a lot of time learning the various rituals and managing the ingredients, and the reward for all this work is extremely terse. The difference between the better ending and the worse ending is 3 words. It feels... stingy! The author could have given us a slightly more expansive description of the ending as a reward.

I went on a spending spree. I bought this and Worldsmith and No Man's Sky all about the same time.

Two hours of playing No Man's sky which cost me a small fortune and was developed by a big team and has been in production for years and I'm bored. Two weeks later playing Hadean Lands and Worldsmith - probably developed by a single person in their bedroom and buyable for a fifth the price - and I'm still entranced. A review for Worldsmith next.

But first: Hadean Lands.

Straight up: This is a great game. Perhaps one of the best text games I've ever played. I remember loving Planetfall and Trinity. And I love this just as much or maybe more.

I'm pretty late to the party, so a description of what it's about is probably redundant. Suffice it to say : Alchemy in a spaceship? Genius.

The only time I found myself tutting in annoyance was during the late-middle of the game when I had about a billion things and wasn't entirely sure what to do next. Even with the super-cool reset and single command redo ability I felt like I was smushing stuff together at random to see if it worked. I hit online hints up pretty hard.

And I was a bit irritated by the ending. Say what? I like an open ended story, but after all that effort in getting there I wanted a bit more of a reward.

There's too much greatness here to be picky and let such minor quibbles ruin a superb game. Five stars!

This game combines an intricate alchemy system with technology aboard a sort of magical spacecraft. This isn't a rocket engine; it's a complex environment that uses magic to translocate in space.

Something has gone horribly wrong on your magical ship, leading to major disruptions in time and space.

You collect what may be hundreds of items in this game, perform dozens of rituals, and visit quite a few locations. In this sense, it ranks with other ultra big games like Mulldoon Legacy or Spellbreaker. However, this game has an advantage in that it simplifies things for you. Any ritual, once performed, can be done again with a single command. There are database type commands that allow you to recall all rooms, all items, all rituals, etc.

The setting is barren and mysterious, with the outside world leading to a variety of mysterious lands.

I couldn't put this game down. Very well done.