Published on April 28, 2016 By Island Dog In Offworld Dev Journals

Originally posted by Soren Johnson on the Mohawk Games blog.
 

Offworld Trading Company has shipped! The game has exited Early Access, and the 1.0 version is now live on Steam. We also have some special deal running for the next two weeks:

An early review is up on Quarter to Three:

Not to say Offworld Trading Company is a throwback. It positively glows with the care, attention, and production values you’ll find in a contemporary AAA game. The sharply defined, intricate, and informative graphics. Everything means something. Everything has some visual expression. The buttery — yes, buttery! — rich and smooth interface. Okay, it could use a few more hotkeys, but I’ve never met a game that couldn’t use a few more hotkeys. The unique dynamic single-player campaign, which stacks onto an already great game a great game framework. This is the most indepth and replayable RTS single-player campaign since Rise of Nations and its add-on. The tutorial for maximum information and accessibility. The manual. Oh, wait, there isn’t a manual. Which is as you’d expect from a contemporary AAA game. Like I said, it’s not a throwback. Even the soundtrack. Good lord, the soundtrack. Christopher Tin’s score belongs on my playlist alongside iconic sci-fi scores like Hans Zimmer’s for Interstellar, Clint Mansell’s for Moon, and Vangelis’ for Blade Runner.

I hope I haven’t made it sound boring. Some folks might get the impression it’s boring. A game about an economy in space? All those little buildings and numbers in those screenshots? You have to make oxygen from water? But it’s really not. It’s really, really not. It’s a freakishly smart game design, as if someone made M.U.L.E. back in 1983. It’s got a learning curve because it’s a very particular setting about people living on Mars, provided for by different types of companies (the four companies are as distinct as the factions in Starcraft). You have to understand how the pieces interact before you appreciate how this is so much more than a spreadsheet with pretty graphics in front. But it’s carefully built to get you to where everything clicks.

At which point, it is the exact opposite of boring. It is every bit as thrilling as something with constant explosions. It’s the sort of game you’ll be thinking about at work. It’s the sort of game you just might want to try online. It’s the sort of game with a campaign you can play and replay and replay some more. It’s the sort of game with so many settings and options and variables that you might never need another RTS. Okay, maybe you’ll occasionally need your fix of one of those less interesting RTSs with tanks or a MOBA with fireball spells or whatever. But Offworld Trading Company is the sort of game that isn’t going to let go of you for a long, long time.

 

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