IS IXION WORTH IT? | Detailed review

IXION is an unrelenting, city-building odyssey across the stars. As Administrator of the Tiqqun, DOLOS’ prototype space station, you are tasked with balancing preservation and exploration as you manage infrastructure, resources and crew. Can you keep the flame of humanity alight in the cold dark?

Ixion currently has mixed reviews on Steam so you may be wondering, is it worth it? In this video we start with a 30 second overview of the game before a deep dive into the mechanics and what you actually do in the game. We'll also compare it to other similar games you may have played such as Frostpunk to help you decide whether Ixion is worth it.

If you find the video useful feel free to leave a like and consider subscribing for future content. If you're a regular viewer and would like to support the channel, please check out my Patreon to get more involved.

00:00 Intro
00:28 30 second summary
01:00 Why mixed reviews?
01:38 The Detail: Tutorial & UI
02:53 How do resources work?
05:28 How to Science?
05:57 Do I get to research much?
07:11 Ship sectors, how do they work?
08:14 People can go on strike...
09:28 Happiness matters!
11:49 Who would enjoy Ixion?
13:18 Is it good value for money?
14:28 What's on the roadmap?
15:12 But is it worth it?

#ixion

[Derek-cwxr]

Thanks for this detailed and nuanced analysis! It was very helpful.

[joetheperformer]

Love this channel btw, just found you and you’ve saved me lots of time and I’ve bought a few games thanks to you. Glad to see the RTS community has this great resource.

[a.bridges]

Promising title, I'll keep an eye on it. Thank you sir !

[kolomast]

Just found out this channel. Soothing voice featuring mostly strategy games? Sign me in.

[joetheperformer]

Imagine having this game become a minigame within Stellaris? Or something similar where you’re a civilization that voyages across the galaxy (like the caravans in Stellaris), where instead of planets or starbases, you just worry about your ship? That’s be interesting.

[MrValgard]

very good informative review, keep the good work! Well part of difficulty(bad part from design) is having complex strategy/sim and tutorials in windows, fr after 5y+ overlaping pc-mobile games, tutorials when UI overlay on buildings view showing places/options should be standard

[ninochaosdrache]

I've heard that the story also needs some suspension of disbelief, at least on the start. Like that basically the entire world put their fundings together and only managed to create a space ship that is constantly falling apart or the reason why humanity is on the brink of extinction.

[leonidastlm]

I've finished the game yesterday. As it is right now at a price tag of 20 euros (discounted) - it is definitely worth purchasing.

Many core mechanics from Frostpunk can be seen in IXION:
- exploration;
- decision making;
- policies (to some extent);
- efficient space utilization;
- specialized sectors (in Frostpunk it is recommended to build housing in a dedicated area and boost that with churches/towers/fighting arenas and so on).
As a side note: the soundtrack is indeed powerful and in some situations it does reflect the pitiful situation of the people on the Tiqqun.

What makes this game steer away from Frostpunk:
- limited resources (no more infinite coal from thumpers or wood from wall drills);
- population is harder to maintain happy;
- permanent population trust penalties / bonusses;
- no more resources "centralized across the whole town" - each sector has its own resources that can be imported/exported and it takes time to do so;
- expansion rate is dictated by the available power in the Tiqqun;
- research is dictated by science points and that can be a problem sometimes.
And the list goes on...

As the game progresses, if the Administrator planned well so far, the Tiqqun transforms into a beast:
- it can be self sufficient;
- can generate tons of electricity to support ALL the infrastructure;
- it becomes independent in terms of research.
The abovementioned means that the Tiqqun can be stationed in a system a lot longer before it needs to jump to a new system, thus giving lots of time to prepare, reorganize, rebuild and research.

As a recommendation: gather, prepare and optimize the best you can before jumping to a new system - it saves you from A TON of problems.

[cooperj]

naming saves like you mentioned haha that comment made me buy it when i was on the fence. haha see how i go!

[lastburning]

I recommend Against the Storm if you like settlement managers like this. It's a rogue-lite so you're supposed to play many runs of it. You have to improvise and adapt a lot more than in any other settlement builder. You either win or lose and then start again. It feels more like a game and less like a simulator or relaxing idle game.

[kcw]

No, it's not worth it. No reply value at all, and you WILL have to replay it a lot until you memorize what to do. There is no strategy at all, just learn the build order and research order, and do it in almost exacting order, and you'll survive. And the "people" in your crew are Karens who get permanently upset (for the ENTIRE game) at the slightest mishap (or like, if they have to work more than 40 hours a week).

[Jason_P]

Great review. Disappointing because this game looks great, but I play games for fun so the contrived difficulty is not for me.

[havocgr]

It kinda pissed me off on the final mission.

[saucylemon]

Your videos... I enjoy them, and there ain't a fuckin thing you can do about it.

[memoryfurika]

Frostpunk is a baby compared to this game, its cringe that a lot of people compare it