IXION Should (and Could) Be Better | Abbreviated Reviews

It's hard to be excited about a game and not have that game meet your expectations. I've either learned from experience or just been lucky enough to avoid this for quite a while now... at least since Rage 2. And even that wasn't that bad. Maybe this review is a little too reactionary, but I get to make all the decisions here so I'm gonna let it fly.

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Game Review, Abbreviated Review, #IXION

[AbbreviatedReviews]

By the time I hit 50 distinct saves, I realized this wasn't the game I wanted to play.
I think I'm also pronouncing the title wrong, but it's too late now and no one can stop me.

[trazyntheinfinite]

Our ship is failing, we need to fix our shit!

'Proceeds to riot'

[Greenmachine]

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this vid. Well written, humorous, concise. I give it an abbreviated review score of FANTASTIC.

[skyvenrazgriz]

See all other ppl i saw playing ixion, said it was sooo good, but they never made it further in than 1 hr.
This review was realy helpful.

[kcw]

I've played 40+ hours. Amazing music; good graphics; a lot of potential, as a BETA THAT IS. I am playing Against the Storm, and that's rouge-like, but it's still fun. This one, currently, a mistake means a cascade of unstoppable dominoes. And the replayability each time you fail is zilch, as it's 100% scripted. :/ The crew walking around is like something from the 80s. Basically, you'll be paying them to beta test.

[themrfj]

What would you change to "fix it"? :)

[the_steamtrain]

playing it now is pretty alright (bought the game recently), only thing I'd say is how unintuitive the systems are, and I think the chapter with the storm you showed displays that, you can make ships avoid certain destinations, but you need to click avoid on them 1 by 1, and that chapter forces you through the storm which basically means, get all your ships inside and move but there's no real way to get your ships inside except turn all their resources they can gather off screwing up your entire setup. As for the difficulty I had to reload an autosave in my game twice but for the rest I like the difficulty, the fact your ship is hanging on for dear life is... pretty nice, I think the game suffers from a lack of a good UI and introduction to systems, also the ending is really weak but still cool game

[ahmedsachwani]

Dunno man I think the concept of how everything was so bleak and failing kinda felt like how despite everything we had hope and prevailed. The game can suddenly take a sudden turn that’s why it’s very very important to notice everything that goes on. I really loved the game. I do however agree with the ship. I hope they find a way to make the ships take a better path rather than go through the storm and how you cannot move stockpiles from one cargo bay to storage in another section without making storage in the same section first.

[LordDagron]

Just started playing it recently and this pretty much sums up my experience. After 20 hours I really wanted to like this game and get invested in the story but you have limited resources available at the beginning and I found myself going back to old saves 3 or 4 times to try and keep my ship from collapsing. Even at the end of chapter 2 I used up all the silicon available, but was able to make a waste management facility to get an infinite supply of electronics, but you need like 50 of them for colonist and you only get 1 every 10 cycles.

[dertron_xre]

I think the story writers and music composers did a nice job and yeah maybe they did fumble with the games potential. Kinda hate how the progression is very linear and how the game has to end after the epilogue. I mean maybe it has to be that way idk but I would've preferred to continue playing after the ending, perhaps there is more to see yet

[johnyrambo]

Hello. Somebody know if the game is better now gameplaywise? I'm looking to play this.

[fpcoutinho]

What would be your opinion/revie after +1 year since the game release (the current state)?
I'm considering getting the game, but there are quite no recent reviews/opinions about it, same with guides

[GameFuMaster]

The hull integrity bleeding isn't even the main issue, it's the fact that accidents randomly happen, which reduces your production and work force. And stretching your workers over more jobs means increasing the chance of accidents.

Then you have all of the issues that affects trust which, if it falls to low, causes strikes, which will then affect your production further.

So yeah, tedium/frustration as a mechanic is stupid

[Terriblechannellol]

People really be shitting on ixion but its insanely easy to prepare for crap, chapter 3 literally gives you all the resources in the world, and if you cant get past chapter 2 its kinda embarrasing.

[sharkking]

Ixion is supposed to be hard to play. But it could be more balanced

[LCTesla]

an 8 that could have been a 10 I guess. I enjoyed the absolute hell out of it during a 2 week vacation a few months ago in which I played through it 3 times, beating challenge mode twice, 120 hours total. yes there was some reloading and save scumming (I was kinda checking myself to make it not to outrageous but allowing things like restarting a chapter) but that didn't ruin it for me. in the last playthrough I had my 5000 people living off one farm with lots of stability boosting buildings and policies in place to reduce their rations. Hilarious that you can get away with things like that. And most of the rest of the economy ran off nuclear power and recycling thus making hydrogen my only required resource, which saved a LOT of space on docking bays.
getting through that storm chapter can be a bit of a pain and requires some reloading, sure... but it felt kind of awesome when I did manage to pass through it unscathed and have all the resources of the system to myself. the game should just have made some of its mechanics clearer for that part and warn you about that storm absolutely definitely approaching with no other option but to fly through it to the safe side.
felt like a flawed, unfinished masterpiece to me, but one still worthy of the title.

[GeorgeMasterclass]

The game's main problem is that it throws you devastating curveballs quite often, which are very hard to recover from. Unless you've restarted multiple times (a game chapter) so can you take a proactive course of action by learning whats going to come (which is kind of cheating), you dont have any chance of winning the game. So after you've restarted 5-6 times, the game becomes a tedious grind, devoid of excitement. I went as far as chapter 3 before I said enough was enough, I dont have time for this. Hope someone else picks this space survival genre and makes a proper game out of it.

[brotheralaric]

i'm playing in normal difficulty and i have the feeling of being in hardcore mode, i don't know what the devs where thinking, but this game is really too hard

[axelhopfinger]

Completely agree with this assessment. The game is just a prime example of neat looking, great sounding wasted potential. It's too short, too micro-managey and frustrating. Still needs some polish and QOL improvements to be enjoyable to play. My verdict: mediocre with an award worthy soundtrack

[fenix]

I get the metal hull upkeep is to match coal of frostpunk but..its a build material too, a new player in frostpunk knows gather and keep coal going, but in ixion a new player is clueless how important it is to upkeep or how to keep with demand for building AND staying alive. That alone is a giant frustration point. And sure now is a difficulty option to turn off repair cost but..I want the repair cost just not bleeding out of build materials. Low on metal suddenly cant build cant stay alive cant nothing but load a save from hours ago