Oxygen Not Included

You will like the game if you are into sandbox games with complex mechanics. However, expect to spend many hours reading the wiki or watching youtube videos. Theoretically you could go by trial and error alone but I think that most players would not enjoy this. The game is too complex to figure it out with reasonable effort. You cam rely on your knowledge of the real world only so much. For instance, you can produce oxygen by water electrolysis. Great! However,: 1) the ratio of produced H and O is not 2:1; 2) you can use the generated H to produce much more electricity than you spent on splitting the water molecules; 3) and this "burning" of H does not require oxygen and does not produce water. Magic! To be clear, I am OK with this - it is a game not a simulation - I am just trying to illustrate why the game has steep learning curve.

There is one aspect of the game which I do not like at all. You colonists (duplicants aka dupes) are simpletons, which are seemingly programmed to do stupid things on purpose, e.g. walling themselves in, picking materials from boiling water etc. This may sound fun on paper. In practice it means that you have to babysit them when performing time sensitive or otherwise critical tasks because it would be a major pain in the ass to deal with the consequences, like contamination of your main water supply. This micromanagement is out of place for a game that focuses on complex base building.

This game is extremely complex but at the same time extremely fun. it does have a sandbox mode and lower difficulty levels for you if you dont want to deal with some of the built in challenges. I absolutely recommend this game!!

Very good game, would recommend, easy to sink a lot of hours into and lose track of time.

An incredibly fun open base building game. Some interesting challenges and always more to do to expand and build the base.

Super fun game, I always wanna come back to it. Some of the stuff in it like the way buildings work is super confusing, but I'll figure it out eventually.

Well you keep trying I guess. I have spent 300+ hours and lost 7 Colonies, bevore I could get to the endgame.

AMAZING. EVERY SECOND. Never was there a game that made me wana try again from scratch like this.
All the detailed implications of real live physics, thermo dynamics and science made me learn so much. Truely it is not 100% accurate but how could a game be and still be interesing at the same time.

Colony management and "Micro" Managing until perfect automation is your thing?
PLAY IT.

At this point i have not even touched any mods. So I guess there will be another couple hundres hours to keep me entertained.

Amazing game, only negative is that I got too addicted lol

1800 hours and I'm still into it. The game has exceptional replay value because there are a lot of different challenges and there isn't always one best answer to all problems. Different circumstances require different ways to tackle them.

Had a great time with it for about 15h, then I guess I got a little bit overwhelmed by all the different systems and possibilities.

Need mods to get the best of the game, can lag if to much things to process (slow time if it helps ^^).
But apart from that, an exceptionally good game ('cute' design, good real survival approximation mechanics and good leaning curve) not on par with factorio but good enough with a decent modding community. Definitly recommend the base game ... have got spaced out (that split out part of the map between asteroids that 'need' to be colonized by rockets), the other two can extend the game life a bit (bionics seems to be fine to have to me, in the future)...

This is a delightfully complex game that takes a while to figure out.

Even after 47-hours of play, I'm a long way from having it all mastered.

I'm glad I bought it.

Game is genuinely frustrating. Less about the individual colonists and more about automating them out of the equation. Machines are reliable and do the task they are designed for, the dupes tend to do things in the least effective way possible and tend to trap themselves or wander into areas too hot to survive and die if it hasn't been sectioned off.

It's honestly a lot of fun, but even the easiest survival mode is really challenging for me, so be aware of that

I really like this game. been playing it on and off since early acess, and its gotten more content and such over time, but not so much as to be overwhelming. its a lot of fun, and i think youll like it if it looks at all interesting to you.

Factorio + Colony Simulator. With the factorio part being optional. (Or the colony part)

Everyone pee'd themselves until they died because I forgot to empty the toilet

10/10 Would choke and die again

Gameplay-wise, it's honestly great. The challenges aren’t repetitive and the deeper you go, the more strategy it takes—even something as simple as research needs careful planning. But sometimes the dupes act like they have a sixth sense for getting themselves stuck 😅. Not really a bug, but definitely part of the challenge too.

I've played for a few hours and can no confidently say, this game is a must-have for any colony sim enjoyers!

An impressive simulation game with all the realistic physics you'd expect, truly a real challenge for your brain

Fantastic game, just a little hard and complex and i end up starting over a LOT because I am big stupid xD
But totally worth it, the replayability is insane on this and I always have fun starting something new, only to screw up and try again. 10/10

I've only played for 83 hours and it took me years of stopping and starting. After 3 years of not touching it, "oh yeah lets try this game again" and suddenly BAZINGO! I'm hooked. I can tell I'm going to put much more hours into this as the years tick on.

What a well-made, silly-yet-serious, kick-ass game this is.

Quite simply: Its the kind of game that makes you wish there were more hours in the day.

I can't say the game is bad, but I personally didn't like it much despite recommending it here. It's like terraria (there is no fighting though) but with rimworld management of NPCs. I had a few runs and initially it causes panic because resources are finite and you need search to find infinite resources or you die (you have a lot of time to search). I made a good colony until a major issue kicked in. I had a colony made up upper sector and down sector. Because in this game gasses can't mix or occupy same tile, even when I had around 3 ducts that were 3 tiles wide to connect the two sections, the O2 could not move up even when I let space to make almost vacuum. I kinda had to totally stop O2 generation in down sector and pump everything up but in the process I reached stress 100%. Then I decided to go sandbox and reveal everything and lost interest in the game similar to when you reveal everything in terraria. It doesn't have the replayability of rimworld. Generally, could be rage inducing at times when gases and liquids mix up or when they don't mix up even when one side is almost vacuum. With the discount, it's worth it.

Discover problems,
create solutions,
improve your solutions,
occasionally create a problem,
solve those too,
and repeat.

Discover a world and make it yours.

It is not for beginners who don't wanna learn something new. It is a BIG learning curve but once you understand the basics, in-game principles and factors, it can be a very rewarding game. It's okay to make mistakes on your first few runs, when in doubt, ask Youtube, Reddit or Discord. The community is very friendly and helpful! :D

Great Game just be prepared for a learning curve. The game is gonna guide u through it while giving you full control so you all should be fine.

Combination of management and survival style games. Somehow reminds me to Terraria style city builder where, instead of one character you have entire colony that slowly grows. With less than 10 hours in i am already hooked. From sound, graphics to general game design everything works so well together.

While learning the basics in my first hour i had to restart several times after realizing the mistakes i made. Instead of throwing everything at once, game slowly introduces new mechanics while your colony grows. Starting with basic needs like food, hygiene, power and oxygen you will have to research new technologies to continue evolving. Your duplicants (population), each having it's own traits and interests, will also develop new skills and become specialized for certain tasks which combined with other game mechanics gives a real feeling of progression.

While you manage resources and solve problems game will slowly introduce new problems in a never ending cycle of recycling and producing resources. Resources are scarce and you will have to optimize and think through everything you do which keeps you engaged in a meaningful way. I really hope i will keep the same positive feedback after i put more hours in.

Fun problem solving colony sim. Focused on building, tech, supply lines rather than combat or RPG elements. The way solving one problem often quickly leads to another makes it quite addictive. The only major annoyance is that sometimes the bad AI of the dupes (your colonist) means they die for reasons that are nothing to do with colony management, doesn't spoil the game but stands out as a really sloppy bit of the game compared to everything else which seems so good so far.

I don't understand why this so called game has positive reviews. Have people lost their minds? This is way to complex to be a game. It is literally easier to wake up in the morning, go to work, and pay the bills than to spend time running this thing. It is probably easier to go through chemo while writing a PhD thesis and living out of your car. When you buy a sim, you expect to spend time relaxing instead of playing shooters. ONI simply does not live up to this expectation. You will find yourself spending too much time watching guides and tutorials to try and figure out how to run this nightmare.

good game for a casual play, the instructions for a new player are really bad but you can find information in youtube or reddit about how to do the most of the things

TL;DR Fun but very frustrating

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. The graphics are charming, the main gameplay loop is good, there's plenty to do... but... at a certain point, relatively early in a game, it gets INSANELY complicated.

This is not a game you can sit and learn by yourself. You will absolutely have to spend hours on forums looking up how to get most things done. Once you get to the point of needing glass and plastics, there's no easy way to produce them.

Keeping your people (dupes) alive is relatively easy. The first few hours of a new colony are super fun. The problem is that once you get to the point that basic needs are covered and it's time to expand and explore, the difficulty goes through the roof and it's easy to lose all motivation to continue.

I get that this level of challenge and micromanagement appeals to many, I'm just not that person. Once you get to the point that you need to consider what material to use when constructing heat extraction pipes and you're required to balance the right amount of hydrogen on the ceiling of a room while keeping adequate oxygen on the floor, it's just too much.

As a new player, it's too difficult to even know what the next step is, even with hours spent pouring over forums.

Some kind of difficulty setting or mod that helps simplify the massive complexities would make this game an easy 9 out of 10, at least for new players.

Absolutely amazing. It's too complicated for my little brain but I don't need to know what's happening to have fun.

Wait, I haven't reviewed this?
Um. *looks at play time*
I guess I've been busy.
Alright. So. This game is kind of insane. It's a tile based physics simulator dressed up as a colony sim. You'll start with questions like "how do I keep my colonists from peeing in my water reservoir" and end up with questions like "how do I exploit the game-physics to build a powerless water-pump that ignores 'normal' pressure limits to move oil uphill in my petroleum boiler". Along the way, have fun learning about thermodynamics.

It's basically porn for extra-autistic engineers. Ie, me.

Make no mistake: the game looks very cute and fun but it is a butal resource-management game where you'll have to deal with multiple problems at once, on top of being painfully aware that air will run out in 30 cycles, crops will be overheated in 74 cycles and 3 of your colonists will have a mental breakdown in 2 cycles if you don't get moving

I build bathrooms for the dupes, they, still, pee everywhere except the beautiful bathrooms I made them. I tried putting my water reservoir closed and away, but they always found a way to go pee in it contaminating all of the fresh water.

Other than this, it was a great experience, and i really enjoyed playing it.

P.S.: Before when I mentioned "dupes" I meant, Max, it was always Max who peed everywhere. I hate you Max.

This game is slightly addicting, though can be tough to get into. It's all about figuring out and jury rigging your own solutions for survival. I love it and continuously come back to play it again and again.

666 hours, Guess I better get around to a review.

It's a fun and engaging game with a dev team that never took a day off or half-assed a thing out the door. They have always listened to the community and I would recommend any game they produce in the past or in the future.

Moderate recommendation, it has some cool mechanics.

Things to note before you buy:
- The electricity system is not fun
- You can't build a self sustaining colony, resources are limited so there's always a death clock running in the background.
- a lot of resources you'd assume would be renewable are in fact not
- you have limited ability to control gas and temperature despite that being very important

.

I take a break for a few months, but keep coming back. the DLC's are fun, the random updates are fun, the workshop always has fun new items. It is such a great game, get it, you will not regret it!

Great game for builders who want to find a sandbox game and control a mini-civilisation in SPACE!

Oxygen Not Included? More like Sanity Not Included.
I tried to build a utopia, but my duplicants decided to pee in the water supply. Now they’re starving, suffocating, and somehow still smiling. 10/10, would watch my colony descend into madness again.

One of my favorite games of all time. Unlike other colony sim type games, ONI doesn't offer simple solutions to all the problems you face. You need to actually think. For example, when heat becomes a problem, you can't just build an air conditioner and call it a day. This game has the Law of Conservation of Energy (for the most part). You need to actually figure out how to most the heat somewhere else or convert it to another form of energy. This makes the game challenging but also incredibly rewarding when you actually succeed in overcoming a challenge. And of course, the game's systems are built so well that your success will likely create a more complex challenge that you'll need to overcome later.

An expertly crafted colony simulator that pulls from real science, thermodynamics, and biology for an experience truly unmatched in its genre. Match that with the amazing art and sound design Klei is known for, and you have a package that I would not hesitate to call a must-play for anyone who enjoys colony builders, math, or finding creative solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems

It is fun, creative and strategic. The music is such a vibe and the art style brings comfort and fun to the game.

This game does a great job of "game-afying" typical engineering challenges that we take for granted.
Every input has an output, and you need to be really intelligent with how you deal with waste and harnessing resources.
Really satisfying base building and colony sims, one of the best out there for sure.

this is the best game ive played in a while, its fun to figure out how to keep the little weirdos alive for the longest you can and i enjoy it :3

At first start there is a bit of a steep learning curve. The tutorial comes at you fairly quick and at the end of the day, you only really can grasp the basics.

At its core, Oxygen Not Included is a strenuous game, but WILDLY addicting. For starting out, I would suggest to keep your duplicate count low, (no more than 5-7), for early game. You'll find your resource management much easier to handle.

Otherwise, explore! Don't be afraid to google something. I am at about 5 hours and am sloooowly just starting to understand the plumbing mechanics - so it takes time.

It is the best singleplayer "scientific" game, it is very entertaining, you can spend your hours happily, the DLCs that are available at these prices are great, adding other content to the game. All they need to do is add multiplayer to space out, it would be great to manage different planets with a friend.

This scratches all the colony survival itches especially with the DLC there is sooo much to do a very well polished game. Got my brain feeling really smooth gotta get those wrinkles!

Best tip for new players is to play expecting to start over. Play, learn, let disaster strike, then return with more knowledge and do better. Rinse and repeat several times before stepping into meta gameplay. At least for myself personally, that is how I actually had the most fun with this game. And I tend to typically like to get meta and min max my playtime in games, so it was a switch.

10/10 would suffocate again.