Oxygen Not Included

super fun and easy to learn and play

Best management game ever made. Temperature management, gas management, liquid management, phase change management, Material management, refining management, building management, animal management, plant management, food management, bathroom management, power management, morale management, automation management.

I swear if I had doctorate in thermodynamics / plumbing / HVAC / nuclear engineering / basic farming and ranching I still wouldn't be prepared to play this game.

10/10 would blow my head off again.

I like it. A lot. Came from it after searching for similar games like Rimworld....
i feel like Rimworld is easier tho, in Oxygen not included i hit a point for now where i get overwhelmed by Stress and/or lack of sufficient Management from my part so all starts falling apart :(

Finnaly at least started to understand how the Gas and Electric filters and automatic setups work :)

Gotta say the learning curve feels more like a vertical line tho.

Feels like a Factorio + Rimworld mix on smaller Scale and sadly i didnt play Factorio yet myself, so im kinda ass with setting up supply lines.

Cute and fun! If you like farming games, give this a try too for something different but similar.

Such an awesome sim colony management game with very well made systems, albeit not very well explained. I lost count how many times I thought I started well, just to have the entire colony of dupes fall because I didn't pay attention to the heat levels or unbreathable gas levels for example, some of the most important aspects of the game you need to pay attention to.

The game is easy to play, but very hard to master. Reason why I advise to find a couple of basic tutorials before you dive deep into the game (e.g. @GCFungus channel on youtube).

If you're reading negative reviews, you probably want to know about any dealbreakers that might make this game not fun for you. After 600+ hours of loving this game, I'm uninstalling; here's why. Hope this helps.

ONI has a dozen intersecting systems including air, light, heat, plumbing, food, power, critters, germs, automation, and decor. Overlays help you view each core system, but even so, a lot of things aren't intuitive. And once you get a handle your colony's needs, this largely becomes a heat management game with a side of space exploration. Heat becomes the main boss from the mid-game on, as most of your systems generate it, the insulating earth contains it, and it's tricky to counter it.

Other issues include a priority system for your duplicant colonists that dupes often ignore, wonky water physics, and odd quirks, like the fact that once something's built you can't move it: you have to destroy and build elsewhere, even just one square to the left. Also, mod support used to be great and the game was vastly enhanced by the modding community, but increasingly, mods make the game crash, at least for me.

Klei's flagship Don't Starve is a survival game that throws you into the deep end without explaining much. ONI mostly does the same, which doesn't really feel right for a colony builder. Both games really count on the community to fill in the blanks with wikis, tutorials and tips. Do you like to tab out of a game to go research why your plumbing backed up? You're in luck. If you love to consult wikis and ponder thermodynamics and enjoy setting up if/then programming systems, ONI is probably for you.

The first ten hours of a colony in ONI are mostly fun. I absolutely love the visual style. I enjoy watching the duplicants tootle around the map and munch on their meals and react to stress and happiness. I love the point-of-interest finds when you discover traces of previous colonies; I wish there were more POI puzzles and exploration. But that side of the game is incidental. Your ultimate goal is space exploration. Personally I find building rockets tedious and unrewarding in ONI. YMMV, but I do recommend looking up videos of players launching rockets to see if you'll be happy puzzling through ONI's many complications to get to that endgame.

Love the game but watch out for a dupe named Stinky... liability

Yes just keep Mitty from pission all over the clean water supply.

Game so good i found myself playing until 5am the following day. 10/10 but i don't want to invest more time into this.

This game is kinda like if Fallout Shelter required some amount of skill. Having to manage so many resources (water, temperature, food, and yes, oxygen) can get overwhelming, but it's very rewarding when you're finally able to automate tasks, which frees up time for exploration. Things can go wrong at any time (and they will), and coming up with ways to delay your colony collapsing while you rush to fix it is always fun, and you end up learning tricks that ultimately make you much better at the game, especially on your future runs. I've put over 200 hours into this at the time of writing and there's so much I don't even know yet, which keeps me constantly coming back for more.

Easy to pick up, hard to master, and endlessly addictive if you enjoy colony management. As a casual base builder, I’ve found myself constantly experimenting and adjusting to resource shortages, which keeps the gameplay fresh and challenging. There’s a real sense of satisfaction in watching systems run smoothly—until they don’t.

It’s not beginner-hostile, but expect to make a lot of mistakes early on (and late game, if we’re honest).

Verdict: A chill chaos simulator with surprising depth. Highly recommend if you love designing functional messes that somehow work.

If you dig colony simulators, this game is definitely for you. I'm new to the genre and the learning curve is really steep, but I'm enjoying it so far. Pros: funny bordering on hilarious sometimes, dupes always finding fun and interesting new ways to end their own lives, funky comic sci-fi atmosphere and art. Cons: what do you mean I have to manage HEAT

You know that meme?
"You have 800 hours in this game?"
"Yes"
"So you must be good at it!"
*Cries*
Yeah, that's me. But I keep trying nonetheless, as this game is just fun to figure out the problems to. Even though I have never launched a rocket. Or built a volcano tamer. Or really any functional midgame build beyond a water purifying system for the bathrooms.... hmm. I AM the meme, huh? xD

This game is so addictive I physically wasn't able to play anything else for the first month after I bought it. I literally found myself dreaming about pipe configurations and resource management. 100 hours and I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I've barely made it to the mid-game, and that's gloriously rare to find in a game these days. Can't wait to see where I'll get to in my next colon-
Goddammit has one of you trapped yourself on a ledge with unbreathable air again??
Sorry, gotta go help my morons.

very fun game but gets hard and complicated once you have a society set, would still recommend to others

Game is awesome and keeps bringing me back. it's not just some simple resource management sim, but far greater than that. if you like basebuilding and resource management this is right up your alley

One of my favorite games, this game fills every dream I had for a 2d colony builder. so much variety in how to play. Ive made and killed so many colonies and Im still here for more

I love this game! Building and improving your colony and all the duplicantes interactions are so cute! Highly reccommend

Really fun thinking game. It can be difficult at first but the more colonies you create the better the next ones will be.
One not is that you have to be really patient with some problems and also think some time ahead if something will resolve with issue. Also SO MANY CUTIES ANIMALS TO RANCH <3

This game is great for hardcore optimisation and planning nerds. Like me.

very good game a bit confusing at first but really good once you learn how to play

honestly just incredible. usually when i really lock in on a game i have a sort of love-hate relationship with it but i really just love ONI. aside from a bit of duplicant AI silliness it is truly a test of skill and almost every problem is avoidable. really hoping the game continues getting updates and DLC because i just want more of it

cute and simple at first, but progressively overwhelming as the game goes on.
10/10!

This game is great, even though it cartoonish, it is very complex with relatively scientific approaches required for cooling of the base as well as automation. If you liked factorio, satisfactory, or shapez2, you will probably like this game also.

77 hours in, and I have barely scratched the surface of this immense colony builder. As a programmer, this game hits home hard—designing blueprints, micromanaging resources, and watching for bottlenecks and potential faults genuinely feels like visual programming. Even at the surface level (where I am right now), it is unimaginably deep and vast.

I’ll be back at the 1,000-hour mark to praise the game in a more informed manner.

Kudos to the dev team—I have no idea how you pulled this off. It is I.N.S.A.N.E.

The game is amazing!!! If you want a grind-a-lot, adventure and survival game, then Oxygen not included is the right game. It starts you in an asteroid with the aim of surviving with limited resources, making it to the top of the asteroid and eventually successfully escaping from the asteroid. DLC gives you access to more content the l recommend you should purchase as well.

I have barely scratched the surface of this game. There are so many little things you can do and interact with. Gasses, liquids, and solids can all be interacted with and used. It may seem over whelming at first, but this game is certainly worth your time.

It gets pretty complicated, so I've never made it beyond certain technology limitations.
But the game is good.

This games tortures me in the best way. I enjoy every second playing it but it improves my life in no way. I have restarted and failed dozens of times yet continue playing it. If you think your brain is wired in a way where it needs to solve something before moving on, never play this game. 10 out of 10.

An absolute masterpiece of survival and colony management. Deep mechanics, awesome gas and liquid physics, endless ways to screw up — and even more ways to fix everything. It’s hard, it’s fun, and insanely addictive. Already spent hundreds of hours on PC — now just dreaming of the day I can finally play it on my phone. Take my money, Klei!

Amazing game where you can even learn real life physics!
Highly remomended for everyone who loves tech games. They are even great DLCs and QoL mods that expands gameplay and make it even better :)

Only minus is AI for dupes - they are kinda stupid and you may get frustrated when they don't do something for a long time or they get themself trapped in some deadly environment.

It needs a master in ingeneering to understand all the mechanics of this game, the learning curve is insane, but it's amazingly well done and has so much depth just like most of Klei's games. If you like the genre, just buy it !

misleading title, there is a whole section in the game called oxygen

very great game :)

My favourite colony sim ever and the reason I buy all Klei's games. The art style is amazing and the game's got tons of systems to learn and keep it interesting. LOVE IT FOREVER

this game is so adictive, definitively recomended. One of my favorites games !!

I'm not happy to leave negative review to such promising game. Gameplay, its physics and idea itself is very good, challenging and interesting colony sim with exploring and surprises, that I would really like to recommend and would love to play, but unfortunately I am tired of the game crashes. Its almost impossible and very annoying to play over and over again from last saves if it keeps crashing again every 15-20 minutes. I have high end PC and I have no issues with other games I've played but this is the first time I've considered to ask my money back. I have tried every possible solution, restarted bases several times, reinstalled, verifying files, updated drivers, searching from ONI community, even used chat GPT to decifer save files and find solutions to the bug reports - no success. At first the game runs great but always If the base gets bigger, I recieve crashes all the time with "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object". Whatever it means, I feel I can't recommend this experience to others. My fellow little creatures are all happy, its me who has 100% stress - it should be other way around.

I always end up messing something up and repeatedly ruining my base, getting frustrated, abandoning the game, and deleting the data from my PC, but for some reason, I keep coming back. And if the online forums are any indication, it's probably my lack of supervision skills and has little to do with the game. Still one of my favourite games!

It's not really for me unfortunately! It gets quite complicated quite quickly, I think it's just not my personal play style. Not recommended for casual or low effort players who aren't fond of automation. If you went all out in games like Minecraft and built full machined tunnels, this is for you! If you just explored and made your home pretty, give this a miss.

After sinking over 200 hours into Oxygen Not Included I can finally say I’ve got a solid grasp on the early game. It feels great to stabilize my colony and watch the basic problems disappear, only to be replaced by bigger ones. The mid-game is where the real gears start spinning, and I’m super excited to dive further into the Spaced Out DLC and explore rocket travel.

I actually picked this game up on sale, and it’s easily one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time. I just wish I had started my journey sooner! At first glance, the game looks cute and simple, but don’t let that fool you. It's surprisingly deep. Maybe too much for some! It’s like managing an ant colony in a high-tech science lab, where every little detail counts. I love the challenges of temperature regulation and piping management. Everything is interconnected, and even seemingly out-of-place features like puft ranching suddenly play a role in closing bigger loops in certain system setups.

But let me tell you, the journey is full of hardships. I’ve had my fair share of runs that ended in total chaos, and the next day I woke up just itching to start fresh again, armed with better ideas and neater setups. Problems like water shortages, overheating meltdowns, and starvation were run-enders in my first dozen hours. Each failure teaches you something valuable, whether it’s about resource management or planning for the unexpected. The game’s difficulty is part of what makes it so engaging. It keeps you on your toes and makes every victory feel earned. Be specific about your next step and prioritize what your colony needs the most. Think two steps ahead!

One thing to keep in mind is that the game doesn’t hold your hand. You’ll need to do some research yourself, and while the in-game wiki is helpful, I’ve found that the real insights come from guides outside of the game. The learning curve can be steep, but that’s what makes it so addictive. Each new run is a chance to do it better.

I haven’t even touched the Bionic Booster DLC yet, even though I bought it, because I’m still working my way through learning about plastics, steel, and rocketry. I’m hoping Klei will create even more content for this game because there’s just so much potential here.

If you’re looking for a game that combines adorable visuals with complex mechanics, endless exploration, gives replayability, and you’re a bit of a science nerd then Oxygen Not Included is a must-play. It’s a delightful challenge that keeps giving more!

I like all the particulars of this game - the quirky designs, core mechanics and weird hidden story. What I don't like are the systems the game is organized into. Under the cute exterior, Oxygen Not Included is built on a spiderweb of intersecting systems, all of which are defined by resource scarcity and none of which are fully explained in the game itself.

If your learning curve was like mine, you will lose your first 5 games to resource mismanagement (i.e., forgot to make food), the next 5 games to second-order resource mismanagement (i.e., starvation brought on by water shortages because crops weren't watered), and the next 10 games to third-order resource mismanagement (i.e., starvation brought on by water shortages brought on by electricity shortages, because the water pumps didn't have power).

Once you have finished building your mental serial killer wall of ONI wiki articles and string, you will start losing games to heat. Almost 700 hours in this game and I never fully figured out how to beat the fact that the asteroid gets steadily hotter and the heat has nowhere to go. There are heat-deletion buildings hidden around the map, but they are buried deep and you can't build more. There's a late-game thing called super coolant that I never got to use because my colonies always crumbled before I could unlock it.

You're punished for going slow; the tightrope gets thinner as time goes on. You're punished for going fast; bringing on too many Duplicants at the beginning is the surest way to run out of resources. You're punished for using resources; some are non-renewable and the game doesn't tell you which. You're punished for not using resources; the margins for survival are always super tight.

I'm sick of this. I don't want to play anymore.

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.