Разработчик: Deimos Games
Описание
Build your fleet, trade, explore and conquer
Helium Rain is a single-player space simulation that places you at the helm of a spacefaring company. Trade resources, buy ships and stations to fulfill contracts ! Dock at stations to buy and sell you wares or upgrade your ship, upgrade your technology to be more efficient and militarize your fleet to prevent piracy.
You will need to master both real-time action and long-term strategy: destroying a freighter has a direct impact on the economy, while declaring war will make your spaceflight environment slightly more hostile...
- 13 playable ships with weapon and engine upgrades
Build and fly fleets of fighters, bombers, cargos, corvettes or capital ships. Buy new engines and weapons. - Fast-paced combat with Newtonian flight, localized damage and joystick support
There is no speed limit in Helium Rain. You can fly at half a mile a second while aiming backwards. Aim for critical systems in order to disable ships, kill their crew or capture targets, and don't fly into asteroids. - Complex economy model
Take advantage of a complex simulation of space trade to be the most competitive company. - A planetary system to explore
Explore around 25 sectors orbiting the gas giant Nema and its moons. - Procedural contracts, world exploration, technology upgrades
Pick contracts and build your empire to become the largest company. - Quick-action skirmish mode
Setup your fleet, pick an opponent and go into fighting action right away !
A world that feels real
Your ships have generators, radiators, weapons, engines, cargo bays or life support systems - they all work together. Every thruster on your ship plays a role. Aim for engines to pin down your enemies, or send them spinning around by destroying power stations. Most ships have more than thirty individual parts ! You can customize the most important parts of your ships - your main engines, attitude control thrusters, weapons and hull colors.
Your competitors are independent factions, companies with the same goal as yours - ruling the system. They will try to undercut you, or even attack you if you become a threat to them. But don't be too quick to destroy them, as war can break the supply of resources you depend on ! Attacking freighters will destroy resources, with the potential to cause an economic crisis.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, french, russian
Системные требования
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7 (64 bits)
- Processor: Intel Core® i3
- Memory: 4000 MB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 470 / AMD Radeon® HD 6870 / DX10 compatible GPU with at least 1GB VRAM
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 5000 MB available space
- Additional Notes: Only 64 bits versions of Windows are supported.
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (64 bits)
- Processor: Intel Core® i7
- Memory: 8000 MB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 5000 MB available space
- Additional Notes: Only 64 bits versions of Windows are supported.
Mac
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04
- Processor: Intel Core® i3
- Memory: 4000 MB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 470 / DX10 compatible GPU with at least 1GB VRAM
- Storage: 5000 MB available space
- Additional Notes: Only 64 bits versions of Linux are supported. Check the Linux support thread in the forums !
- OS: Ubuntu 17.10
- Processor: Intel Core® i7
- Memory: 8000 MB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970
- Storage: 5000 MB available space
- Additional Notes: Only 64 bits versions of Linux are supported. Check the Linux support thread in the forums !
Отзывы пользователей
Solid game, I like to believe that if chris roberts had any idea of what he was doing it would resemble something like this.
TLDR at end.
I have owned this game for a while before trying it, before it went free actually. I had let it get burried under a number of titles. . . *cough*The Factory must grow!*cough* and I'd see it in my list occasionally and the name and/or the "box art" made me think, I must of got this from a humble bundle deal or something, and/or I'm not particularly fond of iso-metric space sims... so I ignored it.
Well this game is NOT an isometric space adventure, the simple description is it is similar to the X series, with key and notifiable differences.
Pre-warp | Hyperspace : Only human corporations (factions) make up the list of possible friends and enemies.
+ Since they originate from a cryo colony mothership, the ships and tech are not that advanced. Think early space ship and tech, this is a nice touch in my opinion.
+- Origin: Sharing the same origin, the ships and hardware are identical.
+ Custom ride: The logo and paint template on your fleet is customizable and changeable, free of charge, at all times.
Trade:
+ Trade is better than a lot of games in this genre.
+- However, it isn't perfect, as demand can over take supply. When you begin to reach the point where you need massive amounts of the most basic resource(s) to fuel (literally) the economy. H20 | Ore -> Fuel | Steel -> Almost everything else. In my opinion the generation of the most basic resources need a higher production rate. (Particularly when you unlock trade vessels with 1000+ cargo room.
+ Stations*
Like in the X series you can build your own stations in a sector. +- They spawn in the sector you don't manually place them. However, placement location doesn't matter a whole lot as they will be visited as long as there is product to buy or sell.
* Can be used to prop up the economy and make endless credits.
+- The docking is through airlocks latching onto each other, similar to the ones you'd see in early space fiction, meaning that you need to align the airlock portholes.
+ You can quickly research auto pilot though and just cruise from dock to dock with it.
+- This turns the game into a bit of an idler game. Or at least one you can browse the fleet menus while travelling between stations.
+- Money;
+ It is easy for the player to make money on a trade run,
- but your trade fleets can lose money if you plan a bad route or if that route is supplying a station, particularly a research station.
?? Combat, I have been putting off the combat tutorial, which seems to begin by buying a combat ship.
TLDR: It is a niche gem, it is to bad the developer decided to fold, even deciding to release their games for free. In my opinion it is to bad steam doesn't have a donate option for freeware games to allow players to show developers appreciation for games that otherwise do not make them profit.
Instead of reading this review try the game, it is free now, what excuse could you possibly have?
Imagine X series game. But actually user friendly, playable and without bugs.
Imagine you can pickup space trade/flet management sim and be able to understand it under 1 hour and start enjoying it under 2 hours
Oh wait... you dont need to imagine it. All you need to do is buy Helium Rain
Helium Rain (HR) is an atmospheric Economy/Management simulation game, set in a "hard sci-fi" space setting.
The atmosphere of HR gives off a bit of a lonely and relaxing vibe. The game setting taking place entirely in the orbit of a gas giant named "Nema". The station and ship designs are great in HR, I like the more realistic designs here which is a bit of a departure from the majority of games set in space. The overall setting being in orbit of a gas giant gives a lot of opportunities for a nice backdrop. There is no sound in space which HR portrays.
While HR is fundamentally a Space-Sim most of the time (at least in my experience) flying was done on auto-pilot while going through full-screen menus and sorting out some odds and ends for my budding empire. In a sense the majority of the game is played through the User Interface (UI). While there are a few Quality of Life (QoL) things missing overall it's consistent and wonderfully streamlined, suffering slightly in the late stages though in terms of ease-of-use.
There are no fantasy style propulsion systems in HR, so travel takes days between different sectors. Due to the time scales involved the game understandably introduces simulated time. Days can be processed/skipped and events processed along on the sector map and when done going through the days we're back in our ship in space again. I feel like there's a little bit of a disconnect here between the space-game and the simulated part of the game but many alternative approaches have their own downsides too.
There is a simulated economy system which has multiple layers, it's quite neat really. Ships and stations require different resources to be built which ultimately had to be mined (by stations rather than ships), processed and freighted to their respective destinations. Each time resources changes hands from one company to another currency will be exchanged, and at times transactions can't be completed due to certain companies running out of liquid currency. Staff on stations gets paid for their work, this money goes to the local sector population. The population will use this money to try to buy goods from their local Habitation domes to keep themselves fed and happy. If they get what they need they will go on and multiply at which point more money gets added into the games overall economy, constantly cycling through different companies and then back to the population again.
Upon starting a game you will start with a simple trade vessel but as you play you'll gain more ships, stations and possibly even eventually have formed a monopoly or even wiped out all the other factions completely, dependenant upon playstyle and goals. HR is purely a Sandbox game. There are contracts (basically missions/objectives) that popup including a unique set which could be considered a story-line but fundamentally it's all about the pure sandbox and simulation.
Combat takes place over rather long ranges. Often to the point of not really being able to make out enemy ships. Components on ships can be damaged and rendered inoperable/destroyed. Incoming rounds can ricochet off the hull of a ship. The visuals and audio for combat are a real joy.
There is a Mod-Kit for the game over on the Epic Games store which can be used by creators to add extra content (such as ships and/or stations) and then share their results on the steam workshop. In addition to this the source code is open-source. It is certainly not common for a game to be open-source which I am certainly
thankful for
I would definitely recommend this game.
At first, I was not a fan of Helium Rain. I judged the game to be too shallow. The absence of a cockpit or bridge combined with the absence of VR, since a few titles in the same genre had this - for example: No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous.
Then, somehow, its relaxing atmosphere, unique ship design and Newtonian flight model combined with its modding options tipped the balance in its favor. The dev team gave us a complete modkit to shape Helium Rain's 3d models to whatever you want them to be. With a lot of patience you could create your own game, designing your own ships, but using Helium Rain as an engine itself.
It's a sandbox game and should be seen and played as such. The negative reviews of some people here are a result of comparisons with other games or expectations that were never fulfilled. Expectations usually never get fulfilled, so who's to blame there?
There is no 'story', this is not 'Wing Commander' 'Starlancer', 'Freelancer' or 'The Darkening'. It was made by a devoted indie team that made a completely finished product that is playable and does not have any game breaking bugs.
Its beauty is in its barebones, realistic approach regarding ship and station design, which id does extremely well. There are no exotic hull designs here like you see in some titles like X3 Terran Conflict and X3 Albion Prelude. It makes even more sense than the ship designs from the TV series The Expanse, which would really feel at home here.
The combat is very raw and pure. No shields, no cloaks, just maneuverability, speed and numbers vs firepower and mass.
Overall, I spend more than my fair share of time in this sim and in its dev kit. I purchased the game on Steam, and also on GOG. I wanted something DRM free that I could play without the need for a steam client and at the same time support the devs and thank them. Funnily enough, the game itself is not for sale on the EPIC store, where you can download the mod kit free of charge and start modding.
So, would I recommend this? Definitely YES
If you are a nerd that like me loves the 'simulation' aspect of a game and you don't need any 'hand holding' in ways of a 'playable story' and just love the possibilities of a sandbox game, where depth means Newtonian physics without micromanagement, this is for you.
Helium Rain succeeded where Elite Dangerous or the X3 franchise failed, because it is complex, without being complicated. There is not quite another game like it.
A cautious 'yes' as there's nothing wrong with the game and several interesting and well done features. The real problem is that it all feels empty and pointless, for all the environment looks crowded. "Newtonian physics" is pushing it, as you're not really in orbit and don't make orbital transfers, it's just a frictionless inertia model with no gravity. Overall a good indie effort and fun while it holds your attention but not one you'll be playing for hundreds of hours.
When utilizing any of the shipyards in the game to build a ship, the shipyard will sometimes require materials to begin construction on whatever ship is in queue - which is fine. What's not fine is when the shipyard requests materials but doesn't have the money to pay for them - and there's no option to trade them for free. What you end up with is a deadlocked game where all the shipyards have your ship in the build queue but can't begin construction, no matter what you do.
I looked for and found comments from the developers about this exact problem, but both of them have since moved on to other projects and don't seem interested in fixing what is essentially a campaign breaking bug.
Bad form. Do not buy this game unless and until this is fixed - if it ever is.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about giving this a negative review, because it is actually a good game.
The reason it gets a negative review are just a few things that drag the game down, and I'll list these problems here. There are plenty of other reviews talking about the good stuff so I'll skip over that.
1: The tutorial doesn't really teach you jack shit (reminiscent of the X series tutorials, really fucking bad)
2: There is no save system, or rather, the game is played in ironman mode only, and relies exclusively on an autosave function. I don't know fully how that autosave function works but if you just quit the game, then start it up again, you will be in the same spot as before. This means that if you make ANY kind of mistake, you're locked into them, and there are so many big mistakes to be made in this game because...
3: Lack of detailed information about just about anything in the research tree. (EVEN IF YOU LOOK ONLINE!) this makes it really easy to say research something, like a tier 4 tech, that actually requires resources that can only be obtained from tier 5 tech factories that no faction in the game owns early in the game, (Which means you have to make it yourself, which means some tech is useless until you have a higher tier tech in order to be able to produce it!). This is just one of many huge cases where lack of information only allows you to be wise of something after you've messed up a save you may have spent hours or days in, and ruined your entire playthrough. At which point, back to point 2; you would have to restart from the beginning, which is just not ok.
There's a workaround to save, by copying your save files manually to another folder when you want to save; but why the fuck should users have to go through so much trouble for a function that has existed in video games since the very beginning of video game history?! This is just utterly retarded.
These are 3 problems that compound to make the game terribly much worse than it otherwise would be.
Lack of information could have been solved with a good tutorial, and an actual save system could have mitigated just how painful it is for a user to make mistakes due to that lack of information, since they could just save everytime before they research something or make otherwise big in-game decisions like building certain factories or ships.
But combined, these 3 seemingly not that huge issues, become a profoundly huge (and extremely easily fixable) issue that honestly the developers have no legitimate excuse for not doing something about.
If it wasn't for these 3 issues however, the game is great. It's a space sim sandbox based entirely around the idea of building a trade empire and achieving world domination with it, It's great but it doesn't matter how great it is if it's borderline unplayable for beginners.
Hands down the best X3 variant I have encountered of many. The flight system and progression is solid. As soon as the annoyances become apparent there is a way to bypass and advance. Continual learning curve that is moderate and well paced. The economy is very real feeling, with natural ups and downs that you can exploit or engineer. Unlike most X3 variants (and oh god the original) the end game has no latency issues. End game continues to remain challenginging due to unifications of opposing corps and the distribution of resource types. All in all a wonderful game. I look forward to the modding that is being released soon, and am happy to see that development is ongoing.
If I could give this a neutral review, I would. It's not bad, it's got quite a bit of charm, actually. But it's just not particularly fun past the first couple of hours.
Pros:
- Pretty, really pretty
- Newtonian Physics (that thing that space game fans keep asking for, but almost no developer seems willing to do)
- Oozing with potential
- Hard(ish) sci-fi
Cons:
- Dull
- No story
- Extremely limited mission variety
- Weapons have very little sense of impact (I've seen small fighters shrug off multiple hits from heavy capital ship artillery, with no apparent loss of function)
- Useless combat AI (they can fly and shoot in the general direction of the enemy, that's it. Expect horrendous friendly fire in large fleets or heavily populated regions)
- Clunky, tedious tools and menus for trading and empire management
[*] While I applaud the develop's decision to use a non-cheating economic system, it doesn't really work here. Without deliberate intervention of the player, the economy seems to grind itself to a halt when certain vital materials are hopelessly underproduced/undertransported by the AI.
If you're in serious need of a new and slightly different space sim, and you feel that you can live with the flaws I've pointed out, maybe take a look.
This is hands-down my favourite space sim starting now. Sorry, X-series.
The art style. The setting. The level of just-right balance between sci-fi and realism. The connected economy, and AI playing by the same rules as the player. Nothing appears out of thin air - if no ore is mined, no steel will be made and no new ships will be built in shipyards. With some smart moves you can beat the AI and become an industrial giant in the system. Prices move up and down with supply and demand, and unbalanced economy will create resource shortages.
The setting sets the mood of the game nicely - as one of the colonists who arrived at the blue gas giant Nema, you along with others in the colony ship wake up from stasis to discover that the moons that promised new home are barren or flat out hostile. With no options left, humanity established a series of outposts around Nema nad its moons, harvesting important gasses and resources from the gas giant and encircling asteroid fields.
You start with a little basic ship to haul some tools or people around with. You can take on contracts from established corporations, or seek good trading deals. Every new sector around the gas giant or its moons that you discover is added to your economy screen, so it becomes easier overtime to find good deals. Money allowing, you can build stations and trading fleets to expand your empire, and combat fleets to protect what is rightfully yours.
Ladies and gentlemen, this game is a must-play for 4x/space sim geeks, for this indeed is a true gem among gems. It saddens me that so few people seem to have actually played it. As an amazing bonus, the game is open source and available on github!
Buy this if;
-You always wanted a very cold hard sci fi space game.
-You want an economic engine more than a story or battle sim
-you are happy to pay its price for ~5-20hours of game.
I think its excelent, but its not a story game, it's a sandbox about building your space company through trade routes and space stations. After the initial start from nothing about 80% of your time will be in the interface rather than the cockpit.
Battles are very good, but full neutonian physics might put off some.
It is a small focused game, it is not X3, so don't expect lots of techs and infinite space to explore.
The AI is pretty weak. It is good at economic efficiency, but if you step over to a more aggressive strategy the different factons do not adjust well. As such I played the game twice and I am probably done with it, but I still rank it was one of the best in the genre.
The worst of the most beautiful games I've ever played :
Edit : Following the devs roadmap, I thought the game was released at the time I wrote this review (the "Final update" has aleady been pushed) but it still in early access, however I'm doubtful that it will evolve a lot after that, so I maintain that review as it is for the moment, will change it as soon as the game gets better, so likely never.
I bought this game something like a year ago and had great hopes for this one looking at the graphics and mechanics at the time, here's what I waited for :
- A great storyline (which didn't and will likely never happen...)
- A lot of vessels and techs to put on them (kind of happened but there's still not much diversity)
- More diversity in quests (also didn't happen, you just get something/someone somewhere and that's it, boring AF)
- A good UI for the trading mechanics (which is still being more like a clik-fest switching between different screens)
- A real depth in the economy mechanics (as of now, there's something like +/-3% price difference between each sector, which allows you to sell anything anywhere without caring about efficiency at all)
- And finally, something to break the boredom like real quests (there's one major thingy to build and overall, that's it)
I won't focus on any critics about the space fights in this review since I respect the devs choice to use newtonian physics (I dont like those space jousts, but I find it very interesting nonetheless)
In brief, after something like a hundred hours in game and a long wait 'til its release, I got very badly disappointed at what the game became, it seriously seems like it's not finished at all, lacks of depth in every way and has no place for QoL elements.
If you ask me, this is an "auto-docking simulator" in which you just repeatingly wait until you're docked to complete your quest, if you like travelling through space you'd better go for "Kerbal Space Program" or "No Man's Sky" which are infinitely more rich in terms of interactions.
I'd always love to support the products of my own country (I'm french as the game's devs), but for once, my advice would be to not waste your money on this game unless you just like wasting your time watching spaceships docking in front of a beautiful background.
First off, this isn't an adrenaline pumping high combat space sim.
It's like Elite:Dangerous and the X universe had a minimalist baby with the UI from most of the episodes of Black Mirror. Feels almost like the universe came out of Ben Bova's planet series of books, or is a logical extension thereof. Those were great books for scientists who want to read sci fi without having an anneurism. This game is kinda the same.
And to me, that's pretty awesome. I've had the itch for a space-trading light combat sim for a while now, and Helium Rain did not disappoint.
The lighting's a little harsh (as space should be)
The economy sim has a few bugs (it's early access, devs seem very intent on fixing this)
The ship selection looks good for the size of the game. (To be fair, I've only bought light ships so far, haven't got the creds for a heavy yet)
Combat is dog-fighting style, which would probably be my one complaint. They're space-ships not space-planes.
Not story-driven but there are some story elements, which are nice.
The idea of a single solar system (multiple planets/sectors) makes the scale feel good for a single player game. Some expansions incorporating slow FTL (like a 30 day cost to travel time) and another few systems to round up to around a hundred sectors would be a nice addition, and push the scale up to a comfortable max for a single player experience in my opinion. Big enough to stay interesting for a while, small enough to keep the game pretty casual.
These "real economy" games usually dont work as well as this one. Really nice. Any time you can manage trade fleets and send them off on their own semi-automated trade routes, I'm pretty much hooked.
A little bit like the X series (X:BTF, X2, X3, etc) where you can build production chains that extract raw materials and produce goods.
The AI factions follow all the same rules that you do, so you can buy out all the plastics to grind production lines to a halt.
The realistic spaceflight, optional manual docking (sort of KSP-light with RCS thruster control for coupling with docking hatches), newtonian physics, and Heinlein / Atomic Rockets style future all makes a really rich setting if you like that sort of sci-fi.
I'm not very good at the combat, but it is also great sci-fi. You hear the echo of your guns fireing, and you hear shots hit your hull -- but there are otherwise no sounds in space. It really feels great, and playing around with the different sized ships in the simulator they all feel different.
Spaceflight isn't too hard, either. Often newtonian motion and such makes that difficult, but the ships auto-stabilize your motion towards whichever way you point. You can still strafe by things, but it helps to keep you from flying off out of control.
And so, in year 7, day 125, and I just declared war on the universe... Wait, let me step back..
I loved Frontier II: Elite (90's predecessor to Frontier:Dangerous) which was a great open world trading combat game with real Newtonian physics (well, 90's real). Helium Rain has the same feel--I enjoy this. I played one initial game to get a feel for it--the economics, combat, etc. And then re-started to do some work...
I made my money exploring, running escort contracts, and trading. Before long I was able to buy a few trade ships and began establishing trade routes (a good function that is thoughtful without being overly complex like other games with larger scale, such as the X-series). It was all going well.
I invested heavily in research so I was able to build a a few complexes with the goal of becoming self sustaining (generate fuel to run my mines, mines to run my foundries, and ultimately--supply a shipyard that I can use to then create the mightiest fleet in the universe...Well, it all worked to plan. Except, once I completed my shipyard i found that the rest of the universe (all other corps) were basically broke.
You see, the Helium Rain Economy is a closed loop system. There are no artificial ways that the game creates capital (Cash is generated basically by habitats of people who purchase supplies). So, as I built up my stations (each costs 40-80k) i was essentially milking every dime out of the economy. Therefore, by the time I could create my battlefleet--there was no cash left for my enemies to be able to even dream of stopping me. I controlled all the capital and i didn't need any of them to build my fleet.
So, I declared war on the pirates with the mission to eliminate their kind from the universe! I defeated their fleet with ease, and chased them back to the Boneyard, where lay siege on their facilities. I captured all but their last solar farm--because--well, because I couldn't. The game would not let me. I did not let this deter me: So, I ordered my fleet to attack the last station. They did, and then stopped with it at around 80%. Again, not to be deterred, I spent way more time than I care to admit sitting in my capital ships hammering away until i FINALLY was able to blow it up... Now there was one ship left.. and.. I can't find it.
So, i declared war on my next strongest competitor--this war went quickly. I disabled their ships, and took many of their stations..
And so, with an overwhelming fleet and the only functioning industrial complex in the universe, I deployed my fleets all over and declared war on the universe. Nobody could stop me... my victory, while grand, was hollow...
So, yeah, this may have sounded negative--it's not. The game is well put together, and (obviously) was able to keep my attention as i saw how far I could go. Once I finish off this last fleet of freighters that I'm mopping up, I'll likely put it back on the shelf and wait for the next update (which dev notes have said are centered on the economy.
Assorted thoughts:
1. Combat is not action-packed, this is more about trade than pew-pew.
2. There are tactics in the economics, but not a lot of high strategy. Supply and demand, flooding some systems causes problems--it's good, but not horribly complex (again, like the X-series that WAY overcomplicates it).
3. The universe is right-sized. Part of me wants more, but the system wouldn't be manageable. They did a solid job of realizing the world in a playable scale.
4. I like it. It's clean, it's pretty, it's got a great feel to it--and, I say all this noting it's all in early access (though late-stage).
5. Fleet control is somewhat clunky, there could be a better way to organize and view the fleets. Also, the game gets bogged down late-game, taking several seconds to load the Company tab.
Notes on the Early Access:
The game did not like the way I was trying to play it. I never found that last pirate to kill off, and it REALLY didn't want me to destroy that last pirate station. The devs seem to want to develop a persistent world that can keep rolling. I respect that. However, there needs to be a late-game solution to economic domination. After all, I had taken complete control of the universal economy completely by accident!! All i did was trade and build, and that pulled all the cash out of the economy. Thoughts to this end:
1. Perhaps implement a "Bank" where the player and or the NPCs can get late-game cash infusions? If not a bank, than some other 'random event' based system where money can be injected into the economy to boost both players and/or NPCs as needed (this could be some kind of low-cash in the market trigger on the dev-side).
2. Consider creating gameplay elements based upon settled regions--there is really no advantage that I found to settling around any of the celestial bodies in particular--and the other corporations didn't seem to be too particular. Maybe have some of the corps be territorial (Corp X claims the systems around Adena, and if you want to trade there you have to pay a tax, fight, etc.)
3. Also, what is the damned noise in Daedalus?!? I couldn't figure that one out, is it nothing? Is it something secret that can be discovered that I didn't figure out? I want some more mysteries in the game... alien life, artefacts (maybe this is how to create the cash?) loot dropped from meteors or something.
Overall, I enjoyed it. But, I broke it without meaning to :) Looking forward to the next update, i'll pick it back up for sure..
Well, this game is clearly a labour of love.
Beautiful graphics, though there is room for improvement here - i.e, Rayleigh and Mie scattering in planets with atmosphere would improve realism a lot, and dirt, contamination on the glass surfaces, similar to what you see when peeking outside into a docking mechanism when a bright reflection or the sun scatter the light on the surface of the panels. Don't let this put you down, As far as gameplay goes, there is a huge potential here. Extremely deep, with realistic physics, this promises to be a catastrophic time sink, capable of throwing entire countries into negative GDP. If you like scifi in any way, just buy it. If you're a penguinista, the linux version is rock solid as well, at least so far.
Highly recommended, and many kudos to the developers for a great work.
Helium Rain is very fun until you get to war. The trading and colonizing aspects of this game are incredibly fun but literally everything you do in combat removes score from all the other factions reputation. One battle and you trash all the work you've done. This leads to a downward spiral of constantly being a target for war because you are so hated by everyone. You either lose everything you have to people with more resources than you can even try to get, or you pay a large sum of money to get them off your back for a week. I enjoyed every minute of it until I had my first war for the above reasons. After that first war, all of my positve rep was turned to -100 and the number #1 rated company with literal access to a shipyard was after me. It was incredibly frustrating to have this happen and I don't think I'll play another game of this for a while. And when I do, I will avoid conflict like the plague.
Helium Rain is a must-play Space Economy Sim for fans of the genre. If you enjoyed X³, Elite:Dangerous or EVE Online, or if you just wanted to build your own industrial empire in space, I’d highly recommend you give Helium Rain a try.
What do I get to do in this game?
You start out in a scrappy little shuttle, hopping from station to station, flying with 6DoF and Newtonian flight physics, and spinning and lining up your ship to perform docking manoeuvres. For those of you who prefer more economics and less flying, Autopilot and Auto-dock are also available.
You’ll work your way up towards purchasing freighters and building a trading fleet, making money hauling goods from A to B. As you buy low and sell high to corner the market, you’ll amass enough wealth to start building your mines and factories of your own, cutting your competitors out of the market.
But beware! Pirates and less scrupulous corporations won’t stand by watching idly. You’ll have to invest in your own defense fleet to escort your haulers and protect your assets from the greedy paws of others who are after your hard earned coin.
Pros:
- Economic simulation: every good and asset in game is produced by a factory, supplied with goods produced elsewhere.
- Fleets: the game is built around the player owning multiple fleets spread across the system. You can choose to micromanage or set up preset trading routes
- Flight model: No speed limits: you can accelerate as much as you want, just remember that you’ll need to decelerate unless you want to overshoot your target and drift into space. At your disposal are forward/backward thrust, pitching, yawing, rolling, and lateral/longitudinal strafing.
- Dev feedback: The game is actively being worked on and the developers regularly provide feedback both on here and on the game’s website.
- Graphics: The game has a beautifully polished aesthetic going for it. It adds a lot of character that really make it stand out from the crowd.
Cons:
Not so much cons, but features that still need a bit of dev love before the game leaves Early Access:- User Interface has a few niggles here and there that begin to manifest in the mid to late game when you have large amounts of assets to keep track of. Especially noticeable is the lack of a Journal recording your cash flow.
- AI corporations feel like they lack differentiation. Shipyards will gladly take orders to build fighters for pirates, only to the summarily attacked by them. Peaceful corporations seem to just turtle and amass wealth.
[*]Simulation speed begins to slowdown in the end game due to corporations expanding without enough resistance.
Conclusion
Personally, I am a dozen hours into my first playthrough in the first 2 days of buying the game. I’ll still play Elite:Dangerous for the combat, atmosphere and immersion of the spaceships, and EVE Online has its niche as the MMO for space economies, but Helium Rain has established itself as my go-to option for single-player spaceship economy tycoon empire building.
Chris Roberts should give Deimos Games half his millions.
The game is fantastic. Don't get discouraged by the grinding in early game, it gets much more complex and diversified as soon as you get a fleet. There will definitely be some hauling to get through first, but manual docking takes only 10 seconds once you're used to it and seeing your progress in that task will make it very rewarding, even without a HOTAS. Or you can buy an autodocking technology to make it as easy as a click, but in my opinion, it just lowers the potential and depth of the game; if you're into space simulations and piloting, then no need to make money faster by doing more trips thanks to the autodocking, it's not a competitive multiplayer game, take your time and play each trip. Hauling is more fun in HR than in Elite from my perspective, and fortunately it won't be your main task for weeks.
At the beginning, after a few hours, I thought myself that this game was beautiful and felt great, but unfortunately was going to be repetitive and lack content. I'm happy to say it proved me wrong (but the game can definitely use more content of course), however it all depends on how you play and how you expand your colony, it's possible that the game could evolve in more or less interestings ways depending on your actions.
As soon as you get a fleet, it is much easier to make money since you can specialize a ship into trading (and the trading routes system is complex enough, I was expecting something much simpler, very good surprise here), or start using fighter ships with contracts that tend to pay better rewards. Overall, the money/docking ratio increases quite fast as soon as your fleet and company build up, and the diversity of the gameplay as well.
The UI looks great and is actually convenient once you mastered it, but it takes some getting used to. A few more hints on where to find specific functions would help sometimes, it's not always obvious that the warning about missing components for building a ship would be in the orbital map for instance, or that you'd have to go check the shipyard in its sector screen to know what is missing, I was initially just looking into my Company screen to check the status of the ship I ordered. More filters in the Economy screen, and a way to show which stations buy what in that same screen would be useful, as well as a Search field for specific ressources in the Sector screen. But all that is really rather minor, the UI is already nice to use and feels a lot less crippled than Elite's sy-fy/immersive UI for instance.
So if the beginning of the game looks repetitive and boring to you, try to hang on, it gets better and the game has a great potential. I have played or backed many space sims, from KSP to Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen or Rogue System (very recommended if you are into hardcore DCS-like sims). KSP is a jewel, but is admittedly quite a different game. Helium Rain is the game I didn't see coming, and yet it's the single best space opera I've played so far. Beautiful, several things to do, good flight models that feels just right, real physics (no cap on velocity as long as you keep burning; only saw it in KSP and Rogue System so far), deep if you care about the company system, real sandbox with an impact on the world, and I have to add that the orchestral music is beautiful and fits perfectly the pleasant ambiance of the game. Playing this game feels like watching 2001: A space odyssey; not that the music or assets are similar, but your brain and eyes will feel the same.
If you are into space sims and not necessarily intense shooters with fancy effects everywhere, you will like it (even the fights are nice, much calmer than fights in other space games, and it's not a bad thing). If you're into intense shooters, think twice, but give it a try, you may like what you'll see. If you're into trading, you may like it, but you will have to go through some piloting first. In any case, don't expect an AAA game with 52 billions stars or a mix of FPS/Fight/Exploration and 160M funding, but do expect a game beautifully made with a great attention to the details. The game is not expensive and is well worth that price, or more. The team have opened their source code, have a public bug tracker (with visible progress), communication is great, and their first game is good, it's encouraging to see development going this way.
There is a minor bug in the current build with UE4 on Linux with AMD mesa drivers, basically there's no bright sunlights on my computer. Sad. And then, looking at screenshots and videos, I realized I much prefer the game this way, looks more realistic and just more "space" when the bright anodized paints are more subtle in the shade. Now I'm not sure I want the bug to be fixed!
Stable engine with nice graphics and which supports high DPI and high refresh rate (120Hz with vsync in my case).
Nice music and nice tutorial / progression.
I've seen maybe 30% of the game and I like it _very_ much, I like the gameplay in general, the trading mechanics, the fleet automation (with commercial routes) and got a taste of combats.
It's a dream coming true to finally have a promising Elite / Frontier successor, with cool devs and thank you so much for supporting Linux.
Much better than the assholes team of Elite Dangerous.
Interesting space sim/space trade game.
I like that the setting is much more sci-fi than other space sims that fall more into space-fantasy (X3 or X Rebirth). Graphics are up to standards and controlling your ship is hard, as the game strives to have realistic physics (so you got inertia and no friction, your spacecraft won't slow down until you hit the backburners).
I appreciate the Linux support
I'll update this review later, but so far, it gets a thumbs up from me.
A remarkably unique take on the space trading genre, Helium Rain is doing Early Access right. You'll find bugs, typos, all the old favorites, but the developers are extremely receptive (they even have their own Redmine server you can log and track bugs in) and quick to turnaround fixes and enhancement.
Past the Early Access considerations, you're left with a very compact, but utterly hypnotic space trading/combat game. "Compact" because HR eschews the current trend of "fifteen trillion stars!" for just a handful of planets and sectors, but those planets and sectors are never without plenty to do, from running simple courier missions to building space stations, developing a trade fleet, commanding an economic empire. Fly one ship while the rest of your fleet is own doing your bidding (and hopefully making some money while they're at it.) For me it's almost reminiscent of something like Euro Truck Simulator 2 in that regard. Except in space. And with guns.
On the surface, look at the screenshots. The washed out, high-contrast colors and dreamlike music confer one of the most "chill" space games I can remember. The clean UI is occasionally fiddly, occasionally brilliant, and while it might look a bit too much like your cable box UI, it does the job and continues to improve.
Even this early, I find it one of the more compelling space games in my library. And unlike some games that provide an entire galaxy but leave you wondering what to do next, more than once I've forgotten what I'd planned to do because something else more interesting came up, and then forgot I was doing THAT because something even more interesting than that came up. Even while you're blissing out to the celestial look and feel, you'll never be bored.
If any of this sounds good to you, and you don't mind the vagaries of Early Access, I'd say, hit that Buy button immediately.
Great game so far. I only scratched to surface of its features but for now here are some pros/cons and I'll probably update this in time:
Pro:
- Really motivated developer: Quick response to issues(bugs) opened in their bug tracker
- Quite a lot of tutorial contracts which will introduce features step-by-step without forcing the player to actually complete
them
- Very stable game
- Dynamic economy
Cons:
- Minor con: It is playable at 4k resolution, but some menus will get quite small, so I would advice to play in 2560x1440 for now Fixed with the latest patch :)
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Deimos Games |
| Платформы | Windows, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 31.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 77% положительных (176) |