I’m looking at Last Epoch. It’s $35 on Steam, but in early access. I’ve seen some good reviews, but still not sure I like the idea of paying to be in a beta. I know there is an argument that many times AAA releases still seem like beta, and we pay $60+ for those.
Have you played any early access games? Did they eventually become full releases or did you end up throwing your money away?
Also, if you’re playing Last Epoch, what are your thoughts.
I love a good, plucky indie game sometimes. I have quite a few in my library, and I actively seek them out based on whimsy. I see a lot of early access games as a result.
Many of them have concluded satisfactorily. In general, the smaller the studio, the less communicative the developers are, the more basic the game looks and plays, the more likely the game is to fail.
This isn’t always true, of course. But in general, I’ve been satisfied with a lot of my EA purchases. I do tend to hold off until it looks like it’s fun to play the way it is–that is to say, I am buying the game the way it is at the moment of purchase, and the only time I ever violated that rule was when I knew the company was good for it, that had a good track record.
I’m not likely to play Last Epoch. I’m not averse to ARPGs, but I need them to be coop from top to bottom. My wife loves the genre, so it’s fun exploring with her. But that said, I’ve got a good feeling you’ll get your money’s worth out of the game. They’ve been at it for years and a Kickstarter, and despite all that they’re still making posts more than once a week. The game looks pretty sharp. If it had coop I’d be in.
I generally enjoy EA titles; I’ve been playing 7 Days to Die for… just looked it up, in 3 days it will be 7 years (guess they should change the name?), and it is still in EA. But… I’ve got nearly 800 hours in and was playing it as recently as 3 hours ago. Some games fizzle out; most have gone on to full release. Ark: Survival Evolved I picked up in Early Access, and have over 900 hours, and it has long since gone on to full release. The Forest, another I picked up in EA, but… by the time it released, I didn’t like how it turned out. Don’t regret my purchase one bit though!
I like to support developers that are doing the things I want to see in games, so if I can support that, I will always pick up an early access title; it might shake out the way I want, or it might not, but a game would have to be truly terrible for me not to get $20- to $60-worth of entertainment out of it.
I have quite a few games that started out as early access my Steam library. 7 Days to Die and The Forest are in my library, but I never played them all that much. Not really a reflection of the games as they seem pretty popular.
DayZ I picked up the standalone version when it went into early access years ago. I really liked the ArmA mod, but felt the standalone never really ended up as anything. Although I did log about 300 hours, so ultimately not a bad deal.
Similarly I tried the game SCUM when it first came out in early access. Basically I went through a whole “open world survival walking simulator” phase a few years back. Never tried Rust. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that to enjoy many of those games, you either need to have a group of similarly interested friends or enjoy playing alone and all of you need thousands of hours of free time. None of which I have
Space Engineers I got into from the beginning and played over 2000 hours. Same with Oxygen Not Included.
Ironically, I most enjoyed Ark when it was basically “Sim Caveman” and not armor-clad laser dragons and rocket launchers. So getting in early was a boon in that case 
In terms of Last Epoch, I think you’re largely safe. “Very Positive” reviews on Steam and the first people to buy an EA game like that are the die-hard ARPG players who are likely to be most critical. It sounds as though all the major functions are in to make it a fully playable game and they’re adding in stuff like trading and multiplayer that make the game “better” but you still get a full game either way. Certainly not all EA games are like that and some seem dead on arrival but I don’t think that’s a risk here or a “We Happy Few” situation where the devs decide to completely change the game’s direction halfway through.
Yeah, I went ahead and bought the game. Have barely scratched the surface, but I can already tell its one of those RPGs where you need to keep a calculator close by.
This was probably my best experience with Early Access: it’s a phenomenal game. I’ve also done EA with Valheim, Subnautica, Below Zero, and Baldur’s Gate 3, among others. I think that the more story-oriented a game is, the less happy I am with having gone early access. Games like Oxygen Not Included, where it’s more of a sandbox, are a lot better for EA.
Absolutely! I actually play on my own server with a few friends, and mod out all non-primitive items.
I definitely think sandbox games have the most to offer in early access.
That’s true. If it’s a sim type game or an action shooter or something easily replayable then EA is fine. If it’s an actual RPG or story-heavy game, I’d prefer them to be done with it before I play so I get the finalized experience.
I would tend to agree. Speaking of which, I think Rimworld was also in late early access when I first started playing it. As was Minecraft, technically.
One risk of early access open world games is that a lot of times, they don’t really become anything besides a virtual Lego set / walking simulator.
I’ve been playing Surviving the Aftermath in early access since its first cut. It’s nearly there and changing radically (again!)
I must have begun 20 or 30 new colonies over that time but don’t mind the constant restarts, they’re a good way to keep up with the changes.