You know... I have 3000 fricking hours on Space Engineers 1, I could have learned to fly a plane in that time, so you can imagine, I was not best pleased when Space Engineers 2 was announced because I wanted Space Engineers 1 to continue being developed as the sole major game of Keen Software given all the pain I had been through over a decade from its early days. I just could not see the point in this sequel. But having finally bought into this Alpha after it has baked for a while, man I get it, I was wrong. This thing has some serious potential to be everything Space Engineers 1 wasn't. From the barely 45 minutes I have spent on it so far I can already see VAST improvements in quality of life even just at this alpha stage. The tools are more responsive, the actions with them are just more snappy, sound design is cracking. The U.I although a little different, is incredibly intuitive, the flight mechanics, oh boy are they nicer in atmosphere. I even hit the deck a little rough and nothing exploded like I would have expected via SE1 that at times would take the slightest bump to a block and BOOM you were in pieces. o.o Not here :D The graphics... are simply insane. I dread to think how much higher poly counts these models have but they all look genuinely crisp. The planetary environments and particle effects of jets, fire, and clouds and dust etc are MILES beyond Space Engineers 1. You can see my PC specifications below this, and know I was running in EXTREME settings at 1440p and it was running like absolute butter. Not a single feeling of low fps. The planets themselves are that detailed and feel alive. It would be nice to see some birds and such in the future, even if just faked for the atmosphere but hopefully all in good time. The volumetric clouds are exceptionally realistic, and I am really hoping to visit worlds with some WILD weather on them in future. One of my greatest loves that so few games do, is genuine violent weather, and in this I would LOVE having to build shelter and hunker down in the warm hearing the wind and rain lash outside, maybe even have it pop a window here and there ^.^ I get this is still in Alpha, they have a lot more to come, but I am genuinely excited for this and looking forward to multiplayer, modding, and no more janky physics bugs. Give me sand storms, give me wind, give me rain, give me lightning, give me adventure, and take my money by all means. Been a wild 12 years for me with you to this point Keen, I am now 44, Lets see what this is like by the time I hit my 50th. :o)
