Recent reviews by Zap zockt

I will add a more complex Review later.
Disclaimer: I have been an internal tester for a long time, and helped voluntarily to form this game to what it is now.

As a short review for now, this is a viking version of The Settlers, Going Medieval, Farthest Frontier and Rimworld in 3rd Person, mixed with a complex survival system, not just for the player(s) but also for all NPCs. It is a colony sim, don't compare it to Valheim, Conan or Ark, because Aska is so much more and much deeper.

And you (and upto 3 more players in co-op) are villagers in this village, you are the mayors, the chieftains of the tribe and everything is under your control. The game offers a lot of settings, job tasks, priorities, etc to setup your village and your tribe to your liking.

I played a lot of RTS, colony sims and other build-up strategy games, and this is the first (at least the first I liked) where you can be right inside the village and be a part of your town together with upto 100 or more NPC settlers. This is a dream, I had for 2 centuries, which came true in this game.

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.



In this game, you lead a tribe in the Stone Age, and over time the primitives become experienced settlers, fighters, and explorers, but also families with children, problems, worries, and lots of pets. I will show you the gameplay (German / English CC) and give you all the information about the game. So you will know if you like it or not.

(There is a detailled analysis with all the features and gameplay mechanics of the game in the article)


I don’t really have much to complain about the game. With a few minor exceptions, it had very few bugs and ran smoothly. PSS had increasingly interesting gameplay and I really enjoyed it.
Runs stable, active development team in place

PSS is usually a very calm game, with speed adjustable from 1x to 8x, you can step on the gas in quieter moments and switch to slow or pause when there’s more action.

Sometimes it is a little too tranquil. Since science is very limited at the beginning of the game, building options and gameplay features are limited at first.

And so there is a lack of things to do in the early part of the game, other than just observe. Things get better as you go along, but overall the start is kind of lame.


(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/gqw7MB9bHrQ

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/enshrouded-review-test/

Some of the features are clearly copied from Rimworld and Going Medieval. But I think it’s a smart idea to take inspiration from two games that are so good at what they do. And some of the game mechanics, such as the hunting and gathering of herbs, or especially the knowledge system, I have never seen in this form before. So they took proven systems and mixed in their own innovative ideas.

Very fair price

The price of 18.49 € or $ is very reasonable in my eyes. The game already offers an interesting variety of gameplay at the Early Access launch and the prospect of further updates with more content and improvements makes this offer even better.

Primitive Society Simulator Review – Rating

For the fair price of 18.49€ or $, you get a fully playable and stable game with varied and sometimes unique gameplay ideas.

For this well-rounded offer, Primitive Society Simulator gets a rating of 82% from me. A better rating would require more maps or a map generator and fewer gaps at the beginning.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/primitive-society-simulator-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/primitive-society-simulator-review-test/

Nightingale Review nach 50h:

Sehr viele eigene Ideen, die das Survival Genre aus ganz neuen Winkeln beleuchten. Sehr komplexes Craftingsystem und sehr abwechslungsreiche Welten. Der Baumodus ist ganz klar bei Enshrouded besser, aber Nightingale ist schöner und abwechslungsreicher.

8,5/10
Review wird später noch ausführlich erweitert

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.



Enshrouded is a game that offers survival in an open world similar to Ark, Valheim, or Conan Exiles. Unlike most of its competitors, however, there is a complex RPG system under the hood, many traps and puzzles make the gameplay more interesting and the open world, building mode, and crafting are really something special. There is also solo play, but up to 16 players can take part in multiplayer.


Let’s start with the criticism and problems. Sometimes monsters get stuck in the floor, this happens rarely, but when it happens it’s annoying. You can dig them out with a pickaxe during the fight and once they’re exposed, it’s possible to kill them. But it does have a somewhat immersion-destroying effect.

What bothered me a bit is that quest revelations sometimes apply server-wide, which makes the interaction more difficult and sometimes more annoying. In any case, under these conditions, I only want to play Enshrouded with good friends with whom I can coordinate well. And even then there were some minor frictions.

5 NPCs is a rather small number

The NPCs and their tools that you unlock are also always completely server-wide. And you can only position these 5 people in a single base. I found that a bit disappointing, but unfortunately I can’t think of a better solution. Overall, however, I think that 5 NPCs are a bit too few and it would be nice if there were ways to use the features of these NPCs in different locations.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/mf7EWz2d0O4

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/enshrouded-review-test/

One of the most beautiful worlds of all fantasy open world games

The game offers an extremely varied world. One of the strongest points in favor of Enshrouded is the enormously varied, detailed, and, above all, three-dimensional world design. There are several sections of the world, each with a completely different design and different biomes.

From green meadows and rolling mountains to sandy savannah with steep ravines, to swamps filled with water and mud, there are several different landscapes, all with their own building styles and different enemies.

Add to this the fact that the world is shrouded by a miasma threat in the lower levels with miasma fog turning everything into a dark and twisted mushroom equivalent of the world above the fog, which actually doubles the number of styles.

This tremendously good and hand-designed map is a real treat on the first playthrough. I will say that the Enshrouded map is one of the most beautiful fantasy open worlds I’ve ever seen, and there have been quite a few. It offers adventure and role-playing for both group and solo players over a few hundred hours for sure.

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/enshrouded-review-test/

Enshrouded is a great game, highly recommended

All in all, our group of 6 people had more than 50 hours, some even over 100 hours of fun in Enshrouded. The exploration is great, the building is extensive, and the battles are between relaxed and challenging. The multiplayer features are well thought out and work well.

Apart from the fact that the map is not yet complete, I think Enshrouded could easily have been released without the Early Access add-on. The game quality, performance, stability, and all-around feel of the game are already at a very high level. The price of just under 30 euros or dollars is more than reasonable and I think it’s also very fair for the scope on offer and the already good quality.

I am very excited to see where the journey with Enshrouded will take us over the next few months. Keen Games has a good reputation for continuing to develop its games after release, enhancing them with new content and supporting them. So I’m hoping for some good updates in the future.

In summary, Enshrouded is a great action RPG for both solo and multiplayer players and I can only recommend taking a look at it. Even if I suspect that this look will take a few dozen hours.

Enshrouded Rating

If I summarize all these points and let the many exciting hours in Enshrouded pass before my mind’s eye, the game offers an enormous amount for explorers and fans of multiplayer role-playing games, as well as for open world fans and master builders.

For the fair price of just under 30 euros or dollars, Enshrouded offers a complete gaming experience and content for dozens of hours of fun right from the Early Access launch. Therefore I would like to award a base rating of 95%.

There is still room for improvement though. I would like to deduct two percent for minor problems here and there, the somewhat rudimentary camp options, and what I consider a lack of NPCs. But without random elements and a map generator, I see problems with the replay value, which I rate with another 3% deduction. This brings me to a still wonderful final score for Enshrouded of 90%

I am very sure that Keen Games will add a lot more content, features, and more of everything to the game in the coming months, as well as some fine-tuning. This will probably improve the score even more, I see the potential for up to 95% if the DEVs make a real effort.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/enshrouded-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/enshrouded-review-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE).

Opinion and Conclusion

SeaOrama disappointingly offers no fun at all and far too few features. To be honest, you’d have to say it’s a totally boring and uninspired game, and you could probably build more exciting Excel spreadsheets. I’m sorry for the developer that I had to write this, but a game should offer variety, challenges, different ways to play, and fun, and in SeaOrama, unfortunately, you won’t find any of that.

SeaOrama Rating

At 19.99 euros or dollars, the game is not very expensive, but unfortunately, this is still far too much for the depth of gameplay offered, or rather not offered. Even for 5 euros/dollars, I would have been annoyed if I had bought the game. Unfortunately, I have to give SeaOrama a rating of 35%. At least it works, but that’s all it does. And above all and most importantly, it’s no fun.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/seaorama-world-of-shipping-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/seaorama-world-of-shipping-review-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.


I have a lot of criticism. But still, I played 200 hours and also had a lot of fun in the game. I thought about it for a long time and asked myself why. What captivated me?

In short, Starfield is a very special game, with many ups and downs. It’s not easy to compare to other games, because it’s just a huge mix of a large number of game elements into something very special.

Not all of these parts are top-notch, some games that specialize in one or a few of these parts may do one or the other particular feature better, look prettier doing it, or offer better performance.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/et1x2C489pQ

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/starfield-review-bethesdas-space-role-playing-game-in-the-test/

Starfield is probably unique in this variety and mix of features. Space, spaceships, exploration, role-playing, extensive story, and many other elements make up a whole that is much more than just the sum of its parts.

And even with the New Game Plus, they’ve come up with something very unique, which I won’t spoil here. But in short, there is a strong story incentive to play through the game multiple times.

It’s just that Bethesda must have set different priorities for the individual components that make up the game during development. And so some are absolutely top class, like the spaceship designer, some quests, the basic principle of procedural planet generation, or some parts of the graphics.

Others are rather mediocre, like the small selection of different designs of random locations or the rather weak enemy variations. Finally, some are really bad or simply neglected, like the base building, the random NPCs, the temple sequences, or even the performance itself.

Starfield Rating

It’s not easy to sum up Starfield with a final score in a single number. The emotions and experiences are that far apart, it went from astonished open-mouth moments to anger and almost crying over the omitted or neglected things with me. Therefore, I give 90% as a basic rating. However, I then deducted 5% for poor hardware optimization, and another 5% I have to deduct for the many unfinished game elements that are uneven in quality.

This brings me to a final rating of 80% for Starfield in its current state. I am very, very sure that over the next 12-18 months, patches, DLCs, and mods will make up for this 10% deduction.

Of course, this is a subjective opinion of mine. And I think it’s even possible that, depending on your preferences as a gamer, it could be the perfect game for some right now. But for others, the cold horror might grip them and they might feel that Starfield is something they don’t want to play at all.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/starfield-review-bethesdas-space-role-playing-game-in-the-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/starfield-review-bethesdas-space-role-playing-game-in-the-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.


Miasma Chronicles is a science fiction RPG with turn-based tactical combat a la XCOM in an end-time version of the USA. And unlike the previous two games, there is no indie team behind this title, but experienced developers with a slightly larger budget, so it’s more of an AA game.

Due to initially unknown circumstances, the formerly corporate-ruled world is broken and haunted by a strange threat called Miasma. This substance causes all kinds of destruction as well as a kind of dimensional shift. And on top of that, there are strange beings who worship the miasma as some kind of deity and want to exterminate all humans.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/ZnLk4sR3ql4

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

But I see all kinds of problems in the balancing because the fights are really crisp. And sometimes it gets frustrating to the point of pulling your hair out. The enemies are numerous and deal out a lot of damage, while healing material is very scarce and our hero group is often massively outnumbered. The cooldowns are usually way too long, and even for distraction skills you have to find empty bottles first, and they are strangely rare to pick up, although there are plenty of them everywhere as decoration.

In addition, even simple actions like healing and reloading consume our extremely scarce action points, so you’re often simply overrun. And regenerating between fights doesn’t work either. So, even if you know your heroes are badly banged up, you can’t just go home and rest. You have to go into the next fight wounded, and first use action points and the rare consumables for that again. I find that very, very strange and not nice.

On some maps, you can make up for it by sneaking, sneaky ambushes, or clever use of the environment. And if you manage to resolve the almost puzzle-like difficult combat scenario of some maps and use the environment to your advantage, there’s fun and satisfaction in having accomplished something.

But the story also often throws you into battles unprepared with half HP, where there are no opportunities to perform special placements or ambushes. This may certainly provide a great challenge for some tactics fans. However, I found it a bit too intense for my taste, even on difficulty 2 out of 4. There is also a story mode where the battles are then dialed down even further, but my goodness, can the game kick your butt sometimes.

So after 10 hours into the game, I’ve played some battles twice or four times and am far from having seen the end of the game. But always I was wavering between “I want to see more of the fancy world and learn more wacky miasma skills” and “boah, been surrounded and wiped out again, completely out of healing potions and not really had a chance, that sucks”.

While the presentation is mostly high quality, the price of €50 or $ seems reasonable. However, with the high frustration level due to what I see as immature balancing, you somehow can’t fully enjoy this fancy world. And that somehow leaves the price tag with a very, very pale aftertaste for me.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/neue-games-mai-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.


In Mountaincore we establish a dwarf state. Similar to Rimworld, Going Medieval, or Clanfolk, we start with a few inhabitants, build the first buildings, and develop increasingly complex techniques. Thus, we gradually build an entire dwarf kingdom under the mountain and trade with the surrounding settlements. The game is developed by Rocket Jump Technology and this is their first project.

The graphics of Mountaincore are pure 2D and kept quite simple, comparable to the models RimWorld or Prison Architect. The animations are rather sparse and overall everything is kept in block style and not particularly detailed. But nevertheless, over time it becomes quite a complex state system, not quite as extensive as in the model games, but it is already going in that direction.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/ZnLk4sR3ql4

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

Mountaincore was released on Steam in Early Access on May 18th. So development is still in full swing and the developers have all sorts of ideas and plans for new rooms, more features, and actually more of everything. At just under $23 or €, the price for the content offered is rather on the higher end of the scale, for my taste. But if you don’t mind the simplistic graphic style, you can certainly find a few hours of fun here.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/neue-games-mai-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.


We play Aiyana, a young woman who we also learn more about gradually. We try to figure out how to save our world from the new threat of the walking undead in an easily digestible story. In the process, we get to know some NPCs, who almost always offer rather simple quests for us. So there are tasks like collecting the X item, finding NPC Y, or such simple things. And almost always it is connected with the fact that we first have to develop a new extra tile for the map, more about that in a moment.

Above Snakes, which means “still alive”, in addition to the usual survival elements of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, also offers a stat for the mental health of our heroine. We can better prepare her for the demands and threats of our world with equipment in 5 slots. In addition, we construct our own buildings, fields, and workshops from various construction elements. In general, resource gathering and crafting is a very important part of the game.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/ZnLk4sR3ql4

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

Speaking of the world, here lies a very special and also original and unique selling point of Above Snakes. Our world is not predefined or randomly generated, but we craft map pieces and can arrange them according to our wishes, like in a board game. This results in some replay value, because we may be able to arrange our cards differently next time.

Over time, we explore some standard maps like meadows, forests, deserts, ponds, and mixtures of these elements, but also some special map tiles that we need especially for the quests and main story. But in the end, it is enough to make a few cards of each biome and build the main cards once each.

Disappointingly, the system with the free arrangement of the map tiles doesn’t offer as much variety as you first might think. And the story is rather shallow, and survival offers only a few challenges. Nevertheless, it’s enough for about 15 to 20 hours of gameplay. Only once the story is played through, and you have fully developed your character, there is not much replay value, in my opinion.

Above Snakes unfortunately costs a bit more than I think is appropriate for such a small indie game and for its scope of play, at just under $25 or €. However, it runs very stable and really has some very unique ideas and fancy character designs, which I liked a lot. Above Snakes is also optimized for the Steam deck, by the way, so you get an entertaining little game for the on-the-go.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/new-games-may-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

DE https://zapzockt.de/de/neue-games-mai-2023-mountaincore-above-snakes-miasma-chronicles-early-access-mini-review-test/

This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis (>3600 words), which you can find here[zapzockt.de] (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.




RE2 is of course a lot more modern, but it's still very similar to its predecessor, which is now 5 years old, or its 30-year-old ancestor. On the one hand, this is great for fans of the old series, but on the other hand, I also see a problem, because not much innovation has happened in the now over 30 years.

There are nicer 3D graphics, a few new features have been added, and the track construction has been simplified and made more logical. But most things are still the same as they were back then. Even many of the menus look almost identical. And the interface still feels like it did back then, although nowadays it would certainly be much more convenient and clear.

New is the possibility to build up to 8-lane stations. Unfortunately, it is often pointless to build 4-lane or even wider tracks. At least if you leave the track planning to the automatic. Because the automatic train planning can indeed distribute the load at the station to the existing platforms with the railhead stations. But it can't manage to distribute the trains on parallel tracks in order to avoid congestion and overloads.

(German voice-over, CC in ENG and many other languages)
https://youtu.be/Bhr-luJ-H7Q

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/railway-empire-2-review-test/


Railway Empire 2 offers a multiplayer mode. You can play all levels, maps, and scenarios in co-op multiplayer. So you can manage the same company together and build together. This is a very nice feature, but unfortunately, I couldn't test it yet, because I only had one key. A total of up to four players per map should be possible.

That means you can invite other players into any game whenever you want. So you can not only convert a single-player game into a multiplayer game at any time, but you can also continue a multiplayer game alone afterward if the other players don't want to play anymore. And if you somehow run into problems on a map, you can get your friends to help, and ponder and talk shop together about the problems.

In theory, this sounds very promising, provided you know someone who shares your fascination for railroads. Technically, crossplay has also been thought of here. So it doesn't matter if your friends play on PC, Playstation, or XBox, they are all equally able to play together.


The game still has a few small bugs that are occasionally annoying. For example, why does a train pass an expensive maintenance post only to break down 100 yards away due to insufficient maintenance? Why do I get the "10 million invested in the stock market" achievement on Steam when I've invested just one million? And of course, the 100 million Achievement follows at the 10 million mark. Just a few small examples. But none of those is really severe.

The city's growth is also not very logical in parts. In the campaign, I had the task to let a certain region grow. It lacked only 12500 inhabitants, which normally goes up quite fast in a well-supplied city. So I sent about 15 trains loaded with goods to the region and made sure that the needs of the cities were met as much as possible.

However, the calculation for this is a bit strange and then this leads to the fact that the city was only 58.3% supplied, and for sure there is no way that even a single person can move to this city. Even if hundreds of travelers arrive there every week. Nobody stays because the supply is below that threshold. But if at some point you reach 60 or 61%, then suddenly hundreds or thousands of people move into the city each week. Here, floating values would be better than such hard thresholds, in my opinion.

What bothers me quite a lot are the often long waiting times. I know this is relatively normal in economic games, that you sometimes have to wait to buy a new building or hire a new employee. With Railway Empire 2, however, it is somehow even more noticeable that I am constantly waiting. I build a few routes at the beginning, install a few trains, and at some point the cash register is empty. Then I think about the next route, plan its course, etc. But it takes forever till I can build it. So I wait and wait until slowly money comes into the cash register.

shortened, read more here: https://zapzockt.de/en/railway-empire-2-review-test/

But still, I feel that besides graphics embellishments and greatly improved track building, there would have been a lot of room somewhere for a few more new features and some surprises in the gameplay. Somehow it could often be a bit more innovative, bringing more new ideas that would add variety to the all-too-familiar gameplay. Overall, I think Gaming Minds squanders some chances here to take the genre to a new level.

Of course, that's kind of complaining on a high level. The fact is, RE2 is technically almost perfect, runs stable, and offers numerous challenges that make your head spin. Due to sometimes really crunchy tasks with tight time constraints, it might even get a bit very hard here and there.

But for all fans of the genre who like to send trains through the countryside in order to do business with them and build an increasingly large railroad empire, RE2 actually ticks off all the checkboxes. It doesn't leave much to be desired and transfers the railroad tycoon genre to a new generation that doesn't need to hide behind its predecessors.

The game offers many small improvements and positive points, which I have already mentioned in the section "What's new" further ahead, especially in track building. Even if I was cursing or frustrated by waiting and failing here and there, RE2 has always motivated me to start again and take on the challenge once more. That's a very good sign of long-term motivation, I think.

In conclusion, Railway Empire 2 offers a great overall package and a lot of fun and lasting entertainment for business tinkerers and railroad fans. You can't say much negatively about the price of $50 or €. For that, you get easily 100 hours of gameplay and, with multiplayer options, maybe even more.

As an outlook into the future, there is on my wish list that there should also be a map editor or random maps, which would be a great expansion. And somehow one or two more speed levels would be great to reduce waiting times.

Otherwise, there will be numerous of the usual continent DLCs again, with new maps and missions. I kind of see that with one laughing eye and one crying eye.


For a price of $50 or €, Railway Empire 2 offers the full package of the railroad industry and economic challenge. Everything is presented in modern graphics and spiced up with optimized track construction. For this, I would like to give RE2 a basic rating of 84%.

Since it actually delivers everything as expected and desired, but also doesn't do much particularly outstanding, there are no deductions, but also no bonus points this time. Which makes 84 % the final rating in this Railway Empire 2 review.

Read the full article here:

EN https://zapzockt.de/en/railway-empire-2-review-test/
DE https://zapzockt.de/de/railway-empire-2-review-test/