Dysmantle (2021)

The "destroy things so you can build things that let you destroy more things" loop is fun in the exact kind of grindy way that my brain latches onto, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Every mechanic outside that core loop isn't really built out to an interesting level (with some of them feeling like they were abandoned halfway through development), the story is an interesting premise but doesn't exist beyond that (as in, your actions in the game don't drive the narrative at all), and visually it's just a handful of unremarkable assets copied over and over again (but in very generic and mundane configurations, not in a cool Minecraft "ooh, look at that weird rock formation with a waterfall that goes directly into a lava pit" kind of way).

It did, however, teach me something important about what I want from a survival/crafting game. Because normally I bounce off these within an hour or two, and what Dysmantle helped me realize is that it's because they introduce base building way too early. I don't want to be building a base when I'm still barely able to gather any resources, that's tedious and unsatisfying. Base building, for me at least, should be saved for the late game when you don't have to grind as long to get what you need. Also, it shouldn't be "you start by building dirt walls, but then you can build wood walls, but then you can build stone walls, etc." because I don't want to have to replace all my walls every 3 hours. The things you unlock should be, by and large, additions, not substitutions. (Though, upgrades are fine if they're automatic, e.g. I upgrade my walls from wood to stone, and it automatically replaces the wood walls with stone walls rather than making me go around and replace them manually.)

So what Dysmantle does well is it doesn't have you doing base building early on. What it doesn't do well is it also doesn't have meaningful base building at all. Apparently there's a side quest where you can build a house? But that's it, and I didn't even encounter that quest. Other than that you get 3 structures you can build for defence and 2 manufacturing machines...and that's it. Like I said, everything that isn't the core gameplay loop is really half-assed. And there's so much room in the building menu, so it feels like they intended for there to be a lot more stuff there and just gave up.

So because there's no meaningful base building it gets to the point where, ok, I've essentially beaten the game (i.e. gotten the escape pod ready to go), so what's the point of completing the Ark to get a better weapon so I can destroy more things, other than achievement hunting? The ending just falls flat. Like, you can see the peak of the mountain where you think the end of the game is, but then you get 70% of the way the mountain and just stumble across the end of the game, so you realize the peak doesn't actually matter and all your excitement about getting there just kind of fizzles out and you're just standing on the middle of a mountain going "well, I guess I'm done."

What they should've done is instead of having the time-loop McGuffin be the escape pod, they should've had it be some time machine device that you have to build, but it's so advanced that you have to build a whole new fortress around it, so the late game becomes about base building and unlocking new things in the Fabricator (because why did they make a whole other medium of crafting for like 3 things) (also at some point some degree of automation for resource gathering would be cool) until you've got a cool awesome base (with cool defenses as well like Tesla coils and stuff, because as you're building your base it attracts monsters, but you want to attract monsters because you need to harvest the mana orbs to fuel the time machine) and finally you get the time machine working only once you've destroyed like a huge percentage of the island and killed most of the monsters...you know, an actual gameplay incentive to engage with the game at the level they want us to, instead of having like 30% of their game just be for weirdo achievement freaks.

But as it is it's just a bit of a nothingburger.