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Meeple Station is a simulation building game set among the stars, developed by Vox Games. This is a review of only the Beta version, with the game being fully released in early 2019. Meeple Station is a cute wee indie game that has been well developed for the “casual gamer”, it’s easy to jump into, and fairly informative in the beginning. Meeple Station is a strategy simulation RPG developed by Vox Games! Even though this indie game is still in its early access, the game is very.
Meeple Station is a space station simulator that has been in early access for awhile and I figured it’d be good to give it a look now in September of 2019. Some of the early feedback was that the game was shallow and I think, from what I’ve played, that’s not so true anymore. Once your station is launched, there is definitely some waiting time before you can do “more” and that will likely evolve over time, but there is a lot to do in the game as is.
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Gameplay
The gameplay is very in-depth at this stage of development for a simulation game. On the surface, it seems shallow, but ultimately more layers of the game emerge as you play it for any significant amount of time. The first thing you have to do is build your station with a limited set of resources (or spawn a pre-configured “good enough” blueprint which you can work off of). I like doing a mix of the good enough blueprint and adding more beds and expanding a bit at this phase.
Once you launch your station, you’ll then be given a set of Meeple, which I advise you to customize while you get the chance to build a good starting crew with a dedicated Miner, Janitor, Engineer, Refiner and Captain. That’s the dream team skeleton crew to make your station run smoothly.
One operational, the goal of the game is open ended, with the following task list available to do:
- Survive.
- Trade and gather.
- Build ships and eventually move your station to another sector.
- ???
- Profit
Operating the station is a challenge, unless you do some reading or play through the tutorial, as the game is both forgiving and unforgiving. You’re not in any kind of extreme crunch from the start – you’re given reserves full of water and power, but if you built your station wrong (i.e. airlock into the main section without bulkheads) or didn’t assign the right Meeple starting off, a cascade failure will start and you’ll lose. As you grow your station, you’ll have to make sure your Meeple that you keep onboard your station are worth the rations you spend on them.
Once you’re in simulation mode, a lot of people compare the game to Space Station 13, but that’s not so true. It’s much more like The Sims and Oxygen Not Included mixed together. You don’t control the Meeple directly, they do whatever they want to do while you can make suggestions or commands (i.e. mine this, refine that). You’ll work trading with nearby trading vessels, researching additional technology and building out your station from the meager beginnings.
Right now there is an engine to build that lets you move your station (although galactic travel is suspended at the moment) and ships you can construct, which require lots of resources, research and gathering while keeping your Meeple happy, not stressed and alive. That’s a lot to observe and manager, but the game also does a good job with the AI to have the Meeple take care of themselves.
You’ll need to research a host of new technology to get ready to build your second station, but you’ll also want to ready the station to defend itself (with shielding, weapons and better armor for your Meeple). This also requires more roles to have Meeple in, plus you’ll need security officers patrolling in the event a pirate ship docks with your station which trade vessels bring new Meeple every now and then. This is while making sure the Meeple are happy, otherwise they may leave your ship in some not so interesting ways.
If you play long enough, you’ll be able to expand and build multiple stations and trade between the two. Allowing you to maximize nearby resources and trade with each other using your ships that you build.
Early Access Review – Is it worth it?
I would seriously compare this to the base game of The Sims 3. In the base game you can build a house, your sim can go on a career path, meet neighbors and do Sims things, but that’s it. There isn’t a ton of decorations, a ton of activities for your Sims to do and not much else. As more expansion packs are added to the game, your Sim can go to space, do magic and have a stable of pets. Right now, the more they add to the game, the better it’s going to get and the more depth there will be to playing.
I’m definitely excited to see where the game is in a year once you’re able to build lots of stations and trade effortlessly among them, more decorative items and more modules to do more interesting things and other fun traits.
Should you buy this right now? Well, I’d suggest definitely adding it to your wish list if you’re a fan of simulator games and keeping an eye on it for a sale or more updates. Is there enough game to play now? I’d argue yes, but you’d need to get past the early access trappings, lack of content and possible save game wipes between versions so that would need some dedication. There is monthly updates to the game, which looking at the history add lots of fun things each time – so if you love logging in each month to see what’s new that would also make this a worthwhile purchase.
Just ignore reviews from last year or very early this year, from watching YouTubes and reading the updates, it’s almost a new game compared to 8 months ago. You do get a $20 game right now that is fully functional with a good bit of depth and 20+ hours of gameplay out of the box. So that’s not too much of a concern. The early version didn’t have things like the ability to build multiple stations, venting oxygen around or the new UI or Meeple editor.
I’ve had fun with the game and again, just really excited to see where it is in the future. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
Game Truth received a free copy of the game from the developer.
Meeple Station is station simulation game developed by Vox Games and released into early access on,. The humble bundle link is a referral, I get a small commission if you purchase the game through it. This early access analysis was performed byMeeple Station shares some similarities with RimWorld, which got my attention straight away. But Meeple Station is not a clone by any stretch of the imagination. You manage a station of Meeples, attempting to ring as much profit as possible while keeping the crew happy and alive. Neither of which is easy to do.You start the game by building the start of your station with a limited amount of funds. The difficulty you choose affects how many credits you start with, in addition to other factors.
The station building is completely freeform, you simply drop down pieces like legos and since you can build multiple floors, up and down. Your station can take any shape you desire. It’s intuitive and easy to understand and useDuring this first part, your pieces are built right away. Once you actually begin the game, however, each station module or piece of furniture has to be constructed by an engineer. Once you set up the required essentials, such as power and oxygen. You pick your starting quadrant to begin the game in. This is the only time you have free reign to choose.
Moving to another quadrant later requires effort and fuel, so choose wisely. I made a couple of bad moves with this early design, but I thought it looked cool!Once you have picked your starting quadrant you begin running your station. You start with four randomly generated meeples, you have to promote one of them to be the station’s captain in order to assign other roles and then you can be on your merry way.You don’t control your meeples directly, you give orders and they follow them.
Each Meeple has their own quirks. Each one has a different type of stature, nature, work ethic and sociability preference, in addition, they may have other traits such as gluttony or clumsy.This is the core of your initial challenge.
All of these factors affect each job role and how they interact with the rest of the crew. Having a Meeple in a role they aren’t fit for makes them unhappy. As does having an anti-social meeple in a position where they have to frequently interact with the rest of the crew. Let them get too upset, and they just might toss themselves out an airlock. Talk about a case of the Mondays.Not all these possible interactions are obvious.
For example, a clumsy meeple can trip over your power hookups and break them. Since a janitor needs to clean the whole station, a clumsy janitor will inevitably cause you issues.
A clumsy meeple needs to be assigned to a role that keeps them away from power conduits. Figuring out how to work with the quirks and traits of each meeple is key to your success.You also have to keep the station powered, full of oxygen and enough producing enough food to keep your meeples fed while you follow the games loop, which is profiting through mining, refining, and trade. Each quadrant has a number of asteroid clusters, each cluster can have one of four types of resources. These resources can be refined into more advanced materials. The tree of resources is pretty large, and some of the most advanced (and expensive resources) require more than one other type of advanced recourse to process.Each module of your station also requires these resources to be built by an engineer, you only use money to build your station at the start of the game. It’s very rare for a quadrant to have all four asteroid types, meaning you’re going to be short at least one type. So you have to balance using your materials to build your station, and selling them to trade ships that periodically stop.
That way you can buy the materials your missing from them.Eventually, however, you will drain a quadrant dry and need to move the station with an engine set up and fuel. Astroid clusters contain the resources you need, your miner’s dawn space suits and collect them.As you play, you gain renown which unlocks additional heads of staff to be assigned alongside the captain. Each one opens up new avenues to pursue. Such as being able to hire guards and botanists.
But Officers can be hard to keep happy, and when they get upset, they give orders to another meeple as if they were you. You have to be on your toes when this occurs because they just might have ordered an airlock or oxygen tank to be destroyed. Which could be catastrophic to your station.Things can and will go wrong, either because a meeple or officer is unhappy, or you made a miscalculation in oxygen, power or food production.
One issue I had, is it’s not always obvious how or why something is going wrong until its too late. Since the stakes are pretty high, it can be frustrating to lose a couple meeple and then scratch your head trying to figure out why.You also research new technologies, such as the previously mentioned engines. When you drain a quadrant of resources and need to move on, you face new potential hazards. Perhaps the juiciest cluster of resources that you can reach is near pirates or comets.Having your station in one of these zones offers even greater risks to your survival. Pirates may board your station and attack your meeple, or comets and pirate bombing runs may destroy your station from the outside.
You will need to counter these threats by powering up station shielding, having guards and anti-ship cannons.Meeple Station is a fun simulation game and at times I get the same kind of joy I feel when playing RimWorld out of it. Occasionally however you will hit your stride where everything is lined up perfectly, meeples are happy, the station is well designed and you’re left with nothing to do but sit and watch your meeples mine and refine. Especially in the peaceful quadrants.I 100% attribute this to the game being fresh into early access, and not the game’s design itself. But as always early access titles are a gamble, so do I think its worth the risk? Some areas are going to have pirate activity or other hazards.Meeple Station has a very solid foundation and the developers seem to have a decent track record.
Prior to the early access release, Meeple received updates and most recently mod support. They also are very talkative and responsive with the community in the company’s discord channel. Its currently $19.99 on Steam and Itch.io. I’d say what we have here is already worth the price. But hopefully, it becomes even better.I myself will offer any feedback I can to Vox Games and play Meeple Station while eagerly awaiting each update.A key for Meeple Station was provided for Gideon’s Gaming by Vox Games. Interested in other colony sims?
Check out my review of Pros. Easy to use and intuitive interface and controls. Freeform station building. Fun simulation gameplay.
Meeples have varied traits. Interesting hazards and threats to contend with. Moving around the quadrants unique and interesting for this type of game.Cons:. Not always clear what’s happening or why. Sometimes you sit idle without much to do.
Gameplay loop of making money is a bit repetitive.
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