Nienix: Cosmic Warfare

I really wanted to love Nienix. On paper, it's everything I want: an ARPG loot grinder set in space, along the lines of Diablo or Chronicon. The itemization is deep, the customization is robust, and the core idea is sound. Unfortunately, the execution suffers from a severe lack of coherence that makes the experience more frustrating than fun. The biggest issue is that the game’s systems are at war with each other. Nienix gives you pseudo Newtonian physics (ships have weight, drift, and inertia) and then forces you to navigate tight, narrow maze corridors for the majority of the game. This isn't challenging; it's tedious. Trying to drift through a cramped hallway while chasing down an elite that's bouncing off the walls is an exercise in annoyance, not skill. The physics feel great in open space, but the level design rarely gives you that space to enjoy it. This inconsistency extends to the combat. Arena style boss fights in open areas are genuinely fun and showcase what the game could be. But those moments are the exception. The rule is navigating repetitive mazes where the only objective is "go to X, reach the bottom," with no unique variance or interesting quests to break up th…

Excellent little blaster that reminds me a lot of the old Descent games with Fighters and Light Assault Ships. I do wish the sounds would be revisited a bit.. Since you're firing all the time, certain weapons can get somewhat annoying.

Fairly typical combat style for a game in this genre. It definitely has the feel of a Diablo style ARPG looter. It even has space dungeons. Lots of talents and build options. One of the more annoying negatives of the game is that larger ships don't actually fit in most of the game dungeons. This means your builds are restricted to using not large ships to navigate those dungeons. Unfortunately, this suffers a similar problem that most games with this loot style suffer, in that the RNG nature of the loot is the crutch/gimmick for replay value, but because of the nature of the game, it being client-sided, that sort of crutch/gimmick fails more than it would in a competitive MMO environment.

Some games when you play them, you like them more and more, the more you play and explore them, but this is not this game. Most weapons are garbage impossible to hit with, things feel underdeveloped, either too easy or too hard. The map overlay absolutely sucks. The more I played the more I was disappointed. Can't force myself to finish it. Still recommend if you like space games, maybe it's just not for me. At least the price is decent and visuals are good

It's okay. Lots of fun ideas, lots of bad ideas. Some jank, lots of clunkiness. Probably one of the most "ARPG" of these kinds of games since it dives into the deep end of adding like 50 affixes onto all your things basically ASAP, which leanspositive to me. Actually contains dungeons too, though THOSE are more of a negative than a positive for a variety of reasons. Definitely a big winner of a "meh", but I'll round up instead of down because the game's cheap and I'm sure there's a lot here.

Game is sick af.