The Crust 1.0 - Should You Buy? — Transcript

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1. 0:00The Crust might sound like a pie baking
2. 0:02simulator, but it's actually asking you
3. 0:04to transform a barren patch of the moon
4. 0:06into a sprawling industrial colony,
5. 0:09balancing automation, colonists,
6. 0:11contracts, and an increasingly unruly
7. 0:14amount of conveyor belts. But as this
8. 0:16game reaches 1.0, the question for me
9. 0:18isn't how many systems it contains, it's
10. 0:21whether they combine into a compelling
11. 0:23lunar factory builder, or do they just
12. 0:26create complexity for complexity's sake?
13. 0:28Hello everyone, my name is Tom and this
14. 0:30is LT Gaming. We are two brothers who
15. 0:33love all things strategy, simulation,
16. 0:35and pretty much anything else across
17. 0:37gaming. Now, I missed The Crust when it
18. 0:39first entered early access, so I spent
19. 0:41around 8 to 10 hours with the new 1.0
20. 0:44build. I'm going to say right off the
21. 0:45bat the video is entirely unsponsored
22. 0:48and all opinions are our own. And if
23. 0:50you're new here, this is our Should You
24. 0:52Buy series where we weigh the good
25. 0:53against the bad and ask whether a game
26. 0:56is worth your cold hard cash. If that
27. 0:58sounds useful to you, consider liking
28. 1:00the video and let YouTube know that you
29. 1:02want more gaming content in your life.
30. 1:04All right, let's crack on. At its heart,
31. 1:06The Crust is an automation game about
32. 1:08establishing an industrial operation on
33. 1:11the moon and then gradually transforming
34. 1:13a barren patch of regolith into an
35. 1:15increasingly complicated production
36. 1:17network. Sounds enticing to the right
37. 1:19person. You can approach this through
38. 1:21both a structured campaign and a more
39. 1:24open sandbox mode, but the basic rhythm
40. 1:26remains the same. Extract resources,
41. 1:28process them through production chains,
42. 1:30and then continually optimize how those
43. 1:32materials travel about your base. Or in
44. 1:35my case, spend 20 minutes working out
45. 1:36why nothing is bloody working, only to
46. 1:39realize my conveyor belts are going the
47. 1:40wrong way. A natural point to mention
48. 1:42here is automation games aren't
49. 1:43necessarily my most natural fit, so it's
50. 1:46worth bearing that in mind when it comes
51. 1:47to some of my strong opinions on things.
52. 1:50However, The Crust isn't entirely
53. 1:51confined to the factory floor. There's a
54. 1:53lot you can do outside of this, where to
55. 1:55build, exploring beyond your base,
56. 1:58running a business, accepting contracts.
57. 2:00A lot of things I really connected with.
58. 2:02So, let's dive into how this all
59. 2:03connects together and does it make for a
60. 2:05compelling gaming experience? All right,
61. 2:07let's kick it off on a positive note.
62. 2:09The strongest thing that Cross does is
63. 2:11it makes your factory feel like an
64. 2:13actual place rather than just a
65. 2:14collection of production ratios. I found
66. 2:17an oddly peaceful rhythm to watching my
67. 2:20industrial network operate as the lunar
68. 2:23day gives way to this long dark night.
69. 2:25The surface feels open, spacious, and
70. 2:28exposed. While the underground sections
71. 2:30are tighter and almost claustrophobic.
72. 2:32And that contrast gives the colony a
73. 2:34tangible sense of scale. Visually, it's
74. 2:36not the most stellar game in the world,
75. 2:38pun thoroughly intended there, but it is
76. 2:40strong and cohesive. The machinery,
77. 2:42drones, and moving resources give you
78. 2:44enough visual feedback that you watch
79. 2:46your settlement breathe and you can
80. 2:48identify when something has gone wrong
81. 2:50and immediately disappear down another
82. 2:51conveyor belt-shaped rabbit hole. And
83. 2:54that's where the automation begins to
84. 2:55sink its hooks in. You're continually
85. 2:57chasing one more tech, one more
86. 2:59production upgrade, and one final
87. 3:01reorganization that will definitely fix
88. 3:03everything. But crucially for me, that
89. 3:06effort has a purpose beyond just
90. 3:07creating increasingly more optimized
91. 3:09production. You are operating a lunar
92. 3:11business. You are signing contracts,
93. 3:13monitoring the Earth market, deciding
94. 3:15whether to sell regolith immediately or
95. 3:18refining it to something more valuable.
96. 3:20Those contracts can directly influence
97. 3:22which materials you prioritize, more
98. 3:25infrastructure you're going to go for
99. 3:26next. Overall, I found this economic
100. 3:28layer very fresh and it's one of the
101. 3:30main reasons I felt compelled to keep
102. 3:32playing. Progression is quite effective
103. 3:34at moving things along as well. New tech
104. 3:37introduces more options and those
105. 3:38options demand another reorganization
106. 3:41and so your cycle begins again. I wasn't
107. 3:43particularly blown away with the
108. 3:44campaign story. I found some of the
109. 3:46characters really obnoxious, but it did
110. 3:48give structure and gradually teach me
111. 3:50the systems and give me an expansion of
112. 3:52a broader objective. Now, a raft of
113. 3:54improvements have been deployed for the
114. 3:561.0 build to give more polish to its
115. 3:58quality of life features and it really
116. 4:00showed in the game. Ultimately, my
117. 4:02strongest compliment to this game is I
118. 4:03felt attached to my little settlement.
119. 4:05Even after eight or so hours, I wanted
120. 4:07to keep it running through one more long
121. 4:09lunar night just to watch everything
122. 4:11return to the glorious light as the sun
123. 4:14creeps across the horizon. It was quite
124. 4:15magical. Now, before we get into the
125. 4:17problem side of things, if you are
126. 4:19enjoying this review, consider
127. 4:21subscribing to the channel. It really
128. 4:22helps us continue to keep making
129. 4:24independent reviews like this one. Now,
130. 4:27onto the bad side of things and I think
131. 4:29The Crust's greatest strength, its
132. 4:31complexity, can also become its greatest
133. 4:33frustration. Several times, I'd finally
134. 4:36reorganized all my production chains and
135. 4:38convinced myself everything was
136. 4:40efficient only for the next unlock of a
137. 4:43building or a tech kind of demanding me
138. 4:45to do another reorganization.
139. 4:47Now, dedicated automation players may
140. 4:49relish that constant pursuit of
141. 4:51efficiency. For me, however, it
142. 4:53occasionally crossed from satisfying
143. 4:55problem solving into busy work. I wasn't
144. 4:57always designing something new. I was
145. 4:59rebuilding yesterday's solution because
146. 5:01today's tech had made it inconvenient.
147. 5:04The pacing kind of reinforces this. The
148. 5:06Crust is not a quick game. You could
149. 5:09regard this as a positive or negative
150. 5:10depending on what you want. I regularly
151. 5:13played at maximum speed, though, simply
152. 5:15in order to reach the next technology,
153. 5:17for example, to keep expanding. And your
154. 5:20progression is governed by all these
155. 5:22overlapping demands for power, money,
156. 5:24research, and logistics and all these
157. 5:26systems make sense, don't get me wrong.
158. 5:28But, when all the bottlenecks arrive
159. 5:30together, you can often spend more time
160. 5:32watching things operate than making
161. 5:34meaningful decisions for your
162. 5:35settlement. Then, we have the colonist
163. 5:37side of things who, to put it
164. 5:38delicately, get on my bloody nerves.
165. 5:41Rather than be people I cared about,
166. 5:43they just feel like another resource
167. 5:44requiring food, accommodation, and
168. 5:47attention before contributing much at
169. 5:49all. I honestly don't know why in some
170. 5:51city builders I get really attached to
171. 5:53the people in it, and in others I don't,
172. 5:55but this game was definitely on the
173. 5:56latter side of things. The UI overall
174. 5:58handles the complexity pretty well, but
175. 6:01sometimes setting new things up did mean
176. 6:03jumping between a lot of menus to
177. 6:05construct, connect things in, get it
178. 6:07powered up, and then attaching my
179. 6:09conveyor belts was always a pain in the
180. 6:11ass after a certain point. And then
181. 6:13technically my experience was pretty
182. 6:15stable overall. Across the 8 to 10 hours
183. 6:18I've been playing, I've encountered no
184. 6:19serious bugs or Brood 'n' Automation. I
185. 6:22occasionally got a message appearing in
186. 6:24another language, but overall polish was
187. 6:26never a major concern.
188. 6:29My larger question with this game is
189. 6:30longevity. There's unquestionably plenty
190. 6:33here, and global events such as solar
191. 6:35flares, meteor showers, and epidemics
192. 6:38can disrupt your plans. However,
193. 6:40sometimes I missed a more immediate
194. 6:42threat or strategic challenge to
195. 6:44overcome. Most of the pressure returned
196. 6:46to refining production, unlocking tech,
197. 6:49and optimizing everything to the nth
198. 6:52degree. Now, if that process is why you
199. 6:54play automation games, The Crust will
200. 6:56hold your attention for a long time. But
201. 6:58if you need stronger survival pressure,
202. 7:00more personal colonists, or something
203. 7:02unpredictable to push back at you, its
204. 7:04lunar industry may feel a little bit too
205. 7:07peaceful, let's say. So, to answer the
206. 7:09question, should you buy The Crust? At
207. 7:12around 30 euros, which is the price I
208. 7:14see on my side, I think there's a fair
209. 7:17amount of content and depth on offer
210. 7:19here. Now, as mentioned, I played around
211. 7:228 to 10 hours by the time this review
212. 7:24comes out, and I still feel like I've
213. 7:26only scratched the surface with this
214. 7:27game. There is a lot of content here.
215. 7:29So, for automation and factory building
216. 7:32fans, my answer is yes. If constructing
217. 7:35enormous interconnected production
218. 7:37chains on the moon has an appeal to you,
219. 7:40there certainly is a substantial and
220. 7:42strongly themed game here. However, I
221. 7:44got to say anyone approaching this
222. 7:46primarily as a city or colony building
223. 7:48style game should recognize that
224. 7:50automation isn't merely just one
225. 7:52component. It is the heart of the
226. 7:53experience for me. You will spend a
227. 7:55considerable amount of time examining
228. 7:57inputs, outputs, production ratios, and
229. 8:00your conveyor layouts. If relentless
230. 8:03optimization isn't your bag, the
231. 8:05supporting colony systems won't carry
232. 8:07the game alone. If this sounds
233. 8:09appealing, but 30 euros sounds slightly
234. 8:11steep, wait for a sale is perfectly
235. 8:13reasonable here. And if producing,
236. 8:16refining, and transporting enormous
237. 8:17quantities of resources on the moon
238. 8:19sounds more exhausting than satisfying,
239. 8:22this is probably a lunar mission that
240. 8:24you could safely skip. Now, as I
241. 8:26mentioned at the beginning, I didn't
242. 8:27play this game during early access, so I
243. 8:29can't honestly tell returning players
244. 8:31how transformative the 1.0 feels. My
245. 8:34review is based entirely on how this
246. 8:36game exists today. So, my final verdict
247. 8:39is a buy for automation fans with clear
248. 8:41caveats for everyone else. Let me know
249. 8:44what you think of the review, guys, and
250. 8:45what you think of this game, and thank
251. 8:47you very much for watching. I'll see you
252. 8:49on the next one. Bye-bye now.