I just caved in and bought it , I played through the tutorial scenario and found it extremely engaging to play .. I think when this game is complete it could well scratch an itch for a type of game I have had for a very long time , I really hope they finish it and it doesn't end up abandoned. The AI pathing needs work and maybe a way to speed things up a little .. it can get a little tedious waiting for your guys to do something. Overall I am glad I got it , really really hope they stick with it and make it the awesome game it has the potential to be :)

Unclaimed World has oodles of potential oozing out from between the flaws. But don't be tempted, the flaws are terrible and many. After playing 0.1.2.1 on 24th January I'm going to probably give this game a year or more before trying again.

First off, the good stuff. Unclaimed World is like Majesty and Dwarf Fortress at it's core. You designate tasks and one or more of your free-willed plebs will undertake them. There is no mico-managing workers. The banter between the various colonists is the perfect way to introduce the new world. The scenarios are not random so after a couple of tries you'll know which colonists you get and what their skills are.

I like the graphical style and the smooth character animations, they give a good sense of pioneering on an alien planet. The character portraits, whilst somewhat caricatured, make knowing and empathising with said characters much easier.

But.

That's where the good stops.

There are currently only three stages, the tutorial which is so hand-holdy it's a chore; and not one I've forced myself to complete. The first stage which is impossible to lose unless you try really, really had to get your colonists killed. And lastly the second stage which crashes fairly early in. Don't expect content, it's not here.

The user interface is awful. And this is after the "UI and animation improvements" patch. Clicks get ignored, menus disappear, compents that should be translucent are not and parts of componets are missing. The map is the only way to scroll around (if there are keyboard shortcuts I never found them). But that's all the map does, nothing is marked on it in and it would completely pointless if there was another way to scroll.

Unclaimed World is SLOW. The characters idle along at maybe 5 to 10 pixels a seond but have to traverse areas that are thousands of pixels across. Leaving the game to run whilst doing other things seems to be the only meaningful way to play.

And the speed gets worse on the (previously mentioned) second stage. The characters still move at about the same rate but the screen refreshes at less than a frame a second until eventually it becomes a slide show and crashes. I'm sure a simple 2D game should run better than this.

The artificial intelligence in a game where units can't be directly controlled has to be good. But in Unclaimed World it's not. It's awful. I can't seem to prioritise tasks. Gathering seems to take precedence over everything. So if there are a couple of construction projects going on and I set a new gather task then everyone drops what they're doing and rushes (relatively) to all gather the same stick of firewood. Practicaly this means as long as there are gather tasks construcion tasks will not finish.

Furthermore the AI in combat is even more deficient, with the characters commenting that they must attack as a group and then walking in one at a time; and only after the previous character has been killed. It's horrible. They also seem to get lost and will wander backwards and forwards through an enemy nest despite there not being any tasks near it.

In closing, Unclaimed World has a lot of potential with a good exploration and command vibe but it is so far from being completed that it's barely even a tech demo - let alone a full game. Avoid.

Update: Might want to wait until this one is farther along or promised to be finished, as the development cycle isnt very fast.

Shows promise, not feature full yet, but does have good vision and a steady updates (Albeit slow, probably smaller team) .

The systems they have in place show some foresight, compared to other strategy sim games (Gnomaria, towns, etc) and I can see they had good systems from the start. It has been a while since early access started but it seems they have been adressing AI bugs and implementing systems over just raw content. I would wait for release or a sale if you like something feature complete, but if you are like me and just like to keep an eye on projects as they go grab it and suppourt them, as long as they don't abandon it like some other ones *cough spacebase cough* then it will prove to be a solid game

I've been playing it for some hours and think this game definitely has a great potential.
I am enjoying its atmosphere and concept. It's kinda like Banished on another planet, a survival sci-fi game: you're definitely set to feel vulnerable, exposed, especially if you don't take the necessary precautions.
Once this game is finished I think it'll be an awesome and immersible game :)

Ok, after last update and after I played a few more hours, I have to say this is a great game.
There are some glitches now and then, but you will find a way to fix them very quickly (it coloniosts freeze, try deleting the oldest task or zone, it always worked for me).
Cant agree with those who say there is no significant prgress, I see huge progress in playability and responsiveness.

As for sandbox experience, this may be the dream come true and huge breakthrough, if developers polish UI, icons and do the right advertising for the mass audience.

The idea and concept are sound. The game has potential.
But unfortunately, I cannot recommend it, it was released for early access way way too early.
The UI is unusable, the game lacks content badly, and it's just not fun to play at it's current state.

I understand this is early access and it should not be perfect, but I expect paid early access games to be playable and fun, even if short or a bit buggy.

I do not recommend Unclaimed World.

First, the good: the game has a lot of charm. The soundtrack and graphics are very appealing, and the banter between your scientists really sets the mood for exploration of an unknown world, giving you a sense of possibility and adventure. You assign general tasks and priorities and your scientists go to work, constructing shelters and weapons, exploring their surroundings and gathering materials. The basic concept is fun and draws from fantastic games like Dwarf Fortress, and it shows a lot of potential.

However, the game is highly unfinished. The colonist AI is quite buggy despites multiple bugfixes and often they will stand there being slaughtered by enemies, refusing to attack, or fumbling with their hauling tasks. The UI is finicky. There is only one relatively small map and no sense of progression in terms of tech or anything of that sort.

And all of that would be forgivable if there was any sense that actual development was happening on the game, as it is in Early Access and is not a finished product. However, since its Early Access in March, there has been very little in the way of significant new gameplay features nor any communication from the developers as to the state of development. They have not updated their dev blog since release in March and a question asking about the state of development in their (very quiet) forum has gone unanswered for a week.

You could ask the question whether this game is abandoned. Don't buy expecting it to get better, because there is no reason to.

Still too early to buy, get a demo or wait for future developments.
The game is beautiful and is full of potential, definitely watchlist-worthy!

Unclaimed World has great potential. I've only played Early Access at this point am excited about the possibilities. It's short on some features at the moment, but as the game progresses, I expect big things. You can check out my first experience with the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-FKoY_6sFE

I've played this game so far for Hours and does crash from time to time which is to be expected with an early access game. I really like the concept of trying to survive in an unknown region then having the ability to control the outcome of each and every one of your people. Currently I own several early access games and Unclaimed World is deffinately at the top of my list. Patience is key with all early access games expect buggs. And talk about them. Creating games is a long process especially if the dev team is small. Overall the game has a great concept with unlimited possibilities and I like sim type games so I recommend this game. If any potential buyers of unclaimed world want more info please feel free to message me I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Shows a lot of potential, however, given that it is early access, it could still use a lot of work. I do wish the developer could have made a "Sandbox" mode of the first mission just so people could get a better feel of the game and what needs improved.

Really looking forward to updates, and I have a feeling this game will be pretty awesome after release! Lets hope this developer sticks with the game and lets it reach its full potential! Good work so far!

Note: This is a review of the Early Access version of the game as of Aug 24, 2014.


The game is virtually unplayable because of the incredibly frustrating, unintuitive, unfinished, and buggy interface.

I fought with the interface for at least half an hour, but anyone without a lot of patience and determination will probably give up on the game in a few minutes.

I'm not sorry I paid for this game, despite its unplayability, because I do think the game has a lot of potential and I want to give its developers a chance, but it's got a LONG way to go before it even becomes remotely playable, much less fun or interesting.

Right now it's nothing but an exercise in frustration. Did I mention the game was frustrating? Frustration, frustration, frustration. Nothing but frustration. Actually, that's not true. As you can see from the screenshots, the art is beautiful, and so is the music, and it's got an interesting concept... but it's all overshadowed by how awful the interface is.

I hope this game gets better, I really do. But right now I can't help but recommend that you stay away unless you want to contribute some money to its development without expecting to get any gameplay out of it at all.

As many before me have said, this game is still in production. It has some kinks to iron out. However, I did spend several hours exploring the landscape (over a couple of replays) and I am very impressed by the depth of this game thus far. It looks like it's going to be a very unique and exceptional builder. I would recommend it, so long as you understand that there are bugs and crashes and it's not a polished, finished product. If you're willing to pay into it then please don't complain about this, and remember that your funding at this time of development is almost definitely going toward making the end result bigger and better.

So as I sit here and play my 73rd hour I realize what a great game I stumbled onto forever ago.

Do you enjoy the idea of a colony that actually has a backstory? This is your game! Just be warned that this game is incredibly glitchy still and may crash from time to time if you're not careful. Other than that I stand by this game and say that it is worth the 12-13 dollars they are asking for! :)

Edit: Just realized I should clarify! I was a tester prior to Steam release so I've had quite a bit of time to play around with it!

I was very sceptical at first seeing that this is an early access game, and I have considered for awhile now if I should buy it. The graphics didn’t seem to be worth a mention … I mean you’re playing with midgets 
Well two days ago I though what the heck, seeing as the devs are not going to drop the price I just get it over with and buy it. They’ll probably reduce the price now that I’ve bought the game (Murphy’s Law).
I have only 90 minutes on record with this game and I must admit, its 90 minutes that went by very quickly. The reason being that I started enjoying these midgets’ tasks to complete. They seem a bit lazy because they move very slow, but hey their going through a tough time right. And they seem reluctant to start working on tasks that are urgent, but that’s the rebellious nature of man. As mentioned the time spent on playing this game went buy very quickly and that is because I found it to be a very enjoyable experience. Its one of those games where you say “I just want them to build this before I quit”, and after that its one more thing and the process just keep on repeating itself until you see the night is gone and you need to get ready for school or work, or even worse you’re totally late for your date with the girl of your dreams. O well, you’re now learning how to survive, so you’ll probably get a new girl. Maybe not your dream girl but hey, if you play sports you have to live with the injuries.
I can appreciate the fact that the game is still in early access therefor a lot of work still needs to be done. So I think the end product should be very good. The idea of starting with nothing, salvaging, gathering and surviving is a very intriguing idea and I think there is a level of satisfaction to make these guys do stuff in order to survive.
So do I recommend buying Unclaimed World in its early access state? Yes I do.

One of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. Check out my thoughts on it: http://youtu.be/XMw65-hmA-4

About an hour worth of gameplay, and then the game abruptly ends without you being able to really explore and do anything. Not alot of direction in game. Sometimes it seemed like my colonists would pick up stone just to move it to a new location instead of doing the tasks assigned. Just not worth it in its current state. It has some promise but we'll see.

*Edit April 1, 2014*
The time limit seems to have been removed in the latest patch.

Awsome game in development, developers work hard and the concept seems reachable :D

Really nice game, a lot of potential. Although the game isn't perfect just yet, it will be great in the future and you guys should get it now in case the price goes up.

Watch my review of the game here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbkW5FL4xZk

It is a great concept, and fun to play. It makes you think, instead of having the AI choose for you. I can't wait for the full game to launch.