Universal Harvest: Incremental

I'd say I really enjoyed the game. At first it was pretty challenging, especially because of the asteroids, although now they only take two hits to destroy. I progressed quite well and made it to the dark planet, where there's already a lot of bullet hell. Still, if you destroy the enemies in front of you, you'll create a safe zone where you can take a break.

Like:
You don't have to think too much about upgrading, and you don't really need to dodge bullets that much either. At one point I even chose to farm on the first world and intentionally ran into bullets. Once you unlock health regeneration, the game becomes even easier, and your progress starts speeding up. The graphics are nice, the music is great, and I played both on Steam Deck and on PC without any performance issues.

Don't like:
The start is a bit too difficult. In the beginning, fuel runs out way too quickly, making it hard to level up. This stops being a problem by the middle of the game.

Overall, I recommend the game. It's a fun game that's perfect for one or two evenings.

Not recommended.

There is simply too little to do, and the game becomes repetitive very quickly. Most of the gameplay consists of hovering the mouse over objects to extract resources. The videos on the store page show essentially everything the game has to offer, so do not expect the gameplay to become deeper or more varied later on.

Each run sends you back to the beginning, forcing you to repeat the same actions over and over again. Starting over can be satisfying in a good incremental game when new upgrades gradually transform the experience. Here, however, you mostly do the exact same things again with slightly higher numbers.

There are occasional shoot-'em-up sections, but they are extremely basic. Honestly, even Space Invaders offers more engaging shooting gameplay.

The store page advertises more than 100 upgrades, but many of them are simply small increases to fuel capacity, resource value, and similar statistics, divided into separate upgrades. There are no meaningful synergies, interesting combinations, or different builds to experiment with. You just purchase one small numerical increase after another.

As a result, the game lacks the acceleration and satisfying sense of progression I expect from an incremental game. The gameplay feels almost exactly the same throughout, and the repetitive music makes it feel even more monotonous.

I know this is a solo-developed game, so I do not want to be unnecessarily harsh. Still, I can only review the game in its current state, and right now I cannot recommend it.