Posted November 25, 2024
DUTM recently became very cheap so I decided to try it out.
And honestly, I don't see the appeal that apparently so many others do. To start with, the story makes no sense:
* The initial plot, that Earth has somehow 'run out' of energy makes no sense. Would fossil fuels run out? Sure. But solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear? You're seriously saying every single option was depleted? It doesn't hold up. We could power the whole world on nuclear trivially if we had no other choice.
* Setting that aside - let's talk about the 'plan'. They know the MPT stopped transmitting. They do not know why. They are going in with literally 0 information. They aren't bringing any parts with them. What if some key piece of infrastructure was damaged in a way that could not be repaired without additional parts from earth? I'm sure they have some spare parts on the moon but not for everything.
* Even if it was repairable...they have no idea how long that would take. Realistically, on infrastructure that complex and vast, it's not unreasonable to imagine a scenario where it takes that one person years to properly fix it on their own. One person can't hold all that knowledge and specialization on them. That's just not how this works.
* Even if they knew the MPT was repairable in a reasonable time frame...what exactly was the longer-term plan here? One person cannot run and maintain infrastructure that vast. It would take a team of dozens to hundreds to keep that system running. Even discarding maintenance, someone has to go out there and actually mine the moon rock for helium-3 refining. You could say 'once they see the MPT is running, Earth will send ships' but clearly Earth has no viable spaceships except the one you launched in, and in general Earth is a mess. It could take them years (or decades) to get a program up and running to send backup.
* As for the 'outward' movement...their plan makes even less sense. Even if you get everyone onto rockets and send them somewhere else...all your training and equipment is specialized for moon use. And you can't exactly drag mountains of mining, refining, forging, chemical and other equipment with you. And you're getting no help from Earth, obviously. Exactly how do they plan to start over with so little? Unless they have magic Star Trek-esque replicators...this doesn't work.
* I don't want to spoil it, but one moment early in the game should have essentially been the end of the whole endeavor. You know the one.
Setting the plot aside, the rest wasn't much to write home about either.
The puzzles were OK, if pretty basic and easy.
The dialog felt pretty amateur-hour.
They tried to do this thing with the ASEs that implied maybe they were sentient or social? But they didn't commit enough to the idea so we're left with you patting one occasionally and that's about it.
Overall, I don't get the appeal of DUTM. It's ok, but it falls really short of similar games like SOMA.
And honestly, I don't see the appeal that apparently so many others do. To start with, the story makes no sense:
* The initial plot, that Earth has somehow 'run out' of energy makes no sense. Would fossil fuels run out? Sure. But solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear? You're seriously saying every single option was depleted? It doesn't hold up. We could power the whole world on nuclear trivially if we had no other choice.
* Setting that aside - let's talk about the 'plan'. They know the MPT stopped transmitting. They do not know why. They are going in with literally 0 information. They aren't bringing any parts with them. What if some key piece of infrastructure was damaged in a way that could not be repaired without additional parts from earth? I'm sure they have some spare parts on the moon but not for everything.
* Even if it was repairable...they have no idea how long that would take. Realistically, on infrastructure that complex and vast, it's not unreasonable to imagine a scenario where it takes that one person years to properly fix it on their own. One person can't hold all that knowledge and specialization on them. That's just not how this works.
* Even if they knew the MPT was repairable in a reasonable time frame...what exactly was the longer-term plan here? One person cannot run and maintain infrastructure that vast. It would take a team of dozens to hundreds to keep that system running. Even discarding maintenance, someone has to go out there and actually mine the moon rock for helium-3 refining. You could say 'once they see the MPT is running, Earth will send ships' but clearly Earth has no viable spaceships except the one you launched in, and in general Earth is a mess. It could take them years (or decades) to get a program up and running to send backup.
* As for the 'outward' movement...their plan makes even less sense. Even if you get everyone onto rockets and send them somewhere else...all your training and equipment is specialized for moon use. And you can't exactly drag mountains of mining, refining, forging, chemical and other equipment with you. And you're getting no help from Earth, obviously. Exactly how do they plan to start over with so little? Unless they have magic Star Trek-esque replicators...this doesn't work.
* I don't want to spoil it, but one moment early in the game should have essentially been the end of the whole endeavor. You know the one.
Setting the plot aside, the rest wasn't much to write home about either.
The puzzles were OK, if pretty basic and easy.
The dialog felt pretty amateur-hour.
They tried to do this thing with the ASEs that implied maybe they were sentient or social? But they didn't commit enough to the idea so we're left with you patting one occasionally and that's about it.
Overall, I don't get the appeal of DUTM. It's ok, but it falls really short of similar games like SOMA.
Post edited November 25, 2024 by Night_Thastus
