The sandbox simulation genre is an arena of incomplete early-access mega-games that demand a huge chunk of your daily time just to remain up to date. Luckily, Dual Universe, published and developed by Novaquark offers a streamlined but still complex experience within the sandbox simulation genre. Wearing its inspirations from Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky on its sci-fi sleeves, Dual Universe had a lot of high expectations weighing on its launch. This, bundled with a reported history of excellent customer support and actually listening to player feedback, often implementing changes based on criticisms from players gave Dual Universe a lot to live up to with a relatively small team for the project.

Story

Unfortunately, there really is nothing in the way of a story here. Growing your base and furthering your chosen progression path is the name of the game here and the story takes a major backseat. The closest story elements you might encounter are during moments interacting with other players which can often unfold like a small controlled story event, especially in the late game. Luckily though, we have been teased with some updates that talk of story content and potential questlines so that is a big plus and something to keep an eye on if a story is up your alley.

Gameplay

Buckle up people because when you start Dual Universe you are not only embarking on some fun gameplay but you are now committed to a lifestyle. We all know that this genre of gaming often demands a ton of time from the player and this is no exception, it’s made slightly even more tedious by its extremely slow start. 

There is a lot to learn here and the tutorials take their time. I’m talking close to an hour of tutorials and explanations that pretty much went straight over my head. This is my first big dive into a sandbox game of this caliber and oh boy was I lost. These tutorials put you in very specific situations that get hard to relate to the actual gameplay when they're soo micromanaged and controlled. Put me in my base, where I can see and react to the world accordingly, then teach me all the stuff I need to know! As it stands, all the tutorials and learning elements require you to enter a VR station which takes you to a little tutorial area where the tutorial plays out. This hinders the learning experience dramatically by separating the player from the game world you’re actually going to be playing in. It’s a huge shame too because there is a ton to learn here and if you miss stuff, you really pay for it in the long run. On top of all this, the AI voice that spits a bunch of information at you during these tutorials is incredibly tedious to listen to, making an hour of tutorial chores feel like three. I generally found myself browsing the wiki and forums looking for answers amongst other players which is the way I recommend learning the systems here, it's much faster, and engaging with the community is really fun. 

On a higher note, the building mechanics here are incredible and offer a huge range of creative exploration from countless materials to orientations and build parts. You really can build literally anything you want as long as your imagination lets you come up with it. I can definitely see players losing hours and hours to this. 

The big meat and potatoes element of Dual Universe is the gathering of materials and the economy. Both of which I'm glad to say are extremely fun to grind out and play with. Gathering the right ores and materials to build machines that can help build other bigger machines is such a fun concept it’s no wonder that these games do so well in today's market. It’s a dopamine rush of menus and progress bars almost constantly and I love it! The economy is also much easier to navigate than I first anticipated and isn’t particularly intrusive at all. I didn’t have to communicate with other players if I didn't want to and the systems in place cater to a range of playstyles including my more solo-style playthrough. This does unfortunately take away from the MMO aspects of this experience, but I’m not really one to complain about that because if you want more of that online experience then you can seek it out with space conflicts or at hub spots.

Now, the menus… This is where Dual Universe shines the brightest amongst them all. The menus in this game are rivaled by none. They are simply crafted perfectly, and yes there are a lot of them but somehow they managed to take a chaotic mess of information and skills, and turn it into the most intuitive and well-designed piece of UI I think I have ever come across in a game. It may seem over the top for a simple menu but if you've played a game like this you know that you spend a lot of time in these menus organizing your crafting, spending and reading skill points, planning what to build next, etc. So having a menu that feels good to use, is super easy to navigate, and allows for a bunch of freedom is a huge plus.

Audio and Visuals

Visually, Dual Universe is pretty stock standard and doesn’t particularly stand out in its graphical fidelity or sci-fi designs. This looks and feels like a sandbox game and is largely due to the building mechanics in place, limiting a lot of the designs to that of the building tools. The designs of constructs like buildings, machines, and ships vary greatly from kind mediocre to pretty cool, but this is greatly overshadowed by player-built constructs. These player-built designs are incredible and really show off some people's creative sides. I don’t know if there's a way to buy other players' ships yet but if that's an option later down the progression line then I am totally in, that would be awesome. In saying that wandering around and seeing other players’ wacky creations of lunchbox houses and brick ships is pretty funny, especially since most players don't want to put the time and effort into making a complex structure so they usually just make what works and call it a day. 

The menu visuals are all top tier and honestly offer a lot of diversity I once again didn't expect from a mere menu. The icons are all crisp and relatively unique, each portraying their individual categories clearly. The buttons and titles are all super readable and easy to navigate as well as having all of the many many skill tree paths are very clear and articulate. 

There's not much here in terms of music but the ambient music that is present really carries the weight. I was surprised at how nice the quiet ambient music actually was and offers the perfect track to the generally mundane day-to-day activities of gathering and crafting. It's subtle and peaceful and is just the right amount of sound for a game like this. The sound effects and general humming of your base’s machines are quite standard but done well. There's nothing really to write home about here, it works as it should and of a quality that doesn't stick out as particularly good or bad. 

Replayability

This is definitely a game where replayability has no place. This is a sandbox simulation MMO which translates to one character and one account. You will be spending countless hours building this character up with unlockable skills, an ever-growing base, and optimization of your systems so the thought of erasing that character and starting over should be very very scary. If a character is ever cleansed it is usually due to a problem and not by choice.

What It Could Have Done Better

There's quite a lot to talk about here and it’s kind of refreshing. A lot of these games set themselves up to be near perfect and it almost always flops in more than one way. Dual Universe is in a pretty unique position where it has officially launched, it has an excellent foundation right now and it has a proven track record of listening to players' feedback. With this in mind, one of the biggest improvements I could see really lifting this whole experience up is how the game teaches you how to play. Instead of these separated VR tutorial-type missions, keep the player in the game world they inhabit and teach them there. Make the rewards tangible like if I’m learning how to mine with a mining unit, teach me how to craft one, then teach me how to use it in my actual in-game base. It’s a simple fix on paper but requires a whole rework of their tutorial systems. It’s a big job but would make all the difference in the first few hours of playtime.

Aside from the tutorials, the building could be adjusted ever so slightly to make it a bit more inviting for players who aren't very creative. Offering more complex components that combine a bunch of smaller ones would be a great way to get players the pieces they need without actually needing to imagine them from scratch. Better yet, let creative players sell their cool designed pieces to other players via the global market, increasing the activity of your player engagement at the same time. 

Verdict

Dual Universe has an amazing foundation and has the potential to be one of the big sci-fi sandbox sim games currently out. It doesn't really stand out from the crowd yet and I think it's still figuring out exactly what sets it apart. Luckily it’s being constantly updated and patched with new content being added regularly, this is a huge plus and in my opinion, is a pretty good investment if you're looking to jump into one of these games early on. Definitely an above-average experience and a good jumping-on point for players that haven't yet dabbled in this scary genre before.