This is my third and final attempt to express my thoughts about Novus Inceptio, developed by McMagic Productions. In short, save your money. This game is nearly 10 years old and has barely progressed. It seems the creator(s) are only interested when they put on a sale or increase the cost.
My First Thoughts on Playing
The game was barely playable. I purchased it on February 17th, 2018, three years after its 2015 release. Novus Inceptio stood out in my Steam recommendations—a mix often cluttered with genres I am usually not interested in, like sports and racing games. Promises of an open world to explore and build sparked my interest. Being an Early Access Game was not a detouring factor; to this day, it still is not.
Initial Gameplay Observations:
- Combat mechanics were clumsy, detracting from the experience.
- It was easy to die unexpectedly.
- It has a large map, yet it lacks compelling reasons to explore. Most structures were just decorative, adding little to the game’s functionality.
- The absence of a storyline left a void in the gaming experience.
- Building capabilities existed but were overshadowed by a painstakingly slow grind.
Despite logging around 8 hours (likely less since it ran in the background when I had to work), my interest waned — I hoped future updates would revitalize the game, making my early investment worthwhile. I really wanted there to be more, and that is likely to never happen. But I was never fully immersed in ‘Novus Inceptio.’ The time I spent in-game felt like playing just for the sake of it,
I should have stopped playing before the 2-hour mark and got a refund.
2018 Patch: By October 2018, a new patch didn’t improve the gameplay. I continued to wait. I was ok with waiting as there were other games that had my attention.
2019 Reassessment: By March 2019, I needed to free up space on my 750GB gaming drive. ‘Novus Inceptio’ had been largely out of mind. Before deciding to delete it, I checked for updates but found none. Turning to the forums for any news, I again found no updates. Yet, I found an update for the game among the reviews revealed a slew of negative feedback. Surprisingly, I discovered responses from McMagic Productions’ developers in the reviews section. Unconventionally, this was where they disclosed their break from development or their shift to another project for funding — a decision that struck me as a poor business practice.
Consequently, I felt compelled to leave my own review, cautioning potential players not to buy.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198031298057/recommended/386590/
I started writing this post’s draft, but things came up.
March 2020 reignited my efforts to complete this post. I had free time after my 2019 PC build and decided to fill up its 2TB gaming drive. This prompted a review of uninstalled games, particularly Early Access titles like ‘Oxygen Not Included’, which I was holding off on until their completion. During this review, ‘Novus Inceptio’ came into view as I scrolled through my Steam library. Despite a few minor updates and a developer’s statement, the game seemed largely unchanged. After 3 years, there was nothing significant to note. A status that has yet to change since I tossed my money out the window for this.
The below statement from the developer’s self-imposed Q&A, which seems to have now been deleted:
“Q: Did I steal your money and run away (as some reviews say wrongly)?’
‘A: Definitely NO – all the money from the game has always been used to develop Novus Inceptio. And right on the heart – the time you can spend in the game is adequate to the price of the game.“
The link I had to this quote in the draft no longer works, and I am not sure if I still have the screenshot of the comment. If I find it, I will update this space. But this was what had boiled my blood.
Was the time I spent adequate to the cost of the game? – NO!!!
I’m not one who will argue that games should be significantly cheaper. If I like a game, I often want more. I eagerly snatch up DLCs. I’m no stranger to buying the deluxe version of a game. Season Pass, oh yeah. The amount of money and time I’ve invested in ‘World of Warcraft’ alone is in the thousands (before Catlysm ruined it for me). I am that weirdo who watches all sequels, and spin-off shows that keep getting made. Apparently, there are enough of us to make it profitable.
I am also a fan of many Early Access Games. ‘Subnautica’ by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. I paid $25 for it and slightly regret playing it before its full release. I eagerly bought ‘Subnautica: Below Zero’ when it came out as early access. Now I want another. Then there is ‘Satisfactory’ by Coffee Stain Studios (Early Access Game), which currently occupies most of my gaming time. How long has it been in development… uh I don’t care. I have a factory I am trying to rebuild, two nuclear facilities to build, and several new trains to set up… maybe they can put the next patch off until I am done… Coffee Studios was crazy enough to give it away for $30. Part of me dreads completing it.
However, my experience with ‘Novus Inceptio’ didn’t feel worth the cost. I am not interested at this point in whether it ever gets finished. I honestly want it to stop. Let everyone know it’s not going to be done. So many put their hopes into this, and the developer continues to string them along. That feels worse than just outright abandoning the game. At least people will know to move on and invest their interests into something else. The charade can only go on so long, and there will be a lot of hurt feelings when it does end.
This is a failure that adds to the reasons to avoid early-access games.
Typically, such games would join my ‘played and got bored’ collection, a fate common for many of the games I pick up during Steam’s sales. Of the 273 games in my Steam library, I’ve dedicated more than 8 hours to only about 25% of them. No, I don’t have games with Gog.com, Sony, Epic, or Nintendo. *laughs nervously*
The incomplete state of ‘Novus Inceptio’ wasn’t my primary concern. Rather, the developers’ belief that players received value for their money bothered me. That value is determined by the player.
The engagement from McMagic Productions with the community should not be focused on the negative reviews. it seemed desperate, and maybe they wanted potential buyers to get the impression they were doing something. However, they failed to keep players informed about potential delays, updates, concept art, and other aspects crucial for a successful Early Access experience. Just look at how Coffee Studios handles public relations; they were gone for the summer last year. But we knew. There were many startups that did the same thing, maybe not to the scale of Coffee Studios, but they let us know the status of their game. I don’t see them prowling the reviews.
The need to start another project to fund ‘Novus Inceptio’ signals troubling management and financial planning, which was when I knew it was done.
Again… I did not finish this review.
January 13. 2024 – Oh… this is still in my Steam library
I am in the process of building another new machine. Meaning time to prep data for migration. Never mind, nearly everything is backed up between in-house network drives and various cloud services. I likely don’t need to pull anything off the machine I type this from. But, I am a creator of habit.
This time, the gaming drive is 4 TB. I was on Steam going through the games I installed. This time, I looked to see what games I did not want to move to the next machine. It will save me bandwidth by not redownloading every game I plan to put on the next machine. Either my ADHD or ASD plays into my data hoarding. But I am sure I am never going to finish.
The third time is the charm. The review leaves the draft status
I decided that I would uninstall games I would never finish, only to see Novos Inceptio, sparking my curiosity about whether anything had changed. I find they have removed many of the updates, actively deleting negative comments. The last big announcement was on March 29, 2023, with no updates to the game.
It’s been nearly 10 years… Why did Steam not pull Novus Inceptio from the store?
Really, why is it still available for purchase? I see eager people thinking they are going to fund some big open-world getting the game. It is not mostly negative reviews for the first time… despite the lack of updates. Reviews are faked elsewhere, so why not on Steam? Based on the time and amount of updates, this should have drawn the attention of someone at Steam to confirm this is a valid project.
This was never about the $20 I paid. Yeah, I know I put it in the title (it was the best I could think of). But, again, not everyone has $20 to throw into a venture that will never be completed. This would be the first game this happened to me.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/386590/view/3718324925885286048
Work on the game seems stagnant: https://steamdb.info/app/386590/patchnotes/
I am just going to say it: Novus Inceptio by McMagic Productions is DEAD. Give your money to a more reliable Early Access Game.
No Early Access Game that I have purchased has seen as little development in 6 years as this product by McMagic Productions. The above post shows no update to the game, just talk of female and male skins, camera/control changes, and going back to the 2016 map. That is it.
Outpost Zero, Osiris New Dawn, & Hellion were abandoned after they left Early Access. I don’t feel they were complete. But I was able to do more with them than Novus Inceptio. That and they did not proclaim I got my money’s worth. They could have done better. But at least they don’t keep making promises that never materialize.
With that, I consider this out of my system. It only took 6 years. I could be wrong, and need to issue an apology to Novus Inceptio by McMagic Productions. But I think my pride will be spared of that.