Last week saw the co-op space survival sandbox Empyrion put out its first-ever expansion, Dark Faction, thanks in part to a surprise publishing partnership with Funcom. At the time of its reveal last month, Funcom talked up “new mechanics, including improved melee combat, new materials to build with, and mysteries to discover.”
Sure enough, the expansion did indeed go on sale for $10 as scheduled on February 6th, with the promise of a solo or co-op journey that takes players to corrupted planets, gives them new weapons and gadgets to fight back against the titular corrupting force, and lets them use the Dark Faction’s own organic material to craft new ships and bases. However, Steam user reviews are being generally unkind, as most players – many of whom are long-time fans of the game – are expressing frustration and anger at co-op multiplayer’s unstable and bug-riddled nature.
As of right now, Eleon Game Studios has put out one hotfix last week that doesn’t appear to attack most player complaints, but the studio’s Twitter account has promised “good progress” on fixing co-op. Overall it looks to be a stumbling start for what’s otherwise a well-liked survival title, if user opinion on the base game’s Steam page is anything to go by.
