Barotrauma

The Good
It's procedural and roguelike without being obnoxiously so -- I personally despise rigorously enforced saving without the option to play otherwise.

The submarines are awesome. It's like playing one of those old sub daigrams.

The atmosphere is very appropriate and well-done.

The Bad
It's hardcore-difficult single-player, and I haven't played multiplayer yet. It's primarily designed for multiplayer so far, and the single-player campaign isn't complete.

There can be some goofy behavior from AI crewmembers, though they're mostly reliable.

The Bottom Line
Okay, Atari ST nerds, this one's for you.

If you had an Atari ST and saw the much-hyped game Brattaccas by Psygnosis (1986), you might have been excited and amazed by the concept. It was this immersive, semi-physics-based, semi-free-form 2D platform action-adventure with a fairly dark and serious sci-fi plot, and it had goofy ragdoll physics. And everyone was, like, tall and lanky.

Unfortunately, though, the technology wasn't really up to the task, and it played at a fairly choppy 10 or 12 fps (guesstimating here) with significant control lag, and was kind of difficult to play. Only a serious hardcore player who tolerated a lot of jank could make it through to the end, and I wasn't one of those.

But the promise of Brattaccas remained, and it kind of stuck in my mind over the years as this amazing concept only partly fulfilled.

I don't know if the makers of Barotrauma were channeling Brattaccas, or inspired by it, or even know of the game, but they seem to have done it. I've only played like 9 hours so far, but it gives me this weird childish giddy feeling from those days, like they did it! Here it is!

Enjoying it so far. It has the jank, but it's a smooth, sort of lampshaded jank. Like, you even have a button to just randomly ragdoll yourself to the floor, and you will be using it. And on top of that this dark, really-well-thought-out and really-fascinating sci-fi concept behind it: a submarine space colony on one of Saturn's moons, where only the deep oceans are life-sustaining and anything closer to the surface is subject to deadly radiation and cold. Complete with factions and political intrigue.

What I've seen so far is awesome. It's got an intimidatingly complex crafting system, amazingly evocative atmosphere, and full moddability, including the ability to design and use custom submarines.

I'm done fanboying here -- I'll likely update this later when I become more familiar, but I just had to gush about the whole Brattaccas thing/feel going on here for those who'd get it.