My Time At Portia

 PC
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 37
  3. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Jan 25, 2019
    Newcomers to the genre may find it tedious despite these improvements, but if you’re all about that renovation grind, My Time At Portia is one of the most modern takes on the genre I’ve seen in a long time.

Awards & Rankings

92
#92 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
58
#58 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

User Reviews

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User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 112 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 62 out of 112
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 112
  3. Negative: 21 out of 112
  1. StonedKrows
    Feb 1, 2019
    0
    Edited: 1st of Febuary

    I'm really suspicious of the high scores and loving reviews from small sites. It's still missing its sound, still    Edited: 1st of Febuary

    I'm really suspicious of the high scores and loving reviews from small sites. It's still missing its sound, still buggy, still crashes a lot, still more grindy than a Korean MMO, still poorly written, still has flat characters with less personality than a British politician, and the company still hasn't paid their employees. I sense shifty dealings, which will only hurt the reputation of these smaller sites. The highest scoring "critic" reviews here are an accurate treatise on which sites you shouldn't trust.

    I mean, the highest scoring "critic" review is from Game Grin, who even are they? Whereas Destructoid scored this as 55% (trash, essentially).

    Be wary, and trust the sites you know over aggregates that include no-name critics.

    Review Date: 25th of January

    These devs have been outright refusing to pay their employees (especially their voice actors), using shadily worded 'sorry not sorry' excuses as damage control. That's the first thing wrong with this game, and it should be enough for anyone with a conscience to not support it.

    The second thing is that their marketing team is review bombing other, similar games (Little Dragons Cafe, Harvest Life, and others) to try and reduce the competition. A lot of very similarly worded negative reviews for their competition always ending in 'try My Time at Portia instead.' Yes, try the game made by a shifty developer who pulls this unconscionable nonsense.

    The third point against the game is that it's incredibly average, as depicted partly by its more believable big name critic reviews. Yet Steam reviews are unwaveringly positive and similarly worded, how interesting. Considering how buggy the game is, with its content, at this time, STILL failing to work right coupled with constant crashing (as noted by the other negative review here)? I'm even a little suspicious by the most positive "critic" reviews from no-name/mostly unknown sites. Were it not for them, the overall score would be sitting somewhere around 40-50, which is much more accurate. And considering the hot mess the game is in, it's even more odd, don't you think? I'm not suggesting fabrication here, just paid reviews, which does happen with these lesser known sites (kind of like how shady, lesser known science journals will publish anything if paid enough).

    Fourth point is that they're still failing to properly patch their mediocre, supremely buggy game. Probably because their employees are fed up of not getting paid.

    Fifth point is that the game is still missing almost all of its audio. The majority of sound effects and voices aren't in (due to unpaid employees), yet they still released the game out of early access. It's not a release if your game is almost silent and entirely missing its sound design!

    Sixth point is thst the game just isn't fun. It's one slog of a grind after another. It's nice if you want to play World of Warcraft in single-player, but otherwise the soul-sucking repetition and padding in lieu of real content will likely leave you feeling exhausted and cynical. There are better titles out there for all that My Time at Portia does, there's truly nothing it does better than any given alternative.

    Seventh point is that it's really soulless and feels designed by committee. With the dev having had 57 (mostly unpaid) employees, the game is hardly by a small developer, let alone an indie dev. This isn't some spunky small studio looking to make their mark, they have more employees than some triple-A studios. Too many chefs have spoiled the broth, resulting in a bland experience rife with truly flat, one-dimensional characters you can't wait to get away from (I really can't get over how bad the writing is).

    Basically? This game is a con. One that's conning its buyers with shady marketing tactics, and one that wven conned its creators by stiffing them a paycheck. It seems like those paychecks went to paying off a ridiculous marketing campaign of misinformation. This is not something you should be supporting, and you should be very wary of those who do.

    You can't say you weren't warned.    … Full Review »
  2. Mvrak
    Jan 27, 2019
    4
    gets real boring, real fast
    at first it looks ok... then the sheer repetitive nature, andunfeeling environment leave me empty
  3. bladex
    Feb 10, 2019
    5
    hope you have plenty of patience because when things are working it's very slow. you will be waiting days literally just to craft one itemhope you have plenty of patience because when things are working it's very slow. you will be waiting days literally just to craft one item everything takes real game hours to craft and some of them are just ridiculous and later items require a lot of these items which is mainly steel plates and steel bars those take days to get enough crafted even if you have several furnaces it just takes way too long.

    Until you get the factory which should be IMO available either from the start for a lot of money or a lot earlier in the game. with the factory you just select what you want to make and how many and than sit back and watch everything automate for you soooo much easier. but you don't get the damn thing until near the end of the game!

    in real life it doesn't take hours to make a wooden board too you even have to wait for wood to be made! and there's no way to speed it up except to ride the dee dee and waste time or go to sleep.

    you have to make something in one machine than put it in another and than put THAT in yet another machine just to get one damn material and this takes hours of game time! it gets old and tired REALLY FAST. you'll get bored of constantly going mining while you wait HOURS for your materials to craft there's basically nothing else to do the battles and ruins dungeons are a complete joke and cooking is slow and tiresome! keep reading below you'll find out.

    mining is really slow too at least at the beginning you can only lock onto one blip and you won't know what it is later on you get upgrades that fix that as well as a drill that lets you carve through the rock like butter but it uses A LOT of stamina. you can get relics in the ruins that you can piece together to complete an object you can put in your house most of these gives you an attack boost. or you can put them in the museum for prizes later.

    almost all furniture you place in your house gives you boost to attack, defense, stamina and health up to a certain amount until you upgrade your house. you'll want to max stamina as quick as possible.

    to cook you have to put the ingredients into the quick bar and add them one by one this is slow and tiresome. you won't really need to cook until you the drill which eats up stamina and you need to replenish it with food.

    farming has been dumbed down to the max you basically just get a plant box, plant a seed, throw in some fertilizer and wait for it to grow. apparently your plants don't need watering or weeding in this universe.

    speaking of quick bar whats annoying is if you have an empty slot the very 1st thing you pick up it will put straight into the quick bar instead of your inventory so your constantly moving stuff out of the QB into your inventory. to build stuff you also have to put them into the QB so there's A LOT of moving items back in and out the WHOLE game...

    now lets talk about the battles the battle system is also very bad you basically just button mash and roll and repeat. enemies won't even attack you if you just keep button mashing attacking them. the bosses are as dumb as rocks just hit them a few times roll away and repeat none of them are a real challenge.

    most of the character voices are missing as well as a lot of sound effects i'm amazed this is even out of early access!

    TLDR?

    1. crafting is way too slow
    2. the battles are bad
    3. lots of missing sounds
    4. very buggy
    5. cooking sucks

    final thoughts
    ============
    if the devs are reading this:

    if the factory was available earlier or from the start it would make this game a lot less painful to play. cooking needs to be changed and stop making items go into the quick bar as soon as you pick them up!    … Full Review »
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