A wonderful and surprising game.
That is if you like physicis, large equations, orbital maneuvers, rocket science, and, of course, blowing spaceships up in spectacular fashion.

You don't have to know the physics or the math behind the game; it just helps. It is a realistic material science and orbital simulator first, game second. Everything in the game is a proven technology. Armor, weapons, engines, reactors...everything you need for a spaceship meant for war in the near future (within 200 years.) You will not see fusion or anti-matter reactors here; no phasers or turbolasers. Just regular cannons, railguns, the similar coilguns, lasers, missiles, and yes, drones.

Now, there is a story, which is rather good considering what it is, and it develops as you play through the 18 missions. You will be unable to design your own ships and weapons at first but will unlock them during the campaign. There is also a sandbox mode where you can set up whatever fleets you wish and battle. I have spent many hours just testing out my creations.

The graphics are...okay, again, for what it is. The the damage model is where it shines. Each shell, piece of shrapnel, and even pieces of other ships are all accounted for by the physics engine. Some high veolocity rounds pass right through ships, not even phased...other, slower and heavier rounds punch their target, transfering kinetic energy. Lasers melt through armor and nuclear warheads flash vaporize whipple shields and overheat radiators. It is all very detailed.

There are some bugs which are being fixed and some weapon types have some exploits that make them, well, over powered. It is rather basic (menus, victory conditions) and I do hope it will continue to grow and develop.

I was wary of the price but after playing it, I think it is indeed fair. You're getting the most accurate simulation of what a theoretical near future space war would be like and how warships would combat each other.

>Unlock ability to design custom modules.

>Open up nuclear reactor, realize I actually have to understand how to buld a nuclear reactor.

>Huh.

>Poke around in railguns and coil guns instead.

>Decide coilgun is just a poor man's railgun.

>Click sliders until I notice I'm getting 60 km/s on my coilgun.

>Whut.

>Adjust more, begin smiling as speed climbs past 170 km/s.

>Adjust more, swap materials, discover I can squeeze 16 Mm/s out of my coilguns. (Using aluminum coils of all things.)

>Stick coilgun of doom on tiny ship, name it the cheesepuff.

>Proceed to destroy ships 5 times my cost and mass from a completely different orbit.

10/10 would learn physics/materials science again.

So I bought this game after having observed the development thereof for some time, and I must say that it is worth every penny. So in the objective of providing an acurate and easy to read review: the pro-con chart.

Pros:
-Realistic weapons physics
-Realistic orbital dynamics
-Realistic fuel consumption
-Realisim
-You can customize almost everything regarding your ship design
-Yes, even nuclear weapon designs
-No sound in space other than structural sounds in combat
-Nukes create blinding flashes of light
-Oh, did I mention building custom nukes?
-And by the way, there are nukes in the game

Cons:
-Poor missile AI
-No multiplayer
-Occasional Bugs
-It might be confusing if you do not have a working knoweledge of nuclear engineering, laser design, orbital dynamics, thermodynamics, and space warship construction.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This game was awarded for free for participation in the closed beta.

What is Children of a Dead Earth?

Well, it's like a few other games, but that doesn't do it justice.

It's part Kerbal Space Program (Physics-accurate rocketry sim)
It's part Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations (Fleet-scale strategy game at a realistic scale)
It's part Rule the Waves (warship design with realistic constraints)
and it's part Nuclear Engineering Degree.

So what is it really?

CODE (because it's much easier to type than Children of a Dead Earth) is a fleet-scale strategy game set in the middling-future where, as you might have guessed from the title, we've managed to accidentally break the Earth. The backstory has something about World War 3 causing a complete ecological collapse, so humanity is scattered to the rest of the solar system. That's about as much plot as I'm going to get into right now because let's be frank; the story is just an excuse for spaceships to shoot each other. Oh, it's well-thought-out, and is an interesting read, but it's not really central to the game save as window dressing on why you're shooting lasers and railgun slugs at the other guy.

It is single-player only, with a series of story-driven missions and a sandbox mode. There are also ship and subsystem design modules unlocked through the campaign, with the mission after each unlock virtually requiring you to play with these modules to succeed.

And it is, near as I can tell, 100% accurate to the physics of space warfare. I suggest you go over to Atomic Rockets and do some studying if you're at all interested in this game, it will serve you well.

The missions have a variable-length turn-based feel to them, where you plan maneuvers similaar to KSP and set the clock to advance by a certain amount (interrupted if, say, you get close enough to shoot or the enemy launches drones or missiles) with actual combat being real-time and frantically fast. don't expect micro to do you a lot of good, most enounters are over, one way or another, in under a minute, usually substantially shorter. High closing speed means a quick flyby engagement which may or may not be decisive (but usually are. Space warships are eggshells equipped with thermonuclear sledgehammers.)

Ship and module design is painstaking. It doesn't make you lay out fuel lines and power conduits, but you will be expected to provide radiators for your heat-generating components, supply sufficient power generation, and shield your crew from engine radiation. You have a LOT of options for armor, how many layers of what thickness and what composition (thin aluminum sheets for whipple shields as defense against high velocity railguns, thicker ceramics to shrug off lasers, and harder metals to turn aside slower but heavier coilgun or gunpowder-fired projectiles, for example) and several built-in options for weapons and engines each with advantages and diadvantages (for example, methane or decane as a propellant may not have the specific impulse of hydrogen deuteride, but it's a lot denser letting you make your ships much smaller and therefore less expensive in terms of mass to armor.)

Module design is going to require you to study some material on the physics of lasers, nuclear reactors, nuclear thermal rockets, railguns, coilguns, and what have you. It is unlocked significantly later in the campaign than the ship design.

Is it worth it?

Well, I've logged almost 60 hours in the game over the past month. I'll be honest, this game is extremely niche, but if you salivate reading articles on Atomic Rockets or have ever played and enjoyed a game of Attack Vector: Tactical (a hard-science tabletop wargame ALSO highly inspired by Atomic Rockets) or wish KSP let you shoot at other ships... You'll probably enjoy it. For everyone else, the learning curve is rather more like an overhang cliff you must climb with no safety gear.

Can I find out if I enjoy the game within the refund period?

Honestly? Probably not. The design modules unlock way too late in the game for you to be able to try them out before you've hit the end of the two-hour refund period. You'll get to shoot at ships before then though, and that might provide you some clues as to whether you'd find the rest enjoyable. That said, I'm glad the design modules unlock after you've had sopme practical playtime.

What would you change about the game?

The ability to do slow-mo replays of battles for battle-damage assessment. Some guided tutorials through the design modules, especially for NTRs.

Is it as-advertised?

Exactly as it says on the tin.

Did you receiving this game for free affect your oinion?

That's a silly question, of course it did. Though, being involved in the beta, I've seen both the good and the bad.

What about your system specs?

I've played it on both my gaming PC desktop (which is a few years behind the curve) and on my more function-over-entertainment macbook, and both run the game acceptably if I'm not stupid about graphics settings on the laptop. Certain features in certain missions can cause significant slowdown, (orbit predictions with reference targets where deep gravity wells are concerned, significant numbers of missiles [like, a hundred or more])

THIS GAME ISN'T FOR EVERYBODY, and it really could have used a few weeks on Early Access to round off the edges.

First and foremost: I'm mostly liking the game so far, and I'll probably change this to a recommendation in the future, but as of the writing of this, the game has only 15 positive reviews and no negative ones, so I'll put an warning here before people think this is something it's not and we get a flood of bad reviews.

Some general points:
Graphics - Rendering realistic space battles isn't an excuse to not at least try to make it pretty. Sorry, but this game really needs a bit love from a 3D artist. I see your normal maps stored in JPG, and if any 3D artist see this they'll try to hang you. This game screams programmer graphics everywhere, and while I'm a programmer myself, this isn't excusable on a $25 title.
Interface - Generally quite well done and useable, but could use some more work on the finer points of orbital maneuvers, like being able to move the execution point of the maneuver to change the timing, and splitting fleets of drones/missiles after launch.
Sound - Pretty good sound effects and music in general, bit repetitive theme on the menu, but it works overall.
Setting - The story and science of the game is the reason you should be getting it, it's pretty well done and a lot of research went into making this game, and it shows.

So far I've played up to the 5th campaign mission, and enjoyed the first 4 quite a bit... On the 5th though, you are introduced to missiles, and they just aren't ready for release yet. The main problem is that the terminal guidance (and really, the guidance in general) can't get the job done and even if the target has had its rocket disabled, the missiles can't get a solid hit on the target ship, and much less anywhere near any priority target you set, which makes you being able to finish the mission totally random.

Overall, if you like Rocketry, has a general sense of how orbital mechanics works and like realistic simulations, this game is for you, but you might want to wait a bit and see if the rough edges are polished down first. If you can't get a rocket built and on orbit in KSP, you're probably better off passing this one.

So after logging about an hour of the game, this is what I gotta say so far...

PROS:

- Holy ♥♥♥♥; it's about time that the gaming market has gotten a game like this. Hard sci-fi fans have been denied a game that they can seriously dig their number-crunching teeth into for YEARS.

- Controlling your ships is very easy and convenient.

- Combat is really fun to watch, and really does highlight all the reasons why practical and realistic space combat is really cool.

- I love the worldbuilding and story that is in this game. I really appreciate that the game also comes with an area where I can simply read over who the different factions are, and what the system's history entails.

- SANDBOX MODE, YEAAAAHHHH!!! SUCK IT, MWO! THIS GAME ACTUALLY HAS A SANDBOX MODE.

- The soundtrack~ Aw yis, this is a very good soundtrack. Not too in-your-face to be distracting, but also active enough to not be boring. The various synths are constructed really well, and are generally very satisfying to listen to. The drums are a very interesting choice, given the theme of the game, but any alternative I would have picked would have been way too aggressive or electronic, and thus distract the player.

- The sound design is really excellent as well. Similar to the soundtrack, it sits between two extremes very nicely, giving that extra bit of feedback without being annoying. (Here, I'm looking at a few games in particular where the sound of your mouse going over a menu button is some super-obnoxious beep that never seems to stop haunting you. This game doesn't have that; it won't haunt you in your sleep.)

- SpeakING OF SOUND DESIGN: NO SOUND IS SPACE, CAN I GET A HELL YES??

- Can I also mention that the actual GAMEPLAY is really unique as well? It kinda works as an real-time and turn-based hybrid, giving you time to think when you need it, but still remaining within a constantly-moving universe.

- Orbital mechanics: yes. Just yes. No botchy estimations. We actually get full physical simulations of orbits, with all the fun traits it brings. We even get to choose our frame of reference, which is really nice.

- I have yet to find a bug in the game.

- Tutorial is included and very clear, thank the galaxy.

CONS:

- I'm really used to the mouse rotating in another direction when I drag it a certain way. It would be really nice to have an option where we can invert certain dragging directions.

- I feel like this is a game that a lot of Hollywood fans are gonna attack because they don't understand what it's actually trying to accomplish here. I'm trying to spread news of this game as far and wide as I can to all the hard sci-fi nerds I know, because this game deserves to have an awesome fanbase.

I may post another review as I get more hours into this, because I invariably will.

It's grain silos with rockets committing hyperspeed drive-bys with nukes and lasers.

For lovers of hard science fiction this is pretty much the dream game. Heat radiators, nuclear thermal rockets, lasers, real n-body physics, and orbital mechanics, it’s all here. Star Wars style space battles, you won’t find that here. This is all about matching orbits, flinging missiles at targets hundreds of kilometers away and drilling away at your target’s armor with concentrated laser and rail gun fire. The campaign is challenging enough but the ship and component editor is a whole ‘nother story. Making your own ship components is, to put it lightly, INSANE! The amount of parameters you can modify is mind boggling. Just trying to make a custom laser weapon I have to chose a lasing medium, what material to make the mirrors out of, what are those mirror’s dimensions, what will the freaking coolant pumps be made out of and what fluid will they be pumping and how fast! I feel like I need several advanced engineering degrees to wrap my head around all this, which is cool, but overwhelming! I like that it gives you these insane custom tinkering options but unless you know what you’re doing it’s best to just stick with the stock parts to build your ships. I really can’t think of any other game out there that takes hard science fiction this seriously. Probably Kerbal Space Program is the closest thing to this but that’s really not a helpful comparison.

Loaded up game. Drooled at hard science ship designs. Wanted to unlock modules so I could design my own.

First mission. Hand held by the tutorial, managed to successfully refuel stranded ship and headed back to port. Awesome.

Second mission. Beat up on small capship in Ganymede orbit, with Jupiter messing with the orbits slightly. Battle! Yay, glorious plumes of red-hot methan exhaust and my radiators glowing in thermodynamic glory! Wrecked enemy in brutal fashion for betterment of free peoples of Solar System, orange-hot impact holes all over the capitalist swine's hull.

Third mission. Requires orbital inclination change. No problemo, used to this from Orbiter. Inclination change successful! ...except, now I'm in a retrograde orbit. Launch all my drones to scrap the ship in a glorious single pass, my orbital plus his equals instant kinetic weapon death, right? Except... the enemy just flies past and my drone squadron is now out of fuel, drifting like morons. I just got outmaneuvered by a target that wasn't even trying to run...

10/10 would deplete all propellant and get schooled by the hard facts again

Like KSP?

Wish you could be a nuclear missile launching drone platform waging war around the moons of Saturn while biting your nails as the last of your fuel goes up in fumes?

Well here you go.

There are better reviews than this one on the game, go read them.