Astroneer

Single-player sandbox in an open world with adventure, action elements, and a third-person view, Astroneer offers players the experience of being 25th-century astronauts. The main goal is to explore space planets to extract valuable and expensive resources.

Additionally, you can build huge research centers, vehicles, and much more. You can embark on this journey with a friend — the game features a cooperative mode for multiple players.

Collecting scattered resources and crafting useful items from them is one of the pillars of the gameplay. The release version contained more than 30 different resources, some of which can be processed (aluminum, copper), while others are usable as they are (energy, oxygen, organics).

The player has access to dozens of constructions necessary for basic survival and further settlement on the planet. Constructions are divided by their functionality (generators, batteries, 3D printers, research laboratories, warehouses, etc.) and are available in three different sizes – small, medium, and large. Some elements can be salvaged from broken modules discovered during the exploration of the game world.

Astroneer runs on Unreal Engine 4, but it features voxel graphics, giving it a unique appearance. A gameplay consequence of this decision is the ability to terraform the game world anywhere using a matter manipulator. This is a kind of vacuum that sucks everything in, packs all encountered useful resources into blocks, and spits out trash.

With its help, you can "drill" anywhere on the planet or, after gathering enough soil, spit it out in the desired place to give it a certain shape. This portable terraforming tool from classic strategies allows you to create mountains and valleys or level the surface.

Astroneer has a small story quest that explains the true background of the events – who the protagonist is, how he ended up here, why he needs to gather resources, and what these strange alien structures on each planet are that need to be activated.

However, don't expect dialogues, in-engine cutscenes, or even off-screen explanations – the story is just a formality. While the game was in early access on Steam, developers added gameplay features and content. A full-fledged story campaign may appear in the future.

The main mode of Astroneer is the single-player campaign, but there is also a cooperative mode that allows up to four players to play together. All game actions between single-player and cooperative modes are unified, and each player is free to act as they wish, as long as the colony develops.

Besides resource extraction, the player needs to research unknown objects collected here and there in the game world. Research grants bytes, which can be spent on purchasing blueprints for more advanced buildings. In Astroneer, there are many objects to study, but they first need to be discovered and brought back to the base.

To keep the base constructions functioning, energy is needed, which is produced by solar panels and wind turbines. Чем больше постройка – тем больше энергии она потребляет, а значит нужно найти больше ресурсов для строительства.

Первое время после высадки персонаж полностью зависит от базы, где пополняет запасы кислорода и энергии, без которых далеко не убежит.

Все это ограничивает развитие, поскольку источники ресурсов бывают трех типов. Легкодоступные «пятна» быстро заканчиваются и дают мало ресурсов. Регенерирующие жилы дают немного больше «пятен», зато по природе своей неисчерпаемы. Еще есть месторождения – жилы, богатые ресурсами, но расположенные под землей.

Дабы продвинуться дальше, надо строить опоры, поставляющие воздух и энергию от базы в нужное место, устанавливать сигнальные маяки, исследовать предметы экипировки. Прохождение Astroneer занимает порядка 30-40 часов.