We`ve seen some great titles come through the Xbox Preview Program in terms of upcoming games, that have been given the platform by Microsoft to stage their game from an alpha stage, and all the way to the final development of the game. We`ve seen games such as ARK Survival Evolved from it`s Alpha stage to near completion, and We Happy Few, a game still very much near it`s beginning. But we`ve seen a new one come to use recently from System Era Networks, and that is one of Astroneer. It`s impossible to write a fair review on a game that`s nowhere near finished, so this will be more of a preview to the game and first impressions, rather than a full-on review.
Astroneer is a Sci-Fi and adventure game set in Space, and is developed and published by System Era Networks. An Open-World style game, you`re able to colonize planets, creating structures and maintaining resources. I`d think it very like Minecraft where you can create your own worlds. Astroneer focuses in though on a completely new element to it. You`re going to need to travel to other planets and moons to extract resources to use on your planet, and similar to Minecraft, you and your friends can drop in and out of a game and work on each other’s planets.
Building and sculpting your terrain is part of the fun, but be warned that it`s not just an open-world sandbox style game without anything to make it difficult. You`re going to need to make sure that you`re keeping yourself supplied with Oxygen in your tank, otherwise you`ll be making an early exit. You need to make sure that you keep yourself replenished, and it seems to go down very quickly, so be warned that a lot of replenishment is going to be needed every few minutes.
There are a lot of elements to the game, from its artistic style to its gameplay. There are lots of things I could see similar from No Mans Sky. It`s a game that has so much potential and when is fully finished and released, could do exceptionally well.
Astroneer is in a very early stage of its birth. It is currently in a pre-alpha state and although it`s great to see from early on how it transpires until the end when it is fully released, if you`re someone who wants to play something fully and something that`s going to grip you in for several hours, then you`d be better off staying away until it`s in a later stage. I really do love the Xbox Preview Program, as personally, I love seeing how different games change over a certain time. I really do think Astroneer is a game that`s going to attract you when it is finished and ready. But it is still very early on its stages, and you must remember why you are playing a game that is part of the program. To help the developers with making the game the best It can be.
But, Astroneer certainly is a game that I`m really looking forward to. I`m really looking to see over the next few months how the game advances and how the game fares out, and because it`s a Xbox Play Anywhere title, you can enjoy at home or on the go. But the early impressions are promising, and a full review will be written up when the game is fully released.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with an Early access copy of Astroneer
Game: Astroneer
Developers: System Era Networks
Publishers: System Era Networks
Genre: Sci-Fi
Price: £15.74 (From Xbox Store)