Page 78 - Computer Power User - February 2017

Manifest Destiny In Space

BY ANDREW LEIBMAN

$19.99 (PC, XOne) • ESRB: (E)veryone • System Era Softworks
astroneer.space

ASTRONEER is a planet and space exploration game that’s currently in holes, collect resources, and harvest organic material using the Lower
pre-alpha on PC and Xbox One. Although it’s rare that I review games that Mode; or use the Raise Mode to create mounds, bridges over chasms,
are unfinished, I decided to take a chance on this one because I’m a sucker fill in holes, or point it at your feet to give yourself a higher vantage
for space, and January is such a wasteland when it comes to new game point. There’s also a Level Mode that acts like a smoothing function.
releases. I’m happy to report that ASTRONEER scratches the same itch as
another unfinished indie game I took a chance on, called Minecraft. Once you step too far away from your pod and its tentacular modules,
however, your suit’s oxygen tank begins to empty and your matter
ASTRONEER opens with your space-suited character seated in a pod manipulator taps into your suit’s very limited energy reserves. To
and blasting from the EXO Dynamics space station to the nearby explore farther afield, you’ll need to put down tethers that keep your
planet. You are a 25th-century pioneer, and there’s a wide universe of O2 and energy topped off, and it won’t be long before you’ll need to
procedurally generated planets available for colonization, exploration, venture into the unknown to gather more and rarer resources.
and valuable mineral harvesting. You need but land, stake your claim,
and survive to reap the rewards. With its pinkish, yellowish, purplish screenshots, space themes,
and the procedurally generated buzzword in tow, you might think
Your pod becomes the central hub of your base, and it’ll sprout arms ASTRONEER bears more than a passing resemblance to No Man’s
and new modules when fed the right resources. These modules include Sky. But by releasing early, ASTRONEER is avoiding all the major
a printer for creating batteries, solar panels, generators, and fuel missteps of NMS. While it does feel like there are pieces of the
cells; a trade platform for exchanging your glut of mined resources for puzzle still missing, ASTRONEER is fun to play and it’s still delivering
those hard-to-find elements you need to craft the next item on your surprises more than 15 hours in. Best of all, it’s just $20, and it
list; smelters for turning ore into usable metals; research modules for supports up to four-player multiplayer.
turning enigmatic discoveries into useful equipment; and a vehicle
bay for manufacturing rovers, trucks, shuttles, and spaceships for I played ASTRONEER like I played Minecraft when I first encountered
expanding your sphere of influence. it as a plucky indie title, by going in blind, sans wiki. The game’s
inventory needs work, it plays much better with a mouse and keyboard,
When you’re near your pod, oxygen and energy are infinite, and you and there’s a definite sense that one could easily become stranded
can run around freely mining and reshaping the landscape using your without a way back to safety. It can be frustrating at times, but as long
all-in-one matter manipulator. I’m borrowing that term from Starbound as you accept that mild frustration is to be expected when trying to
because it’s better than the official “deform tool.” With it you can dig colonize an alien world, you’ll have an absolute blast. ■

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