Astroneer by System Era Softworks is a third-person, open-world, creative sandbox much like a LEGO Worlds meets No Man’s Sky. This title has a cute and playful vibe. Definitely check out the trailer (below), because it really captures what the game is about. But – how does it play? I would say it works very well on the Xbox and is entertaining for the time I put into it. Let’s get a closer look.
The first thing we see is the game’s loading screen, which is an impressive take on the blue ring of death. It’s the solar system we’re exploring and the planets are orbiting the sun. I was happily distracted from my weariness, waiting for the game to fully load. It really wasn’t that bad after the first-time launch of the game.
The game offers a tutorial, which is very helpful compared to starting No Man’s Sky in a hazardous environment where you’ll suffocate because you don’t know how to convert materials into oxygen or energy. Instead we crash onto a planet, but we are tethered to the capsule we landed in. You collect materials, and then you create a bundle of tethers. This is a pretty interesting concept! Essentially you have to move area to area without access to oxygen. So, to fix that you need to create telephone-pole-like tethers to create an efficient supply line.
Gathering materials is just as simple as taking out your extractor tool and holding the right trigger, sucking up the raw material like a vacuum. You store items and input items on your backpack, which you can simply access by pressing B. The UI is pretty clever, in that you can see what you have already by looking at your back in real time. You can craft lower tier items, like a printer or small generator, through the use of your backpack. From there you can use a smelter to refine ore material further and create more impressive things. Like part of the shuttle your trying to repair. Flora/organic material can be used as fuel for that generator too, which makes the smelter run faster.
It’s not a violent game, or at least you’re not harming anyone else. You might be harming the environment, but it is what it is. It fosters creativity and forces you to be strategic with your limited resources. After consuming the entirety of one resource pool, you will need to survey the planet for more of that particular element elsewhere. Even then, I didn’t have much of an issue getting enough material for my goals as well as the tutorial’s lessons.
The design is really nice. You’ll notice this title is cartoony, somewhat minimalistic, and vibrant in color. There are seven planets to explore, each containing the materials you need to make little industries. You can even use the deform tool to craft the world to your godly design. Terraforming on steroids! And don’t forget, you can build vehicles, so you could create an intense rover park, doing stunts off of ramps made out of nothing but earth.
As intense as that sounds, the music is more calming and transient. It was appropriate for what I was doing, just exploring and building, but it is so calming that it sort of fades in your mind once you are really getting into the world-building. I have to say, I was pretty proud of connecting my oxygen telephone poles despite how simple it was.
I did not try out the multiplayer, but I can tell that it has potential by how much fun I had goofing around with the environment by myself. And rover party with terraformed ramps doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
I think a fair rating for this game is 9 out of 10. I would definitely play with friends. The replayability is there, and I like what this game brings to the table.
Check Out the Astroneer Trailer:
Astroneer is available for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC via Steam.
Xbox One Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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