There’s a lot to be said about space, but one of the biggest things to keep in mind is that it’s completely unforgiving. Space isn’t by any means hostile, of course, in the same way air isn’t hostile to fish; it’s not a fish’s environment, so if very specific precautions aren’t taken then the results are a lifespan measured in seconds. Take that seriously (while throwing in sci-fi ideas like artificial gravity) and people can survive in space, but otherwise it’s probably a terrible idea. Still, space is where everything is, with riches far beyond anything that one lone, comfortable planet could ever provide, so while the losses may be potentially huge, the gains can be even bigger. This works out great for the corporations, but maybe not so much for the workers caught up in the occasional disaster.
The Asteroid Field Is Fine, The Human-Built Outposts Not So Much
When the space station Yunadel is unexpectedly destroyed one of its people manages to make it to an escape pod, which shoots off into the depths of space rather than towards anywhere useful. After a couple of months during which supplies and hope both run equally low, the pod finally stops thanks to crashing into a rock, one of uncountable hundreds in a massive asteroid field that, thankfully, shows signs of human activity. On the down side, judging by the volume of wreckage floating about, it doesn’t seem likely there’s much help to be found here. Still, it beats being locked in a pod for months on end and a little exploration may just turn up a way home after all. First up, though is the little matter that none of the survivor’s equipment is anywhere near being up to the job at hand.
Floating Around the Interplanetary Debris Field of Astrometica Prologue
Astrometica: Prologue is the first two missions and a good-sized chunk of explorable space for the forthcoming survival/crafting game Astrometica.
Astrometicais a first-person survival game in the vein ofSubnauticaandPlanet Crafters, where a lone explorer starts with little beyond the basics and slowly builds their way up to having a comfy home in the middle of a deadly environment. Starting off with nothing more than a small amount of food and water, a suit to protect against the vacuum of space for a very short period of time and a fabricator to craft the basic necessities, the explorer must venture out to scavenge the resources for survival. The fabricator has a couple of useful recipes in its databank already, and the pod’s final resting place has a good number of small asteroids composed of a variety of minerals floating around, so going full space-Pac-Man for a couple of minutes is all it takes to get the first several pieces of equipment built.
One of the thingsAstrometicadoes well is making each new upgrade feel like a significant advancement. The seventy-second oxygen limit is enough to get a few things done out in the vacuum, but the first of several tank upgrades bumping it a full one hundred seconds is a huge relief. Grabbing little asteroids at a single mineral apiece isn’t all that hard, but the mining drill lets you tear into the mid-sized ones for three at a time, which granted doesn’t sound like much until you’ve got a bunch of things to make. It’s the scanner, though, that really opens up the tech tree, but to make the most of it you’ll need to leave the safety of home base to explore the many sites found scattered throughout the asteroid field.
One of the thingsAstrometicadoes well is making each new upgrade feel like a significant advancement.
The major points of interest are all marked with a homing beacon, activated when you get close enough to pick up the signal but not hard to discover. There are areas hidden by the larger asteroids, but the line of sight is otherwise clear, so if there’s a building or glowing dome it’s obviously worth a look. The very first dome is within easy reach once the jetpack has been created, and while there are a good number of items inside, the big one is the builder tool. Any new item you’ll be able to build can be added to the list of available blueprints by tagging it with the scanner, with most items only taking a single scan but some of the more complicated ones requiring finding multiple item fragments before they’re available. The builder tool is what lets you construct your own space station and move out of the limited area of the escape pod, furnished with all the amenities once you’ve discovered the blueprints and gathered the needed resources.
More Tools Make More Toys, More Toys Earn More Tools
From hereAstrometicastarts opening up in full, with multiple crafting stations each adding something new to the available options. More tools expand the resource collection options, including a laser to open up shipping containers and fend off the occasional space-squid, and eventually two types of vehicles to make getting around much more manageable. None of this comes for free, though, and finding the materials to make everything will require exploring every inch of the environment and learning the stories of those who are no longer there. The asteroid field used to be a busy mining zone, but it’s clear from the wreckage something terrible happened, and the logs found in the ruins tell the story of what went wrong with a few hints as to what those weird blue pulsing mineral-tendrils roping some of the asteroids together might be. There’s mysteries in this sector of space and the answers aren’t all here yet.
While the asteroid field is a large place with a good number of surprisingly-diverse areas to explore, it’s not the only mapAstrometicawill have. For the initial Early Access release, a couple of the other maps are available but also where the adventure ends, empty other than with the promise of having more new toys to play with later on. New tools, machines and even weapons will fill out the player’s abilities, and it’s an engaging enough adventure up to the point it stops that it’s hard to resist poking around afterwards to see if there’s anything you might have missed. For my playthrough, this is when I found out that using the habitat colorizer to paint home base makes it much easier to pick out against the background. Everyone wants a vivid purple space station, right? It’s lonely in the depths of space, and survival may require paying close attention to the thirst and hunger meters, but that’s no reason not to build the swankiest space station the quadrant has ever seen.
