Experience the stars with Astroneer

Among the sea of interstellar exploration games, a few games come to mind, like the recent “Starfield” or “No Man’s Skies.” They are games that center around visiting wild new planets, seeing what they have, getting resources, and moving on the other thousands of planets. “Astroneer” is in many ways in the same vein, yet in many ways takes itself not entirely seriously, having a more simple cartoon style that I am so fond of that it became to this day my favorite game.

“Astroneer” is an exploration game that gives you tools and allows you to manipulate the world however you want, like a sandbox. You play as an explorer, going to unknown planets, building bases around those multiple unique planets you see in the starry sky alone or with some friends. This is coupled with easy-to-take-in graphics that aren’t overwhelming. Missions that give you a small sense of direction that promotes exploration. That in combination with a developing crafting system, where exploring, doing missions, and collecting material, unlock more complicated machines that require more complicated to acquire materials along the way.

“Astroneer”’s design is the worst issue of this game. It in many ways is a good sandbox game but lacks in many ways when it comes to that sand. The surfaces of each planet are very unique to that planet, having their own color palette, and unique terrain generations, the same goes for the moons. But it is a different case for the inner planet and certain plants. When you visit an entirely unique planet, you expect unique plants among other things, but sometimes you see a plant that is almost the same as another planet. Along with the cave generations, when you enter caves and caverns, across the whole game, the same except for the color palette. The lack of variation is supplemented by the mechanics that coincide with exploration.

Every aspect of “Astroneer”’s experience from its machines to characters is further enhanced by its cartoon graphics, which make the machines and structures simple but still breathtaking. The player models and animation are no different with goofy proportions that are sometimes funny. The landscape is not different, being made of polygons, giving the environment a unique but natural look. The plants are wacky and weird-looking, nothing like the ones you see on Earth. This is all to say that the graphics aren’t meant to be a graphical masterpiece like Cyberpunk, but comfortable with its style. But still have performance issues like Cyberpunk with its approach in style, like loading issues that leave pockets of unloaded land.

As you play “Astroneer,” you do these small missions that give you a quick little reward for your time doing them, they range from a small battery to new pets. Some help gives you a direction to play the game, along with good ways to learn mechanics if you haven’t figured out some yet. The missions system is a valuable asset to the game but removes the sense and reward of discovery when certain missions just plainly state the key points.

The progression on the other hand is almost a perfect system where, as you explore, collect stuff, and find structures, your base slowly becomes more complicated, this mixes it up, not the same song and dance every time. This is a strong driving point because in conjunction with the unlocking mechanic, it lets you peer into things you can possibly build, and that unlocks your imagination and drives you to explore. But as you advance to more and more complicated systems, there is this sort of tedious system that kind of bogs the game down because of the time it takes to do it. It’s sometimes fixed because you don’t have to be alone.

The inclusion of multiplayer really adds to the experience of “Astroneer,” elevating every aspect of the game by including your friends. What’s better than discovering new, weird structures with your friends, or playing some spleef or checkers with them? Accomplishing achievements, and splitting up tasks subtracts from tedious parts of the game making it way more enjoyable.

Every aspect of the game works together to create a real magical experience that I would recommend to anyone. I feel everyone should enjoy this game but of course, everyone has their own cup of tea, but I think it is good to experience another’s cup of tea.