Review: ASTRONEER

ASTRONEER is a sandbox game about space exploration. This game has similarity to No Man's Sky. You will become an astronaut explore an unknown planet and establish your own base while you also need to collect resources in the process. Explore wherever you want to the core of the planet where you are or up to the sky to another planet with different climate characteristic.

COMPLEXITY
This game is quite peaceful and doesn't seem too complex, but these are the things that I find interesting about this game:

• Oxygen is important. You will need to stay breathe oxygen while you are exploring in order to stay alive. In every planet you will visit, there will be no oxygen and you can only rely on the oxygenator device from cargo in your home base. So, while you're travelling, you will need to establish devices called tether along your way so the oxygen can transport from your home base to the destination you want to travel to. Or you can also make an oxygen filter device so it can supply you with oxygen for some period of time.

• Electricity is also important. Some devices require electricity to run. You also need electricity to craft tools from your backpack. Your starting home base is already equipped with a power source but the bigger your base will expand, the bigger the power consumption will be so you also need to add more power source to fulfil your home base electricity need.

• Collect Resources. Before you can create or build things, you have to gather resources around you. There are 9 base resources that you can collect in the game, each 9 of them can be refined or combined with other resources to create composite resources. You can use these resources to create tools, modules, or vehicles.

• Build and Expand Your Base. Small items such as tether, small generator, oxygen filter, small battery can you create with your own backpack. Other than small items, you need to create it with a printer device. This device will do a 3D Printing after you collect the resources you need to create items you want. The bigger the items you want to create, the bigger the printer you need.

• Research New Technology. Not all items are available when you start your game for the first time. You need research to unlocked new items. There are 4 Tiers of items you can research, they are small items, medium items, large items, and extra. To research new technology, you need sufficient byte (research currency). The amount of byte depends on what items you want to research. The bigger the items, the more expensive it costs. The easiest way to collect byte is to find research plants which they will increase your byte point after you collect them.

• Go Up or Dig Down. Build a shuttle and explore other 7 planets with their own climate characteristic or you can also dig down and find your way to the planet's core. Who knows what will you see once you have reached the core and who knows how beautiful other planets could be. Go see them by yourself!

MULTIPLAYER

This game supports multiplayer. You can play this game with 4 of your friends at max. On steam, if you want to play this game with other players, you have to make sure they are on your friend list and when you have already in the game, you can invite your friends to join you. This is great if this game is popular among your friends. But if none of your friends buys this game, I think you can find for another guy on a forum about ASTRONEER.

GRAPHIC
The graphic of this game is fascinating. Every planet in this game is rotating at their own axis. That is why you will see day and night. You can also see other planet rises and sets in the sky. There are also many views you can see in the game, like grassland, mountain, forest, crater, etc. This game is so colourful and sometimes you will be amazed by how beautiful the views this game offers.

ADDITIONAL

• If you are interested, there is a quest to collect things in the core of every planet. This quest will lead you to the credit scene of the game if you are curious.
• This game has some bugs, but I think it won't affect your playing performance because I don't feel too agitated by the bugs at all.
• Seriously, I'm impressed with its graphic because it can run a bit smooth even with a minimum 4 GB RAM and 1 GB GPU.

COMMENT

If you are looking for a sandbox space exploration game other and lighter than No Man's Sky, this game is recommended for you. This game actually can improve a lot if the developer always keeps in touch with it. It reminds me of Minecraft where you collect resources and you dig deep right into the core, but with a difference that you can go up to the sky. Unfortunately, this game can't do more except to explore and build only. At the first time we play, maybe we find it interesting but after a long period of time, my motivation to continue the game is deteriorating due to the game's lack of dynamism. If the developer can add other things that could make the game much more alive, it would be interesting. People love Minecraft because it is a survival game where you need to prepare yourself to fight evil creatures. In Minecraft also you can build a city or park with your own creativity. Well, I'm not saying that the developer has to add such a monster like Minecraft does, but the point is they need to add "something interesting" that the players would love and make them stay playing the game for a long period of time. Despite the cons, I still enjoy the game, especially its fascinating views. In the end, I can say the game is worth buying. It can't surpass No Man's Sky but I think with its current price, it is just reasonable for this game.