Shoutout to Astroneer

Hey guys, long time community member here (though I've never really used the forums for anything other than occasional browsing), just wanted to shoutout the game Astroneer after Brad and Vinny streamed some time with it on Friday afternoon. I've played it for a few hundred hours throughout its early access run and post-release. As you could probably tell from the GB stream, the game is super relaxing. I can't help but feel like in 2020, the year of extreme anxiety, I've felt myself drawn to these kinds of games more often. The gameplay is also fun and progressing up the technology tree feels really satisfying. Once you feel comfortable enough with your productivity, you can do silly things like poke around at the physics engine. Sometimes fun things like this happens:

I think that this game can scratch a bunch of gaming itches. It's relaxing and chill with basically no real fail state, not unlike, say, Animal Crossing. It features the exploration, resource gathering, and generated terrain of Minecraft. If you like these types of games, check it out. I'd also recommend NoClip's documentary on the development of the game, which is its own incredible story.

I really enjoyed my time with it. Felt like old days of alpha version Minecraft where I was looking up Wiki pages for recipes and such. Setting up my base was fun and plugging stuff in never gets old. Once I started building rockets that is where the game started to slightly cool for me. Having to go to all these different planets just so you can get their resources and come back to home base so you can advance the skill tree felt a bit tiring and I eventually stopped playing. That said, still had a ton of fun exploring and running around for quite a few hours. It has a wonderful look to it.

I had a short but intense affair with this game not so long ago (mostly because it was on Xbox Game Pass for PC, but I've always thought it looked neat).

Over about 2 weeks I clocked-in something like 30+ hours (which is a lot when you are working and also have a young baby!), got all the single-player achievements (I think..), built a full and reasonably-well-optimised base, and spelunked/paved my way to a full chess set!

Everything in the game can be achieved in different ways (i.e. you could be on foot and nomadic, truck around in a mobile drilling monstrosity, or set up multiple bases, or all three, or something else), and all the danger/risk is done in your own way, with the game supplying a multitude of tools to manage that risk and otherwise enjoy the game world. This game was responsible for a good few 2am sessions, with that urge to complete a self-assigned goal, which always seems just around the corner, always being present.

I found there wasn't much to do in the 'end game', and can't say I'm inspired to go back to the current community event, but wouldstill recommend this game to anyone who fancies a bit of base-building/exploring/chill times, just as the OP describes.

Glad to see some content on it over the lockdown, hopefully it will inspire others to play.

@jaypee: Yah I similarly loved my time with it up until I got to space travel. The moment I realized that all there was to it is going to planets just so I can mine their unique resource and bring it back to base it somewhat drained the wind out of my sails. Still I had a ton of fun getting up to that point.

How does this play on a controller? Seems quite mouse reliant, but it's still available on consoles.

@humanity:I didn't mind the space stuff so much. Yes, I found it a bit like you describe, but it was more that the game changed a bit in tone/gameplay loop rather than got 'worse'. I ended up unlocking all the Gateway Chambers & Engines, got all the Geometric Triptychs etc., basically these present slightly different challenges than the pure base-buildy elements of the start, but give you something to work towards and encourage exploration, so using your tools and resources in a slightly different way.

@zaccheus:I first tried it on a controller and found it quite fiddly. Doable, but not particularly pleasant. It was only when I (finally) got a desk set-up in my house and was able to play on KB&M that I really got into it.

@jaypee: For the gates thats a different thing because you can build huge rigs, have cranes and generally it's a lot more "fun" to actually haul over the necessary generators to activate them (I only activated one and haven't read up what they do). Like I find the idea of paving a smooth highway to the gate a fun prospect. I've taken meticulous care to pave one smooth downward slope in my primary "mine" so that when I drive a vehicle it's a smooth decline and when I jump down on foot I can just slide almost endlessly. Those things are fun for me. The space stuff just seems so divorced from all of it. I mean even IF you decide to setup a fully functioning base on some of the outer planets, some of them don't have basic resources to build things so ether way you have to keep making trips back and forth and you can only really just use the shuttle.