Despite the game being labelled "Early Access" for the price point this feels like a pretty complete game, and a really fun cooperative game to play with friends.

On that note, I did try playing the game solo when I first got it and found it to be both terrifying and extremely difficult. It definitely feels better geared to having someone else around to watch your back, or at least to panic and run back to the ship and take off so we don't lose all the loot we found.

The gameplay follows a pretty simple loop of exploring a procedurally generated abandoned building of some kind to look for valuable scrap items to bring back to the ship before midnight falls. After 3 days of work you bring the scrap you collected back to The Company to sell for profit, which you can use to buy things to help you survive, ranging from the basics like flashlights and walkies, to teleporters, stun guns, and jetpacks.

The challenge is you have to avoid a wide variety of diverse monsters that will instantly kill you in a myriad of different grotesque ways, with very little means to defend yourself other than panic, run, hide, get back to the ship OH GOD GET BACK TO THE SHIP DONT GO IN THAT DOOR WAIT NO OH GOD ITS COMING I CA---

One of the fun things about this game is its use of proximity chat to communicate with your fellow players only extends to the living. While you can get walkie-talkies to speak with each other remotely (provided that you aren't cheating by using something like discord), you can only hear people when they are within a few feet from you, and the moment they die, their voice cuts off rather abruptly.

There is also a radar feed and terminal on the ship that a player on the ship can use to try to help communicate about hazards, monsters, and scrap to the people exploring the abandoned buildings, as well as opening some locked doors, disabling mines or turrets, or using a teleporter to pull them back into the ship to save them, at the expense of losing anything they were carrying.

While I don't want to spoil all the different kinds of monsters, there is a wide variety of different kinds of AI behavior that players will need to get familiar with in learning how to deal with each one. Some of the monsters are pretty docile and will only bother you if you bother them. Others you can defend yourself against if you have a suitable weapon, like a shovel. And others.... Just hope you don't run into them and if you do, best hope you have enough stamina because man is the stamina bar in this game punishing, but it makes it a valuable resource you have to keep an eye on if you plan on being able to run away, particularly if you are carrying valuable and heavy scrap.

The only thing this game is lacking right now is a bigger variety of places to explore, slightly more variety in the procedural generation, and some added levels of progression that persist and reward the player for surviving longer and meeting more quotas, beyond just being a basic rogue-like with no real "end-game," so much as a late-game that eventually gets impossibly challenging.

That being said, the game has a bustling modding community that make up for a lot of the game's current shortcomings. They have added so many new features and elements to the game they've more or less done the dev's job for him in getting the game to see its full potential. New moons, new mechanics, new monsters, new items, new scrap, gameplay tweaks, better settings, new interiors, and lots of other fun additions like cosmetics and suits. Although its not run through the Steam workshop Thunderstore and the R2ModManager work well enough, with a great feature allowing you to send your friends a simple code to get them setup with the same mods and configs as you to avoid any incompatibilities.

Overall, my friends and I have had a blast playing it, and I highly recommend it, as I think it is well worth the $10. My only hope is that the dev will continue to work on the game and add more content since he really has managed to create something pretty special with this game, as its rather exploded with popularity, particularly among the streaming community. Continued development and content would really do well to keep this game something players consistently come back to.

Despite the game being labelled "Early Access" for the price point this feels like a pretty complete game, and a really fun cooperative game to play with friends. On that note, I did try playing the game solo when I first got it and found it to be both terrifying and extremely difficult. It definitely feels better geared to having someone else around to watch your back, or at least to panic and run back to the ship and take off so we don't lose all the loot we found. The gameplay follows a pretty simple loop of exploring a procedurally generated abandoned building of some kind to look for valuable scrap items to bring back to the ship before midnight falls. After 3 days of work you bring the scrap you collected back to The Company to sell for profit, which you can use to buy things to help you survive, ranging from the basics like flashlights and walkies, to teleporters, stun guns, and jetpacks. The challenge is you have to avoid a wide variety of diverse monsters that will instantly kill you in a myriad of different grotesque ways, with very little means to defend yourself other than panic, run, hide, get back to the ship OH GOD GET BACK TO THE SHIP DONT GO IN THAT DOOR WAIT NO OH GOD ITS COMING I CA--- One of the fun things about this game is its use of proximity chat to communicate with your fellow players only extends to the living. While you can get walkie-talkies to speak with each other remotely (provided that you aren't cheating by using something like discord), you can only hear people when they are within a few feet from you, and the moment they die, their voice cuts off rather abruptly. There is also a radar feed and terminal on the ship that a player on the ship can use to try to help communicate about hazards, monsters, and scrap to the people exploring the abandoned buildings, as well as opening some locked doors, disabling mines or turrets, or using a teleporter to pull them back into the ship to save them, at the expense of losing anything they were carrying. While I don't want to spoil all the different kinds of monsters, there is a wide variety of different kinds of AI behavior that players will need to get familiar with in learning how to deal with each one. Some of the monsters are pretty docile and will only bother you if you bother them. Others you can defend yourself against if you have a suitable weapon, like a shovel. And others.... Just hope you don't run into them and if you do, best hope you have enough stamina because man is the stamina bar in this game punishing, but it makes it a valuable resource you have to keep an eye on if you plan on being able to run away, particularly if you are carrying valuable and heavy scrap. The only thing this game is lacking right now is a bigger variety of places to explore, slightly more variety in the procedural generation, and some added levels of progression that persist and reward the player for surviving longer and meeting more quotas, beyond just being a basic rogue-like with no real "end-game," so much as a late-game that eventually gets impossibly challenging. That being said, the game has a bustling modding community that make up for a lot of the game's current shortcomings. They have added so many new features and elements to the game they've more or less done the dev's job for him in getting the game to see its full potential. New moons, new mechanics, new monsters, new items, new scrap, gameplay tweaks, better settings, new interiors, and lots of other fun additions like cosmetics and suits. Although its not run through the Steam workshop Thunderstore and the R2ModManager work well enough, with a great feature allowing you to send your friends a simple code to get them setup with the same mods and configs as you to avoid any incompatibilities. Overall, my friends and I have had a blast playing it, and I highly recommend it, as I think it is well worth the $10. My only hope is that the dev will continue to work on the game and add more content since he really has managed to create something pretty special with this game, as its rather exploded with popularity, particularly among the streaming community. Continued development and content would really do well to keep this game something players consistently come back to.