Enter the Stationeers simulation
Stationeers is a survival simulator that takes place on foreign planets. If you like hard-core survival with very realistic elements on other planets and moons, Stationeers will fit that itch. If you want to know what it would be like to attempt survival on another planet, this gives you a good indication of what it would take. The danger and enemy are time and hostile elements.
The realism in Stationeers is how it handles the environment. There are many ways to die in Stationeers, most of them end up in explosions. I’ve had water pipe bursts, hydrogen and oxygen explosions, steam explosions, and many, many fires. Everything from the pressure, atmospheric composition, and temperature are all modeled realistically and can provide a problem or solution.
A large problem you will run into is heat and what to do with it. While you need some to keep your crops alive, often it’s too much. Your plants will generate some heat and end up cooking themselves eventually in a closed system.
Starting Out
Like most survival games, how you start determines a lot of how the rest of the game unfolds. In Stationeers the mistakes you make can have long-lasting consequences. Each planet or moon has its challenges to overcome. Too hot, too cold, not enough sun. You need to tame it all.
The lander you spawn with will have several crates of equipment to help you on your way. This isn’t a bare-bones kit, but everything you need and more to get a starter base going. Generating power is usually your first hurdle to overcome. Set up a structure and expand from there.
Problem-Solving
The Stationeers gameplay loop is about problem-solving. One is getting carbon dioxide for my plants. Well, this turns out to be a natural element that comes out when you smelt some resources. So you set up some piping to pull the air into tanks and sort it with filters. Now you have the carbon, but it’s superheated. Now you need to find a cooling solution and figure out a way to add a pressurized chamber to some plants. This is an ongoing thing as you discover the real world, like solutions to problems.
Is it fun?
If you like a difficult game and using your head, like the space theme, you will enjoy this game. What you’ll find interesting about this game is the multiplayer balance. The game thus far only has cooperative play. You would think that multiplayer coop survival would make things easier, when it doesn’t. Each person requires more resources and makes it that much more difficult. Then again you’re also adding brainpower, or subtracting it depending on their personality and intelligence, as well as a larger labor pool. The balance is remarkable, usually, coop breaks the balance of a lot of games. This is one exception. I’ve love to see this game played with a large, coordinated team.
Early Access?
This game is in Early Access and you can see my thoughts about that. That said, the game doesn’t have a lot of content in terms of gameplay, but it plays a lot slower. It will take you quite a while to go through that content. I think the game is moderately priced.
One of the issues I have is stability. While a new world loads fine and runs fast, a world you’ve been in a while will slow down and have errors. Sometimes world breaking errors. The game is still in active development and there’s a lot more to come.
It’s not a casual game, but they could also use some work to fix their UI and interface/controls a little. Using a mouse with the alt key makes things a lot easier, but there are a lot more improvements they could do to help people.
Knowing what you’re getting into, you can pick it up and begin playing with a little difficulty. Most people I’ve seen can pick it up reasonably fast. This is a game where knowledge is your main limitation.
Tips:
- The first step is to inventory what you have, and what you’ll need.
- Your first priority when starting is power, then water, and then food. Work toward your goals in that order.
- Fuel temperature matters, keep your fuels super cold otherwise they combust and mix.
- Use passive cooling when you can, it’s cheap on power and very effective.
- Your pressure is affected by temperature, keep that in mind. Cold things can store more.
- In most cases, sufficient power will always be an issue. As you expand your base, expand your power generation.
- Steel is cheaper than iron, while you need plenty of Iron, Steel is cheaper as you get more building material when you add coal.
- Each world has very different challenges, and you’ll have to prioritize what needs to be done
- Automate
