The value of Earth ranges from $33 trillion up to $50 trillion, although when discarding the lens of the economist, its actual value is infinite. The observable universe is 93 billion light years in diameter, which is a number so huge it’s basically a meaningless jumble of words, and in all that space the only place people can survive is the surface of a sphere a bit under eight thousand miles in diameter. Putting back on the economist glasses, this means that in a size:value ratio Earth is pretty well worthless, seeing as there are asteroids out there that have metal content valued potentiallyin the quintillions. Granted, there aren’t that many hitting the mineral jackpot, butM- and S- type asteroidscan be handy for the space survivor in need of crafting resources.
No Problem So Large It Can’t Be Solved By Excessive Crafting
Astrometica: Prologueis the first two missions and a good-sized chunk of explorable space for the forthcoming survival/crafting gameAstrometica. Starting off in a cramped habitat holding little more than two chests with basic supplies, a fabricator and a mission terminal, the astronaut will need to scavenge the mineral-rich area around home base to craft the needed equipment to survive in the airless environment of space. Thankfully this is video game space rather than void-of-space-type space, packed with asteroids, wreckage and distant points of interest that will require several upgrades to be able to reach.
Review: Planet Crafter
The “get rocks, make stuff” beginning turns into an adventure through a lush green world that’s very different from the dead planet it started as.
Like any good survival-crafting game, there’s that bit at the beginning where you hoover up everything that isn’t nailed down before realizing that focusing specifically on what you need will be more efficient, especially with the limited storage space of the starting habitat. An oxygen tank extends the length of time you may be out and around in space before asphyxiating, the jetpack gives a nice boost of speed for several seconds before it needs to automatically recharge and the mining drill means you can crack open the bigger asteroids rather than needing to pick up the smaller ones one at a time.
The crafting isn’t super deep at the beginning (one iron and one copper makes copper wire, copper wire and another iron makes an electronic component, etc.) and there’s a decent amount of tools you’ll be wanting, not to mention building a new, spacious living habitat with all the amenities an explorer will need to explore the farther areas of thePrologue.
The Slow Change From Survival to Thriving
While there are a couple of enemies floating around the prologue in the form of hostile droids and a space-squid, the real enemy is the lack of oxygen. Water is easy enough to get, just craft two ice into a drink and you’re good, and food is one water and an easily-found nutrition pouch. That leaves breathing as the major bodily function in danger of failure, and while you can craft oxygen tanks they tend to be mostly used when overestimating how much can be done on a full tank.
That initial starting minute of air eventually expands to a bit over two, but the trick to exploration is a well-stocked, centrally-located base. TheProloguehas a couple of different types of rooms available plus corridors to connect them, the latter being particularly useful due to that’s where the solar panels and batteries powering everything get attached. Add on a mining laser and that simplifies resource collection, although the occasional organic or other exotic materials will always require harvesting by hand.
If all this sounds a lot likeSubnauticaorThe Planet Crafter,Astrometicais very much a game cut from the same cloth. Get materials, build base, get more materials, build upgrades. Upgrade enough to be confident to explore the asteroid field and the game’s time slowly gets divided between seeing all the sights it’s got to offer and turning the survival-oriented base into a comfy home. It’s not any less effective a gameplay loop for having been seen in other games, and the only real problem withAstrometica: Prologueturns out to be that there’s a boundary on where you’re able to explore. Seeing as some vital materials are limited, this also means you can only build so much, but that’s still a good six hours or so of gameplay waiting in a free mini-adventure.
The two waypoints may be the whole of the scripted events, but it’s hard to resist following the tech tree and building everything it’s got to offer. Granted, at the tail end the space-motorcycle and corvette show up well past when they’d have been most useful, but for the full-game pacing that means all those areas outside thePrologue’s invisible walls will be much easier to get to. All that floating wreckage makes it clear that something’s gone very wrong in this sector of space, but the possibility of that threat rising again is no reason not to build the fanciest interplanetary home the asteroid field will ever see.
