Now Playing: Space Engineers

I tend to be one of the more distractable folks out there. So, while waiting for my next paycheck so that I could order more parts, I got distracted for a bit by a new game I got recently. It goes by the name of Space Engineers, and if you enjoy creation/space games and don't know about it already, you SHOULD, and here's why.

All of my expectations for space-based games are unfairly based upon two things: the TV series Firefly and Microsoft's game Freelancer. Everything in a space game should satisfy either the feeling of flying around the 'verse smuggling stuff and just barely making a living on the outer rims, or should fall somewhere in the incredibly open-ended structured playground of Freelancer, where you are, quite literally, building your own life around your little polygon pilot. Space Engineers, even in it's early alpha stages, does both.

Not only can you really, truly build your own ship, but there's everything from mining to (potential) combat. Ships can have guns and missile launchers, individual astronauts can carry assault rifles, even thrusters can do a decent amount of damage by melting steel plates on ships and stations. Creative mode allows you to build unfettered, making gargantuan pieces of blocky technical delight. But my favorite so far has to be Survival mode, where you start with a certain scenario and have to actually weld, grind, drill, and mine yourself enough supplies to build stuff.

I started with the "crashed ship" scenario, in which you're the only survivor of a large ship that's crashed into an asteroid. You then have to build yourself a home out of parts from the wreckage, and get yourself back on your feet.

I also enabled Cargo Ships, in which random derelict ships will float through your sector at a distance. You can attempt to catch them, but it's not entirely risk-free. Not only do you have to build a ship to go out there and actually catch the derelicts, but you can also very easily bang it to pieces trying to grab onto salvage, and end up floating thousands of kilometers away from home.

After a fantastic few hours, I managed to create a cozy little home on the opposite side of the asteroid from the crash site.

Resources are acquired by grinding or drilling; construction is done by welding. All power tools and movement use suit energy, which must be recharged in a working ship's cockpit or at a medical bay. Power can travel through any type of block, and is provided by reactors, which use uranium ingots. Reactors do use up fuel, and if it's gone, there's no power to your entire structure.

They've recently added working turrets, collectors and emitters for inventory transfer, and a bunch more (wheels!) with some new updates I haven't tried out yet. It still has a few bugs to work out, but I'd highly recommend it. It's available on Steam here.

Play on,

~Lexikitty