There are extra Farming RPGs popping out yearly, and One Lonely Outpost goals to innovate on the usual system by including some new mechanics and defying the style’s conventions. Learn on to see if it is as much as the duty!
One Lonely Outpost sends you to an apparently barren planet within the hopes of beginning a colony. Though you are taking the journey by your self, you do have some token assist from the corporate that despatched you. You may quickly discover that you just’re not fairly as alone as you’d assume.
Interstellar Homesteading
A typical theme in Farming RPGs is the sensation that you just’re working in a dilapidated outdated farm or, extra hardly ever, the untamed wilderness. One Lonely Outpost firmly lands within the latter class. There isn’t any city that you would be able to journey to and meet the neighbors. There’s nothing like a mine or dungeon to discover after you’ve got landed (though that modifications later). There’s solely you, your little robotic buddy Qwerty, your ship, and a variety of empty land.
In most Farming RPGS, you usually transfer to a village and combine right into a group. In One Lonely Outpost, the villagers come to you and the group is one thing you assist create from the very starting.
Your “home” is not a home insomuch as it’s the spaceship equal of a motorhome; it seems no completely different than a kitschy Nineteen Seventies camper van with a few rocket engines strapped onto it. The quarters are tight and cramped, however it’s going to do for now.
Not like another video games within the style, you even have a considerably clearer image of what it is advisable do. You may often obtain particular orders from the corporate telling you to plant some crops or meet another situations. This steering is definitely useful within the early days of your journey — there’s not a lot to do in any other case.
Assembly the Colonists
The primary couple of weeks are full of farming, mining on the floor, and light-weight exploration. Finally, you may obtain a welcome message — your first colonist desires to come back to the planet. In most Farming RPGS, you usually transfer to a village and combine right into a group. On this sport, the villagers come to you and the group is one thing you assist create from the very starting.
The colonists are largely what you’d count on from one of these sport. You possibly can construct friendships with all of them and finally enter into romantic relationships with a small choice of them, though I have not gotten fairly that far into the sport myself. A lot of the early colonists add a helpful operate to the colony resembling organising a store or opening up the mines. Very like your self, their “houses” are custom-built ships that merely land on the floor and increase into a correct constructing over time.
Freedom Video games (and its predecessor on this undertaking, Aurorian Studios) may have stored to the style’s conventions and had the participant land at an present colony. As a substitute, they determined to do one thing a bit completely different than what you’d count on — and the expertise is healthier for it. Assembly the necessities for brand spanking new colonists to come back to the planet is a enjoyable problem, and it is all the time cool to see what new options they’re bringing to the desk.
Uncovering the Planet’s Mysteries
The additions of latest colonists usually are not the one manner your new dwelling modifications over time. Very early on, you may uncover alien ruins secreted away on the planet.
What began off as a fairly bleak mission grows more and more hopeful as soon as you’ve got interacted with the alien ruins a couple of instances. Historical equipment breathes life again into the planet, beginning by making the ambiance extra breathable and thawing out a few of the ice. These modifications, mixed with the gradual addition of colonists and the acquisition of latest instruments in your farm, gives the look of a world that’s waking up from a deep slumber
The alien ruins aren’t the one factor to find. One Lonely Outpost’s model of a mine goes a step past the usual with the addition of a hazard system much like Minesweeper. Mine the improper rock and the open space will likely be shortly flooded with explosive fuel. You may should blow it away together with your Gust Software; fail to take action, and your Mining Laser can ignite a lethal spark that can power you to instantly evacuate the mines.
Granted, I’ve solely skilled a small slice of the story. One Lonely Outpost is an Early Entry sport, and solely the primary act of the story is admittedly out there. Nonetheless, it offers a stable concept of what the builders have deliberate for the long run, and I am hopeful — though I am not with out reservations.
One Lonely Outpost Preview – Remaining Ideas
I spent round 28 hours enjoying One Lonely Outpost. I had enjoyable enjoying the sport and I loved my time with it, but it surely’s removed from excellent. There are little points right here and there.
The interface, for instance, remains to be fairly tough at instances. Some home windows will shut if you press the Escape key and others will not. The sport does not all the time correctly pause if you’re within the menu. Some quality-of-life options aren’t there fairly but, too; for instance, your present goals can take up a big chunk of the display screen and there is no method to cease monitoring any quests in any respect. I’ve additionally discovered myself aggravated by the lack to plant crops behind sure equipment, necessitating very cautious design if you’re organising your farm.
Certainly one of my larger bugbears is that One Lonely Outpost merely feels gradual at instances. I am not simply speaking by way of story progress, thoughts; your character can solely stroll on the tempo of a leisurely stroll. The absence of a correct working or jogging operate baffles me and it unnecessarily slows down the general tempo of the expertise.
Whereas these are issues, they don’t seem to be the tip of the world; these are minor nitpicks at finest. As all the time, although, the standard and success of One Lonely Outpost goes to depend upon how shortly Freedom Video games delivers new content material to gamers and the standard of that content material.
One Lonely Outpost is value your time if in case you have a hankering for attempting out a brand new Farming RPG with some distinctive spins on the style — so long as you do not thoughts a couple of tough edges. For those who’re in search of a deep expertise that can final you for a couple of weeks, although, it is in all probability finest to attend till it has some extra content material added in future updates.
One Lonely Outpost was previewed on PC through Steam utilizing a replica offered by the writer over the course of 28 hours of gameplay – all screenshots had been taken throughout the technique of this preview.