Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions: Hands-On Preview
If there is one thing that this world needs, it is more social games that don’t involve stabbing someone in the back to steal all of their loot. Don’t get me wrong, but there are times when it would be nice to just do some random stuff with your mates, contribute to a community, and generally just have a good old wholesome time without worrying about a bullet or blade with your name on it. Well, with Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, that is exactly what you are getting, and it feels like it is a game landing at the perfect time.
A few days ago, I was lucky enough to be able to sit in with a few of the developers on Starseeker and run through what the game is, what it focuses on and play it for myself. The first thing the team wanted to make clear is that while the game is set in the same universe as Astroneer, it isn’t a sequel, so people require no knowledge of the previous game to be able to jump in. I can attest to that, having never played it myself; I didn’t feel lost while I explored what Starseeker had to offer.
So what exactly is Starseeker? Well, it is a community-focused survival-type experience. Think Revenge of the Savage Planet, with a whole community of people playing as opposed to just one or two players. This analogy isn’t exactly accurate, but it is the closest I can get and will give prospective players a good idea of what to expect if they decide to jump in. It features a very similar vibe to the Savage Planet games, too, though not leaning so heavily into corporate-based humour. There is a warm, welcoming feel to everything that Starseeker does, and it was clear to me from both playing and chatting with the devs that this was their primary goal. They want Starseeker to be a game for everyone regardless of time, ability or commitment.
The game starts (after a quick tutorial) on a space station where players can run around, accept missions, deposit items, craft gear and team up before they get into the action. It is a big community space that has everything you would expect from a title such as this. From here, players can jump into missions as a solo player or in a team. Starting a mission automatically starts matchmaking, but you can just dive in solo if that is your preferred way to play. From the station, players then head towards a nearby planet where they will be tasked with a range of goals such as scanning a certain amount of flora, obtaining resources or discovering the reason a starship crashed on the planet. Complete the missions, call your shuttle and then head back to base. A simple enough structure, but one that works really well in a group.
Players can use voice chat to communicate, but it does have a robust ping system if you don’t want to or if your teammate has an annoying voice (we all have one of those folks in our life, don’t we?) Working as a team is pretty essential, from what I can gather, because players won’t be able to bring enough gear with them to complete the bigger missions. So, splitting the required gear between the team becomes necessary if players want to tackle some of the more challenging missions. The environment also likes to hit back. Some animals want to take a chunk out of you or throw giant boulders at you, environmental hazards pop up as you explore, and you can easily find yourself falling from a great height if you are not careful. It isn’t breaking any new ground, but it feels like it has all been tied together perfectly to create the perfect setting for teamwork.
The good news is that if this sounds like your kind of deal, you can jump into an open beta right now. It will be interesting to see how the community takes to the game, because the developers fully expected players to do some weird and wonderful things with the toolset they have created and were excited to see what came out of this beta period. I am going to jump back in, too and see how much more there is to play with in this friendly and open title. It may not set the world on fire, but I can almost promise that it will be a cool place to hang out with mates, and as far as goals go, that isn’t a bad one to aim for.
Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is currently in a Beta and will be released later this year on PC, PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2.
