Locked out of HEVN: spacey survivo-sim delayed
The space corridors and unsafe colonial working conditions of HEVN [official site], a first-person survival sim that Adam was looking forward to, have been delayed until “later in the year”, the developers say. The original trailer said it’d be here in Spring 2017 (but eventually that got rescheduled to July 19). Now, following the release of a demo, it’s being held back to “address feedback and improve the game” say developers Miga. That’s grand, no complaints here. Delay away, spacefolks.
When I say “survivo-sim” I should clarify that it’s a singleplayer sci-fi story, rather than a multiplayer tree-puncher. You’re on a remote spacerock and must eat, drink and take medicine to survive – hunting alien life forms and harvesting plants are two possibilities. But it looks like the main goal is to discover more about the world through leftover clues like magazines, notes and other #evironmental #storytelling, as well as communicating with your employers back on earth. “You’ll navigate the physical and political dangers of a controversial mining mission,” says the blurb, “uncovering deeper secrets best left buried light-years from Earth.”
Here's a five-minute snippet recorded back in April.
A big corporation, a conspiracy, a one-person colony with AI assistants. It feels very Moon, doesn't it? Not a bad touchstone, really. As for the delay, it’s the usual bug-crushing and tweaking by the looks of things, but they’ve also suggested that “feedback on the game's pacing, level design and user interface has been especially useful” so we can probably expect work on those things too. Fair cop, because that interface looks maddening.
You could be forgiven if you see the reddish glare of the planet and the generic-looking metal hallways and think "mmm-hmm". I definitely got this one confused with Rokh, another survival game, which is set on Mars and wasn’t very good. But hopefully HEVN aims to make you feel more like a sad Sam Rockwell than a rubbish Matt Damon. It’s now due out “later in the year” but that demo is also still available on Steam and Itch.io.