No Man's Survival: The Solus Project's Looking Good
Space survival from The Ball devs
It's probably not fair to either game to invoke No Man's Sky when talking about upcoming sci-fi survival offering The Solus Project [official site], but both the reddish-pink colour palette and the heavy use of tricorders (let's not kid ourselves, eh?) does put me in mind of Hello Games' newbie. The Solus Project is billed as a survival game, but more in the classical sense than the newer DayZ, Rust etc one. Devs Teotl Studios - who you may know from The Ball - and Grip - of Unmechanical fame - are at pains to point out it's not a sandbox jobbie. It's a singleplayer, linear game in which you will be attacked not by creatures, but by a hostile environment, as well has having to deal with hunger and thirst. Man, that's easy: eat fingers, drink wee. Survivalists these days, honestly - no backbone, that's their problem.
The game's out early next month, and this here dev diary takes us through the key beats, focusing on how they want to create a feeling of 'intense isolation'. There are no aliens to battle - or, at least, if there are they're pretending otherwise for the time being - but you will get to explore a host of seemingly extraterrestrial structures while trying to figure out what's gone on and whether there's a way home.
Ten "large and complex environments are promised" - I can't get a sense yet of it's mostly a matter of managing your wellbeing while trekking across them, or if it's going to go down the puzzle route. Fingers crossed for the former, as far as I'm concerned.
It's due on Steam Early Access in 'early February'. Quite fancy this as I'm a sucker for wandering across otherworlds, but pleasepleaseplease don't let it devolve into last-act shooty-bang. I notice there is a sword in the screenie above, but hopefully it's for harvesting weird planets rather than mutilating xenomorphs.