ASTRONEER Critic Reviews

Astroneer is a survival space simulator that offers a rich and colourful experience based on some interesting game mechanics.

It provides an experience that is generally therapeutic and almost never stressful. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s the kind of game that could be perfect for certain situations or groups of gamers looking for their next adventure.

Astroneer is a limited but attractive survival game, a little colorful charm that shines in terms of crafting, vehicles, exploration and cooperative.

Astroneer is definitely on the soft side of the survival spectrum. It looks inviting and fun, whether your lone explorer is bounding across the colorful landscape or mining deep within underground caves. Collecting resources and crafting them into new tools is the main focus, and Astroneer falters in not having more interesting things to find within each planet. In the end though, it's a lovely little game if you want to survive without all the pesky hunger and thirst you find in other games.

Although there is no particular story or purpose to follow in Astroneer, a very deep gameplay along with entertaining multi-player and stunning visuals are enough to make it worth your time and money.

Astroneer is a nice and relaxing survival game that does away with some the typical mechanics of the genre to offer an experience that's mostly based on exploration and crafting. The basic gameplay loop is very engaging at the beginning and manages to carry the game quite far, but the complicated controls, especially on pad, and the repetition, which will eventually set in after a while, damage the experience a little. Still, Astroneer is a very solid game that no fan of the genre should pass on, especially if they love outer space settings.

Quotation forthcoming.

Astroneer is a great adventure if you play it with someone, since playing it alone makes it quite simple and repetitive.

Astroneer is a nice survival game that’s hopelessly behind the curve: we’ve already seen everything it has to offer in one game or another.

Chirpy and charming, Astroneer is a lovely survival game for players who want a chill experience. Just don’t expect much in terms of varied gameplay (for now).

In short, Astroneer is a calming, vibrant, genuinely enjoyable experience until you start to set goals for yourself. At this point it becomes a bit of a chore and strays into frustrating grind territory that has no real guarantee of tangible results – and suddenly the buggy menu system, tangled controls, and lack of resources culminate in an inevitable fit of rage. Luckily, if you need a bit of post-anger stress relief, we have just the game for you… have you played Astroneer yet?

Astroneer provides a (mostly) tranquil environment to explore with your friends, or by yourself to unwind. The fact that the game doesn’t bury you in a collection loop and actually gives you breathing room to explore and tinker will be a downside for some, but for those with the patience, it’s a game you could easily spend hundreds of hours unraveling.

Astroneer is simply another sandbox survival game, albeit enriched by several interesting features. Nothing new or surprising for genre fans to see.

A bit absurd and outlandish, but still enjoyable space expedition that thankfully runs out of gas after you get your share of co-op fun.

Astroneer succeeds when it's enraptured you with its beautiful visuals and the irresistible call to explore the planet you find yourself on. Although it lacks a central through line to give you guidance, the variety of structures you can build helps point you towards new resources to hunt for.

Astroneer‘s a neat little game full of little quirks and things to discover, but near the end of my time with it I was definitely starting to burn out on the loop of creating equipment on one planet before blasting off into space, landing in new, harsher environment, and starting from scratch once more. Grab an Astropeer and a couple of Astrobeers and this title could easily provide a few evenings’ worth of entertainment. Beyond that, the numerous bugs and repetition of the core experience make it a less appealing prospect.

Fans of sandbox or crafting games might be pleased with the package, and can bump this score up at least a point or two. For others, this has some serious flaws with its user interface, and simple constructing/crafting is often aggravatingly difficult, which unfortunately drags down what otherwise is an okay, if repetitive title. It is really sad, as at its root, this could be a gem, with some simple patches or design overhauls, and appeal to a far greater audience.

Astroneer’s been in early access for over two years, and there is a sense that this release version contracted a mild case of That’ll-do-itis, rather than going to the new places it might have done. Sure, a ballpit offers more long-term play value if there’s hatch on its bottom that opens up into a world of dinosaurs, spacefighters and alien civil wars. Sometimes, though, all you wanna do is jump into a ballpit.